Woodrow Wilson had decided by then that the war had become a real threat to humanity. Unless the U.S. threw its weight into the war, as he stated in his  declaration of war speech, Western civilization itself could be destroyed. His statement announcing a "war to end all wars" meant that he wanted to build a basis for peace that would prevent future catastrophic wars and needless death and destruction. This provided the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were intended to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade and commerce, and establish a peacemaking organization, which later emerged as the League of Nations.


To stop defeatism at home, Wilson pushed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 through Congress to suppress anti-British, pro-German, or anti-war opinions.  He welcomed socialists who supported the war, such as Walter Lippmann, but would not tolerate those who tried to impede the war or, worse, assassinate government officials, and pushed for deportation of foreign-born radicals. Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press, 1991   His wartime policies were strongly pro-labor, though again, he had no love for radical unions like the Industrial Workers of the World.  The American Federation of Labor and other 'moderate' unions saw enormous growth in membership and wages during Wilson's administration. There was no rationing, so consumer prices soared. As income taxes increased, white-collar workers suffered. Appeals to buy war bon


's administration. There was no rationing, so consumer prices soared. As income taxes increased, white-collar workers suffered. Appeals to buy war bonds were highly successful, however. Bonds had the result of shifting the cost of the war to the affluent 1920s.


Wilson set up the United States Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel (thus its popular name, Creel Commission), which filled the country with patriotic anti-German appeals and conducted various forms of censorship.


President Woodrow Wilson articulated what became known as the Fourteen Points before Congress on January 8, 1918.  The Points were the only war aims clearly expressed by any belligerent nation and thus became the basis for the Treaty of Versailles following World War I.  The speech was highly idealistic, translating Wilson's progressive domestic policy of democracy, self-determination, open agreements, and free trade into the international realm.  It also made several suggestions for specific disputes in Europe on the recommendation of Wilson's foreign policy advisor, Colonel Edward M. House, and his team of 150 advisors known as âThe Inquiry.â  The points were:


Abolition of secret treaties


Freedom of the seas


Free Trade


Disarmament


Adjustment of colonial claims (decolonization and national self-determination)


Russia to be assured independent development and international withdrawal from occupied Russian territory


Restoration of Belgium to antebellum national status


Alsace-Lorraine returned to France from Germany


Italian borders redrawn on lines of nationality


Autonomous development of Austria-Hungary as a nation, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved


Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and other Balkan states to be granted integrity, have their territories deoccupied, and Serbia to be given access to the Adriatic Sea


Sovereignty for the Turkish people of the Ottoman Empire as the Empire dissolved, autonomous development for other nationalities within the former Empire


Establishment of an independent Poland with access to the sea


General association of the nations â a multilateral international association of nations to enforce the peace (League of Nations)


The speech was controversial in America, and even more so with their Allies.  France wanted high reparations from Germany as French agriculture, industry, and lives had been so demolished by the war, and Britain, as the great naval power, did not want freedom of the seas.  Wilson compromised with Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and many other European leaders during the Paris Peace talks to ensure that the fourteenth point, the League of Nations, would be established.  In the end, Wilson's own Congress did not accept the League and only four of the original Fourteen Points were implemented fully in Europe.


Between 1914 and 1918, the United States intervened in Latin America, particularly in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama. The U.S. maintained troops in Nicaragua throughout his administration and used them to select the president of Nicaragua and then to force Nicaragua to pass the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty. American troops in Haiti forced the Haitian legislature to choose the candidate Wilson selected as Haitian president. American troops occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1934.


After Russia left the war in 1917 following the Bolshevik Revolution the Allies sent troops, presumably, to prevent a German or Bolshevik takeover of allied-provided weapons, munitions and other supplies which had been previously shipped as aid to the Czarist government. Wilson sent armed forces to assist the withdrawal of Czech and Slovak prisoners along the Trans-Siberian Railway, hold key port cities at Arkangel and Vladivostok, and safeguard supplies sent to the Tsarist forces.  Though not sent to engage the Bolsheviks, the U.S. forces had several armed conflicts against Russian forces.  Wilson withdrew the soldiers on April 1, 1920, though some remained as late as 1922.  As Davis and Trani conclude, "Wilson, Lansing, and Colby helped lay the foundations for the later Cold War and policy  of containment. There was no military confrontation,  armed standoff, or arms race. Yet, certain


ay the foundations for the later Cold War and policy  of containment. There was no military confrontation,  armed standoff, or arms race. Yet, certain basics were there:  suspicion, mutual misunderstandings, dislike, fear,  ideological hostility, and diplomatic isolation....Each side was driven by  ideology, by capitalism versus communism. Each country sought  to reconstruct the world. When the world resisted,  pressure could be used."  Donald E. Davis and Eugene P. Trani, The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations. (2002) p. 202.


Wilson Returning From the Versailles Peace Conference 1919.


After World War I, Wilson participated in negotiations with the stated aim of assuring statehood for formerly oppressed nations and an equitable peace. On January 8, 1918, Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations, an organization with a stated goal of helping to preserve territorial integrity and political independence among large and small nations alike.


Wilson intended the Fourteen Points as a means toward ending the war and achieving an equitable peace for all the nations. He spent six months at Paris for the 1919 Paris Peace Conference (making him the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office). He worked tirelessly to promote his plan. The charter of the proposed League of Nations was incorporated into the conference's Treaty of Versailles.


For his peacemaking efforts, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. However, Wilson failed to win Senate support for ratification and the United States never joined the League. Republicans under Henry Cabot Lodge controlled the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to give them a voice at Paris and refused to agree to Lodge's proposed changes.  The key point of disagreement was whether the League would diminish the power of Congress to declare war. Historians generally have come to regard Wilson's failure to win U.S. entry into the League as perhaps the biggest mistake of his administration, and even as one of the largest failures of any American presidency.  /ref>


Wilson had ignored the problems of demobilization after the war, and the process was chaotic and violent. Four million soldiers were sent home with little planning, little money, and few benefits.  A wartime bubble in prices of farmland burst, leaving many farmers bankrupt or deeply in debt after they purchased new land.  In 1919, major strikes in steel and meatpacking broke out.  Serious race riots hit Chicago and other cities.


After a series of bombings by radical anarchist groups in New York and elsewhere, Wilson directed Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to put a stop to the violence.  Palmer then ordered the Palmer Raids, with the aim of collecting evidence on violent radical groups, to deport foreign-born agitators, and jail domestic ones. The successful Communist takeover of Russia in 1917 was also a background factor: many anarchists believed that the worker's revolution that had taken place there would quickly spread across Europe and the United States.  Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press, 1991


Wilson broke with many of his closest political friends and allies in 1918-20, including Colonel House. Historians speculate that a series of minor strokes may have affected his personality. He desired a third term, but his Democratic party was in turmoil, with German voters outraged at their wartime harassment, and Irish voters angry at his failure to support Irish independence.


Wilson, a staunch opponent of antisemitism , was sympathetic to the plight of Jews, especially in Poland and in France. As President, Wilson repeatedly stated in 1919 that U.S. policy was to "acquiesce" in the Balfour Declaration but not officially support Zionism   Walworth (1986) 473-83, esp. p. 481; Melvin I. Urofsky, American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust, (1995) ch. 6; Frank W. Brecher, Reluctant Ally: United States Foreign Policy toward the Jews from Wilson to Roosevelt. (1991) ch 1-4.  . After he left office Wilson wrote a letter of strong support to the idea of a Jewish state in Palestine and objected to territorial concessions regarding its borders.   In 1923 he wrote "The Zionist cause depends on rational northern and eastern boundaries for a self-maintaining, economic development of the country. This means, on the north, Palestine must include the Litani River and the wa


n boundaries for a self-maintaining, economic development of the country. This means, on the north, Palestine must include the Litani River and the watersheds of the Hermon, and on the east it must include the plains of the Jaulon and the Hauran. Narrower than this is a mutilation...I need not remind you that neither in this country nor in Paris has there been any opposition to the Zionist program, and to its realization the boundaries I have named are indispensable". Quoted in Palestine: The Original Sin , Meir Abelson


Until Wilson announced his support for suffrage, a group of women calling themselves Silent Sentinels protested in front of the White House, holding banners such as "Mr. President What will you do for woman suffrage?" "Absolutely nothing." In January 1918, after years of lobbying and public demonstrations, Wilson finally announced his support of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. The Amendment passed the House but failed in the Senate. Finally, on June 4, 1919, the Senate passed the amendment.


