chunks
stringlengths 1
1.02k
|
|---|
warhorses".
Historiography and source
The historiography of Attila is faced with a major challenge, in that the only complete sources are written in Greek and Latin by the enemies of the Huns. Attila's contemporaries left many testimonials of his life, but only fragments of these remain. Priscus was a Byzantine diplomat and historian who wrote in Greek, and he was both a witness to and an actor in the story of Attila, as a member of the embassy of Theodosius II at the Hunnic court in 449. He was obviously biased by his political position, but his writing is a major source for information on the life of Attila, and he is the only person known to have recorded a physical description of him. He wrote a history of the late Roman Empire in eight books covering the period from 430 to 476.
Only fragments of Priscus' work remain. It was cited extensively by 6thcentury historians Procopius and Jordanes, especially in Jordanes' The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, which contains numerous references to Priscus's hist |
ory, and it is also an important source of information about the Hunnic empire and its neighbors. He describes the legacy of Attila and the Hunnic people for a century after Attila's death. Marcellinus Comes, a chancellor of Justinian during the same era, also describes the relations between the Huns and the Eastern Roman Empire.
Numerous ecclesiastical writings contain useful but scattered information, sometimes difficult to authenticate or distorted by years of handcopying between the 6th and 17th centuries. The Hungarian writers of the 12th century wished to portray the Huns in a positive light as their glorious ancestors, and so repressed certain historical elements and added their own legends.
The literature and knowledge of the Huns themselves was transmitted orally, by means of epics and chanted poems that were handed down from generation to generation. Indirectly, fragments of this oral history have reached us via the literature of the Scandinavians and Germans, neighbors of the Huns who wrote betwe |
en the 9th and 13th centuries. Attila is a major character in many Medieval epics, such as the Nibelungenlied, as well as various Eddas and sagas.
Archaeological investigation has uncovered some details about the lifestyle, art, and warfare of the Huns. There are a few traces of battles and sieges, but the tomb of Attila and the location of his capital have not yet been found.
Early life and background
The Huns were a group of Eurasian nomads, appearing from east of the Volga, who migrated further into Western Europe c. 370 and built up an enormous empire there. Their main military techniques were mounted archery and javelin throwing. They were in the process of developing settlements before their arrival in Western Europe, yet the Huns were a society of pastoral warriors whose primary form of nourishment was meat and milk, products of their herds.
The origin and language of the Huns has been the subject of debate for centuries. According to some theories, their leaders at least may have spoken a Turkic |
language, perhaps closest to the modern Chuvash language. One scholar suggests a relationship to Yeniseian. According to the Encyclopedia of European Peoples, "the Huns, especially those who migrated to the west, may have been a combination of central Asian Turkic, Mongolic, and Ugric stocks".
Attila's father Mundzuk was the brother of kings Octar and Ruga, who reigned jointly over the Hunnic empire in the early fifth century. This form of diarchy was recurrent with the Huns, but historians are unsure whether it was institutionalized, merely customary, or an occasional occurrence. His family was from a noble lineage, but it is uncertain whether they constituted a royal dynasty. Attila's birthdate is debated; journalist ric Deschodt and writer Herman Schreiber have proposed a date of 395. However, historian Iaroslav Lebedynsky and archaeologist Katalin Escher prefer an estimate between the 390s and the first decade of the fifth century. Several historians have proposed 406 as the date.
Attila grew up in a ra |
pidly changing world. His people were nomads who had only recently arrived in Europe. They crossed the Volga river during the 370s and annexed the territory of the Alans, then attacked the Gothic kingdom between the Carpathian mountains and the Danube. They were a very mobile people, whose mounted archers had acquired a reputation for invincibility, and the Germanic tribes seemed unable to withstand them. Vast populations fleeing the Huns moved from Germania into the Roman Empire in the west and south, and along the banks of the Rhine and Danube. In 376, the Goths crossed the Danube, initially submitting to the Romans but soon rebelling against Emperor Valens, whom they killed in the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Large numbers of Vandals, Alans, Suebi, and Burgundians crossed the Rhine and invaded Roman Gaul on December 31, 406 to escape the Huns. The Roman Empire had been split in half since 395 and was ruled by two distinct governments, one based in Ravenna in the West, and the other in Constantinople in the |
East. The Roman Emperors, both East and West, were generally from the Theodosian family in Attila's lifetime despite several power struggles.
The Huns dominated a vast territory with nebulous borders determined by the will of a constellation of ethnically varied peoples. Some were assimilated to Hunnic nationality, whereas many retained their own identities and rulers but acknowledged the suzerainty of the king of the Huns. The Huns were also the indirect source of many of the Romans' problems, driving various Germanic tribes into Roman territory, yet relations between the two empires were cordial the Romans used the Huns as mercenaries against the Germans and even in their civil wars. Thus, the usurper Joannes was able to recruit thousands of Huns for his army against Valentinian III in 424. It was Atius, later Patrician of the West, who managed this operation. They exchanged ambassadors and hostages, the alliance lasting from 401 to 450 and permitting the Romans numerous military victories. The Huns consi |
dered the Romans to be paying them tribute, whereas the Romans preferred to view this as payment for services rendered. The Huns had become a great power by the time that Attila came of age during the reign of his uncle Ruga, to the point that Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, deplored the situation with these words "They have become both masters and slaves of the Romans".
Campaigns against the Eastern Roman Empire
The death of Rugila also known as Rua or Ruga in 434 left the sons of his brother Mundzuk, Attila and Bleda, in control of the united Hun tribes. At the time of the two brothers' accession, the Hun tribes were bargaining with Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II's envoys for the return of several renegades who had taken refuge within the Eastern Roman Empire, possibly Hunnic nobles who disagreed with the brothers' assumption of leadership.
The following year, Attila and Bleda met with the imperial legation at Margus Poarevac, all seated on horseback in the Hunnic manner, and negotiated |
an advantageous treaty. The Romans agreed to return the fugitives, to double their previous tribute of 350 Roman pounds c. 115 kg of gold, to open their markets to Hunnish traders, and to pay a ransom of eight solidi for each Roman taken prisoner by the Huns. The Huns, satisfied with the treaty, decamped from the Roman Empire and returned to their home in the Great Hungarian Plain, perhaps to consolidate and strengthen their empire. Theodosius used this opportunity to strengthen the walls of Constantinople, building the city's first sea wall, and to build up his border defenses along the Danube.
The Huns remained out of Roman sight for the next few years while they invaded the Sassanid Empire. They were defeated in Armenia by the Sassanids, abandoned their invasion, and turned their attentions back to Europe. In 440, they reappeared in force on the borders of the Roman Empire, attacking the merchants at the market on the north bank of the Danube that had been established by the treaty of 435.
Crossing the |
Danube, they laid waste to the cities of Illyricum and forts on the river, including according to Priscus Viminacium, a city of Moesia. Their advance began at Margus, where they demanded that the Romans turn over a bishop who had retained property that Attila regarded as his. While the Romans discussed the bishop's fate, he slipped away secretly to the Huns and betrayed the city to them.
While the Huns attacked citystates along the Danube, the Vandals led by Geiseric captured the Western Roman province of Africa and its capital of Carthage. Africa was the richest province of the Western Empire and a main source of food for Rome. The Sassanid Shah Yazdegerd II invaded Armenia in 441.
The Romans stripped the Balkan area of forces, sending them to Sicily in order to mount an expedition against the Vandals in Africa. This left Attila and Bleda a clear path through Illyricum into the Balkans, which they invaded in 441. The Hunnish army sacked Margus and Viminacium, and then took Singidunum Belgrade and Sirmium. |
During 442, Theodosius recalled his troops from Sicily and ordered a large issue of new coins to finance operations against the Huns. He believed that he could defeat the Huns and refused the Hunnish kings' demands.
Attila responded with a campaign in 443. For the first time as far as the Romans knew his forces were equipped with battering rams and rolling siege towers, with which they successfully assaulted the military centers of Ratiara and Naissus Ni and massacred the inhabitants. Priscus said "When we arrived at Naissus we found the city deserted, as though it had been sacked; only a few sick persons lay in the churches. We halted at a short distance from the river, in an open space, for all the ground adjacent to the bank was full of the bones of men slain in war."
Advancing along the Niava River, the Huns next took Serdica Sofia, Philippopolis Plovdiv, and Arcadiopolis Lleburgaz. They encountered and destroyed a Roman army outside Constantinople but were stopped by the double walls of the Eastern cap |
ital. They defeated a second army near Callipolis Gelibolu.
Theodosius, unable to make effective armed resistance, admitted defeat, sending the Magister militum per Orientem Anatolius to negotiate peace terms. The terms were harsher than the previous treaty the Emperor agreed to hand over 6,000 Roman pounds c. 2000 kg of gold as punishment for having disobeyed the terms of the treaty during the invasion; the yearly tribute was tripled, rising to 2,100 Roman pounds c. 700 kg in gold; and the ransom for each Roman prisoner rose to 12 solidi.
Their demands were met for a time, and the Hun kings withdrew into the interior of their empire. Bleda died following the Huns' withdrawal from Byzantium probably around 445. Attila then took the throne for himself, becoming the sole ruler of the Huns.
Solitary kingship
In 447, Attila again rode south into the Eastern Roman Empire through Moesia. The Roman army, under Gothic magister militum Arnegisclus, met him in the Battle of the Utus and was defeated, though not wi |
thout inflicting heavy losses. The Huns were left unopposed and rampaged through the Balkans as far as Thermopylae.
Constantinople itself was saved by the Isaurian troops of magister militum per Orientem Zeno and protected by the intervention of prefect Constantinus, who organized the reconstruction of the walls that had been previously damaged by earthquakes and, in some places, to construct a new line of fortification in front of the old. Callinicus, in his Life of Saint Hypatius, wrote
In the west
In 450, Attila proclaimed his intent to attack the Visigoth kingdom of Toulouse by making an alliance with Emperor Valentinian III. He had previously been on good terms with the Western Roman Empire and its influential general Flavius Atius. Atius had spent a brief exile among the Huns in 433, and the troops that Attila provided against the Goths and Bagaudae had helped earn him the largely honorary title of magister militum in the west. The gifts and diplomatic efforts of Geiseric, who opposed and feared the |
Visigoths, may also have influenced Attila's plans.
