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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husayn%20ibn%20Ali
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Husayn ibn Ali
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Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muhammad's daughter Fatima, as well as a younger brother of Hasan ibn Ali. He is the third Imam of Shia Islam after his brother, Hasan, and before his son, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin. Being a grandson of the prophet, he is a member of the Ahl al-Bayt. He is also considered to be a member of the Ahl al-Kisa, and a participant in the event of Mubahala. Muhammad described him and his brother, Hasan, as "the leaders of the youth of Paradise."
During the caliphate of Ali, Husayn accompanied him in wars. After the assassination of Ali, he obeyed his brother in recognizing the Hasan–Muawiya treaty, despite it being suggested to do otherwise. In the nine-year period between Hasan's abdication in AH 41 (660 CE) and his death in AH 49 (669 CE), Hasan and Husayn retreated to Medina, trying to keep aloof from political involvement for or against Mu'awiya. After the death of Hasan, when Iraqis turned to Husayn, concerning an uprising, Husayn instructed them to wait as long as Mu'awiya was alive due to Hasan's peace treaty with him. Prior to his death, Mu'awiya appointed his son Yazid as his successor, contrary to the Hasan–Muawiya treaty. When Mu'awiya died in 680, Yazid demanded that Husayn pledge allegiance to him. Husayn refused to do so. As a consequence, he left Medina, his hometown, to take refuge in Mecca in AH 60 (679 CE). There, the people of Kufa sent letters to him, invited him to Kufa and asked him to be their Imam and pledged their allegiance to him. On Husayn's way to Kufa with a retinue of about 72 men, his caravan was intercepted by a 1,000-strong army of the caliph at some distance from Kufa. He was forced to head north and encamp in the plain of Karbala on 2 October, where a larger Umayyad army of some 4,000 or 30,000 arrived soon afterwards. Negotiations failed after the Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad refused Husayn safe passage without submitting to his authority, a condition declined by Husayn. Battle ensued on 10 October during which Husayn was martyred along with most of his relatives and companions, while his surviving family members were taken prisoner. The battle was followed by the Second Fitna, during which the Iraqis organized two separate campaigns to avenge the martyred of Husayn; the first one by the Tawwabin and the other one by Mukhtar al-Thaqafi and his supporters.
The Battle of Karbala galvanized the development of the pro-Alid party (Shi'at Ali) into a unique religious sect with its own rituals and collective memory. It has a central place in the Shi'a history, tradition, and theology, and has frequently been recounted in Shi'a literature. For the Shi'a, Husayn's suffering and martyrdom became a symbol of sacrifice in the struggle for right against wrong, and for justice and truth against injustice and falsehood. It also provides the members of the Shi'a faith with a catalog of heroic norms. The battle is commemorated during an annual ten-day period during the Islamic month of Muharram by many Muslims especially Shi'a, culminating on tenth day of the month, known as the Day of Ashura. On this day, Shi'a Muslims mourn, hold public processions, organize religious gathering, beat their chests and in some cases self-flagellate. Sunni Muslims likewise regard the incident as a historical tragedy; Husayn and his companions are widely regarded as martyrs by both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims.
Early life
According to majority of narrations, Husayn was born on the 3rd of Sha'ban 4 AH (10 January 626 CE) in Medina and was still a child when his grandfather, Muhammad, died. He was the younger son of Ali, the cousin of Muhammad, and Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, both from the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. Both Hasan and Husayn were named by Muhammad, although Ali had other names such as "Harb" in mind. To celebrate Husayn's birth, Muhammad sacrificed a ram, and Fatima shaved his head and donated the same weight of his hair in silver as alms.
According to Islamic traditions, Husayn is mentioned in the Torah as "Shubayr" and in the Gospels as "Tab". Aaron, Moses' brother, gave the same names to his sons after learning the names God had chosen for Ali's children.
Husayn was brought up in the household of Muhammad at first. The family formed from the marriage of Ali and Fatima was praised many times by Muhammad. In events such as Mubahala and the hadith of the Ahl al-Kisa, Muhammad referred to this family as the ahl al-bayt. In the Qur'an, in many cases, such as the verse of purification, the ahl al-bayt has been praised.
According to Madelung, there are numerous narrations showing Muhammad's love for Hasan and Husayn, such as carrying them on his shoulders, or putting them on his chest and kissing them on the belly. Madelung believes that some of these reports may imply a little preference of Muhammad for Hasan over Husayn, or pointing out that Hasan was more similar to his grandfather. Other Hadiths of this kind are: "whoever loves them loves me and whoever hates them hates me", and "al-Hasan and al-Husayn are the sayyids [masters] of the youth of Paradise". The recent one is used by Shia to prove the right of Imamate for the descendants of Muhammad. is an epithet used by Shias to refer to each of Muhammad's grandsons. It is also narrated that Muhammad took Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn under his cloak and called them ahl al-bayt and stated that they are free from any sin and pollution. Muhammad reported the Karbala incident on several occasions; For example, he gave a small bottle of soil to Umm Salama and told her that the soil inside the bottle would turn into blood after Husayn was killed.
Event of Mubahala
In the year 10 AH (631–632) a Christian envoy from Najran (now in northern Yemen) came to Muhammad to argue which of the two parties erred in its doctrine concerning Jesus. After likening Jesus' miraculous birth to Adam's creation —who was born to neither a mother nor a father— and when the Christians did not accept the Islamic doctrine about Jesus, Muhammad reportedly received a revelation instructing him to call them to Mubahala, where each party should ask God to destroy the false party and their families:
In Shia perspective, in the verse of Mubahala, the phrase "our sons" would refer to Hasan and Husayn, "our women" refers to Fatima, and "ourselves" refers to Ali. Most of the Sunni narrations quoted by al-Tabari do not name the participants. Other Sunni historians mention Muhammad, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn as having participated in the Mubahala, and some agree with the Shia tradition that Ali was among them.
The verse "God wishes only to remove taint from you, people of the Household, and to make you utterly pure" is also attributed to this event, during which Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn stood under Muhammad's cloak. Thus the title, the Family of the Cloak, is related sometimes to the Event of Mubahala.
During the caliphate of Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman
During the caliphate of Abu Bakr and Umar, Husayn was present at some events such as testifying about the story of Fadak. According to a narration, Husayn, while the second caliph, was sitting on the pulpit of Muhammad and giving a speech, objected to him for sitting on the pulpit of Muhammad, and Umar also stopped his sermon and came down from the pulpit. During the time of Uthman, he defended Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, who had preached against some of the actions of the tyrants and was to be exiled from Medina.
According to several narrations, Ali asked Hasan and Husayn to defend the third Caliph during the Siege of Uthman and carry water to him. According to Vaglieri, when Hasan entered Uthman's house, Uthman was already assassinated.
Another report says that Uthman asked Ali's help. The latter send Husayn in response. Then Uthman asked Husayn if he was able to defend himself against rebels. Husayn demurred, so Uthman sent him back. It is also narrated that Uthman's cousin, Marwan ibn Hakam, have said Husayn: "Leave us, your father incites the people against us, and you are here with us!" Haeri writes in the Encyclopedia of the Islamic World: According to some narrations, Husayn or Hasan were wounded in the case of defending Uthman.
During the caliphate of Ali and Hasan
During the Caliphate of Ali, Husayn, along with his brothers Hasan and Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, and his cousin, Abdullah ibn Ja'far were among closest allies of Ali. He remained alongside him, accompanying him in the battlefields. According to a report by Tabari, Husayn was among Ali's major supporters who were cursed in public by the order of Mu'awiya.