The cause of his incapacitation was the physical strain of the demanding public speaking tour he undertook to obtain support of the American people for ratification of the Covenant of the League. After one of his final speeches to attempt to promote the League of Nations in Pueblo, Colorado, on September 25, 1919 , he collapsed.  On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a serious stroke that almost totally incapacitated him, leaving him paralyzed on his left side and blind in his left eye.  For at least a few months, he was confined to a wheelchair.  Afterwards he could walk only with the assistance of a cane.  The full extent of his disability was kept from the public until after his death on February 3, 1924.


Wilson was purposely, with few exceptions, kept out of the presence of Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, his cabinet or Congressional visitors to the White House for the remainder of his presidential term. His first wife, Ellen, had died in 1914, so his second wife, Edith, served as his steward, selecting issues for his attention and delegating other issues to his cabinet heads. This was, as of 2007, the most serious case of presidential disability in American history and was later cited as a key example why ratification of the 25th Amendment was seen as important.


* Vetoed Volstead Act in 1919. It was passed over his veto.


Wilson's chief of staff ("Secretary") was Joseph Patrick Tumulty 1913-1921, but he was largely upstaged after 1916 when Wilson's second wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, assumed full control of Wilson's schedule. An important foreign policy advisor and confidant was "Colonel" Edward M. House.


Woodrow Wilson and his cabinet in the Cabinet Room


Wilson appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:


The official White House portrait of President Woodrow Wilson


Wilson was a remarkably effective writer and thinker and his diplomatic policies had a profound influence on shaping the world. Diplomatic historian Walter Russell Mead has explained:


American foreign relations since 1914 have rested on Wilsonian idealism, argues historian David Kennedy, even if adjusted somewhat by the "realism" represented by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Henry Kissinger.  Kennedy argues that every president since Wilson has, "embraced the core precepts of Wilsonianism. Nixon himself hung Wilson's portrait in the White House Cabinet Room.  Wilson's ideas continue to dominate American foreign policy in the twenty-first century. In the aftermath of 9/11 they have, if anything, taken on even greater vitality."  David M. Kennedy, "What 'W' Owes to 'WW': President Bush May Not Even Know It, but He Can Trace His View of the World to Woodrow Wilson, Who Defined a Diplomatic Destiny for America That We Can't Escape." The Atlantic Monthly Vol: 295. Issue: 2. (March 2005) pp 36+.


scape." The Atlantic Monthly Vol: 295. Issue: 2. (March 2005) pp 36+.


Quotation from Woodrow Wilson's History of the American People as reproduced in the film The Birth of a Nation.


While president of Princeton University, Wilson discouraged blacks from even applying for admission.  Arthur Link, Wilson:The Road to the White House (Princeton University Press, 1947) 502   Princeton would not admit its first black student until the 1940s.


Wilson allowed many of his cabinet officials to establish official segregation in most federal government offices, in some departments for the first time since 1863. "His administration imposed full racial segregation in Washington and hounded from office considerable numbers of black federal employees."  /ref>


Wilson and his cabinet members fired many black Republican office holders, but also appointed a few black Democrats. W.E.B. DuBois, a leader of the NAACP, campaigned for Wilson and in 1918 was offered an Army commission in charge of dealing with race relations. (DuBois accepted but failed his Army physical and did not serve.) Ellis, Mark. "'Closing Ranks' and 'Seeking Honors': W. E. B. du Bois in World War I" Journal of American History 1992 79(1): 96-124. ISSN 0021-8723 Fulltext in Jstor  When a delegation of blacks protested his discriminatory actions, Wilson told them that "segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen." In 1914, he told the New York Times that "If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it."


mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it."


Wilson was attacked by African-Americans for his actions, but he was also attacked by southern hard line racists, such as Georgian Thomas E. Watson, for not going far enough in restricting black employment in the federal government.   The segregation introduced into the federal workforce by the Wilson administration was kept in place by the succeeding presidents and was not finally rescinded until the Truman Administration.


Woodrow Wilson's History of the American People explained the Ku Klux Klan of the late 1860s as the natural outgrowth of Reconstruction, a lawless reaction to a lawless period.  Wilson noted that the Klan âbegan to attempt by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by the ballot or by any ordered course of public action.â   Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People (1931) V:59. .


Wilson's words were repeatedly quoted in the film The Birth of a Nation, which has come under fire for racism. Thomas Dixon, author of the novel The Clansman upon which the film is based, was one of Wilson's graduate school classmates at Johns Hopkins in 1883-1884. Dixon arranged a special White House preview (this was the first time a film was shown in the White House) without telling Wilson what the film was about. There is debate about whether Wilson made the statement, "It is like writing history with lightning; my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.", or whether it was invented by a film publicist. "Family Life", Essays on Woodrow Wilson and His Administration, American President: An Online Reference Resource, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia   Others argue Wilson felt he had been tricked by Dixon and in public statements claimed he did not like th


of Public Affairs, University of Virginia   Others argue Wilson felt he had been tricked by Dixon and in public statements claimed he did not like the film; Wilson blocked its showing during the war. Link vol 2 pp 252-54.  In a 1923 letter to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, Wilson noted of the reborn Klan, â...no more obnoxious or harmful organization has ever shown itself in our affairs.âAlthough Wilson had a volatile relationship with American Blacks he was a friend of the Ethiopian Emperor Halie Selassie, a black African Monarch. A sword(a gift from Selassie) can still be seen in Wilson's Washington DC home.   Link, Papers of Woodrow Wilson 68:298


Wilson had some harsh words to say about immigrants in his history books. However, after he entered politics in 1910, Wilson worked to integrate new immigrants into the Democratic party, into the army, and into American life. For example, the war bond campaigns were set up so that ethnic groups could boast how much money they gave. He demanded in return during the war that they repudiate any loyalty to the enemy.


Irish Americans were powerful in the Democratic party and opposed going to war alongside their enemy Britain, especially after the violent suppression of the Easter Rebellion of 1916. Wilson won them over in 1917 by promising to ask Britain to give Ireland its independence. At Versailles, however, he reneged and the Irish-American community vehemently denounced him. Wilson, in turn, blamed the Irish Americans and German Americans for the lack of popular support for the League of Nations, saying,


There is an organized propaganda against the League of Nations and against the treaty proceeding from exactly the same sources that the organized propaganda proceeded from which threatened this country here and there with disloyalty, and I want to say--I cannot say too often--any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready. American Rhetoric,  "Final Address in Support of the League of Nations", Woodrow Wilson, delivered 25 Sept 1919 in Pueblo, CO.  John B. Duff, "German-Americans and the Peace, 1918-1920" American Jewish Historical Quarterly 1970 59(4): 424-459. and Duff, "The Versailles Treaty and the Irish-Americans" Journal of American History 1968 55(3): 582-598. ISSN 0021-8723


y 1968 55(3): 582-598. ISSN 0021-8723


In 1921, Wilson and his wife retired from the White House to a home in the Embassy Row section of Washington, D.C.  Wilson continued going for daily drives and attended Keith's vaudeville theater on Saturday nights.


Wilson died in his S Street home on February 3, 1924. Because his plan for the League of Nations ultimately failed, he died feeling that he had lied to the American people and that his motives for joining the war had been in vain.  He was buried in Washington National Cathedral.


Mrs. Wilson stayed in the home another 37 years, dying on December 28, 1961.  Mrs. Wilson left the home to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to be made into a museum honoring her husband.   Woodrow Wilson House opened as a museum in 1964.


The final resting place of Woodrow Wilson at the Washington National Cathedral


Wilson's Pierce Arrow, which resides in his hometown of Staunton, Virginia.


* His earliest memory, from age 3, was of hearing that Abraham Lincoln had been elected and that a war was coming.


* Wilson would forever recall standing for a moment at Robert E. Lee's side and looking up into his face.


* Wilson (born in Virginia and raised in Georgia) was the first Southerner to be elected since 1848 (Zachary Taylor) and the first Southerner to take office since Andrew Johnson in 1865.


* Wilson was also the first Democrat elected to the presidency since Grover Cleveland in 1892. The next Democrat elected was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.


* Wilson was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.


Wilson on the $100,000 gold certificate


* Wilson is the only U.S. President buried in Washington, D.C.


* Wilson remains the only American President to have earned a research doctoral degree.


* His carved initials are still visible on the underside of a table in the History Department at Johns Hopkins University.


* Wilson was one of only two Presidents (Theodore Roosevelt was the first) to become president of the American Historical Association.


* Wilson was president of the American Political Science Association in 1910.