However, Valentinian's sister was Honoria, who had sent the Hunnish king a plea for helpand her engagement ringin order to escape her forced betrothal to a Roman senator in the spring of 450. Honoria may not have intended a proposal of marriage, but Attila chose to interpret her message as such. He accepted, asking for half of the western Empire as dowry.
When Valentinian discovered the plan, only the influence of his mother Galla Placidia convinced him to exile Honoria, rather than killing her. He also wrote to Attila, strenuously denying the legitimacy of the supposed marriage proposal. Attila sent an emissary to Ravenna to proclaim that Honoria was innocent, that the proposal had been legitimate, and that he would come to claim what was rightfully his.
Attila interfered in a succession struggle after the death of a Frankish ruler. Attila supported the elder son, while Atius supported the younger. The location and identity of these kings is not known a |
nd subject to conjecture. Attila gathered his vassalsGepids, Ostrogoths, Rugians, Scirians, Heruls, Thuringians, Alans, Burgundians, among othersand began his march west. In 451, he arrived in Belgica with an army exaggerated by Jordanes to half a million strong.
On April 7, he captured Metz. Other cities attacked can be determined by the hagiographic vitae written to commemorate their bishops Nicasius was slaughtered before the altar of his church in Rheims; Servatus is alleged to have saved Tongeren with his prayers, as Saint Genevieve is said to have saved Paris. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, is also credited with saving his city by meeting Attila in person.
Atius moved to oppose Attila, gathering troops from among the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Celts. A mission by Avitus and Attila's continued westward advance convinced the Visigoth king Theodoric I Theodorid to ally with the Romans. The combined armies reached Orlans ahead of Attila, thus checking and turning back the Hunnish advance. Atius gave chase |
and caught the Huns at a place usually assumed to be near Catalaunum modern ChlonsenChampagne. Attila decided to fight the Romans on plains where he could use his cavalry.
The two armies clashed in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, the outcome of which is commonly considered to be a strategic victory for the VisigothicRoman alliance. Theodoric was killed in the fighting, and Atius failed to press his advantage, according to Edward Gibbon and Edward Creasy, because he feared the consequences of an overwhelming Visigothic triumph as much as he did a defeat. From Atius' point of view, the best outcome was what occurred Theodoric died, Attila was in retreat and disarray, and the Romans had the benefit of appearing victorious.
Invasion of Italy and death
Attila returned in 452 to renew his marriage claim with Honoria, invading and ravaging Italy along the way. Communities became established in what would later become Venice as a result of these attacks when the residents fled to small islands in the Venet |
ian Lagoon. His army sacked numerous cities and razed Aquileia so completely that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site. Atius lacked the strength to offer battle, but managed to harass and slow Attila's advance with only a shadow force. Attila finally halted at the River Po. By this point, disease and starvation may have taken hold in Attila's camp, thus hindering his war efforts and potentially contributing to the cessation of invasion.
Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys, the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius, as well as the Bishop of Rome Leo I, who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor. Prosper of Aquitaine gives a short description of the historic meeting, but gives all the credit to Leo for the successful negotiation. Priscus reports that superstitious fear of the fate of Alaric gave him pauseas Alaric died shortly after sacking Rome in 410.
Ital |
y had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops were faring little better in 452. Attila's devastating invasion of the plains of northern Italy this year did not improve the harvest. To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy, and taking the city would not have improved Attila's supply situation. Therefore, it was more profitable for Attila to conclude peace and retreat to his homeland.
Furthermore, an East Roman force had crossed the Danube under the command of another officer also named Aetiuswho had participated in the Council of Chalcedon the previous yearand proceeded to defeat the Huns who had been left behind by Attila to safeguard their home territories. Attila, hence, faced heavy human and natural pressures to retire "from Italy without ever setting foot south of the Po". As Hydatius writes in his Chronica Minora
Death
In the Eastern Roman Empire, Emperor Marcian succeeded Theodosius II, and stopped paying tribute to the Huns. Attila withdrew from |
Italy to his palace across the Danube, while making plans to strike at Constantinople once more to reclaim tribute.
However, he died in the early months of 453.
The conventional account from Priscus says that Attila was at a feast celebrating his latest marriage, this time to the beautiful young Ildico the name suggests Gothic or Ostrogoth origins. In the midst of the revels, however, he suffered severe bleeding and died. He may have had a nosebleed and choked to death in a stupor. Or he may have succumbed to internal bleeding, possibly due to ruptured esophageal varices. Esophageal varices are dilated veins that form in the lower part of the esophagus, often caused by years of excessive alcohol consumption; they are fragile and can easily rupture, leading to death by hemorrhage.
Another account of his death was first recorded 80 years after the events by Roman chronicler Marcellinus Comes. It reports that "Attila, King of the Huns and ravager of the provinces of Europe, was pierced by the hand and blade |
of his wife". One modern analyst suggests that he was assassinated, but most reject these accounts as no more than hearsay, preferring instead the account given by Attila's contemporary Priscus, recounted in the 6th century by Jordanes
Attila's sons Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak, "in their rash eagerness to rule they all alike destroyed his empire". They "were clamoring that the nations should be divided among them equally and that warlike kings with their peoples should be apportioned to them by lot like a family estate". Against the treatment as "slaves of the basest condition" a Germanic alliance led by the Gepid ruler Ardaric who was noted for great loyalty to Attila revolted and fought with the Huns in Pannonia in the Battle of Nedao 454 AD. Attila's eldest son Ellac was killed in that battle. Attila's sons "regarding the Goths as deserters from their rule, came against them as though they were seeking fugitive slaves", attacked Ostrogothic coruler Valamir who also fought alongside Ardaric and Attila at th |
e Catalaunian Plains, but were repelled, and some group of Huns moved to Scythia probably those of Ernak. His brother Dengizich attempted a renewed invasion across the Danube in 468 AD, but was defeated at the Battle of Bassianae by the Ostrogoths. Dengizich was killed by RomanGothic general Anagast the following year, after which the Hunnic dominion ended.
Attila's many children and relatives are known by name and some even by deeds, but soon valid genealogical sources all but dried up, and there seems to be no verifiable way to trace Attila's descendants. This has not stopped many genealogists from attempting to reconstruct a valid line of descent for various medieval rulers. One of the most credible claims has been that of the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans for mythological Avitohol and Irnik from the Dulo clan of the Bulgars.
Later folklore and iconography
Jordanes embellished the report of Priscus, reporting that Attila had possessed the "Holy War Sword of the Scythians", which was given to him by |
Mars and made him a "prince of the entire world".
By the end of the 12th century the royal court of Hungary proclaimed their descent from Attila. Lampert of Hersfeld's contemporary chronicles report that shortly before the year 1071, the Sword of Attila had been presented to Otto of Nordheim by the exiled queen of Hungary, Anastasia of Kiev. This sword, a cavalry sabre now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, appears to be the work of Hungarian goldsmiths of the ninth or tenth century.
An anonymous chronicler of the medieval period represented the meeting of Pope Leo and Atilla as attended also by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, "a miraculous tale calculated to meet the taste of the time" This apotheosis was later portrayed artistically by the Renaissance artist Raphael and sculptor Algardi, whom eighteenthcentury historian Edward Gibbon praised for establishing "one of the noblest legends of ecclesiastical tradition".
According to a version of this narrative related in the Chronicon Pictum, a mediaeval |
Hungarian chronicle, the Pope promised Attila that if he left Rome in peace, one of his successors would receive a holy crown which has been understood as referring to the Holy Crown of Hungary.
Some histories and chronicles describe him as a great and noble king, and he plays major roles in three Norse sagas Atlakvia, Volsunga saga, and Atlaml. The Polish Chronicle represents Attila's name as Aquila.
Frutolf of Michelsberg and Otto of Freising pointed out that some songs as "vulgar fables" made Theoderic the Great, Attila and Ermanaric contemporaries, when any reader of Jordanes knew that this was not the case. This refers to the socalled historical poems about Dietrich von Bern Theoderic, in which Etzel Attila is Dietrich's refuge in exile from his wicked uncle Ermenrich Ermanaric. Etzel is most prominent in the poems Dietrichs Flucht and the Rabenschlacht. Etzel also appears as Kriemhild's second noble husband in the Nibelungenlied, in which Kriemhild causes the destruction of both the Hunnish kingdom an |
d that of her Burgundian relatives.
In 1812, Ludwig van Beethoven conceived the idea of writing an opera about Attila and approached August von Kotzebue to write the libretto. It was, however, never written. In 1846, Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera, loosely based on episodes in Attila's invasion of Italy.
In World War I, Allied propaganda referred to Germans as the "Huns", based on a 1900 speech by Emperor Wilhelm II praising Attila the Hun's military prowess, according to Jawaharlal Nehru's Glimpses of World History. Der Spiegel commented on 6 November 1948, that the Sword of Attila was hanging menacingly over Austria.
American writer Cecelia Holland wrote The Death of Attila 1973, a historical novel in which Attila appears as a powerful background figure whose life and death deeply affect the protagonists, a young Hunnic warrior and a Germanic one.
The name has many variants in several languages Atli and Atle in Old Norse; Etzel in Middle High German Nibelungenlied; tla in Old English; Attila, Atilla, an |
d Etele in Hungarian Attila is the most popular; Attila, Atilla, Atilay, or Atila in Turkish; and Adil and Edil in Kazakh or Adil "samesimilar" or Edil "to use" in Mongolian.
In modern Hungary and in Turkey, "Attila" and its Turkish variation "Atilla" are commonly used as a male first name. In Hungary, several public places are named after Attila; for instance, in Budapest there are 10 Attila Streets, one of which is an important street behind the Buda Castle. When the Turkish Armed Forces invaded Cyprus in 1974, the operations were named after Attila "The Attila Plan".
The 1954 Universal International film Sign of the Pagan starred Jack Palance as Attila.