After the assassination of Ali people gave allegiance to Hasan. Mu'awiya who did not want go give allegiance to him, prepared to fight. To avoid the agonies of the civil war, Hasan signed a treaty with Mu'awiya, according to which Mu'awiya would not name a successor during his reign, and let the Islamic community () choose his successor. Madelung believes that Husayn did not recognize this treaty at first, but pressed by Hasan, accepted it. Later on when several Shia leaders suggested him to conduct a surprise attack on Mu'awiya's camp near Kufa, he refused, saying that as long as Mu'awiya was alive, he would abide by the terms of the peace treaty, however, after Mu'awiya's death, he will reconsider it. After signing the peace treaty, Mu'awiyah delivered a sermon in Kufa in which he declared that he had violated all the provisions of the treaty and also insulted Ali ibn Abi Talib. Husayn wanted to respond, but Hasan refused to do so, and Hasan delivered a sermon in response. Husayn adhered to the terms of the treaty even after Hassan's death. Husayn then left Kufa for Medina along with Hasan and Abdullah ibn Ja'far. He adhered to the terms of the treaty even after Hasan's death.
During the caliphate of Mu'awiya
According to the Shi'a, Husayn was the third Imam for a period of ten years after the death of his brother Hasan in 670 AD. All of this time except the last six months coincided with the caliphate of Mu'awiya. In the nine-year period between Hasan's abdication in AH 41 (660 AD) and his death in AH 49 (669 AD), Hasan and Husayn retreated to Medina, trying to keep aloof from political involvement for or against Mu'awiya. Sentiments in favor of the rule of Ahl al-Bayt occasionally emerged in the form of small groups, mostly from Kufa, visiting Hasan and Husayn asking them to be their leaders – a request to which they declined to respond. When Hasan was poisoned, he refused to tell Husayn the name of his suspect, probably Mu'awiya, in fear of provoking bloodshed. The burial of Hasan's body near that of Muhammad, was another problem which could have led to bloodshed, as Marwan ibn Hakam swore that he would not permit Hasan to be buried near Muhammad with Abu Bakr and Umar, while Uthman was buried in the cemetery of al-Baqi. After the death of Hasan, when Iraqis turned to Husayn, concerning an uprising, Husayn instructed them to wait as long as Mu'awiya was alive due to Hasan's peace treaty with him. Meanwhile, Marwan reported to Mu'awiya the frequent visits of Shias to Husayn. Mu'awiya instructed Marwan not to clash with Husayn, in the same time he wrote a letter to Husayn in which he "mingled generous promises with the advice not to provoke him." Later on, when Mu'awiya was taking allegiance for his son, Yazid, Husayn was among the five prominent persons who did not give his allegiance, as appointing a successor was in violation of Hasan's peace treaty with Mu'awiya. Before his death in April 680, Mu'awiya cautioned Yazid that Husayn and Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr might challenge his rule and instructed him to defeat them if they did. Yazid was further advised to treat Husayn with caution and not to spill his blood, since he was the grandson of Muhammad.
Uprising
Refusal to give allegiance to Yazid
Immediately after Mu'awiya's death on 15th of Rajab 60 AH (22 April 680 AD), Yazid charged the governor of Medina, Walid ibn Utba ibn Abu Sufyan, to secure allegiance from Husayn with force if necessary. Yazid's goal was to take control of the situation in the city before the people became aware of Mu'awiya's death. Yazid's concern was especially about his two rivals in the caliphate; Husayn and Abdullah ibn Zubayr who had previously renounced allegiance.
Husayn answered the summons but declined to pledge allegiance in the secretive environment of the meeting, suggesting it should be done in public.
Marwan ibn Hakam told Walid to imprison or behead him, but due to Husayn's kinship with Muhammad, Walid was unwilling to take any action against him. A few days later, Husayn left for Mecca without acknowledging Yazid. He arrived in Mecca at the beginning of May 680, and stayed there until the beginning of September. He was accompanied by his wives, children and brothers, as well as Hasan's sons.
Invitations from Kufa
Husayn had considerable support in Kufa, which had been the caliphal capital during the reigns of his father and brother. The Kufans had fought the Umayyads and their Syrian allies during the First Fitna, the five-year civil war which had established the Umayyad Caliphate. They were dissatisfied with Hasan's abdication and strongly resented Umayyad rule. While in Mecca, Husayn received letters from pro-Alids in Kufa informing him that they were tired of the Umayyad rule, which they considered to be oppressive, and that they had no rightful leader. They asked him to lead them in revolt against Yazid, promising to remove the Umayyad governor if Husayn would consent to aid them. Husayn wrote back affirmatively that a rightful leader is the one who acts according to the Qur'an and promised to lead them with the right guidance. Then he sent his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil to assess the situation in Kufa. Ibn Aqil attracted widespread support and informed Husayn of the situation, suggesting that he join them there. Yazid removed Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansari as governor of Kufa due to his inaction, and installed Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, then governor of Basra, in his place. As a result of Ibn Ziyad's suppression and political maneuvering, Ibn Aqil's following began to dissipate and he was forced to declare the revolt prematurely. It was defeated and Ibn Aqil was killed.
Husayn had also sent a messenger to Basra, another garrison town in Iraq, but the messenger could not attract any following and was quickly apprehended and executed.
Husayn was unaware of the change of political circumstances in Kufa and decided to depart. Abd Allah ibn Abbas and Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr advised him not to move to Iraq, or, if he was determined, not to take women and children with him. Nevertheless, he offered Husayn support if he would stay in Mecca and lead the opposition to Yazid from there. Husayn refused this, citing his abhorrence of bloodshed in the sanctuary, and decided to go ahead with his plan.
Journey towards Kufa
Despite the advice of Muhammad Hanafi, Abdullah ibn Umar, and the constant insistence of Abdullah ibn Abbas in Mecca, Husayn did not back down from his decision to go to Kufa. Ibn 'Abbas pointed out that the Kufis had left both Ali and Hassan alone, and suggested that Husayn go to Yemen instead of Kufa, or at least not take women and children with him if he were to go to Iraq. Husayn insisted on his decision and wrote about his motives and goals in a famous letter or will that he gave to Mohammad Hanafiya:
"I did not go out for fun and selfishness and for corruption and oppression; Rather, my goal is to correct the corruptions that have occurred in the nation of my ancestors. I want to command the good and forbid the bad, and follow the tradition of my grandfather and the way of my father Ali ibn Abi Talib. So, whoever accepts this truth (and follows me) has accepted the way of God and whoever rejects (and does not follow me) I will walk (my way) with patience and perseverance so that God may be the judge between me and this nation and he is the best judge."
Then, Husayn, who had not yet received the letters of the new events of Kufa, prepared to leave for Kufa on the 8th or 10th of Dhu al-Hijjah 60 AH / 10 or 12 September 680 AD. Instead of performing Hajj, he performed Umrah, and in the absence of the Governor of Mecca, Amr ibn Sa'id ibn As, who was performing Hajj on the outskirts of the city, secretly left the city with his companions and family. Fifty men from Husayn's relatives and friends – who could fight if needed – accompanied Husayn, including women and children. He took the northerly route through the Arabian Desert. On persuasion of Husayn's cousin Abd Allah ibn Ja'far, the governor of Mecca Amr ibn Sa'id sent his brother and Ibn Ja'far after Husayn in order to assure him safety in Mecca and bring him back. Husayn refused to return, relating that Muhammad had ordered him in a dream to move forward irrespective of the consequences. Further on the way, he received the news of the execution of Ibn Aqil and the indifference of the people of Kufa.