* Wilson was the subject of the 1944 biographical film Wilson, directed by Henry King and starring Alexander Knox as Wilson.  The picture was a commercial failure, despite receiving ten Oscar nominations and winning five.


*In Harry Turtledove's "Great War" trilogy of alternate history novels, Wilson is elected 9th President of the Confederate States of America on the Whig ticket in 1910.


* The book Stardust and Shadows, 2000, Toronto: Dundern Press by Charles Foster details an alleged relationship between silent-era motion picture actress Florence La Badie and Wilson.


*When President Wilson came to Europe to settle the peace terms, Wilson visited Pope Benedict XV in Rome, which made Wilson the first American President to visit the Pope while in office.


*Wilson was the only presidential candidate to defeat two former presidents in a single election (Roosevelt and Taft).


* Ambrosius, Lloyd E., âWoodrow Wilson and George W. Bush: Historical Comparisons of Ends and Means in Their Foreign Policies,â Diplomatic History, 30 (June 2006), 509â43.


* Clements, Kendrick A. "Woodrow Wilson and World War I," Presidential Studies Quarterly 34:1 (2004). pp 62+.


* Hofstadter, Richard. "Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal" in The American Political Tradition (1948), ch. 10.


*Walworth, Arthur. Woodrow Wilson 2 Vol. (1958),  Pulitzer prize winning biography.


* Wilson, Woodrow.  President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918).


* Woodrow Wilson Ancestral Home  *  John Wesley's Place in History at The DCL.


Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (February 18, 1745 - March 5, 1827) was an Italian physicist known especially for the development of the first known electric battery in 1800.


In 1774, Volta became professor of physics in the Como high school. His passion had always been the study of electricity, and while still a young student he had even written a poem in Latin on this fascinating new discovery. His first scientific paper he titled ''De vi attractiva ignis electrici ac phaenomenis inde pendentibus


De vi attractiva ....


In 1775, Volta improved and popularized the electrophorus, a device that produces a static electric charge.  His promotion of it was so extensive that he is often credited with its invention, although it had actually  been invented in 1764 by Swedish professor Johan Carl Wilcke  , p.73     In 1776-77 he studied the chemistry of gases, discovered methane, and devised experiments such as the ignition of gases by an electric spark in a closed vessel. Volta also studied what we now call capacitance, developing separate means to study both electrical potential V and charge Q, and discovering that for a given object they are proportional.  This may be called Volta's Law of Capacitance, and likely for this work the unit of electrical potential has been named the volt.


been named the volt.


In 1779 he became professor of experimental physics at the University of Pavia, a chair he occupied for almost 40 years. In 1794, Volta married the daughter of Count Ludovico Peregrini, Teresa, with whom he raised three sons.


Around 1791 he began to study the "animal electricity" noted by Galvani when two different metals were connected in series with the frog's leg and to one another.  He realized that the frog's leg served as both a conductor of electricity (we would now call it an electrolyte) and as a detector of electricity.  He replaced the frog's leg by brine-soaked paper, and detected the flow of electricity by other means familiar to him from his previous studies of electricity.  In this way he discovered the electrochemical series, and the law that the electromotive force (emf) of a galvanic cell, consisting of a pair of metal electrodes separated by electrolyte, is the difference of their two electrode potentials.  That is, if the electrodes have emfs  \mathcal{E}_{1,2} , then the net emf is  \mathcal{E}_{2}-\mathcal{E}_{1} .  (Thus, two identical electrodes and a common electrolyte give zero net e


\mathcal{E}_{1,2} , then the net emf is  \mathcal{E}_{2}-\mathcal{E}_{1} .  (Thus, two identical electrodes and a common electrolyte give zero net emf.)  This may be called Volta's Law of the electrochemical series.


In 1800, as the result of a professional disagreement over the galvanic response advocated by Luigi Galvani, he invented the voltaic pile, an early electric battery, which produced a steady electric current. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity was zinc and silver. Initially he experimented with individual cells in series, each cell being a wine goblet filled with brine into which the two dissimilar electrodes were dipped. The electric pile replaced the goblets with cardboard soaked in brine. (The number of cells, and thus the voltage it could produce, was limited by the pressure, exerted by the upper cells, that would squeeze all of the brine out of the cardboard of the bottom cell.)


In announcing his discovery of the pile, Volta paid tribute to the influences of William Nicholson, Tiberius Cavallo and Abraham Bennet. *  (


The battery made by Volta is credited to have been the first cell. It consists of two electrodes: one made of zinc, the other of copper. The electrolyte is sulphuric acid. The electrolyte exists in the form 2H +  and SO 4   2- .  The zinc, which is higher than both copper and hydrogen in the electrochemical series, reacts with the negatively charged sulphate. ( SO 4  ) The positively charged hydrogen bubbles start depositing around the copper and take away some of its electrons. This makes the zinc rod the negative electrode and the copper rod the positive electrode.


We now have 2 terminals, and the current will flow if we connect them. The reactions in this cell are as follows:


However, this cell also has some disadvantages. It is unsafe to handle, as sulphuric acid, even if dilute, is dangerous. Also, the potential difference in the terminals finishes after some time. So it is not durable, and therefore, not a suitable choice.


In honour of his work in the field of electricity, Napoleon made him a count in 1810; in 1815 the Emperor of Austria named him a professor of philosophy at Padua.


Before 1796, Lombardy was ruled by Austria. From 1796 to 1815, Lombardy came under Napoleon's rule. After 1815, Lombardy was once again under Austrian rule. Thus Volta was once a subject of the Emperor of Austria, later a subject of Napoleon and then later a subject of the Emperor of Austria again. Giuliano Pancaldi, "Volta: Science and culture in the age of enlightenment", Princeton University Press, 2003.


The Tempio Voltiano, Como


He was a long-time correspondent of the Royal Society and was made a fellow (FRS). He received the Society's 1794 Copley Medal. He published his invention of the Voltaic pile battery in 1800 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He was in correspondence with scientists in Austria, which ruled Lombardy in his day, and in France. His 1800 paper was written in French.


Volta is buried in the city of Como. At the Tempio Voltiano near Lake Como there is a museum devoted to explaining his work. Count Volta's original instruments and papers are on display there.  The building, along with his portrait, appeared on Italian 10.000 lira banknote, before the introduction of the euro.


In 1881 an important electrical unit, the volt, was named in his honor. There have also been innovations and discovories named after Alessandro Volta including the Toyota Alessandro Volta, the Volta Crater on the Moon and in 2006 a technology company named their loan origination platform Volta.


Volta entered retirement in Spain.


*  Alessandro Volta on the 10000 Italian Lire banknote.


*  Catholic Encyclopedia article on Alessando Volta.


*  Press release on Volta loan origination software.


Canada ( ) is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean.  It is the world's second largest country by total area,    and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest.


The lands have been inhabited for millennia by aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years War.


In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal, semi-autonomous polity.           This began an accretion of additional provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy from the United Kingdom, highlighted by the Statute of Westminster in 1931 and culminating in the Canada Act in 1982 which severed the vestiges of legal dependence on the British parliament.


A federation now comprising ten provinces and three territories, Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level. Technologically advanced and industrialized, Canada maintains a diversified economy that is heavily reliant upon its abundant natural resources and upon tradeâparticularly with the United States, with which Canada has had a long and complex relationship.


Jacques Cartier


The name Canada comes from a St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning "village" or "settlement."  In 1535, inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct explorer Jacques Cartier toward the village of Stadacona.    Cartier used the word 'Canada' to refer to not only that village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona, Chief at Stadacona. By 1545, European books and maps began referring to this region as Canada.


The French colony of Canada referred to the part of New France along the Saint Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Later, it was split into two British colonies, called Upper Canada and Lower Canada until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, the name Canada was adopted for the entire country, and it was frequently referred to as the Dominion of Canada until the 1950s. As Canada asserted its political autonomy from Britain, the federal government increasingly used Canada on legal state documents and treaties. The Canada Act 1982 refers only to "Canada" and, as such, it is currently the only legal (and bilingual) name. This was reflected in 1982 with the renaming of the national holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day.


onal holiday from Dominion Day to Canada Day.


The fur trade was Canada's most important industry until the 1800s


Aboriginal and Inuit tradition holds that the First Peoples inhabited parts of Canada prehistorically. Archaeological studies support a human presence in northern Yukon from 26,500 years ago, and in southern Ontario from 9,500 years ago.       Europeans first arrived when the Vikings settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows circa AD 1000. The next Europeans to explore Canada's Atlantic coast included John Cabot in 1497  for England     and Jacques Cartier in 1534 for France   ; seasonal Basque whalers and fishermen would subsequently exploit the region between the Grand Banks and Tadoussac for over a century.