Depictions of Attila
See also
Alaric I
Arminius
Bato Daesitiate chieftain
Boiorix
Brennus 4th century BC
Gaiseric
Ermanaric
Hannibal
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Onegesius
Odoacer
Radagaisus
Spartacus
Theodoric the Great
Totila
Notes
Sources
External links
Works about Attila at Project Gutenberg
5thcentury Hunnic rulers
5thcen |
tury monarchs in Europe
406 births
453 deaths
Deaths from choking |
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some 215,000 square kilometres. In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea by the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. The Aegean Islands are located within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea reaches a maximum depth of 3,544 meters, to the east of Crete. The Thracian Sea and the Myrtoan Sea are subdivisions of the Aegean Sea.
The Aegean Islands can be divided into several island groups, including the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, the Sporades, the Saronic islands and the North Aegean Islands, as well as Crete and its surrounding islands. The Dodecanese, located to the southeast, includes the islands of Rhodes, Kos, and Patmos; the islands of Delos and Naxos are within the Cyclades to the south of the sea. Lesbos is part of the North Aegean Islands. Euboea, the |
secondlargest island in Greece, is located in the Aegean, despite being administered as part of Central Greece. Nine out of twelve of the Administrative regions of Greece border the sea, along with the Turkish provinces of Edirne, Canakkale, Balkesir, Izmir, Aydn and Mula to the east of the sea. Various Turkish islands in the sea are Imbros, Tenedos, Cunda Island, and the Foa Islands.
The Aegean Sea has been historically important, especially in regards to the civilization of Ancient Greece, who inhabited the area around the coast of the Aegean and the Aegean islands. The Aegean islands facilitated contact between the people of the area and between Europe and Asia. Along with the Greeks, Thracians lived among the northern coast. The Romans conquered the area under the Roman Empire, and later the Byzantine Empire held it against advances by the First Bulgarian Empire. The Fourth Crusade weakened Byzantine control of the area, and it was eventually conquered by the Ottoman Empire, with the exception of Crete, |
which was a Venetian colony until 1669. The Greek War of Independence allowed a Greek state on the coast of the Aegean from 1829 onwards. The Ottoman Empire held a presence over the sea for over 500 years, until it was replaced by modern Turkey.
The rocks making up the floor of the Aegean are mainly limestone, though often greatly altered by volcanic activity that has convulsed the region in relatively recent geologic times. Of particular interest are the richly coloured sediments in the region of the islands of Santorini and Milos, in the south Aegean. Notable cities on the Aegean coastline include Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Kavala and Heraklion in Greece, and zmir and Bodrum in Turkey. The Aegean Sea groundwater itself has a high salinity content leading one to think that the soil would be infertile due to the volcanic region, but actually has an equilibrium with its soil content structure making it able to grow fertile crops on land that would seem infertile.
A number of issues concerning sovereignty |
within the Aegean Sea are disputed between Greece and Turkey. The Aegean dispute has had a large effect on GreekTurkish relations since the 1970s. Issues include the delimitation of territorial waters, national airspace, exclusive economic zones and flight information regions.
Name and etymology
Late Latin authors referred the name Aegaeus to Aegeus, who was said to have jumped into that sea to drown himself rather than throwing himself from the Athenian acropolis, as told by some Greek authors. He was the father of Theseus, the mythical king and founderhero of Athens. Aegeus had told Theseus to put up white sails when returning if he was successful in killing the Minotaur. When Theseus returned, he forgot these instructions, and Aegeus thinking his son to have died then drowned himself in the sea.
The sea was known in Latin as Aegaeum mare under the control of the Roman Empire. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago Greek , meaning "ma |
in sea" or "chief sea", a name that held on in many European countries until the early modern period. In the South Slavic languages, the Aegean is called White Sea Bulgarian ; Macedonian ; SerboCroatian . The Turkish name for the sea is Ege Denizi, derived from the Greek name.
Geography
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea, and covers about in area, measuring about longitudinally and latitudinal. The sea's maximum depth is , located at a point east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, generally from west to east Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes. The Anatolian peninsula marks the eastern boundary of the sea, while the Greek mainland marks the west. Several seas are contained within the Aegean Sea; the Thracian Sea is a section of the Aegean located to the north, the Icarian Sea to the east, the Myrtoan Sea to the west, while the Sea of Crete is the southern section.
The Gre |
ek regions that border the sea, in alphabetical order, are Attica, Central Greece, Central Macedonia, Crete, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, North Aegean, Peloponnese, South Aegean, and Thessaly. The historical region of Macedonia also borders the sea, to the north.
The Aegean Islands, which almost all belong to Greece, can be divided into seven groups
Northeastern Aegean Islands, which lie in the Thracian Sea
East Aegean Islands Euboea
Northern Sporades
Cyclades
Saronic Islands or ArgoSaronic Islands
Dodecanese or Southern Sporades
Crete
Many of the Aegean islands or island chains, are geographically extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, and a third extends across the Peloponnese and Crete to Rhodes, dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean.
The bays and gulfs of the Aegean beginning at the South and moving clockwise include on Crete, the Mirabello, Almyros, Souda and Chania bays or gulfs, on the mainland th |
e Myrtoan Sea to the west with the Argolic Gulf, the Saronic Gulf northwestward, the Petalies Gulf which connects with the South Euboic Sea, the Pagasetic Gulf which connects with the North Euboic Sea, the Thermian Gulf northwestward, the Chalkidiki Peninsula including the Cassandra and the Singitic Gulfs, northward the Strymonian Gulf and the Gulf of Kavala and the rest are in Turkey; Saros Gulf, Edremit Gulf, Dikili Gulf, Gulf of andarl, Gulf of zmir, Gulf of Kuadas, Gulf of Gkova, Gllk Gulf.
The Aegean sea is connected to the Sea of Marmara by the Dardanelles, also known from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont. The Dardanelles are located to the northeast of the sea. It ultimately connects with the Black Sea through the Bosphoros strait, upon which lies the city of Istanbul. The Dardanelles and the Bosphoros are known as the Turkish Straits.
Extent
According to the International Hydrographic Organization, the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows
On the south A line running from Cape Aspro 2816E in As |
ia Minor, to Cum Burn Capo della Sabbia the Northeast extreme of the Island of Rhodes, through the island to Cape Prasonisi, the Southwest point thereof, on to Vrontos Point 3533N in Skarpanto Karpathos, through this island to Castello Point, the South extreme thereof, across to Cape Plaka East extremity of Crete, through Crete to Agria Grabusa, the Northwest extreme thereof, thence to Cape Apolitares in Antikithera Island, through the island to Psira Rock off the Northwest point and across to Cape Trakhili in Kithera Island, through Kithera to the Northwest point Cape Karavugia and thence to Cape Santa Maria in the Morea.
In the Dardanelles A line joining Kum Kale 2611E and Cape Helles.
Hydrography
Aegean surface water circulates in a counterclockwise gyre, with hypersaline Mediterranean water moving northward along the west coast of Turkey, before being displaced by less dense Black Sea outflow. The dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of , then flows through the Dardane |
lles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of . The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, then flows southwards along the east coast of Greece.
The physical oceanography of the Aegean Sea is controlled mainly by the regional climate, the fresh water discharge from major rivers draining southeastern Europe, and the seasonal variations in the Black Sea surface water outflow through the Dardanelles Strait.
Analysis of the Aegean during 1991 and 1992 revealed three distinct water masses
Aegean Sea Surface Water thick veneer, with summer temperatures of 2126 C and winter temperatures ranging from in the north to in the south.
Aegean Sea Intermediate Water Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40 to 50 m to with temperatures ranging from 11 to 18 C.
Aegean Sea Bottom Water occurring at depths below 5001000 m with a very uniform temperature 1314 C and salinity 3.913.92.
Climate
The climate of the Aegean Sea largely reflects the climate of Greece and Western T |
urkey, which is to say, predominately Mediterranean. According to the Kppen climate classification, most of the Aegean is classified as Hotsummer Mediterranean Csa, with hotter and drier summers along with milder and wetter winters. However, high temperatures during summers are generally not quite as high as those in arid or semiarid climates due to the presence of a large body of water. This is most predominant in the west and east coasts of the Aegean, and within the Aegean islands. In the north of the Aegean Sea, the climate is instead classified as Cold semiarid BSk, which feature cooler summers than Hotsummer Mediterranean climates.
The Etesian winds are a dominant weather influence in the Aegean Basin.
The below table lists climate conditions of some major Aegean cities
Population
Numerous Greek and Turkish settlements are located along their mainland coast, as well as on towns on the Aegean islands. The largest cities are Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece and zmir in Turkey. The most populated of th |
e Aegean islands is Crete, followed by Euboea and Rhodes.
Biogeography and ecology
Protected Areas
Greece has established several marine protected areas along its coasts. According to the Network of Managers of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean MedPAN, four Greek MPAs are participating in the Network. These include Alonnisos Marine Park, while the MissolonghiAitoliko Lagoons and the island of Zakynthos are not on the Aegean.
History
Ancient history
The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC. Before that time, at the peak of the last ice age about 18,000 years ago sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large wellwatered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the presentday islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared around 9,000 years ago, with postice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after |
that.
The subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term Aegean civilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations the Minoans of Crete and the Myceneans of the Peloponnese.
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands, flourishing from around 3000 to 1450 BC before a period of decline, finally ending at around 1100 BC. It represented the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind massive building complexes, tools, stunning artwork, writing systems, and a massive network of trade. The Minoan period saw extensive trade between Crete, Aegean, and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East. The most notable Minoan palace is that of Knossos, followed by that of Phaistos. The Mycenaean Greeks arose on the mainland, becoming the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, which lasted from approximately 1600 to 1100 BC. It is believed that |
the site of Mycenae, which sits close to the Aegean coast, was the center of Mycenaean civilization. The Mycenaeans introduced several innovations in the fields of engineering, architecture and military infrastructure, while trade over vast areas of the Mediterranean, including the Aegean, was essential for the Mycenaean economy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language and their religion already included several deities that can also be found in the Olympic Pantheon. Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palacecentered states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king, known as wanax.