He informed his followers of the situation and asked them to leave. Most of the people who had joined him on the way left, while his companions from Mecca decided to stay with him.
On the way, Husayn encountered various people. In response to Husayn's question about the situation in Iraq, the poet Farzadaq explicitly told him that the hearts of the Iraqi people are with you, but their swords are in the service of the Umayyads. But Husayn's decision was unwavering, and in response to those who tried to dissuade him, he said that things were in God's hands and that God wanted the best for His servants and would not be hostile to anyone who was right. The news of the murder of Muslim ibn Aqeel and Hani ibn Arwa was reported by some travellers, for the first time in Thalabiyah.
When Husayn reached the area of Zabalah, he found out that his messenger, Qais ibn Mushar Sa'idawi – or his brother-in-law, Abdullah ibn Yaqtar – who had been sent from Hejaz to Kufa to inform the people of Husayn's imminent arrival, was exposed and killed by falling from the roof of Kufa Palace. Upon hearing this, Husayn allowed his supporters to leave the caravan due to the depressing issues such as the betrayal of the Kufis. A number of those who had joined him on the way, parted away. But those who had come with Husayn from Hejaz did not leave him. The news from Kufa showed that the situation there had completely changed from what Muslim had reported. The political assessments made it clear to Husayn that going to Kufa was no longer apt.
In the area of Sharaf or Zuhsam, armies emerged from Kufa under the leadership of Hurr ibn Yazid. With the weather being hot there, Husayn ordered water to be given to them and then announced his motives to the army and said:
"You did not have an Imam and I became the means of uniting the ummah. Our family is more deserving of government than anyone else, and those in power do not deserve it and rule unjustly. If you support me, I will go to Kufa. But if you do not want me anymore, I will return to my first place."
Ibn Ziyad had stationed troops on the routes into Kufa. Husayn and his followers were intercepted by the vanguard of Yazid's army, about 1,000 men led by Hurr ibn Yazid al-Tamimi, south of Kufa near Qadisiyya. Husayn said to them:I did not come to you until your letters were brought to me, and your messengers came to me saying, 'Come to us, for we have no imam.' ... Therefore, if you give me what you guaranteed in your covenants and sworn testimonies, I will come to your town. If you will not and are averse to my coming, I will leave you for the place from which I came to you. He then showed them the letters he had received from the Kufans, including some in Hurr's force. Hurr denied any knowledge of the letters and stated that Husayn must go with him to Ibn Ziyad, which Husayn refused to do. Hurr responded that he would not allow Husayn to either enter Kufa or go back to Medina, but that he was free to travel anywhere else he wished. Nevertheless, he did not prevent four Kufans from joining Husayn. Husayn's caravan started to move towards Qadisiyya, and Hurr followed them. At Naynawa, Hurr received orders from Ibn Ziyad to force Husayn's caravan to halt in a desolate place without fortifications or water. One of Husayn's companions suggested that they attack Hurr and move to the fortified village of al-Aqr. Husayn refused, stating that he did not want to start the hostilities.
According to Valiri, Hurr ordered his army to take Husayn and his companions to Ibn Ziad without fighting and intended to persuade Husayn to do so. But when he saw that Husayn was moving his caravan, he did not dare to follow it. However, Madlung and Bahramian write that when Husayn was ready to leave, Hurr blocked his way and said that if Husayn did not accept the order given by Ibn Ziad, Hurr would not allow him to go to Medina or Kufa. He suggested to Husayn to neither go to Kufa nor to Medina, rather write a letter to Yazid or Ibn Ziad and wait for their orders, hoping to avoid this difficult situation by receiving an answer. But Husayn did not heed to his advice and continued to Azad or Qadisiyah. Hurr informed Husayn that he was doing this for Husayn and that if there would be a war, Husayn would be killed. Husayn, however, was not afraid of death and stopped in an area called Karbala, on the outskirts of Kufa.
In one place, Husayn recited a sermon and said: "I do not see death except as martyrdom and living with the oppressors except as hardship." In another place, he explained the reason for his opposition to the government while recalling the bitterness of breaking the allegiance of the people of Kufa with his father and brother, saying, "These people have submitted to the obedience of Satan and have left the obedience of God the Merciful." On the way, he refused to accept the offer to go to the tribe of Tayy by pointing to his pact with Hur about not returning. Later, a messenger from Ibn Ziad came to Hur and without greeting Husayn, gave a letter to Hur in which Ibn Ziad had ordered him to not to stop in a place where Husayn can have easy access to water. With this letter, Obaidullah wanted to force Husayn to fight. Zuhair ibn Qayn suggested to Husayn to attack the small army of Hur and capture the fortified village of Akr. But Husayn did not accept; Because he did not want to start a war.
On 2 October 680 (2 Muharram 61 AH), Husayn arrived at Karbala, a desert plain north of Kufa, and set up camp.
On the following day, a 4,000-strong Kufan army arrived under the command of Umar ibn Sa'd. He had been appointed governor of Rayy to suppress a local rebellion, but then recalled to confront Husayn. Initially, he was unwilling to fight Husayn, but complied following Ibn Ziyad's threat to revoke his governorship. After negotiations with Husayn, Ibn Sa'd wrote to Ibn Ziyad that Husayn was willing to return. Ibn Ziyad replied that Husayn must surrender or he should be subdued by force, and that to compel him, he and his companions should be denied access to the Euphrates river. Ibn Sa'd stationed 500 horsemen on the route leading to the river. Husayn and his companions remained without water for three days before a group of fifty men led by his half-brother Abbas was able to access the river. They could only fill twenty water-skins.
Husayn and Ibn Sa'd met during the night to negotiate a settlement; it was rumored that Husayn made three proposals: either he be allowed to return to Medina, submit to Yazid directly, or be sent to a border post where he would fight alongside the Muslim armies. According to Madelung, these reports are probably untrue as Husayn at this stage is unlikely to have considered submitting to Yazid. A mawla of Husayn's wife later claimed that Husayn had suggested that he be allowed to leave, so that all parties could allow the fluid political situation to clarify. Ibn Sa'd sent the proposal, whatever it was, to Ibn Ziyad, who is reported to have accepted but then persuaded otherwise by Shemr ibn Ziljawshan. Shemr argued that Husayn was in his domain and letting him go would be to demonstrate weakness. Ibn Ziyad then sent Shemr with orders to ask Husayn for his allegiance once more and to attack, kill and disfigure him if he was to refuse, as "a rebel, a seditious person, a brigand, an oppressor and he was to do no further harm after his death". If Ibn Sa'd was unwilling to carry out the attack, he was instructed to hand over command to Shemr. Ibn Sa'd cursed Shemr and accused him of foiling his attempts to reach a peaceful settlement but agreed to carry out the orders. He remarked that Husayn would not submit because there was "a proud soul in him".
The army advanced toward Husayn's camp on the evening of 9 October. Husayn sent Abbas to ask Ibn Sa'd to wait until the next morning, so that they could consider the matter. Ibn Sa'd agreed to this respite. Husayn told his men that they were all free to leave, with his family, under the cover of night, since their opponents only wanted him. Very few availed themselves of this opportunity. Defense arrangements were made: tents were brought together and tied to one another and a ditch was dug behind the tents and filled with wood ready to be set alight in case of attack. Husayn and his followers then spent the rest of the night praying.