French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal in 1605 and Quebec City in 1608. These would become respectively the capitals of Acadia and Canada. Among French colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the St. Lawrence River valley, Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while French fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The French and Iroquois Wars broke out over control of the fur trade.


The Death of General Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec in 1759, part of the Seven Years' War.


The English established fishing outposts in Newfoundland around 1610 and colonized the Thirteen Colonies to the south. A series of four Intercolonial Wars erupted between 1689 and 1763. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain following the Seven Years' War.


The Royal Proclamation (1763) carved the Province of Quebec out of New France and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. It also restricted the language and religious rights of French Canadians. In 1769, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony. To avert conflict in Quebec, the Quebec Act of 1774 expanded Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, and re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law in Quebec; it angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, helping to fuel the American Revolution.    The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. Approximately 50,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the United States to Canada.    New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes.


ts fled the United States to Canada.    New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada, granting each their own elected Legislative Assembly.


Canada was a major front in the War of 1812 between the United States and British Empire. Its defence contributed to a sense of unity among British North Americans. Large-scale immigration to Canada began in 1815 from Britain and Ireland. The timber industry would also surpass the fur trade in importance in the early 1800s.


Robert Harris's painting of the Fathers of Confederation. The scene is an amalgamation of the Charlottetown and Quebec City conference sites and attendees.


The desire for Responsible Government resulted in the aborted Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report (1839) would subsequently recommend responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into British culture.    The Act of Union (1840) merged The Canadas  into a United Province of Canada. French and English Canadians worked together in the Assembly to reinstate French rights. Responsible government was established for all British North American provinces by 1849.


The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel, and paving the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). Canada launched a series of western exploratory expeditions to claim Rupert's Land and the Arctic region. The Canadian population grew rapidly because of high birth rates; British immigration was offset by emigration to the United States, especially by French Canadians moving to New England.


An animated map, exhibiting the growth and refactoring of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation.


Following several constitutional conferences, the British North America Act brought about Confederation creating "one Dominion under the name of Canada" on July 1, 1867 with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.     Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where MÃ©tis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had united in 1866) and the colony of Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively.


Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party established a National Policy of tariffs to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three trans-continental railways  (most notably the Canadian Pacific Railway), opened the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and established the North West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory.   In 1898, after the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government decided to create the Yukon territory as a separate territory in the region to better control the situation. Under Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905.


berta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905.


Canadian soldiers would win the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917.


Canada automatically entered the First World War in 1914 with Britain's declaration of war, sending volunteers to the Western Front. The Conscription Crisis of 1917  erupted when conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden brought in compulsory military service over the objection of French-speaking Quebecers.  In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain; in 1931 the Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence.


The Great Depression of 1929 brought economic hardship to all of Canada. In response, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Alberta and Saskatchewan presaged a welfare state as pioneered by Tommy Douglas in the 1940s and 1950s. Canada declared war on Germany independently during World War II under Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, three days after Britain. The first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939.    Canadian troops played important roles in the Battle of the Atlantic, the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid in France, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Scheldt during the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944. The Canadian economy boomed as industry manufactured military materiel  for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed


for Canada, Britain, China and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec, Canada finished the war with one of the largest armed forces in the world.


In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's 10th province. Post-war prosperity and economic expansion ignited a baby boom and attracted immigration from war-ravaged European countries.


Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. QuÃ©bÃ©cois nationalists began pressing for greater provincial autonomy. The separatist Parti QuÃ©bÃ©cois first came to power in 1976. A referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980 was rejected by a solid majority of the population, and a second referendum in 1995 was rejected by a slimmer margin of just 50.6% to 49.4%.    In 1997, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession by a province to be unconstitutional; Quebec's sovereignty movement has continued nonetheless.


The Queen and the Registrar General signing the Constitution Act, 1982.


Under successive Liberal governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, a new Canadian identity emerged. Canada adopted its current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965. In response to a more assertive French-speaking Quebec, the federal government became officially bilingual with the Official Languages Act of 1969.  Non-discriminatory Immigration Acts were introduced in 1967 and 1976, and official multiculturalism in 1971; waves of non-European immigration had changed the face of the country. Social democratic programs such as Universal Health Care, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans were initiated in the 1960s and consolidated in the 1970s; provincial governments, particularly Quebec, fought these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freed


tions. Finally, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed through the patriation of the constitution from Britain, enshrining a Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on individual rights in the Constitution Act of 1982.


Economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Canada-United States Automotive Agreement (or Auto Pact) in 1965 and the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987 were defining moments in integrating the two economies. Canadian nationalists continued to worry about their cultural autonomy as American television shows, movies and corporations became omnipresent.    However, Canadians take special pride in their system of universal health care and their commitment to multiculturalism.


Parliament Hill, Ottawa.


Canada is a constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, as head of state;       the Canadian monarch also serves as head of state of fifteen other Commonwealth countries, putting Canada in a personal union relationship with those other states. The country is a parliamentary democracy with a federal system of parliamentary government and strong democratic traditions.


Canada's constitution consists of written text and unwritten traditions and conventions.    The  Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act) established governance based on parliamentary precedent  "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom" and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Constitution Act, 1982 added a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees basic rights and freedoms for Canadians that generally cannot be overridden by legislation of any level of government in Canada. However, a notwithstanding clause, allows the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter temporarily, for a period of five years.


The Chamber of the House of Commons.


The monarch is represented by a viceroy, the Governor General, who is empowered to exercise almost all of the constitutional duties of the sovereign, though wielding these powers almost always on the advice of the appointed Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In practice, the only body to direct the use of the executive powers is the Cabinet   a committee of the Privy Council made up of Ministers of the Crown, all of whom are  responsible to the elected House of Commons. The Cabinet is headed by the Prime Minister, who holds the conventional position of head of government; to ensure the stability of government, the Governor General will usually appoint the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's


of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet, and by convention, the Governor General respects the Prime Minister's choices. MichaÃ«lle Jean has served as Governor General since September 27, 2005, and Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, has been her Prime Minister since February 6, 2006.


The federal parliament is made up of the Queen and two houses: an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. Each member in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in a riding or electoral district; general elections are called by the Governor General when the Prime Minister so advises. While there is no minimum term for a Parliament, a new election must be called within five years of the last general election. Members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, are chosen by the Prime Minister and formally appointed by the Governor General, and serve until age 75.


Four parties have substantial representation in the federal parliament: the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Bloc QuÃ©bÃ©cois. The current government is formed by the Conservative Party of Canada. While the Green Party of Canada and other smaller parties do not have current representation in Parliament, the list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial.


The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, west of Parliament Hill.


Canada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution.  The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and is led by the Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C. Its nine members are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice, after consultation with non-governmental legal bodies. The federal cabinet appoints justices to superior courts at the provincial and territorial levels. Judicial posts at the lower provincial and territorial levels are filled by their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail).


their respective governments (see Court system of Canada for more detail).


Common law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is a provincial responsibility, but in rural areas of all provinces except Ontario and Quebec, policing is contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).


The Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa.


Canada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partners. Canada has nevertheless maintained an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba and declining participation in the Iraq War. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie (French-Speaking Countries).


Canada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of about 64,000 regular and 26,000 reserve personnel.    The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the army, navy, and air force. Major CF equipment deployed includes 1,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 861 aircraft.


Lester B. Pearson with 1957 Nobel Peace Prize.


Strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth in English Canada led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations.


Canada joined the United Nations in 1945 and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War, and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in cooperation with the United States to defend against aerial attacks from the Soviet Union.


Canada has played a leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force.      Canada has since served in 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989


and has since maintained forces in international missions in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere.


Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990; Canada hosted the OAS General Assembly in Windsor in June 2000 and the third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).


Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.


Since 2001, Canada has had troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force. Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has participated in three major relief efforts in the past two years; the two-hundred member team has been deployed in relief operations after the December 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 and the Kashmir earthquake in October 2005.


In February 2007, Canada, Italy, Britain, Norway, and Russia announced their funding commitments to launch a $1.5 billion project to help develop vaccines they said could save millions of lives in poor nations, and called on others to join them. " Rich Nations Launch Vaccine Pact". Reuters. February 10, 2007.  In August 2007, Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters was challenged following a Russian expedition which planted a Russian flag at the seabed at the North Pole. Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925.