The civilization of Mycenaean Greeks perished with the collapse of Bronze Age culture in the eastern Mediterranean, to be followed by the socalled Greek Dark Ages. It is undetermined what cause the collapse of the Mycenaeans. During the Greek Dark Ages, wr |
iting in the Linear B script ceased, vital trade links were lost, and towns and villages were abandoned.
Ancient Greece
The Archaic period followed the Greek Dark Ages in the 8th century BC. Greece became divided into small selfgoverning communities, and adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes, of which Athens, Sparta, and Corinth were closest to the Aegean Sea. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC many Greeks emigrated to form colonies in Magna Graecia Southern Italy and Sicily, Asia Minor and further afield. The Aegean Sea was the setting for one of the most pivotal naval engagements in history, when on September 20, 480 B.C. the Athenian fleet gained a decisive victory over the Persian fleet |
of the Xerxes II of Persia at the Battle of Salamis. Thus ending any further attempt of western expansion by the Achaemenid Empire.
The Aegean Sea would later come to be under the control, albeit briefly, of the Kingdom of Macedonia. Philip II and his son Alexander the Great led a series of conquests that led not only to the unification of the Greek mainland and the control of the Aegean Sea under his rule, but also the destruction of the Achaemenid Empire. After Alexander the Great's death, his empire was divided among his generals. Cassander became king of the Hellenistic kingdom of Macedon, which held territory along the western coast of the Aegean, roughly corresponding to modernday Greece. The Kingdom of Lysimachus had control over the sea's eastern coast. Greece had entered the Hellenistic period.
Roman rule
The Macedonian Wars were a series of conflicts fought by the Roman Republic and its Greek allies in the eastern Mediterranean against several different major Greek kingdoms. They resulted in Roma |
n control or influence over the eastern Mediterranean basin, including the Aegean, in addition to their hegemony in the western Mediterranean after the Punic Wars. During Roman rule, the land around the Aegean Sea fell under the provinces of Achaea, Macedonia, Thracia, Asia and Creta et Cyrenica island of Crete
Medieval period
The Fall of the Western Roman Empire allowed its successor state, the Byzantine Empire, to continue Roman control over the Aegean Sea. However, their territory would later be threatened by the Early Muslim conquests initiated by Muhammad in the 7th century. Although the Rashidun Caliphate did not manage to obtain land along the coast of the Aegean sea, its conquest of the Eastern Anatolian peninsula as well as Egypt, the Levant, and North Africa left the Byzantine Empire weakened. The Umayyad Caliphate expanded the territorial gains of the Rashidun Caliphate, conquering much of North Africa, and threatened the Byzantine Empire's control of Western Anatolia, where it meets the Aegean |
Sea.
During the 820s, Crete was conquered by a group of Berbers Andalusians exiles led by Abu Hafs Umar alIqritishi, and it became an independent Islamic state. The Byzantine Empire launched a campaign that took most of the island back in 842 and 843 under Theoktistos, but the reconquest was not completed and was soon reversed. Later attempts by the Byzantine Empire to recover the island were without success. For the approximately 135 years of its existence, the emirate of Crete was one of the major foes of Byzantium. Crete commanded the sea lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and functioned as a forward base and haven for Muslim corsair fleets that ravaged the Byzantinecontrolled shores of the Aegean Sea. Crete returned to Byzantine rule under Nikephoros Phokas, who launched a huge campaign against the Emirate of Crete in 960 to 961.
Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Empire threatened Byzantine control of Northern Greece and the Aegean coast to the south. Under Presian I and his successor Boris I, the Bulgarian Empi |
re managed to obtain a small portion of the northern Aegean coast. Simeon I of Bulgaria led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion, and managed to conqueror much of the northern and western coasts of the Aegean. The Byzantines later regained control. The Second Bulgarian Empire achieved similar success along, again, the northern and western coasts, under Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria.
The Seljuq Turks, under the Seljuk Empire, invaded the Byzantine Empire in 1068, from which they annexed almost all the territories of Anatolia, including the east coast of the Aegean Sea, during the reign of Alp Arslan, the second Sultan of the Seljuk Empire. After the death of his successor, Malik Shah I, the empire was divided, and Malik Shah was succeeded in Anatolia by Kilij Arslan I, who founded the Sultanate of Rum. The Byzantines yet again recaptured the eastern coast of the Aegean.
After Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade, the area around the Aegean sea was |
fragmented into multiple entities, including the Latin Empire, the Kingdom of Thessalonica, the Empire of Nicaea, the Principality of Achaea, and the Duchy of Athens. The Venetians created the maritime state of the Duchy of the Archipelago, which included all the Cyclades except Mykonos and Tinos. The Empire of Nicaea, a Byzantine rump state, managed to effect the Recapture of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261 and defeat Epirus. Byzantine successes were not to last; the Ottomans would conquer the area around the Aegean coast, but before their expansion the Byzantine Empire had already been weakened from internal conflict. By the late 14th century the Byzantine Empire had lost all control of the coast of the Aegean Sea and could exercise power around their capital, Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire then gained control of all the Aegean coast with the exception of Crete, which was a Venetian colony until 1669.
Modern Period
The Greek War of Independence allowed a Greek state on the coast of the Aegean |
from 1829 onward. The Ottoman Empire held a presence over the sea for over 500 years until its dissolution following World War I, when it was replaced by modern Turkey. During the war, Greece gained control over the area around the northern coast of the Aegean. By the 1930s, Greece and Turkey had about resumed their presentday borders.
In the ItaloTurkish War of 1912, Italy captured the Dodecanese islands, and had occupied them since, reneging on the 1919 VenizelosTittoni agreement to cede them to Greece. The GrecoItalian War took place from October 1940 to April 1941 as part of the Balkans Campaign of World War II. The Italian war aim was to establish a Greek puppet state, which would permit the Italian annexation of the Sporades and the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea, to be administered as a part of the Italian Aegean Islands. The German invasion resulted in the Axis occupation of Greece. The German troops evacuated Athens on 12 October 1944, and by the end of the month, they had withdrawn from mainla |
nd Greece. Greece was then liberated by Allied troops.
Economy and politics
Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays. In ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland, and to some extent, the coastal areas of Anatolia. Many of the islands are volcanic, and marble and iron are mined on other islands. The larger islands have some fertile valleys and plains.
The Armenian king dynasty Achaemenids made one of the greatest highways of the Ancient world. Its name was "Royal road," its length was 2400km, and it was situated between Persian Empire and the Aegean sea. A part of the road passed by the southwest of Armenia, which gave an excellent opportunity to participate in international trading.
Of the main islands in the Aegean Sea, two belong to Turkey Bozcaada Tenedos and Gkeada Imbros; the rest belong to Greece. Between the two countries, there are political disputes over several aspects of political control over the |
Aegean space, including the size of territorial waters, air control and the delimitation of economic rights to the continental shelf. These issues are known as the Aegean dispute.
Transport
Multiple ports are located along the Greek and Turkish coasts of the Aegean Sea. The port of Piraeus in Athens is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the third largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually. With a throughput of 1.4 million TEUs, Piraeus is placed among the top ten ports in container traffic in Europe and the top container port in the Eastern Mediterranean. Piraeus is also the commercial hub of Greek shipping. Piraeus biannually acts as the focus for a major shipping convention, known as Posidonia, which attracts maritime industry professionals from all over the world. Piraeus is currently Greece's thirdbusiest port in terms of tons of goods transported, behind Aghioi Theodoroi and Thessaloniki. The central port serves ferry routes to almost every isl |
and in the eastern portion of Greece, the island of Crete, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, and much of the northern and the eastern Aegean Sea, while the western part of the port is used for cargo services.
As of 2007, the Port of Thessaloniki was the secondlargest container port in Greece after the port of Piraeus, making it one of the busiest ports in Greece. In 2007, the Port of Thessaloniki handled 14,373,245 tonnes of cargo and 222,824 TEU's. Paloukia, on the island of Salamis, is a major passenger port.
Fishing
Fish are Greece's secondlargest agricultural export, and Greece has Europe's largest fishing fleet. Fish captured include sardines, mackerel, grouper, grey mullets, sea bass, and seabream. There is a considerable difference between fish catches between the pelagic and demersal zones; with respect to pelagic fisheries, the catches from the northern, central and southern Aegean area groupings are dominated, respectively, by anchovy, horse mackerels, and boops. For demersal fisheries, the catches |
from the northern and southern Aegean area groupings are dominated by grey mullets and pickerel Spicara smaris respectively.
The industry has been impacted by the Great Recession. Overfishing and habitat destruction is also a concern, threatening grouper, and seabream populations, resulting in perhaps a 50 decline of fish catch. To address these concerns, Greek fishermen have been offered a compensation by the government. Although some species are defined as protected or threatened under EU legislation, several illegal species such as the molluscs Pinna nobilis, Charonia tritonis and Lithophaga lithophaga, can be bought in restaurants and fish markets around Greece.
Tourism
The Aegean islands within the Aegean Sea are significant tourist destinations. Tourism to the Aegean islands contributes a significant portion of tourism in Greece, especially since the second half of the 20th century. A total of five UNESCO World Heritage sites are located the Aegean Islands; these include the Monastery of Saint John t |
he Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on Patmos, the Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos in Samos, the Nea Moni of Chios, the island of Delos, and the Medieval City of Rhodes.
Greece is one of the most visited countries in Europe and the world with over 33 million visitors in 2018, and the tourism industry around a quarter of Greece's Gross Domestic Product. The islands of Santorini, Crete, Lesbos, Delos, and Mykonos are common tourist destinations. An estimated 2 million tourists visit Santorini annually. However, concerns relating to overtourism have arisen in recent years, such as issues of inadequate infrastructure and overcrowding. Alongside Greece, Turkey has also been successful in developing resort areas and attracting large number of tourists, contributing to tourism in Turkey. The phrase "Blue Cruise" refers to recreational voyages along the Turkish Riviera, including across the Aegean. The ancient city of Troy, a World Heritage Site, is on the Turkish coast of the Aegean.