Battle of Karbala
After the morning prayer on 10 October, both parties took up battle positions. Husayn appointed Zuhayr ibn Qayn to command the right flank of his army, Habib ibn Muzahir to command the left flank, and his half-brother Abbas as the standard bearer. Husayn's companions, according to most accounts, numbered thirty-two horsemen and forty infantrymen. Ibn Sa'd's army totaled 4,000. The ditch containing wood were set alight. Husayn then delivered a speech to his opponents reminding them of his status as Muhammad's grandson and reproaching them for inviting and then abandoning him. He asked to be allowed to leave. He was told that first he had to submit to Yazid's authority, which he refused to do. Husayn's speech moved Hurr to defect to his side.
After Husayn's speech, Zuhayr ibn Qayn attempted to dissuade Ibn Sa'd's soldiers from killing Husayn, but in vain. Ibn Sa'd's army fired several volleys of arrows. This was followed by duels in which several of Husayn's companions were slain. The right wing of the Kufans, led by Amr ibn al-Hajjaj, attacked Husayn's force, but was repulsed. Hand-to-hand fighting paused and further volleys of arrows were exchanged. Shemr, who commanded the left wing of the Umayyad army, launched an attack, but after losses on both sides he was repulsed. This was followed by cavalry attacks. Husayn's cavalry resisted fiercely and Ibn Sa'd brought in armoured cavalry and five hundred archers. After their horses were wounded by arrows, Husayn's cavalrymen dismounted and fought on foot.
Since Umayyad forces could approach Husayn's army from the front only, Ibn Sa'd ordered the tents to be burned. All except the one which Husayn and his family were using were set on fire. Shemr wanted to burn that one too, but was prevented by his companions. The plan backfired and flames hindered the Umayyad advance for a while. After noon prayers, Husayn's companions were encircled, and almost all of them were killed. Husayn's relatives, who had not taken part in the fighting so far, joined the battle. Husayn's son Ali Akbar was killed; then Husayn's half-brothers, including Abbas, and the sons of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, Jafar ibn Abi Talib and Hasan ibn Ali were slain. The account of Abbas' death is not given in the primary sources, al-Tabari and Baladhuri, but a prominent Shi'a theologian Shaykh Al-Mufid states in his account in Kitab al-Irshad that Abbas went to the river together with Husayn but became separated, was surrounded, and killed. At some point, a young child of Husayn's, who was sitting on his lap, was hit by an arrow and died.
Death
During the Battle of Karbala the Umayyad soldiers hesitated to initiate a direct attack on Husayn; however, he was struck in the mouth by an arrow as he went to the river to drink. He collected his blood in a cupped hand and cast towards the sky, complaining to God of his suffering. Later, he was surrounded and struck on the head by Malik ibn Nusayr. The blow cut through his hooded cloak, which Husayn removed while cursing his attacker. He put a cap on his head and wrapped a turban around it to staunch the bleeding. Ibn Nusayr seized the bloodied cloak and retreated.
Shemr advanced with a group of foot soldiers towards Husayn, who was now prepared to fight as few people were left on his side. A young boy from Husayn's camp escaped from the tents, ran to him, tried to defend him from a sword stroke and had his arm cut off. Ibn Sa'd approached the tents and Husayn's sister Zaynab complained to him: "'Umar b. Sa'd, will Abu 'Abd Allah (the of Husayn) be killed while you stand and watch?" Ibn Sa'd wept but did nothing. Husayn is said to have killed many of his attackers. The Umayyad forces however were still unwilling to kill him and each of them wanted to leave this to somebody else. Eventually Shemr shouted: "Shame on you! Why are you waiting for the man? Kill him, may your mothers be deprived of you!" The Umayyad soldiers then rushed Husayn and wounded him on his hand and shoulder. He fell on the ground face-down and an attacker named Sinan ibn Anas stabbed and beheaded him.
Aftermath
Seventy or seventy-two people died on Husayn's side, of whom about twenty were descendants of Abu Talib, the father of Ali. This included two of Husayn's sons, six of his paternal brothers, three sons of Hasan ibn Ali, three sons of Jafar ibn Abi Talib and three sons and three grandsons of Aqil ibn Abi Talib. Following the battle, Husayn's clothes were stripped, and his sword, shoes and baggage were taken. The women's jewelry and cloaks were also seized. Shemr wanted to kill Husayn's only surviving son Ali Zayn al-Abidin, who had not taken part in the fighting because of illness, but was prevented by Ibn Sa'd. There are reports of more than sixty wounds on Husayn's body, which was then trampled with horses as previously instructed by Ibn Ziyad. The bodies of Husayn's companions were decapitated. There were eighty-eight dead in Ibn Sa'd's army, who were buried before he left. After his departure, members of the Banu Asad tribe, from the nearby village of Ghadiriya, buried the headless bodies of Husayn's companions.
Husayn's family, along with the heads of the dead, were sent to Ibn Ziyad. He poked Husayn's mouth with a stick and intended to kill Ali Zayn al-Abidin, but spared him after the pleas of Husayn's sister Zaynab. The heads and the family were then sent to Yazid, who also poked Husayn's mouth with a stick. The historian Henri Lammens has suggested that this is a duplication of the report regarding Ibn Ziyad. No one was compassionate towards the women and Ali Zayn al-Abidin, One of his courtiers asked for the hand of a captive woman from Husayn's family in marriage, which resulted in heated altercation between Yazid and Zaynab. The women of Yazid's household joined the captive women in their lamentation for the dead. After a few years, the women were compensated for their belongings looted in Karbala and were sent back to Medina.
The killing of the grandson of Muhammad shocked the Muslim community. The image of Yazid suffered and gave rise to sentiment that he was impious.
Prior to the Battle of Karbala, the Muslim community was divided into two political factions. Nonetheless, a religious sect with distinct theological doctrines and specific set of rituals had not developed. Karbala gave this early political party of pro-Alids a distinct religious identity and helped transform it into a distinct religious sect. Heinz Halm writes: "There was no religious aspect to Shi'ism prior to 680. The death of the third imam and his followers marked the 'big bang' that created the rapidly expanding cosmos of Shi'ism and brought it into motion."
Related uprisings
A few prominent Alid supporters in Kufa felt guilty for abandoning Husayn after having invited him to revolt. To atone for what they perceived as their sin, they began a movement known as Tawwabin uprising, under Sulayman ibn Surad, a companion of Muhammad, to fight the Umayyads, and attracted large-scale support. The armies met in January 685 at Battle of Ayn al-Warda; which resulted killing most of them including Ibn Surad.
The defeat of the Tawwabin left the leadership of the Kufan pro-Alids in the hand of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi. In October 685, Mukhtar and his supporters seized Kufa. His control extended to most of Iraq and parts of northwestern Iran. Mukhtar executed Kufans involved in the killing of Husayn, including Ibn Sa'd and Shemr, while thousands of people fled to Basra. He then sent his general Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar to fight an approaching Umayyad army, led by Ibn Ziyad, which had been sent to reconquer the province. The Umayyad army was routed at the Battle of Khazir in August 686 and Ibn Ziyad was slain. Later on, in April 687, Mukhtar was killed.