A geopolitical map of Canada, exhibiting its ten provinces and three territories.


Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories; in turn, these may be grouped into numerous regions. Western Canada consists of British Columbia and three Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Eastern Canada consists of Central Canada (Quebec and Ontario) and Atlantic Canada (comprised of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia; and Newfoundland and Labrador).  Three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) comprise Northern Canada. Provinces have a large degree of autonomy from the federal government,  territories somewhat less. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols.


The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as health care, education, and welfare) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces.


All provinces have unicameral, elected legislatures headed by a Premier selected in the same way as the Prime Minister of Canada. Each province also has a Lieutenant-Governor representing the Queen, analogous to the Governor General of Canada, appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of Canada, though with increasing levels of consultation with provincial governments in recent years.


A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail on the rocky Canadian Shield. Ice and tundra are prominent in the Arctic. Glaciers are visible in the Canadian Rockies and Coast Mountains. Flat and fertile Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population.


Canada occupies a major northern portion of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south and with the US state of Alaska to the northwest, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean.  By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second largest country in the world, after Russia, and largest on the continent. By land area it ranks fourth, after Russia, China, and the United States.  World Factbook: Area Country Comparison Table   Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60Â°W and 141Â°W longitude,    but this claim is not universally recognized. The northernmost settlement in Canada and in the world is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the No


Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Islandâlatitude 82.5Â°Nâjust 817 kilometres (450 nautical miles) from the North Pole.     Canada has the longest coastline in the world: 243,000 kilometres.


The population density,  , is among the lowest in the world.    The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River in the southeast.


To the north of this region is the broad Canadian Shield, an area of rock scoured clean by the last ice age, thinly soiled, rich in minerals, and dotted with lakes and rivers.  Canada by far has more lakes than any other country and has a large amount of the world's freshwater.


The Horseshoe Falls in Ontario is the largest component of Niagara Falls, one of the world's most voluminous waterfalls,    a major source of hydroelectric power, and a tourist destination.


In eastern Canada, the Saint Lawrence River widens into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, that contains the island of Newfoundland. South of the Gulf, the Canadian Maritimes protrude eastward along the Appalachian Mountain range from northern New England and the GaspÃ© Peninsula of Quebec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are divided by the Bay of Fundy, which experiences the world's largest tidal variations. Ontario and Hudson Bay dominate central Canada. West of Ontario, the broad, flat Canadian Prairies spread toward the Rocky Mountains, which separate them from British Columbia.


In western Canada, the Mackenzie River flows from the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean.  A tributary of a tributary of the Mackenzie is the South Nahanni River, which is home to Virginia Falls, a waterfall about twice as high as Niagara Falls.


Northern Canadian vegetation tapers from coniferous forests to tundra and finally to Arctic barrens in the far north.  The northern Canadian mainland is ringed with a vast archipelago containing some of the world's largest islands.


Average winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary depending on the location. Winters can be harsh in many regions of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near â15 Â°C (5 Â°F) but can drop below â40 Â°C (â40 Â°F) with severe wind chills.    In non-coastal regions, snow can cover the ground almost six months of the year, (more in the north).  Coastal British Columbia is an exception and enjoys a temperate climate with a mild and rainy winter.


On the east and west coast average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s Â°C (70s Â°F), while between the coasts the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to 30 Â°C (75 to 85 Â°F) with occasional extreme heat in some interior locations exceeding 40 Â°C (104 Â°F).       For a more complete description of climate across Canada see Environment Canada's Website.


Canadian banknotes depicting, top to bottom, Wilfrid Laurier, John A. Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Robert Borden.


Canada is one of the world's wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Group of Eight (G8).  Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations.    Canada has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern neighbour (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large western European economies      . Since the early 1990's, the Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large government surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards.  While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in


omic system, pattern of production, and high living standards.  While as of October 2007, Canada's national unemployment rate of 5.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador.


In the past century, the growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. As with other first world nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three quarters of Canadians.    However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of the primary sector, with the logging and oil industries being two of Canada's most important.


Canada is one of the few developed nations that is a net exporter of energy.  Atlantic Canada has vast offshore deposits of natural gas and large oil and gas resources are centred in Alberta. The vast Athabasca Tar Sands give Canada the world's second largest reserves of oil behind Saudi Arabia.    In Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario and Manitoba, hydroelectric power is a cheap and clean source of renewable energy.


Canada is one of the world's most important suppliers of agricultural products, with the Canadian Prairies one of the most important suppliers of wheat, canola and other grains.    Canada is the world's largest producer of zinc and uranium and a world leader in many other natural resources such as gold, nickel, aluminum, and lead;    many, if not most, towns in the northern part of the country, where agriculture is difficult, exist because of a nearby mine or source of timber.  Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries.


Canada is highly dependent on international trade, especially trade with the United States. The 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which included Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US Since 2001, Canada has successfully avoided economic recession and has maintained the best overall economic performance in the G8.    Since the mid 1990s, Canada's federal government has posted annual budgetary surpluses and has steadily paid down the national debt.


Toronto, Ontario skyline with the CN tower. Toronto is Canada's most populous metropolitan area with 5,113,149 people.


Canada's 2006 census counted 31,612,897, an increase of 5.4% since 2001.    Population growth is from immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. About three-quarters of Canada's population lives within 150 kilometres (90 mi) of the US border.    A similar proportion live in urban areas concentrated in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor (notably: the Greater Golden Horseshoe anchored around Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and their environs), the BC Lower Mainland (Vancouver and environs), and the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor in Alberta.


According to the 2001 census, it has 34 ethnic groups with at least one hundred thousand members each, with 83% of the total population claiming they are white.  Ethnic diversity of Canada


The largest ethnic group is English (20.2%), followed by French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%), and First Nations (3.4%); 40% of respondents identified their ethnicity as "Canadian."    Canada's aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average. In 2001, 13.4% of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities.


In 2001, 49% of the Vancouver population and 42.8% of Toronto's population were visible minorities. In March 2005, Statistics Canada projected that people of non-European origins will constitute a majority in both Toronto and Vancouver by 2012.  Canadian People - Learn About Canada's People  According to Statistics Canada's forecasts, the number of visible minorities in Canada is expected to double by 2017. Roughly one out of every five people in Canada could be a member of a visible minority by 2017.  Visible majority by 2017


Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world,    driven by economic policy and family reunification; Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. By the 1990s and 2000s, almost all of Canadaâs immigrants came from Asia.  Inflow of foreign-born population by country of birth, by year


Support for religious pluralism is an important part of Canada's political culture.  According to 2001 census,    77.1% of Canadians identified as being Christians; of this, Catholics make up the largest group (43.6% of Canadians). The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada; about 16.5% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, and the remaining 6.3% were affiliated with religions other than Christianity, of which the largest is Islam numbering 1.9%, followed by Judaism: 1.1%.


Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education. Each system is similar while reflecting regional history, culture and geography.    The mandatory school age ranges between  5â7 to 16â18 years,  contributing to an adult literacy rate that is 99%.  Postsecondary education is also administered by provincial and territorial governments, who provide most of the funding; the federal government administers additional research grants, student loans and scholarships. In 2002, 43% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 had post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34 the post-secondary attainment reaches 51%.


A Kwakwaka'wakw totem pole and traditional "big house" in Victoria, BC.


Canadian culture has historically been influenced by British, French, and Aboriginal cultures and traditions. It has also been influenced by American culture because of its proximity and migration between the two countries. American media and entertainment are popular if not dominant in Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the US and worldwide.    Many cultural products are marketed toward a unified "North American" or global market.


The creation and preservation of distinctly Canadian culture are supported by federal government programs, laws and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).


Canada is a geographically vast and ethnically diverse country. There are cultural variations and distinctions from province to province and region to region. Canadian culture has also been greatly influenced by immigration from all over the world. Many Canadians value multiculturalism, and see Canadian culture as being inherently multicultural.  Multicultural heritage is enshrined in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.


The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, seen here at Expo 67, are the federal and national police force of Canada and an international icon.


National symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and First Nations sources. Particularly, the use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates back to the early 18th century and is depicted on its current and previous flags, the penny, and on the coat of arms.    Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, and the RCMP.


Canada's official national sports are ice hockey (winter) and lacrosse (summer).    Hockey is a national pastime and the most popular spectator sport in the country. It is the most popular sport Canadians play, with 1.65 million active participants in 2004.    Canada's six largest metropolitan areas - Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton - have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL), and there are more Canadian players in the league than from all other countries combined. After hockey, other popular spectator sports include curling and football; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Golf, baseball, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels,  but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread.


ateur levels,  but professional leagues and franchises are not as widespread.