Greece and Turkey b |
oth take part in the Blue Flag beach certification programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education. The certification is awarded for beaches and marinas meeting strict quality standards including environmental protection, water quality, safety and services criteria. As of 2015, the Blue Flag has been awarded to 395 beaches and 9 marinas in Greece. Southern Aegean beaches on the Turkish coast include Mula, with 102 beaches awarded with the blue flag, along with zmir and Aydn, who have 49 and 30 beaches awarded respectively.
See also
Exclusive economic zone of Greece
Geography of Turkey
List of Greek place names
References
External links
Seas of Greece
Seas of Turkey
Marginal seas of the Mediterranean
European seas
Seas of Asia
Landforms of anakkale Province
Landforms of Mula Province
Landforms of zmir Province
Landforms of Balkesir Province
Landforms of Edirne Province
Landforms of Aydn Province |
A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian satirical black comedy novel by English writer Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is set in a nearfuture society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. The book is partially written in a Russianinfluenced argot called "Nadsat", which takes its name from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to 'teen' in English. According to Burgess, it was a jeu d'esprit written in just three weeks.
In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best Englishlanguage novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best Englishlanguage novels of the 20th century. The original manuscript of the book has been kept at McMaster University's William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada since the institution purchased the documents in 1971 |
.
It is considered one of the most influential dystopian books.
Plot summary
Part 1 Alex's world
Alex is a 15yearold gang leader living in a nearfuture dystopian city. His friends "droogs" in the novel's AngloRussian slang, "Nadsat" and fellow gang members are Dim, a slowwitted bruiser, who is the gang's muscle; Georgie, an ambitious secondincommand; and Pete, who mostly plays along as the droogs indulge their taste for "ultraviolence" random, violent mayhem. Characterised as a sociopath and hardened juvenile delinquent, Alex is also intelligent, quickwitted, and enjoys classical music; he is particularly fond of Beethoven, whom he calls "Lovely Ludwig Van".
The story begins with the droogs sitting in their favourite hangout, the Korova Milk Bar, and drinking "milkplus" a beverage consisting of milk laced with the customer's drug of choice to prepare for a night of ultraviolence. They assault a scholar walking home from the public library; rob a store, leaving the owner and his wife bloodied and unconsci |
ous; beat up a beggar; then scuffle with a rival gang. Joyriding through the countryside in a stolen car, they break into an isolated cottage and terrorise the young couple living there, beating the husband and gangraping his wife. In a metafictional touch, the husband is a writer working on a manuscript called "A Clockwork Orange", and Alex contemptuously reads out a paragraph that states the novel's main theme before shredding the manuscript. Back at the Korova, Alex strikes Dim for his crude response to a woman's singing of an operatic passage, and strains within the gang become apparent. At home in his parents' flat, Alex plays classical music at top volume, which he describes as giving him orgasmic bliss before falling asleep.
Alex feigns illness to his parents to stay out of school the next day. Following an unexpected visit from P.R. Deltoid, his "postcorrective adviser", Alex visits a record store, where he meets two preteen girls. He invites them back to the flat, where he drugs and rapes them. That |
night after a nap, Alex finds his droogs in a mutinous mood, waiting downstairs in the tornup and graffitied lobby. Georgie challenges Alex for leadership of the gang, demanding that they focus on highervalue targets in their robberies. Alex quells the rebellion by slashing Dim's hand and fighting with Georgie, then pacifies the gang by agreeing to Georgie's plan to rob the home of a wealthy elderly woman. Alex breaks in and knocks the woman unconscious; but, when he hears sirens and opens the door to flee, Dim strikes him in payback for the earlier fight. The gang abandons Alex on the front step to be arrested by the police; while in custody, he learns that the woman has died from her injuries.
Part 2 The Ludovico Technique
Alex is convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. His parents visit one day to inform him that Georgie has been killed in a botched robbery. Two years into his term, he has obtained a job in one of the prison chapels, playing music on the stereo to accompany the Sunday Ch |
ristian services. The chaplain mistakes Alex's Bible studies for stirrings of faith; in reality, Alex is only reading Scripture for the violent or sexual passages. After his fellow cellmates blame him for beating a troublesome cellmate to death, he is chosen to undergo an experimental behaviour modification treatment called the Ludovico Technique in exchange for having the remainder of his sentence commuted. The technique is a form of aversion therapy in which Alex is injected with nauseainducing drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence. As an unintended consequence, the soundtrack to one of the films, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, renders Alex unable to enjoy his beloved classical music as before.
The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated to a group of VIPs, who watch as Alex collapses before a bully and abases himself before a scantily clad young woman. Although the prison chaplain accuses the state of strippin |
g Alex of free will, the government officials on the scene are pleased with the results, and Alex is released from prison.
Part 3 After prison
Alex returns to his parents' flat, only to find that they are letting his room to a lodger. Now homeless, he wanders the streets and enters a public library, hoping to learn of a painless method for committing suicide. The old scholar whom Alex had assaulted in Part 1 finds him and beats him, with the help of several friends. Two policemen come to Alex's rescue, but they turn out to be Dim and Billyboy, a former rival gang leader. They take Alex outside town, brutalise him, and abandon him there. Alex collapses at the door of an isolated cottage, realising too late that it is the one he and his droogs invaded in Part 1.
The writer, F. Alexander, still lives here, but his wife has since died of what he believes to be injuries she sustained in the rape. He does not recognise Alex but gives him shelter and questions him about the conditioning he has undergone. Alexander |
and his colleagues, all highly critical of the government, plan to use Alex as a symbol of state brutality and thus prevent the incumbent government from being reelected. Alex inadvertently reveals that he was the ringleader of the home invasion; he is removed from the cottage and locked in an upperstory bedroom as a relentless barrage of classical music plays over speakers. He attempts suicide by leaping from the window.
Alex wakes up in a hospital, where he is courted by government officials anxious to counter the bad publicity created by his suicide attempt. He is informed that Alexander has been "put away" for Alex's protection and his own. Alex is offered a wellpaying job if he agrees to side with the government once he is discharged. A round of tests reveals that his old violent impulses have returned, indicating that the hospital doctors have undone the effects of his conditioning. As photographers snap pictures, Alex daydreams of orgiastic violence and reflects, "I was cured all right."
In the fina |
l chapter, Alex now 18 years old and working for the nation's musical recording archives finds himself halfheartedly preparing for yet another night of crime with a new gang Len, Rick and Bully. After a chance encounter with Pete, who has reformed and married, Alex finds himself taking less and less pleasure in acts of senseless violence. He begins contemplating giving up crime himself to become a productive member of society and start a family of his own, while reflecting on the notion that his own children could possibly end up being just as destructive as he has been, if not more so.
Omission of the final chapter
The book has three parts, each with seven chapters. Burgess has stated that the total of 21 chapters was an intentional nod to the age of 21 being recognised as a milestone in human maturation. The 21st chapter was omitted from the editions published in the United States prior to 1986. In the introduction to the updated American text these newer editions include the missing 21st chapter, Burge |
ss explains that when he first brought the book to an American publisher, he was told that U.S. audiences would never go for the final chapter, in which Alex sees the error of his ways, decides he has simply gotten bored of violence and resolves to turn his life around.
At the American publisher's insistence, Burgess allowed their editors to cut the redeeming final chapter from the U.S. version, so that the tale would end on a darker note, with Alex becoming his old, ultraviolent self again an ending which the publisher insisted would be "more realistic" and appealing to a US audience. The film adaptation, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is based on the American edition of the book which Burgess considered to be "badly flawed". Kubrick called Chapter 21 "an extra chapter" and claimed that he had not read the original version until he had virtually finished the screenplay and that he had never given serious consideration to using it. In Kubrick's opinion as in the opinion of other readers, including the origin |
al American editor the final chapter was unconvincing and inconsistent with the book.
Characters
Alex The novel's protagonist and leader among his droogs. He often refers to himself as "Your Humble Narrator". Having coaxed two tenyearold girls into his bedroom, Alex refers to himself as "Alexander the Large" while raping them; this was later the basis for Alex's claimed surname DeLarge in the 1971 film.
George, Georgie or Georgie Boy Effectively Alex's greedy secondincommand. Georgie attempts to undermine Alex's status as leader of the gang and take over their gang as the new leader. He is later killed during a botched robbery while Alex is in prison.
Pete The only one who does not take particular sides when the droogs fight among themselves. He later meets and marries a girl named Georgina, renouncing his violent ways and even losing his former Nadsat speech patterns. A chance encounter with Pete in the final chapter influences Alex to realise that he has grown bored with violence and recognise that hum |
an energy is better expended on creation than destruction.
Dim An idiotic and thoroughly gormless member of the gang, persistently condescended to by Alex, but respected to some extent by his droogs for his formidable fighting abilities, his weapon of choice being a length of bike chain. He later becomes a police officer, exacting his revenge on Alex for the abuse he once suffered under his command.
P. R. Deltoid A criminal rehabilitation social worker assigned the task of keeping Alex on the straight and narrow. He seemingly has no clue about dealing with young people, and is devoid of empathy or understanding for his troublesome charge. Indeed, when Alex is arrested for murdering an old woman and then ferociously beaten by several police officers, Deltoid simply spits on him.
Prison Chaplain The character who first questions whether it is moral to turn a violent person into a behavioural automaton who can make no choice in such matters. This is the only character who is truly concerned about Alex's welfa |
re; he is not taken seriously by Alex, though. He is nicknamed by Alex "prison charlie" or "chaplin", a pun on Charlie Chaplin.
Billyboy A rival of Alex's. Early on in the story, Alex and his droogs battle Billyboy and his droogs, which ends abruptly when the police arrive. Later, after Alex is released from prison, Billyboy along with Dim, who like Billyboy has become a police officer rescues Alex from a mob, then subsequently beats him in a location out of town.
Prison Governor The man who decides to let Alex "choose" to be the first reformed by the Ludovico technique.
The Minister of the Interior The government highofficial who determined that the Ludovico's technique will be used to cut recidivism. He is referred to as the Inferior by Alex.
Dr Branom A scientist, codeveloper of the Ludovico technique. He appears friendly and almost paternal towards Alex at first, before forcing him into the theatre and what Alex calls the "chair of torture".