Historical analysis
Based on an official report sent to caliph Yazid, which describes the battle of Karbala very briefly, stating that it lasted for no longer than a siesta, Lammens concludes that there was no battle at all but a quick massacre that was over in an hour; he suggests that the detailed accounts found in the primary sources are Iraqi fabrications, since their writers were dissatisfied with their hero being killed without putting up a fight. This is countered by the historian Laura Veccia Vaglieri, who argues that despite there being some fabricated accounts, all of the contemporary accounts together form "a coherent and credible narrative". She criticizes Lammens' hypothesis as being based on a single isolated report and being devoid of critical analysis. Similarly, Madelung and Wellhausen assert that the battle lasted from sunrise to sunset and that the overall account of the battle is reliable. Vaglieri and Madelung explain the length of the battle despite the numerical disparity between the opposing camps as Ibn Sa'd's attempt to prolong the fight and pressure Husayn into submission instead of attempting to quickly overwhelm and kill him.
According to Wellhausen, the compassion that Yazid showed to the family of Husayn, and his cursing of Ibn Ziyad was only for show. He argues that if killing Husayn was a crime its responsibility lay with Yazid and not Ibn Ziyad, who was only performing his duty. Madelung holds a similar view; according to him, early accounts place the responsibility for Husayn's death on Ibn Ziyad instead of Yazid. Yazid, Madelung argues, wanted to end Husayn's opposition, but as a caliph of Islam could not afford to be seen as publicly responsible and so diverted blame onto Ibn Ziyad by hypocritically cursing him. According to Howard, some traditional sources have a tendency to exonerate Yazid at the cost of Ibn Ziyad and lower authorities.
Primary and classic sources
The primary source of the Karbala narrative is the work of the Kufan historian Abu Mikhnaf titled Kitab Maqtal Al-Husayn. Abu Mikhnaf's was an adult some twenty years after the Battle of Karbala. As such he knew many eyewitnesses and collected firsthand accounts and some with very short chains of transmitters, usually one or two intermediaries. The eyewitnesses were of two kinds: those from Husayn's side; and those from Ibn Sa'd's army. Since few people from Husayn's camp survived, most eyewitnesses were from the second category. According to Julius Wellhausen, most of them regretted their actions in the battle and embellished the accounts of the battle in favor of Husayn in order to dilute their guilt. Although as an Iraqi, Abu Mikhnaf had pro-Alid tendencies, his reports generally do not contain much bias on his part. Abu Mikhnaf's original text seems to have been lost and the version extant today has been transmitted through secondary sources such as the History of Prophets and Kings by al-Tabari; and Ansab al-Ashraf by Baladhuri. Tabari quotes either directly from Abu Mikhnaf or from his student Ibn al-Kalbi, who took most of his material from Abu Mikhnaf. Tabari occasionally takes material from Ammar ibn Mu'awiya, Awana and other primary sources, which, however, adds little to the narrative. Baladhuri uses same sources as Tabari. Information on the battle found in the works of Dinawari and Ya'qubi is also based on Abu Mikhnaf's Maqtal, although they occasionally provide some extra notes and verses. Other secondary sources include al-Mas'udi's Muruj al-Dhahab, Ibn Ath'am's Kitab al-Futuh, Shaykh al-Mufid's Kitab al-Irshad, and Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's Maqatil al-Talibiyyin. Most of these sources took material from Abu Mikhnaf, in addition to some from the primary works of Awana, al-Mada'ini and Nasr ibn Muzahim.
Although Tabari and other early sources contain some miraculous stories, these sources are mainly historical and rational in nature, in contrast to the literature of later periods, which is mainly hagiographical in nature.
The Battle of Karbala was also reported by an early Christian source. A history by the Syriac Christian scholar Theophilus of Edessa, who was chief astrologer in the Abbasid court between 775 and 785, is partially preserved in a number of extant Christian chronicles, including those by Michael the Syrian and the Byzantine historian Theophanes the Confessor.
Tomb
Husayn ibn Ali's tomb is located in the city of Karbala, about 90 km southwest of Baghdad. This tomb was probably formed two centuries after the event of Karbala and was rebuilt and expanded until the thirteenth century AH. This place did not have a building at first and was marked with a simple sign. After that, in the third century AH, a monument was built on it, which was considered during the time of some Abbasid caliphs and Dailami princes and patriarchal and Ottoman rulers, and over time, the city of Karbala was built and expanded around it.
There are several narrations about the burial place of Imam Husayn's head; For example, with his father Ali in Najaf, outside Kufa but not with Ali, in Karbala with his whole body, in Baqiya, in an unknown place in Damascus, in Raqqa, Syria, and in a mosque Mohsen Al-Amin in Cairo.
Commemoration
Shi'a Muslims consider pilgrimages to Husayn's tomb to be a source of divine blessings and rewards. According to Shi'a tradition the first such visit was performed by Husayn's son Ali Zayn al-Abedin and the surviving family members during their return from Syria to Medina. The first historically recorded visit is Sulayman ibn Surad and the Penitents going to Husayn's grave before their departure to Syria. They are reported to have lamented and beaten their chests and to have spent a night by the tomb. Thereafter this tradition was limited to the Shi'a imams for several decades, before gaining momentum under the sixth Shi'a imam Jafar Sadiq and his followers. Buyids and Safavids also encouraged this practice. Special visits are paid on 10 Muharram (Ashura Pilgrimage) and 40 days after the anniversary of Husayn's (Arba'een Pilgrimage). Husayn's martyrdom is often linked to the hagiography of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.
The soil of Karbala, is considered to have miraculous healing effects.
Mourning for Husayn is considered by Shi'as to be a source of salvation in the afterlife, and is undertaken as a remembrance of his suffering. After the death of Husayn, when his family was being taken to Ibn Ziyad, Husayn's sister Zaynab is reported to have cried out after seeing his headless body: "O Muhammad!... Here is Husayn in the open, stained with blood and with limbs torn off. O Muhammad! Your daughters are prisoners, your progeny are killed, and the east wind blows dust over them." Shi'a Muslims consider this to be the first instance of wailing and mourning over the death of Husayn. Husayn's son Zayn al-Abideen is reported to have spent the rest of his life weeping for his father. Similarly, Husayn's mother Fatima is believed to be weeping for him in paradise and the weeping of believers is considered to be a way of sharing her sorrows. Special gatherings (majalis; sing. majlis) are arranged in places reserved for this purpose, called husayniyya. In these gatherings the story of Karbala is narrated and various elegies (rawda) are recited by professional reciters (rawda khwan).
During the month of Muharram, elaborate public processions are performed in commemoration of the Battle of Karbala. In contrast to pilgrimage to Husayn's tomb and simple lamenting, these processions do not date back to the time of the battle, but arose during tenth century. Their earliest recorded instance was in Baghdad in 963 during the reign of the first Buyid ruler Mu'izz al-Dawla. The processions start from a husayniyya and the participants parade barefoot through the streets, wailing and beating their chests and heads before returning to the husayniyya for a majlis. Sometimes, chains and knives are used to inflict wounds and physical pain. In South Asia, an ornately tacked horse called Zuljenah, representing Husayn's battle horse, is also led riderless through the streets. In Iran, the battle scenes of Karbala are performed on stage in front of an audience in a ritual called taziya (passion play), also known as shabih. In India however, taziya refers to the coffins and replicas of Husayn's tomb carried in processions.