Canada has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics, the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Canada will be the host country for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia.


The population of Montreal, Quebec is mainly Francophone, with a significant Anglophone community.


Canada's two official languages are  English and French. Official Bilingualism in Canada is law, defined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act, and Official Language Regulations; it is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages. English and French have equal status in federal courts, Parliament, and in all federal institutions. The public has the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French, and official language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories.


English and French are the mother tongues of 59.7% and 23.2% of the population respectively,    and the languages most spoken at home by 68.3% and 22.3% of the population respectively.    98.5% of Canadians speak English or French (English only: 67.5%, French only: 13.3%, both: 17.7%).    English and French Official Language Communities, defined by First Official Language Spoken, constitute 73.0% and 23.6% of the population.


Although 85% of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in Ontario, Alberta and southern Manitoba, with an Acadian population in the northern and southeastern parts of New Brunswick constituting 35% of that province's population as well as concentrations in Southwestern Nova Scotia and on Cape Breton Island. Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick is the only province to have a statement of official bilingualism in the constitution.    Other provinces   have no official language(s) as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and other government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures


government services in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status but is not fully co-official. Several aboriginal languages have official status in Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and one of three official languages in the territory.


Non-official languages are important in Canada, with 5,202,245 people listing one as a first language.  Some significant non-official first languages include Chinese (853,745 first-language speakers), Italian (469,485), German (438,080), and Punjabi (271,220).


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Beetles are a group of insects which have the largest number of species. They are placed in the order Coleoptera,which means "sheathed wing" and contains more described species than in any other order in the animal kingdom, constituting about twenty-five percent of all known life-forms. James K. Liebherr and Joseph V. McHugh in Resh, V. H. & R. T. CardÃ© (Editors) 2003. Encyclopedia of Insects. Academic Press.  Forty percent of all described insect species are beetles (about 350,000 species ), and new species are frequently discovered. Estimates put the total number of species, described and undescribed, at between 5 and 8 million.


Beetles can be found in almost all habitats, but are not known to occur in the sea or in the polar regions. They interact with their ecosystems in several ways. They often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are prey of various animals including birds and mammals. Certain species are agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata, the boll weevil Anthonomus grandis, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, and the mungbean or cowpea beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, while other species of beetles are important controls of agricultural pests. For example, coccinellidae ("ladybirds" or "ladybugs") consume aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.


her plant-sucking insects that damage crops.


The name "Coleoptera" was given by Aristotle for the hardened shield like forewings (coleo = shield + ptera = wing).


A cockchafer with its elytra raised, exposing the membranous flight wings, where the veins are visible


Trogodendron fasciculatum, a clerid beetle with bright yellow antennae


Other characters of this group which are believed to be monophyletic include a holometabolous life cycle; having a prothorax that is distinct from and freely articulating with the mesothorax; the meso- and meta-thoracic segments fusing to form a pterothorax; a depressed body shape with the legs on the ventral surface; the coxae of legs recessed into cavities formed by heavily sclerotized thoracic sclerites; the abdominal sternites more sclerotized than the tergites; antennae with 11 or fewer segments; and terminal genitalic appendages retracted into the abdomen and invisible at rest.


The general anatomy of beetles is quite uniform, although specific organs and appendages may vary greatly in appearance and function between the many families in the order. Like all insects, beetles' bodies are divided into three sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. When viewed from below, the thorax is that part from which all three pairs of legs and both pairs of wings arise. The abdomen is everything posterior to the thorax. When viewed from above, most beetles appear to have three clear sections, but this is deceptive: on the beetle's upper surface, the middle "section" is a hard plate called the pronotum, which is only the front part of the thorax; the back part of the thorax is concealed by the beetle's wings. Like all arthropods, beetles are segmented organisms, and all three of the major sections of the body are themselves composed of several further segments, althoug


hropods, beetles are segmented organisms, and all three of the major sections of the body are themselves composed of several further segments, although these are not always readily discernible. This further segmentation is usually best seen on the abdomen.


Beetles are generally characterised by a particularly hard exoskeleton and hard forewings (elytra). The beetle's exoskeleton is made up of numerous plates called sclerites, separated by thin sutures. This design creates the armoured defences of the beetle while maintaining flexibility. The elytra are not used for flight, but tend to cover the hind part of the body and protect the second pair of wings (alae). The elytra must be raised in order to move the hind flight wings. A beetle's flight wings are crossed with veins and are folded after landing, often along these veins, and are stored below the elytra.


In some beetles, the ability to fly has been lost. These include the ground beetles (family Carabidae) and some "true weevils" (family Curculionidae), but also some desert and cave-dwelling species of other families. Many of these species have the two elytra fused together, forming a solid shield over the abdomen. In a few families, both the ability to fly and the elytra have been lost, with the best known example being the glow-worms of the family Phengodidae, in which the females are larviform throughout their lives.


Beetles have mouthparts similar to those of grasshoppers. Of these parts, the most commonly known are probably the mandibles, which appear as large pincers on the front of some beetles. The mandibles are a pair of hard, often tooth-like structures that move horizontally to grasp, crush, or cut food or enemies (see defence, below). Two pairs of finger-like appendages are found around the mouth in most beetles, serving to move food into the mouth. These are the maxillary and labial palpi.


The eyes are compound and may display remarkable adaptability, as in the case of whirligig beetles (family Gyrinidae), in which the eyes are split to allow a view both above and below the waterline. Other species also have divided eyes â some longhorn beetles (family Cerambycidae) and weevils â while many beetles have eyes that are notched to some degree. A few beetle genera also possess ocelli, which are small, simple eyes usually situated farther back on the head (on the vertex).


Beetles' antennae are primarily organs of smell, but may also be used to feel out a beetle's environment physically. They may also be used in some families during mating, or among a few beetles for defence. Antennae vary greatly in form within the Coleoptera, but are often similar within any given family. In some cases, males and females of the same species will have different antennal forms. Antennae may be clavate (flabellate and lamellate are sub-forms of clavate, or clubbed antennae), filiform, geniculate, moniliform, pectinate, or serrate. For images of these antennal forms see antenna (biology).


Acilius sulcatus, a diving beetle showing hind legs adapted for life in water


The legs, which are multi-segmented, end in two to five small segments called tarsi. Like many other insect orders beetles bear claws, usually one pair, on the end of the last tarsal segment of each leg. While most beetles use their legs for walking, legs may be variously modified and adapted for other uses. Among aquatic families â Dytiscidae, Haliplidae, many species of Hydrophilidae and others â the legs, most notably the last pair, are modified for swimming and often bear rows of long hairs to aid this purpose. Other beetles have fossorial legs that are widened and often spined for digging. Species with such adaptations are found among the scarabs, ground beetles, and clown beetles (family Histeridae). The hind legs of some beetles, such as flea beetles (within Chrysomelidae) and flea weevils (within Curculionidae), are enlarged and designed for jumping.


such as flea beetles (within Chrysomelidae) and flea weevils (within Curculionidae), are enlarged and designed for jumping.


Oxygen is obtained via a tracheal system. Air enters a series of tubes along the body through openings called spiracles, and is then taken into increasingly finer fibres. Pumping movements of the body force the air through the system.


Beetles have haemolymph instead of blood, and the open circulatory system of the beetle is powered by a tube-like heart attached to the top inside of the thorax.


Scarabaeiform larva of the cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha


Beetles are endopterygotes with complete metamorphosis.


A single female may lay from several dozen to several thousand eggs during her lifetime. Eggs are usually laid according to the substrate the larva will feed on upon hatching. Among others, they can be laid loose in the substrate (e.g. flour beetle), laid in clumps on leaves (e.g. Colorado potato beetle), or individually attached (e.g. mungbean beetle and other seed borers) or buried in the medium (e.g. carrot weevil).


The larva is usually the principal feeding stage of the beetle life cycle. Larvae tend to feed voraciously once they emerge from their eggs. Some feed externally on plants, such as those of certain leaf beetles, while others feed within their food sources. Examples of internal feeders are most Buprestidae and longhorn beetles. The larvae of many beetle families are predatory like the adults (ground beetles, ladybirds, rove beetles). The larval period varies between species but can be as long as several years.