Dr Brodsky Branom's colleague and codeveloper of the Ludovi |
co technique. He seems much more passive than Branom and says considerably less.
F. Alexander An author who was in the process of typing his magnum opus A Clockwork Orange when Alex and his droogs broke into his house, beat him, tore up his work and then brutally gangraped his wife, which caused her subsequent death. He is left deeply scarred by these events and when he encounters Alex two years later, he uses him as a guinea pig in a sadistic experiment intended to prove the Ludovico technique unsound. The government imprisons him afterwards. He is given the name Frank Alexander in the film.
Cat Woman An indirectly named woman who blocks Alex's gang's entrance scheme, and threatens to shoot Alex and set her cats on him if he does not leave. After Alex breaks into her house, she fights with him, ordering her cats to join the melee, but reprimands Alex for fighting them off. She sustains a fatal blow to the head during the scuffle. She is given the name Miss Weathers in the film.
Analysis
Background
A Clo |
ckwork Orange was written in Hove, then a senescent seaside town. Burgess had arrived back in Britain after his stint abroad to see that much had changed. A youth culture had developed, based around coffee bars, pop music and teenage gangs. England was gripped by fears over juvenile delinquency. Burgess stated that the novel's inspiration was his first wife Lynne's beating by a gang of drunk American servicemen stationed in England during World War II. She subsequently miscarried. In its investigation of free will, the book's target is ostensibly the concept of behaviourism, pioneered by such figures as B. F. Skinner.
Burgess later stated that he wrote the book in three weeks.
Title
Burgess has offered several clarifications about the meaning and origin of its title
He had overheard the phrase "as queer as a clockwork orange" in a London pub in 1945 and assumed it was a Cockney expression. In Clockwork Marmalade, an essay published in the Listener in 1972, he said that he had heard the phrase several times |
since that occasion. He also explained the title in response to a question from William Everson on the television programme Camera Three in 1972, "Well, the title has a very different meaning but only to a particular generation of London Cockneys. It's a phrase which I heard many years ago and so fell in love with, I wanted to use it, the title of the book. But the phrase itself I did not make up. The phrase "as queer as a clockwork orange" is good old East London slang and it didn't seem to me necessary to explain it. Now, obviously, I have to give it an extra meaning. I've implied an extra dimension. I've implied the junction of the organic, the lively, the sweet in other words, life, the orange and the mechanical, the cold, the disciplined. I've brought them together in this kind of oxymoron, this soursweet word." Nonetheless, no other record of the expression being used before 1962 has ever appeared. Kingsley Amis notes in his Memoirs 1991 that no trace of it appears in Eric Partridge's Dictionary of H |
istorical Slang.
The saying "as queer as ..." followed by an improbable object "... a clockwork orange", or "... a fourspeed walking stick" or "... a lefthanded corkscrew" etc. predates Burgess' novel. An early example, "as queer as Dick's hatband", appeared in 1796, and was alluded to in 1757.
His second explanation was that it was a pun on the Malay word orang, meaning "man". The novella contains no other Malay words or links.
In a prefatory note to A Clockwork Orange A Play with Music, he wrote that the title was a metaphor for "an organic entity, full of juice and sweetness and agreeable odour, being turned into a mechanism".
In his essay Clockwork Oranges, Burgess asserts that "this title would be appropriate for a story about the application of Pavlovian or mechanical laws to an organism which, like a fruit, was capable of colour and sweetness".
While addressing the reader in a letter before some editions of the book, the author says that when a man ceases to have free will, they are no longer a ma |
n. "Just a clockwork orange", a shiny, appealing object, but "just a toy to be woundup by either God or the Devil, or what is increasingly replacing both the State.
This title alludes to the protagonist's negative emotional responses to feelings of evil which prevent the exercise of his free will subsequent to the administration of the Ludovico Technique. To induce this conditioning, Alex is forced to watch scenes of violence on a screen that are systematically paired with negative physical stimulation. The negative physical stimulation takes the form of nausea and "feelings of terror", which are caused by an emetic medicine administered just before the presentation of the films.
Use of slang
The book, narrated by Alex, contains many words in a slang argot which Burgess invented for the book, called Nadsat. It is a mix of modified Slavic words, rhyming slang and derived Russian like baboochka. For instance, these terms have the following meanings in Nadsat droog friend; moloko milk; gulliver head; ma |
lchick or malchickiwick boy; soomka sack or bag; Bog God; horrorshow good; prestoopnick criminal; rooker hand; cal crap; veck "" man or guy; litso face; malenky little; and so on. Some words Burgess invented himself or just adapted from preexisting languages. Compare Polari.
One of Alex's doctors explains the language to a colleague as "odd bits of old rhyming slang; a bit of gypsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav propaganda. Subliminal penetration." Some words are not derived from anything, but merely easy to guess, e.g. "inout, inout" or "the old inout" means sexual intercourse. Cutter, however, means "money", because "cutter" rhymes with "breadandbutter"; this is rhyming slang, which is intended to be impenetrable to outsiders especially eavesdropping policemen. Additionally, slang like appypolly loggy "apology" seems to derive from school boy slang. This reflects Alex's age of 15.
In the first edition of the book, no key was provided, and the reader was left to interpret the m |
eaning from the context. In his appendix to the restored edition, Burgess explained that the slang would keep the book from seeming dated, and served to muffle "the raw response of pornography" from the acts of violence.
The term "ultraviolence", referring to excessive or unjustified violence, was coined by Burgess in the book, which includes the phrase "do the ultraviolent". The term's association with aesthetic violence has led to its use in the media.
Banning and censorship history in the US
In 1976, A Clockwork Orange was removed from an Aurora, Colorado high school because of "objectionable language". A year later in 1977 it was removed from high school classrooms in Westport, Massachusetts over similar concerns with "objectionable" language. In 1982, it was removed from two Anniston, Alabama libraries, later to be reinstated on a restricted basis. Also, in 1973 a bookseller was arrested for selling the novel. The charges were later dropped. However, each of these instances came after the release of St |
anley Kubrick's popular 1971 film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, itself the subject of much controversy.
Reception
Initial response
The Sunday Telegraph review was positive, and described the book as "entertaining ... even profound". Kingsley Amis in The Observer acclaimed the novel as "cheerful horror", writing "Mr Burgess has written a fine farrago of outrageousness, one which incidentally suggests a view of juvenile violence I cant remember having met before". Malcolm Bradbury wrote "All of Mr Burgesss powers as a comic writer, which are considerable, have gone into the rich language of his inverted Utopia. If you can stomach the horrors, youll enjoy the manner". Roald Dahl called it "a terrifying and marvellous book". Many reviewers praised the inventiveness of the language, but expressed unease at the violent subject matter. The Spectator praised Burgess's "extraordinary technical feat" but was uncomfortable with "a certain arbitrariness about the plot which is slightly irritating". New Statesman |
acclaimed Burgess for addressing "acutely and savagely the tendencies of our time" but called the book "a great strain to read". The Sunday Times review was negative, and described the book as "a very ordinary, brutal and psychologically shallow story". The Times also reviewed the book negatively, describing it as "a somewhat clumsy experiment with science fiction with clumsy cliches about juvenile delinquency". The violence was criticised as "unconvincing in detail".
Writer's appraisal
Burgess dismissed A Clockwork Orange as "too didactic to be artistic". He claimed that the violent content of the novel "nauseated" him.
In 1985, Burgess published Flame into Being The Life and Work of D. H. Lawrence and while discussing Lady Chatterley's Lover in his biography, Burgess compared that novel's notoriety with A Clockwork Orange "We all suffer from the popular desire to make the known notorious. The book I am best known for, or only known for, is a novel I am prepared to repudiate written a quarter of a century |
ago, a jeu d'esprit knocked off for money in three weeks, it became known as the raw material for a film which seemed to glorify sex and violence. The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me until I die. I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation, and the same may be said of Lawrence and Lady Chatterley's Lover."
Awards and nominations and rankings
1983 Prometheus Award Preliminary Nominee
1999 Prometheus Award Nomination
2002 Prometheus Award Nomination
2003 Prometheus Award Nomination
2006 Prometheus Award Nomination
2008 Prometheus Award Hall of Fame Award
A Clockwork Orange was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best Englishlanguage books from 1923 to 2005.
Adaptations
A 1965 film by Andy Warhol entitled Vinyl was an adaptation of Burgess's novel.
The best known adaptation of the novella to other forms is the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick, featuring Ma |
lcolm McDowell as Alex. In 1987, Burgess published a stage play titled A Clockwork Orange A Play with Music. The play includes songs, written by Burgess, which are inspired by Beethoven and Nadsat slang.
A manga anthology by Osamu Tezuka entitled Tokeijikake no Ringo Clockwork Apple was released in 1983.
In 1988, a German adaptation of A Clockwork Orange at the intimate theatre of Bad Godesberg featured a musical score by the German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen which, combined with orchestral clips of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and "other dirty melodies" so stated by the subtitle, was released on the album Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau. The track Hier kommt Alex became one of the band's signature songs.
In February 1990, another musical version was produced at the Barbican Theatre in London by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Titled A Clockwork Orange 2004, it received mostly negative reviews, with John Peter of The Sunday Times of London calling it "only an intellectual Rocky Horror Show", and John G |
ross of The Sunday Telegraph calling it "a clockwork lemon". Even Burgess himself, who wrote the script based on his novel, was disappointed. According to The Evening Standard, he called the score, written by Bono and The Edge of the rock group U2, "neowallpaper". Burgess had originally worked alongside the director of the production, Ron Daniels, and envisioned a musical score that was entirely classical. Unhappy with the decision to abandon that score, he heavily criticised the band's experimental mix of hip hop, liturgical and gothic music. Lise Hand of The Irish Independent reported The Edge as saying that Burgess's original conception was "a score written by a novelist rather than a songwriter". Calling it "meaningless glitz", Jane Edwardes of 2020 magazine said that watching this production was "like being invited to an expensive French Restaurant and being served with a Big Mac."