Most of these rituals take place during the first ten days of Muharram, reaching a climax on the tenth day, although majalis can also occur throughout the year. Occasionally, especially in the past, some Sunni participation in majalis and processions has been observed. According to Yitzhak Nakash, the rituals of Muharram have an "important" effect in the "invoking the memory of Karbala", as these help consolidate the collective identity and memory of the Shi'a community. Anthropologist Michael Fischer states that commemoration of the Battle of Karbala by the Shi'a is not only the retelling of the story, but also presents them with "life models and norms of behavior" which are applicable to all aspects of life, which he calls the Karbala Paradigm. According to Olmo Gölz, the Karbala Paradigm provide Shi'as with heroic norms and a martyr ethos, and represents an embodiment of the battle between good and evil, justice and injustice. Rituals involving self-flagellation have been criticized by many Shi'a scholars as they are considered to be innovative practices. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has banned the practice in Iran since 1994.
Family life
Husayn's first marriage was with Rubab. Her father, Imra' al-Qais, a chief of Banu Kalb, came to Medina during the Caliphate of Umar, and was appointed by him as the chief of the Quda'a tribes. Ali proposed her marriage with Husayn, but since Husayn and Imra al-Qais's daughter were too young at the time, the actual marriage took place later. Husayn had a daughter, Amena (or Amina or Omayma) who is known as Sakinah, from her. According to a narration recorded by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Hasan has blamed Husayn for his excessive favors to Rubab. Husayn, in response, depicted his great love for Rubab and Sakinah in three lines of poetry. Later on Rubab bore a son, Abd Allah (or according to recent Shia sources, Ali al-Asghar) for him. Husayn's , Abu Abd Allah, probably refers to this son. After Husayn's death, Rubab spent a year in grief at his grave and refused to marry again.
According to Madelung, Husayn had two sons named Ali. The older one, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin who became the fourth Shia Imam later, was 23 years old when his younger brother (Ali al-Akbar) was killed in the Battle of Karbala at the age of 19. Ali al-Akbar was born from Layla, the daughter of Abi Murrah al-Thaqafi, who was an ally of the Umayyads. Husayn's marriage with Layla, according to Madelung, probably had material benefits for Husayn. Zayn al-Abidin's mother, on the other hand, was a slave probably from Sind named Ḡazāla, Solāfa, Salāma, Šāhzanān, or Shahrbanu. According to the reports, commonly accepted by Shia, she was the daughter of Yazdegerd III, the last Sassanid king of Iran to be captured during the Arab conquest. On the other hand, in narrative sources, mistakes and confusion have been made between Ali al-Asghar and Abd Allah. Contemporary Shiite circles have carefully identified Sajjad as Ali al-Awsat and Ali al-Asghar as an infant in Karbala; Among these children, Abd Allah – known by the mention of his name in the events of Ashura – is considered the other son of Husayn. According to Madelung, although early Sunni sources refer to Zayn al-'Abidin as 'Ali al-Asghar and Ali II as 'Ali al-Akbar, it is probably true that Sheikh Mufid and other Shi'ite writers are correct in stating the opposite. Ali II was killed in Karbala at the age of 19. His mother is Layla, the daughter of Abi Murrah ibn Urwah al-Thaqafi and Maymuna bint Abi Sufyan, the sister of Mu'awiya. According to Madelung, after Hasan's peace with Mu'awiya, Husayn married Layla, from whom Ali al-Akbar was born.
Umm Ishaq, the daughter of Talha, was another wife of Husayn, who had previously married Hasan. Despite her allegedly bad character, Hasan was pleased with her and asked his younger brother, Husayn, to marry her when he himself died. Husayn did so and had a daughter from her, named Fatima, who later married with Hasan ibn Hasan.
Hasan and Husayn were the only male descendants of the Muhammad from whom the next generations were born. Hence, any person who says that his lineage goes back to the Muhammad is either related to Hasan or to Husayn. Hasan and Husayn are different in this respect from their half brothers, such as Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya.
Personality and appearance
Husayn had a white face and sometimes wore a green turban and sometimes a black turban. He would travel with the poor or invite them to his house and feed them. Mu'awiyah said about Husayn that he and his father Ali were not deceitful, and Amr ibn al-As considered him the most beloved of the earthlings to the people of heaven.
According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, one of the moral characteristics of Husayn is Tolerance, humility, eloquence, and finally traits that can be deduced from his behavior, such as despising death, hatred of a shameful life, pride, and the like. In many narrations, the resemblance of Husayn and his brother to Muhammad is mentioned, and each of them is likened to half of their grandfather's behavior.
Husayn is described as looking like his grandfather, Muhammad, though not as much as his older brother, Hasan. According to Madelung, Husayn was similar to his father, Ali, while Hasan had the temperament of Muhammad and criticized the policies of his father, Ali. Madelung cites the fact that Hasan named two of his sons Muhammad and did not name any of them Ali and that Husayn named two of his four sons Ali and did not name either Muhammad as proof of this claim.
Rasool Jafarian considers the narrations in which Husayn is like Ali and Hasan is like Muhammad to be fake; According to him, the image presented in these narrations could have been used to destroy the image of Ali and Ashura and to be useful to those who were in favor of Uthman tendencies. According to the Shia scholar, Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, the opinion of some commentators about the difference in taste between Hasan and Husayn is misplaced; Because despite not swearing allegiance to Yazid, Husayn, like his brother, spent ten years in Mu'awiya's rule and never opposed it. Mohammad Emadi Haeri believes that Husayn is considered to be similar to Muhammad in most sources, and in one narration the most similar to him. There is also a narration that Ali considers Hussein to be the most similar person in terms of behavior.
Husayn was known for his generosity in Medina, and he freed his slaves and maids if they saw any good behavior. There is a narration that Muawiyah sent a maid to Husayn with a lot of property and clothes. When the maid recited verses from the Qur'an and a poem about the instability of the world and the death of man, Husayn set her free and gave her property. Once one of Husayn's slaves did something wrong. But after the slave recited the verse "وَالْعافینَ عَنِ النَّاس", Husayn forgave him and after that the slave recited the verse "وَلَلَّهُ یُحِبُّ الْمُحسسِينَ" and Husayn released the slave because of this. There is a narration that Husayn gave the property and goods that he inherited before receiving them. Husayn gave his children's teacher a large sum of money and clothes; While acknowledging that this does not compensate for the value of the teacher's work. A Levantine man once cursed Husayn and Ali, but Husayn forgave him and treated him with kindness. It is said that the place of the food bags that Husayn carried for the poor was obvious on his body on the day of Ashura.
In the Quran and Hadith
In the verses of the Quran
Many Sunni and Shiite commentators, such as Fakhr Razi and Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai, in their interpretation of Surah Al-Insan, attribute its revelation to Ali and Fatima and the story of the illness of their child or children and a vow for their recovery.
Seyyed Mohammad Husayn Tabatabai in Tafsir al-Mizan said, the event of Mubahala tells the story of the confrontation between the Prophet of Islam and his family on the one hand and the Christians of Najran on the other. Tabatabai says that according to the narrations, the meaning of our sons in the verse of Mubahila was Hassan and Husayn. Many Sunni commentators have also stated that the people in it are Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn.
In interpreting the verse of purification in Al-Mizan, Tabatabai considers the addressee of this verse to be the Ahl al-Kisa and refers to its hadiths, which number more than seventy hadiths and are mostly from the Sunnis. Sunni commentators such as Fakhr Razi and Ibn Kathir, in their commentary, while narrating various narrations about the example of Ahl al-Bayt in this verse, consider Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn as examples.