Beetle larvae can be differentiated from other insect larvae by their hardened, often darkened head, the presence of chewing mouthparts, and spiracles along the sides of the body. Like adult beetles, the larvae are varied in appearance, particularly between beetle families. Beetles whose larvae are somewhat flattened and are highly mobile are the ground beetles, some rove beetles, and others; their larvae are described as campodeiform. Some beetle larvae resemble hardened worms with dark head capsules and minute legs. These are elateriform larvae, and are found in the click beetle (Elateridae) and darkling beetle (Tenebrionidae) families. Some elateriform larvae of click beetles are known as wireworms. Beetles in the families of the Scarabaeoidea have short, thick larvae described as scarabaeiform, but more commonly known as grubs.


eoidea have short, thick larvae described as scarabaeiform, but more commonly known as grubs.


All beetle larvae go through several instars, which are the developmental stages between each moult. In many species the larvae simply increase in size with each successive instar as more food is consumed. In some cases, however, more dramatic changes occur. Among certain beetle families or genera, particularly those that exhibit parasitic lifestyles, the first instar (the planidium) is highly mobile in order to search out a host, while the following instars are more sedentary and remain on or within their host. This is known as hypermetamorphosis; examples include the blister beetles (family Meloidae) and some rove beetles, particularly those of the genus Aleochara.


As with all endopterygotes, beetle larvae pupate, and from this pupa emerges a fully formed, sexually mature adult beetle, or imago. Adults have an extremely variable lifespan, from weeks to years, depending on the species.


Beetles mating in San Francisco


Flamboyant flower beetle, Eudicella gralli, from the forests of Central Africa. The iridescent elytra are used in marriage ceremonies.


Beetles may display extremely intricate behaviour when mating. Smell is thought to be important in the location of a mate.


Conflict can play a part in the mating rituals of species such as burying beetles (genus Nicrophorus) where conflicts between males and females rage until only one of each is left, thus ensuring reproduction by the strongest and fittest. Many beetles are territorial and will fiercely defend their small patch of territory from intruding males.


Pairing is generally short but in some cases will last for several hours. During pairing sperm cells are transferred to the female to fertilise the egg.


Parental care varies between species, ranging from the simple laying of eggs under a leaf to certain scarab beetles, which construct underground structures complete with a supply of dung to house and feed their young. Other beetles are leaf rollers, biting sections of leaves to cause them to curl inwards, then laying their eggs, thus protected, inside.


Brachinus sp., a bombardier beetle


Beetles and their larvae have a variety of strategies to avoid being attacked by predators or parasitoids. These include camouflage, mimicry, toxicity, and active defence.


Camouflage involves the use of colouration or shape to blend into the surrounding environment. Among those that exhibit this defensive strategy are some of the leaf beetles (family Chysomelidae), having green colouring very similar to their habitat on plant leaves. More complex camouflage also occurs, as with some weevils, where various coloured scales or hairs cause the beetle to resemble bird dung.


Another defence that often uses colour or shape to deceive potential enemies is mimicry. A number of longhorn beetles (family Cerambycidae) bear a striking resemblance to wasps, which fools predators into keeping their distance even though the beetles are in fact harmless. This defence can be found to a lesser extent in other beetle families, such as the scarab beetles. Beetles may combine their colour mimicry with behavioural mimicry, acting like the wasps they already closely resemble.


Many beetle species, including ladybirds and blister beetles, can secrete distasteful or toxic substances to make them unpalatable or even poisonous. These same species often exhibit aposematism, where bright or contrasting colour patterns warn away potential predators.


Large ground beetles and longhorn beetles may go on the attack, using their strong mandibles to forcibly persuade a predator to seek out easier prey. Others, such as bombardier beetles (within Carabidae) spray acidic gas from their abdomen to repel predators.


Besides being abundant and varied, the Coleoptera are able to exploit the wide diversity of food sources available in their many habitats. Some are generalists, eating both plants and animals. Other beetles are highly specialised in their diet. Many species of leaf beetles, longhorn beetles, and weevils are very host specific, feeding on only a single species of plant. Ground beetles and rove beetles (family Staphylinidae), among others, are primarily carnivorous and will catch and consume many other arthropods and small prey such as earthworms and snails. While most predatory beetles are generalists, a few species have more specific prey requirements or preferences.


Decaying organic matter is a primary diet for many species. This can range from dung, which is consumed by coprophagous species such as certain scarab beetles (family Scarabaeidae), to dead animals, which are eaten by necrophagous species such as the carrion beetles (family Silphidae). Some of the beetles found within dung and carrion are in fact predatory, such as the clown beetles, preying on the larvae of coprophagous and necrophagous insects.


Aquatic beetles use several techniques for retaining air beneath the water's surface. Beetles of the family Dytiscidae hold air between the abdomen and the elytra when diving. Hydrophilidae have hairs on their under surface that retain a layer of air against their bodies. Adult crawling water beetles use both their elytra and their hind coxae (the basal segment of the back legs) in air retention     while whirligig beetles simply carry an air bubble down with them whenever they dive.


Sphaerius acaroides, a member of the small suborder Myxophaga


While some authorities believe modern beetles began about 140 million years ago, research announced in 2007 showed that beetles may have entered the fossil record during the Lower Permian, about 265 to 300 million years ago.  Modern Beetles Predate Dinosaurs, Dave Mosher, LiveScience.com, 26 December 2007.


The four extant suborders of beetle are these:


* Polyphaga is the largest suborder, containing more than 300,000 described species in more than 170 families, including rove beetles (Staphylinidae), scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae), blister beetles (Meloidae), stag beetles (Lucanidae) and true weevils (Curculionidae). These beetles can be identified by the cervical sclerites (hardened parts of the head used as points of attachment for muscles) absent in the other suborders.


* Adephaga contains about 10 families of largely predatory beetles, includes ground beetles (Carabidae), Dytiscidae and whirligig beetles (Gyrinidae). In these beetles the testes are tubular and the first abdominal sternum (a plate of the exoskeleton) is divided by the hind coxae (the basal joints of the beetle's legs).


* Archostemata contains four families of mainly wood-eating beetles, including reticulated beetles (Cupedidae) and the telephone-pole beetle.


* Myxophaga contains about 100 described species in four families, mostly very small, including Hydroscaphidae and the genus Sphaerius.


These suborders diverged in the Permian and Triassic. Their phylogenetic relationship is uncertain, with the most popular hypothesis being that Polyphaga and Myxophaga are most closely related, with Adephaga as the sister group to those two, and Archostemata as sister to the other three collectively.


There are about 350,000 species of beetles. Such a large number of species poses special problems for classification, with some families consisting of thousands of species and needing further division into subfamilies and tribes.


Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) larvae


Many agricultural, forestry, and household insect pests are beetles. These include the following:


* The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, is a notorious pest of potato plants. Crops are destroyed and the beetle can only be treated by employing expensive pesticides, many of which it has begun to develop resistance to. As well as potatoes, suitable hosts can be a number of plants from the potato family (Solanaceae), such as nightshade, tomato, aubergine and capsicum.


* The boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, has cost cotton producers in the United States billions of dollars since it first entered that country.


* The bark beetles Hylurgopinus rufipes and Scolytus multistriatus, the elm leaf beetle, Pyrrhalta luteola, and other beetles attack elm trees. The bark beetles are important elm pests because they carry Dutch elm disease as they move from infected breeding sites to feed on healthy elm trees. The spread of the fungus by the beetle has led to the devastation of elm trees in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, notably in Europe and North America.


* The death watch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum, (family Anobiidae) is of considerable importance as a pest of older wooden buildings in Great Britain. It attacks hardwoods such as oak and chestnut, always where some fungal decay has taken or is taking place. It is thought that the actual introduction of the pest into buildings takes place at the time of construction.


Coccinella septempunctata, a beneficial beetle


* Both the larvae and adults of some ladybirds (family Coccinellidae) are found in aphid colonies. Other lady beetles feed on scale insects and mealybugs. If normal food sources are scarce they may feed on other things, such as small caterpillars, young plant bugs, honeydew and nectar.


* Ground beetles (family Carabidae) are common predators of many different insects and other arthropods, including fly eggs, caterpillars, wireworms and others.


* Plant-feeding beetles are often important beneficial insects, controlling problem weeds. Some flea beetles of the genus Aphthona feed on leafy spurge, a considerable weed of rangeland in western North America.


Some farmers develop beetle banks to foster and provide cover for beneficial beetles.


Beetles of the Dermestidae family are often used in taxidermy to clean bones of remaining flesh.