In 1994, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater put on a production of A Clockwork Orange directed by Terry Kinney. The American p |
remiere of novelist Anthony Burgess's own adaptation of his A Clockwork Orange starred K. Todd Freeman as Alex. In 2001, UNI Theatre Mississauga, Ontario presented the Canadian premiere of the play under the direction of Terry Costa.
In 2002, Godlight Theatre Company presented the New York Premiere adaptation of A Clockwork Orange at Manhattan Theatre Source. The production went on to play at the SoHo Playhouse 2002, Ensemble Studio Theatre 2004, 59E59 Theaters 2005 and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2005. While at Edinburgh, the production received rave reviews from the press while playing to soldout audiences. The production was directed by Godlight's artistic director, Joe Tantalo.
In 2003, Los Angeles director Brad Mays and the ARK Theatre Company staged a multimedia adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, which was named "Pick of the Week" by the LA Weekly and nominated for three of the 2004 LA Weekly Theater Awards Direction, Revival Production of a 20thcentury work, and Leading Female Performance. Vanessa C |
laire Smith won Best Actress for her genderbending portrayal of Alex, the musicloving teenage sociopath. This production utilised three separate video streams outputted to seven onstage video monitors six 19inch and one 40inch. In order to preserve the firstperson narrative of the book, a prerecorded video stream of Alex, "your humble narrator", was projected onto the 40inch monitor, thereby freeing the onstage character during passages which would have been awkward or impossible to sustain in the breaking of the fourth wall.
An adaptation of the work, based on the original novel, the film and Burgess's own stage version, was performed by the SiLo Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand in early 2007.
In 2021, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation premiered a webpage cataloging various productions of A Clockwork Orange from around the world.
Release details
1962, UK, William Heinemann ISBN ?, December 1962, Hardcover
1962, US, W. W. Norton Co Ltd ISBN ?, 1962, Hardcover
1963, US, W. W. Norton Co Ltd |
, 1963, Paperback
1965, US, Ballantine Books , 1965, Paperback
1969, US, Ballantine Books ISBN ?, 1969, Paperback
1971, US, Ballantine Books , 1971, Paperback, Movie released
1972, UK, Lorrimer, , 11 September 1972, Hardcover
1972, UK, Penguin Books Ltd , 25 January 1973, Paperback
1973, US, Caedmon Records, 1973, Vinyl LP First 4 chapters read by Anthony Burgess
1977, US, Ballantine Books , 12 September 1977, Paperback
1979, US, Ballantine Books , April 1979, Paperback
1983, US, Ballantine Books , 12 July 1983, Unbound
1986, US, W. W. Norton Company , November 1986, Paperback Adds final chapter not previously available in U.S. versions
1987, UK, W. W. Norton Co Ltd , July 1987, Hardcover
1988, US, Ballantine Books , March 1988, Paperback
1995, UK, W. W. Norton Co Ltd , June 1995, Paperback
1996, UK, Penguin Books Ltd , 25 April 1996, Paperback
1996, UK, HarperAudio , September 1996, Audio Cassette
1997, UK, Heyne Verlag , 31 January 1997, Paperback
1998, UK, Penguin Books Ltd , 3 Septemb |
er 1998, Paperback
1999, UK, Rebound by Sagebrush , October 1999, Library Binding
2000, UK, Penguin Books Ltd , 24 February 2000, Paperback
2000, UK, Penguin Books Ltd , 2 March 2000, Paperback
2000, UK, Turtleback Books , November 2000, Hardback
2001, UK, Penguin Books Ltd , 27 September 2001, Paperback
2002, UK, Thorndike Press , October 2002, Hardback
2005, UK, Buccaneer Books , 29 January 2005, Library Binding
2010, Greece, Anubis Publications , 2010, Paperback Adds final chapter not previously available in Greek versions
2012, US, W. W. Norton Company 22 October 2012, Hardback 50th Anniversary Edition, revised text version. Andrew Biswell, PhD, director of the International Burgess Foundation, has taken a close look at the three varying published editions alongside the original typescript to recreate the novel as Anthony Burgess envisioned it.
See also
Classical conditioning
List of cultural references to A Clockwork Orange
List of stories set in a future now past
Project MKUltra
Violen |
ce in art
References
Further reading
A Clockwork Orange A Play With Music. Century Hutchinson Ltd. 1987. An extract is quoted on several web sites Anthony Burgess from A Clockwork Orange A Play With Music Century Hutchinson Ltd, 1987, , A Clockwork Orange From A Clockwork Orange A Play With Music
Burgess, Anthony 1978. "Clockwork Oranges". In 1985. London Hutchinson. extracts quoted here
External links
A Clockwork Orange at SparkNotes
A Clockwork Orange at Literapedia
A Clockwork Orange 1962 Last chapter Anthony Burgess 19171993
Comparisons with the Kubrick film adaptation
Dalrymple, Theodore. "A Prophetic and Violent Masterpiece", City Journal
Giola, Ted. "A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess" at Conceptual Fiction
Priestley, Brenton. "Of Clockwork Apples and Oranges Burgess and Kubrick 2002"
Novel
1962 British novels
1962 science fiction novels
Fiction about mind control
Books written in fictional dialects
British novellas
British novels adapted into films
British novels adapted into p |
lays
British philosophical novels
British science fiction novels
Censored books
Dystopian novels
Fiction with unreliable narrators
Novels about music
Novels by Anthony Burgess
Obscenity controversies in literature
Novels about rape
Heinemann publisher books
Englishlanguage novels
Novels set in London
Metafictional novels
Novels about sociopathy
Science fiction novels adapted into films
Crime novels |
Amsterdam , , is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands; with a population of 872,680 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban area and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area. Found within the Dutch province of North Holland, Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the "Venice of the North", due to the large number of canals which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Amsterdam was founded at the Amstel, that was dammed to control flooding; the city's name derives from the Amstel dam. Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, and became the leading centre for the finance and trade sectors. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city expanded and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned and built. The 17thcentury canals of Amsterdam and the 1920th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Sloten, annexed in 1921 by the munici |
pality of Amsterdam, is the oldest part of the city, dating to the 9th century.
Amsterdam's main attractions include its historic canals, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, Hermitage Amsterdam, the Concertgebouw, the Anne Frank House, the Scheepvaartmuseum, the Amsterdam Museum, the Heineken Experience, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, Natura Artis Magistra, Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, NEMO, the redlight district and many cannabis coffee shops. It drew more than 5 million international visitors in 2014. The city is also well known for its nightlife and festival activity; with several of its nightclubs Melkweg, Paradiso among the world's most famous. Primarily known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled faades; wellpreserved legacies of the city's 17thcentury Golden Age. These characteristics are arguably responsible for attracting millions of Amsterdam's visitors annually. Cycling is key to the city's character, and there are numerous biking pa |
ths and lanes spread throughout the entire city.
The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is considered the oldest "modern" securities market stock exchange in the world. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered an alpha world city by the Globalization and World Cities GaWC study group. The city is also the cultural capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters in the city, including the Philips conglomerate, AkzoNobel, Booking.com, TomTom, and ING. Moreover, many of the world's largest companies are based in Amsterdam or have established their European headquarters in the city, such as leading technology companies Uber, Netflix and Tesla. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the secondbest city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit EIU and 12th globally on quality of living for environment and infrastructure by Mercer. The city was ranked 4th place globally as top tech hub in the Savills Tech Cities 2019 rep |
ort 2nd in Europe, and 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe. The KLM hub and Amsterdam's main airport, Schiphol, is the Netherlands' busiest airport as well as the third busiest in Europe and 11th busiest airport in the world. The Dutch capital is considered one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with at least 177 nationalities represented.
A few of Amsterdam's notable residents throughout history include painters Rembrandt and Van Gogh, the diarist Anne Frank, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
History
Prehistory
Due to its geographical location in what used to be wet peatland, the founding of Amsterdam is of a younger age than the founding of other urban centers in the Low Countries. However, in and around the area of what later became Amsterdam, local farmers settled as early as three millennia ago. They lived along the prehistoric IJ river and upstream of its tributary Amstel. The |
prehistoric IJ was a shallow and quiet stream in peatland behind beach ridges. This secluded area could grow there into an important local settlement center, especially in the late Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Roman Age. Neolithic and Roman artefacts have also been found downstream of this area, in the prehistoric Amstel bedding under Amsterdam's Damrak and Rokin, such as shards of Bell Beaker culture pottery 22002000 BC and a granite grinding stone 27002750 BC. But the location of these artefacts around the river banks of the Amstel probably point to a presence of a modest semipermanent or seasonal settlement of the previous mentioned local farmers. A permanent settlement would not have been possible, since the river mouth and the banks of the Amstel in this period in time were too wet for permanent habitation.
Etymology and founding
The origins of Amsterdam is linked to the development of the peatland called Amestelle, meaning 'watery area', from Aam 'river' stelle 'site at a shoreline', 'river bank |
'. In this area, land reclamation started as early as the late 10th century. Amestelle was located along a side arm of the IJ. This side arm took the name from the eponymous land Amstel. Amestelle was inhabited by farmers, who lived more inland and more upstream, where the land was not as wet as at the banks of the downstream river mouth. These farmers were starting the reclamation around upstream Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, and later at the other side of the river at Amstelveen. The Van Amstel family, known in documents by this name since 1019, held the stewardship in this northwestern nook of the ecclesiastical district of the bishop of Utrecht. The family later served also under the count of Holland.
A major turning point in the development of the Amstel river mouth is the All Saint's Flood of 1170. In an extremely short period of time, the shallow river IJ turned into a wide estuary, which from then on offered the Amstel an open connection to the Zuiderzee, IJssel and waterways further afield. This made the |
water flow of the Amstel more active, so excess water could be drained better. With drier banks, the downstream Amstel mouth became attractive for permanent habitation. Moreover, the river had grown from an insignificant peat stream into a junction of international waterways. A settlement was built here immediately after the landscape change of 1170, and right from the start of its foundation it focused on traffic, production and trade; not on farming, as opposed to how communities had lived further upstream for the past 200 years and northward for thousands of years. The construction of a dam at the mouth of the Amstel, eponymously named Dam, is historically estimated to have occurred between 1264 and 1275. The settlement first appeared in a document concerning a road toll granted by the count of Holland Floris V to the residents apud Amestelledamme 'at the dam in the Amstel' or 'at the dam of Amstelland'. This allowed the inhabitants of the village to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no |
tolls at bridges, locks and dams. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam.