In the explanation and interpretation of verse 23 of Surah ash-Shura, Tabatabai in Al-Mizan, while reporting and criticizing the various sayings of the commentators, has said that the meaning of "nearness" is the love of the Ahl al-Bayt of Muhammad; That is, Ali is Fatima, Hassan and Husayn. He goes on to cite various narrations from Sunnis and Shiites that have clarified this issue. Sunni commentators such as Fakhr al-Razi and Ibn Kathir have also referred to this issue.
Verse 15 of Surah Al-Ahqaf talks about a pregnant woman who endures a lot of pain and suffering. This verse is considered a reference to Fatima Zahra, and the son is also known as Husayn, when God expressed his condolences to Muhammad about the fate of this grandson and Muhammad expressed this to Fatima Zahra, she was very upset.
Other verses that the Shiites attribute to Husayn include verse 6 of Surah Al-Ahzab and 28 of Surah Az-Zukhruf, which have been interpreted to mean the continuation of the Imamate from his generation. Also, verses such as 77 Surah an-Nisa, 33 Surah al-Isra and 27th to 30th Surah Al-Fajr refer to the uprising and killing of Husayn from the Shiite point of view.
In the biography of the Prophet of Islam
Husayn is placed as an example for the second weight in the narrations related to "Thaqalin". In another group of narrations related to Hasnain, they are introduced as "the master of the youth of Paradise". His name and Hassan's, due to their young age, are among those who pledge allegiance in renewing allegiance to the Prophet, which indicates the Prophet's goal in strengthening their historical and social status.
News of Husayn's fate
There are narrations that Gabriel informed Muhammad at the time of Husayn's birth that his ummah would kill Husayn and that the Imamate would be from Husayn, and that Muhammad informed his companions of how Husayn had been killed. Except for Muhammad, Ali and Hasan, they had said the same thing. God also informed the previous prophets about the killing of Husayn. Ali also knew that Husayn would be killed in Karbala, and once he passed by this area, he stopped and cried and remembered the news of Muhammad. He interpreted Karbala(کربلا) as (کرب) anguish and (بلا) calamity. The slain of Karbala will enter Paradise without any reckoning.
Works
There are narrations, sermons and letters left from Husayn Ibn Ali which are available in Sunni and Shiite sources. Narrations about him can be divided into two periods before and after the Imamate. In the first period – which is the period of his life in the life of his grandfather, father, mother and brother – there are at least two types of narrations about him: first, his narrations from his relatives, and second, his personal hadiths. In Sunni sources, only the aspect of the narration of his hadith has been considered in these hadiths. These Musnads, like the Musnad of the Companions of the Prophet of Islam, also have a Musnad named Husayn Ibn Ali. In his Musnad, Abu Bakr Bazar has narrated the Musnad of Husayn Ibn Ali with 4 hadiths and Tabarani has narrated his Musnad with 27 hadiths, respectively. In the Musnad of Husayn ibn Ali, in addition to the hadiths of Husayn himself, there are also hadiths of the Prophet of Islam and Ali ibn Abi Talib. In the present era, Azizullah Atardi has compiled the document of the Imam of the Martyr Abi Abdullah Al-Husayn Ibn Ali.
In the category of sermons of Husayn Ibn Ali, there are some sermons of him in the pre-Imamate period, some of which are very famous. Thus, the sermon of Husayn ibn Ali, after public allegiance to Ali ibn Abi Talib and others, is his sermon in the battle of Safin. Another example is a poem by Husayn about the loss of his brother Hasan after his burial. The sermons and letters of Husayn ibn Ali during his Imamate are more than before him. His letters to the Shiites, as well as his letters to Mu'awiyah regarding his adherence to the peace treaty, trace Mu'awiyah's actions, especially regarding Yazid, as well as his sermons and letters in the form of letters of recommendation at the beginning of Yazid's caliphate. An important part of the sermons and letters belong to the period of the uprising of Husayn bin Ali. Correspondence with Kufis, Basrians and people like Muslim Ibn Aqeel is like this. Hadiths on the subjects of jurisprudence, interpretation, beliefs, rulings and sermons, supplications, advice and poetry also remain from Husayn, which are scattered in Shiite and Sunni sources and have been compiled and published in the form of collections. There are also prayers left by Husayn Ibn Ali which have been published in the form of collections entitled Al-Sahifa Al-Husayn or prays of Imam Al-Husayn.
One of the most famous Shia prayers, as well as the works of Husayn, recorded in the book, Mafatih al-Janan, is the Du'a Arafah. According to William C. Chittick, this prayer is the most famous prayer in terms of its beauty and spiritual structure and is recited every year on the Day of Arafah and during the Hajj season – that is, when it was first recited by Husayn ibn Ali – by Shia pilgrims. This prayer has a special and important role in Shia theology and Mulla Sadra, the philosopher and mystic, has referred to this prayer many times in his works.
Views
The killing of Husayn has had an emotional impact on Sunnis, who remember the event as a tragic incident and those killed in the company of Husayn as martyrs. The impact on Shi'a Islam has been much deeper. According to Vaglieri, only the adherents of the Umayyad who considered him as "a rebel against the established authority", condoned his murder by Yazid, but their opinion was opposed by the majority of Muslims. Therefore, almost all Muslims consider Husayn honorable because he was the grandson of Muhammad and because of the belief that he sacrificed himself for an ideal. Historian Edward Gibbon described the events at Karbala as a tragedy. According to historian Syed Akbar Hyder, Mahatma Gandhi attributed the historical progress of Islam, to the "sacrifices of Muslim saints like Husayn" rather than military force.
Sunnis
The positive attitude of the Sunnis towards Husayn, according to Vaglieri, is most likely due to the sad narrations that Abu Mikhnaf has collected, some of which have been narrated directly or with short chains of transmitters, mostly from Kufis who regretted their actions towards Husayn. These sad narrations of the Kufis, which were a sign of Abu Mikhnaf's Shia tendencies, became the source of the narrations used by later historians and spread throughout the Islamic world. According to Rasul Jafarian, the Shia historian, fatalism, being promoted by Mu'awiya, caused Husayn's move to never be considered an uprising against corruption by the Sunnis, and they only considered it an illegal insurrection ().
Shias
The most important components of Shia views about Husayn are the belief in the Imamate of Husayn and the characteristics of an Imam by the Shia religions; Twelvers, Ismailis and Zaydis. Like other Imams, Husayn is a mediator with God for those who call on him; "it is through his intercession () that his faithful followers obtain guidance and attain salvation."
As a member of holy five he receives all the divine grace that exist in his older brother, Hasan; also as the grandson of Muhammad.
According to Vaglieri, the basis of the Shias' glorification of Husayn is his outstanding sacred and moral action and the noble ideals to which he sacrificed himself. From the belief that "the Imams know all that was, that is, and that is to come, and that their knowledge does not increase with time," it is inferred that Husayn already knew the fate that awaited him and his followers.