Ancient Egyptian scene depicting a scarab beetle


Several species of dung beetle, most notably Scarabaeus sacer (often referred to as "scarab"), enjoyed a sacred status among the ancient Egyptians, as the creatures were likened to the major god Khepri. Some scholars suggest that the Egyptians' practice of making mummies was inspired by the brooding process of the beetle. Many thousands of amulets and stamp seals have been excavated that depict the scarab. In many artifacts, the scarab is depicted pushing the sun along its course in the sky, much as scarabs push or roll balls of dung to their brood sites. During and following the New Kingdom, scarab amulets were often placed over the heart of the mummified deceased.


Some tribal groups, particularly in tropical parts of the world, use the colourful, iridescent elytra of certain beetles, especially certain Scarabaeidae, in ceremonies and as adornment.


Beetle collection at the Melbourne Museum, Australia


The study of beetles is called coleopterology, and its practitioners are coleopterists. Coleopterists have formed organisations to facilitate the study of beetles. Among these is The Coleopterists Society, an international organisation based in the United States. Such organisations may have both professionals and amateurs interested in beetles as members.


Research in this field is often published in peer-reviewed journals specific to the field of coleopterology, though journals dealing with general entomology also publish many papers on various aspects of beetle biology. Some of the journals specific to beetle research are:


There is a thriving industry in the collection of beetle specimens for amateur and professional collectors. Many coleopterists prefer to collect beetle specimens for themselves, recording detailed information about each specimen and its habitat. Such collections add to the body of knowledge about the Coleoptera. Some countries have established laws governing or prohibiting the collection of certain rare (and often much sought after) species. One such beetle whose collection is illegal or restricted is the American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus.


*  The Beetle Ring - A group of websites about beetles (Coleoptera).


*  Entomology - online insect museum, entomology, tips and tricks, how to spread and pin insects, etc.


The leopard (Panthera pardus) is an Old World mammal of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four 'big cats' of the genus Panthera, along with the tiger, lion, and jaguar. Leopards that are melanistic, either all-black or very dark in coloration, are known colloquially as Black Panthers.


Once distributed across southern Eurasia and Africa, from Korea to South Africa and Spain, it has disappeared from much of its former range and now chiefly occurs in subsaharan Africa. There are fragmented populations in Israel, the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, Malaysia, and western China. Despite the loss of range and continued population declines, the cat remains a least concern species;  its numbers are greater than that of the other Panthera species, all of which face more acute conservation concerns.


The species' success owes in part to its opportunistic hunting behaviour and its adaptability to a variety of habitats. The leopard consumes virtually any animal it can catch and ranges from rainforest to desert. Its ecological role resembles that of the similarly-sized cougar in the Americas. Physically, the spotted cat most closely resembles the jaguar, although it is of lighter build.


In Antiquity, it was believed that a leopard was a hybrid between a lion and a panther, as is reflected in its name, a Greek compound word derived from Î»ÎÏÎ½ lÃ©on ("lion") and ÏÎ¬ÏÎ´Î¿Ï pÃ¡rdos ("male panther"), the latter related to Sanskrit à¤ªà¥à¤¦à¤¾à¤à¥ pá¹dÄku ("snake, tiger, panther").


A panther can be any of several species of large felid; in North America, the term refers to cougars, in South America, jaguars, and elsewhere, leopards. Early naturalists distinguished between leopards and panthers not by colour (a common misconception), but by the length of the tail panthers having longer tails than leopards.


Felis pardus was one of the many species described in Linnaeus's 18th-century work, Systema Naturae.


The generic component of its modern scientific designation, Panthera pardus, is derived from Latin via Greek ÏÎ¬Î½Î¸Î·Ï pÃ¡nthÄr. A folk etymology held that it was a compound of ÏÎ±Î½ pan ("all") and Î¸Î·Ï ("beast"). However, it is believed instead to derive from an Indo-Iranian word meaning "whitish-yellow, pale"; in Sanskrit, this word's reflex was à¤ªà¤¾à¤£à¥à¤¡à¤° pÄá¹á¸ara, from which was derived à¤ªà¥à¤£à¥à¤¡à¤°à¥à¤ puá¹á¸Ã¡rÄ«ka ("tiger", among other things), then borrowed into Greek.


The leopard is an agile and graceful predator. Although smaller than the other members of Panthera, the leopard is still able to take large prey given a massive skull that well utilizes powerful jaw muscles.  Its body is comparatively long for a cat and its legs are short.  Head and body length is between 90 and 190 cm, the tail reaches 60 to 110cm. Shoulder height is 45 to 80 cm. Males are considerably larger than females and weigh 37 to 90 kg compared to 28 to 60 kg for females. Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9


One of many spotted cats, a leopard may be mistaken for a cheetah or a jaguar. The leopard has rosettes rather than cheetah's simple spots, but they lack internal spots, unlike the jaguar. The leopard is larger and less lanky than the cheetah but smaller than the jaguar. The leopard's black, irregular rosettes serve as camouflage. They are circular in East Africa but tend to be square in southern Africa.  .


Leopards have been reported to reach 21 years of age in captivity.


A melanistic leopard, or "black panther"


A melanistic morph of the leopard occurs particularly in mountainous areas and rain forests. The black color is heritable and caused by only one recessive gene locus. In some regions, for example on the Malayan Peninsula, up to half of all leopards are black. In Africa black leopards seem to be most common in the Ethiopian Highlands. While they are commonly called black panthers, the term is not applied exclusively to leopards. Black leopards are less successful on the African plains because their colouration makes them stand out.


As of 1996, the leopard had the largest distribution of any wild cat,  although populations before and since have shown a declining trend and are fragmented outside of subsaharan Africa. The IUCN notes that within subsaharan Africa the species is "still numerous and even thriving in marginal habitats" where other large cats have disappeared, but that populations in North Africa may be extinct. In Asia, data on distribution are mixed: populations in Southwest and Central Asia are small and fragmented; in the northeast portion of the range, they are critically endangered; and in Indian, Southeast Asia, and China, the cat is still relatively abundant.  Leopards also like to live in grasslands, woodlands and riverside forests.


Graceful and stealthy, leopards are famous for their ability to go undetected. They are good, agile climbers, but cannot get down from a tree headfirst, because they do not have the ankle flexibilityâthe only two cats that do are the Margay and the Clouded Leopard. Female leopard. Note the white spots on the back of the ears used for communication with cubs when hunting in long grassAlong with climbing, they are strong swimmers but not as fond of water as tigers; for example, leopards will not normally lie in water. They are mainly nocturnal but can be seen at any time of day and will even hunt during daytime on overcast days. In regions where they are hunted, nocturnal behaviour is more common. These cats are solitary, avoiding one another. However, three or four are sometimes seen together. Hearing and eyesight are the strongest of these cats' senses and are extremely acute. Olfactio


er. However, three or four are sometimes seen together. Hearing and eyesight are the strongest of these cats' senses and are extremely acute. Olfaction is relied upon as well, but not for hunting. When making a threat, leopards stretch their backs, depress their ribcages between their shoulder blades so they stick out, and lower their heads (similar to domestic cats). During the day they may lie in bush, on rocks, or in a tree with their tails hanging below the treetops and giving them away.


Leopards are opportunistic hunters. Although mid-sized animals are preferred, the leopard will eat anything from dung beetles to 900 kg male giant elands.  Nowell, K.; Jackson, P. eds. (1996).  Wild Cats. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. (see Panthera Pardus, pp. 24 â 29.)  Their diet consists mostly of ungulates and monkeys, but rodents, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish are also eaten. Schaller, p. 290  In fact, they hunt about 90 different species of animals. A solitary dog is a potential prey for leopards, although a pack of dogs can kill or drive off a leopard. Even large pythons are potential prey for leopards. In Africa, mid-sized antelopes provide a majority of the leopard's prey, especially impala and Thomson's gazelles. Schaller, p. 291  In Asia the leopard preys on deer such as chitals and muntjacs as wel


the leopard's prey, especially impala and Thomson's gazelles. Schaller, p. 291  In Asia the leopard preys on deer such as chitals and muntjacs as well as various Asian antelopes and Ibex. Leopards have even been spotted killing and eating crocodiles.


The leopard stalks its prey silently and at the last minute pounces on its prey and strangles its throat with a quick bite. Leopards often hide their kills in dense vegetation or take them up trees,  and are capable of carrying animals up to three times their own weight this way. Storing carcasses up trees keeps them away from other predators such as spotted hyenas, jackals, tigers and lions, though the latter will occasionally be successful in climbing and fetching the leopard kills. Schaller, p. 293