Middle Ages
Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306. From the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League. In 1345, an alleged Eucharistic miracle in Kalverstraat rendered the city an important place of pilgrimage until the adoption of the Protestant faith. The Miracle devotion went underground but was kept alive. In the 19th century, especially after the jubilee of 1845, the devotion was revitalised and became an important national point of reference for Dutch Catholics. The Stille Omganga silent walk or procession in civil attireis the expression of the pilgrimage within the Protestant Netherlands since the late 19th century. In the heyday of the Silent Walk, up to 90,000 pilgrims came to Amsterdam. In the 21st century, this has reduced to about 5,000.
Conflict with Spain
In the 16th century, the Dutch rebelled against Philip II of Spain and his successors. The main |
reasons for the uprising were the imposition of new taxes, the tenth penny, and the religious persecution of Protestants by the newly introduced Inquisition. The revolt escalated into the Eighty Years' War, which ultimately led to Dutch independence. Strongly pushed by Dutch Revolt leader William the Silent, the Dutch Republic became known for its relative religious tolerance. Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, Huguenots from France, prosperous merchants and printers from Flanders, and economic and religious refugees from the Spanishcontrolled parts of the Low Countries found safety in Amsterdam. The influx of Flemish printers and the city's intellectual tolerance made Amsterdam a centre for the European free press.
Centre of the Dutch Golden Age
The 17th century is considered Amsterdam's Golden Age, during which it became the wealthiest city in the western world. Ships sailed from Amsterdam to the Baltic Sea, North America, and Africa, as well as presentday Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Brazil, forming t |
he basis of a worldwide trading network. Amsterdam's merchants had the largest share in both the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company. These companies acquired overseas possessions that later became Dutch colonies.
Amsterdam was Europe's most important point for the shipment of goods and was the leading financial centre of the western world. In 1602, the Amsterdam office of the international trading Dutch East India Company became the world's first stock exchange by trading in its own shares. The Bank of Amsterdam started operations in 1609, acting as a fullservice bank for Dutch merchant bankers and as a reserve bank.
Decline and modernisation
Amsterdam's prosperity declined during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The wars of the Dutch Republic with England and France took their toll on Amsterdam. During the Napoleonic Wars, Amsterdam's significance reached its lowest point, with Holland being absorbed into the French Empire. However, the later establishment of the United Kingdom of |
the Netherlands in 1815 marked a turning point.
The end of the 19th century is sometimes called Amsterdam's second Golden Age. New museums, a railway station, and the Concertgebouw were built; in this same time, the Industrial Revolution reached the city. The AmsterdamRhine Canal was dug to give Amsterdam a direct connection to the Rhine, and the North Sea Canal was dug to give the port a shorter connection to the North Sea. Both projects dramatically improved commerce with the rest of Europe and the world. In 1906, Joseph Conrad gave a brief description of Amsterdam as seen from the seaside, in The Mirror of the Sea.
20th centurypresent
Shortly before the First World War, the city started to expand again, and new suburbs were built. Even though the Netherlands remained neutral in this war, Amsterdam suffered a food shortage, and heating fuel became scarce. The shortages sparked riots in which several people were killed. These riots are known as the Aardappeloproer Potato rebellion. People started looting |
stores and warehouses in order to get supplies, mainly food.
On 1 January 1921, after a flood in 1916, the depleted municipalities of Durgerdam, Holysloot, Zunderdorp and Schellingwoude, all lying north of Amsterdam, were, at their own request, annexed to the city. Between the wars, the city continued to expand, most notably to the west of the Jordaan district in the Frederik Hendrikbuurt and surrounding neighbourhoods.
Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 and took control of the country. Some Amsterdam citizens sheltered Jews, thereby exposing themselves and their families to a high risk of being imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. More than 100,000 Dutch Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps, of whom some 60,000 lived in Amsterdam. In response, the Dutch Communist Party organized the February strike attended by 300,000 people to protest against the raids. Perhaps the most famous deportee was the young Jewish girl Anne Frank, who died in the BergenBelsen concentration camp. |
At the end of the Second World War, communication with the rest of the country broke down, and food and fuel became scarce. Many citizens traveled to the countryside to forage. Dogs, cats, raw sugar beets, and tulip bulbscooked to a pulpwere consumed to stay alive. Many trees in Amsterdam were cut down for fuel, and wood was taken from the houses, apartments and other buildings of deported Jews.
Many new suburbs, such as Osdorp, Slotervaart, Slotermeer and Geuzenveld, were built in the years after the Second World War.
These suburbs contained many public parks and wideopen spaces, and the new buildings provided improved housing conditions with larger and brighter rooms, gardens, and balconies. Because of the war and other events of the 20th century, almost the entire city centre had fallen into disrepair. As society was changing, politicians and other influential figures made plans to redesign large parts of it. There was an increasing demand for office buildings, and also for new roads, as the automobile be |
came available to most people. A metro started operating in 1977 between the new suburb of Bijlmermeer in the city's Zuidoost southeast exclave and the centre of Amsterdam. Further plans were to build a new highway above the metro to connect Amsterdam Centraal and the city centre with other parts of the city.
The required largescale demolitions began in Amsterdam's former Jewish neighborhood. Smaller streets, such as the Jodenbreestraat and Weesperstraat, were widened and almost all houses and buildings were demolished. At the peak of the demolition, the Nieuwmarktrellen Nieuwmarkt Riots broke out; the rioters expressed their fury about the demolition caused by the restructuring of the city.
As a result, the demolition was stopped and the highway into the city's centre was never fully built; only the metro was completed. Only a few streets remained widened. The new city hall was built on the almost completely demolished Waterlooplein. Meanwhile, large private organizations, such as Stadsherstel Amsterdam, w |
ere founded to restore the entire city centre. Although the success of this struggle is visible today, efforts for further restoration are still ongoing. The entire city centre has reattained its former splendour and, as a whole, is now a protected area. Many of its buildings have become monuments, and in July 2010 the Grachtengordel the three concentric canals Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In the 21st century, the Amsterdam city centre has attracted large numbers of tourists between 2012 and 2015, the annual number of visitors rose from 10 to 17 million. Real estate prices have surged, and local shops are making way for touristoriented ones, making the centre unaffordable for the city's inhabitants. These developments have evoked comparisons with Venice, a city thought to be overwhelmed by the tourist influx.
Construction of a new metro line connecting the part of the city north of the IJ to its southern part was started in 2003. The project was |
controversial because its cost had exceeded its budget by a factor three by 2008, because of fears of damage to buildings in the centre, and because construction had to be halted and restarted multiple times. The new metro line was completed in 2018.
Since 2014, renewed focus has been given to urban regeneration and renewal, especially in areas directly bordering the city centre, such as Frederik Hendrikbuurt. This urban renewal and expansion of the traditional centre of the citywith the construction on artificial islands of the new eastern IJburg neighbourhoodis part of the Structural Vision Amsterdam 2040 initiative.
Geography
Amsterdam is located in the Western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland, the capital of which is not Amsterdam, but rather Haarlem. The river Amstel ends in the city centre and connects to a large number of canals that eventually terminate in the IJ. Amsterdam is about below sea level. The surrounding land is flat as it is formed of large polders. A manmade forest, Amste |
rdamse Bos, is in the southwest. Amsterdam is connected to the North Sea through the long North Sea Canal.
Amsterdam is intensely urbanised, as is the Amsterdam metropolitan area surrounding the city. Comprising of land, the city proper has 4,457 inhabitants per km2 and 2,275 houses per km2. Parks and nature reserves make up 12 of Amsterdam's land area.
Water
Amsterdam has more than of canals, most of which are navigable by boat. The city's three main canals are the Prinsengracht, Herengracht and Keizersgracht.
In the Middle Ages, Amsterdam was surrounded by a moat, called the Singel, which now forms the innermost ring in the city, and gives the city centre a horseshoe shape. The city is also served by a seaport. It has been compared with Venice, due to its division into about 90 islands, which are linked by more than 1,200 bridges.
Climate
Amsterdam has an oceanic climate Kppen Cfb strongly influenced by its proximity to the North Sea to the west, with prevailing westerly winds.
Amsterdam, as well |
as most of the North Holland province, lies in USDA Hardiness zone 8b. Frosts mainly occur during spells of easterly or northeasterly winds from the inner European continent. Even then, because Amsterdam is surrounded on three sides by large bodies of water, as well as having a significant heatisland effect, nights rarely fall below , while it could easily be in Hilversum, southeast.
Summers are moderately warm with a number of hot and humid days every month. The average daily high in August is , and or higher is only measured on average on 2.5 days, placing Amsterdam in AHS Heat Zone 2. The record extremes range from to .
Days with more than of precipitation are common, on average 133 days per year.
Amsterdam's average annual precipitation is . A large part of this precipitation falls as light rain or brief showers. Cloudy and damp days are common during the cooler months of October through March.
Demographics
Historical population
In 1300, Amsterdam's population was around 1,000 people. While man |
y towns in Holland experienced population decline during the 15th and 16th centuries, Amsterdam's population grew, mainly due to the rise of the profitable Baltic maritime trade after the Burgundian victory in the DutchHanseatic War. Still, the population of Amsterdam was only modest compared to the towns and cities of Flanders and Brabant, which comprised the most urbanised area of the Low Countries.
This changed when, during the Dutch Revolt, many people from the Southern Netherlands fled to the North, especially after Antwerp fell to Spanish forces in 1585. Jewish people from Spain, Portugal and Eastern Europe similarly settled in Amsterdam, as did Germans and Scandinavians. In thirty years, Amsterdam's population more than doubled between 1585 and 1610. By 1600, its population was around 50,000. During the 1660s, Amsterdam's population reached 200,000. The city's growth levelled off and the population stabilised around 240,000 for most of the 18th century.
In 1750, Amsterdam was the fourth largest city |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.