Hence, he left Mecca for Kufa, aware of his imminent sacrifice and yet without any hesitation or attempt to escape the will of God. A narration according to which Husayn was called by God to choose between sacrifice and Victory (with the help of an angel), gives even more value to his enterprise. About the reason for Husayn's sacrifice in Shia sources Vaglieri write:
He is thus remembered as the prince of martyrs (Sayyed al-Shuhada). The historian G. R. Hawting describes the Battle of Karbala as a "supreme" example of "suffering and martyrdom" for Shi'as. According to Abdulaziz Sachedina, it is seen by Shi'as the climax of suffering and oppression, revenge for which came to be one of the primary goals of many Shi'a uprisings. This revenge is believed to be one of the fundamental objectives of the future revolution of the twelfth Shi'a Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, whose return is awaited. With his return, Husayn and his seventy-two companions are expected to be resurrected along with their killers, who will then be punished.
Believing that Husayn wanted to redeem people from their sins with his blood, and that his action was "a redemptive sacrifice for the salvation of the world", according to Vaglieri, is foreign to Shia belief; however it may have been penetrated to Shia ta'zieh and recent poems later on, since it is easy to make the transition from tawassul to this idea, or it may be influenced by Christian ideas.
Among the verses that interpreted by some Shia sources as referring to Husayn is (Qur'an 46:15) which talks about a pregnant mother, Fatima, the mother of Husayn, who suffers a lot, when God expressed his condolences to Muhammad about the fate of this grandson, and Muhammad expressed this to Fatima; thus she was very upset.
According to another narration, the mysterious letters of K.H.Y.A.S. at the beginning of the nineteenth chapter of the Qur'an (Maryam (surah)) refers to Husayn and his fate in Karbala, that was similar to the fate of John the Baptist who was also beheaded and his head was placed on a plate.
It is also narrated that Ali knew that Husayn would be killed in Karbala, and when he passed by this area, he stopped and cried, remembering Muhammad's prophecy. Ali interpreted the name "Karbala" as "Karb" and "bala" meaning "affliction" and "trial". The slain of Karbala will enter Paradise without any reckoning.
The traditional narration "Every day is Ashura and every land is Karbala!" is used by the Shi'a as a mantra to live their lives as Husayn did on Ashura, i.e. with complete sacrifice for God and for others. The saying is also intended to signify that what happened on Ashura in Karbala must always be remembered as part of suffering everywhere.
Husayn's head in Isma'ilism
The Fatimid vizier Badr al-Jamali conquered Palestine under Caliph al-Mustansir Billah and discovered the head of Husayn in AH 448 (1056 AD). He constructed the minbar, a mosque and the mashhad at the place of burial, known as the Shrine of Husayn's Head. The shrine was described as the most magnificent building in Ashkelon. During the British Mandate it was a "large maqam on top of a hill" with no tomb but a fragment of a pillar showing the place where the head had been buried. Israeli Defense Forces under Moshe Dayan blew up Mashhad Nabi Husayn in July 1950 as part of a broader operation. Around the year 2000, Isma'ilis from India built a marble platform there, on the grounds of the Barzilai Medical Center. The head remained buried in Ashkelon until 1153 (for about 250 years) only. Fearing the crusaders, Ashkelon's ruler Sayf al-Mamlaka Tamim brought the head to Cairo on 31 August 1153 (8 Jumada al-Thani, AH 548).
Modern historical views on motivations of Husayn
Vaglieri considers him to be motivated by ideology, saying that if the materials that have come down to us are authentic, they convey an image of person who is "convinced that he was in the right, stubbornly determined to achieve his ends..." Holding a similar view, Madelung has argued that Husayn was not a "reckless rebel" but a religious man motivated by pious convictions. According to him, Husayn was convinced that "the family of the Prophet was divinely chosen to lead the community founded by Moḥammad, as the latter had been chosen, and had both an inalienable right and an obligation to seek this leadership." He was, however, not seeking martyrdom and wanted to return when his expected support did not materialize. Maria Dakake holds that Husayn considered the Umayyad rule oppressive and misguided, and revolted to reorient the Islamic community in the right direction. A similar view is held by Mahmoud Ayoub. S. M. Jafri proposes that Husayn, although motivated by ideology, did not intend to secure leadership for himself. Husayn, Jafri asserts, was from the start aiming for martyrdom in order to jolt the collective conscience of the Muslim community and reveal what he considers to be the oppressive and anti-Islamic nature of the Umayyad regime.
Others such as Wellhausen and Lammens, view his revolt as premature and ill-prepared, while others like Heinz Halm see it as a struggle for political leadership among the second generation of Muslims. Fred Donner, G. R. Hawting, and Hugh N. Kennedy consider Husayn's revolt an attempt to regain what his brother Hasan had renounced."
Legacy
Politics
The first political use of the death of Husayn seems to have been during the revolt of Mukhtar, when he seized Kufa under the slogan of "Revenge for Husayn". Although the Penitents had used the same slogan, they do not seem have had a political program. In order to enhance their legitimacy, Abbasid rulers claimed to have avenged the death of Husayn by dethroning the Umayyads. During the early years of their rule, they also encouraged Muharram rituals. Buyids, a Shi'a dynasty originally from Iran which later occupied the Abbasid capital Baghdad while accepting the Abbasid caliph's suzerainty, promoted the public rituals of Muharram to portray themselves as patrons of religion and to strengthen the Shi'a identity in Iraq. After taking over Iran in 1501, Safavids, who were previously a Sufi order, declared the state religion to be Twelver Shi'ism. In this regard, Karbala and Muharram rituals came to be a vehicle of Safavid propaganda and a means of consolidating the dynasty's Shi'a identity. Riza Yildirim has claimed that the impetus of the Safvid revolution was the revenge of the death of Husayn. The founder of the dynasty, Shah Ismail, considered himself to be the Mahdi (the twelfth Shi'a Imam) or his forerunner. Similarly, Qajars also patronized Muharram rituals such as processions, taziya and majalis, to improve the relationship between the state and the public.
Iranian Revolution
Karbala and Shi'a symbolism played a significant role in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In contrast to the traditional view of Shi'ism as a religion of suffering, mourning and political quietism, Shi'a Islam and Karbala were given a new interpretation in the period preceding the revolution by rationalist intellectuals and religious revisionists like Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Ali Shariati and Nematollah Salehi Najafabadi. According to these, Shi'ism was an ideology of revolution and political struggle against tyranny and exploitation, and the Battle of Karbala and the death of Husayn was to be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle; weeping and mourning was to be replaced by political activism to realize the ideals of Husayn.
After the White Revolution reforms of the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which were opposed by the Iranian clergy and others, Ruhollah Khomeini labelled the Shah as the Yazid of his time. Shi'i beliefs and symbols were instrumental in orchestrating and sustaining widespread popular resistance with Husayn's story providing a framework for labeling as evil and reacting against the Pahlavi Shah.
Condemning the Iranian monarchy, Khomeini wrote: "The struggle of al-Husayn at Karbalâ is interpreted in the same way as a struggle against the non-Islamic principle of monarchy." Opposition to the Shah was thus compared with the opposition of Husayn to Yazid, and Muharram ritual gatherings became increasingly political in nature. According to Aghaie, the Shah's hostility towards various Muharram rituals, which he considered to be uncivilized, contributed to his fall. The Islamic republic that was established after the revolution has since promoted Muharram rituals. The clerics encourage public participation in elections as a form of "political activism" comparable to that of Husayn. Martyrdom spirit influenced by the death of Husayn was frequently witnessed in Iranian troops during the Iran–Iraq war.
In art and literature
Literature
Mir Mosharraf Hossain's 19th century novel on Karbala, Bishad Sindhu (the Ocean of Sorrow), established the precedent of the Islamic epic in Bangali literature. South Asian philosopher and poet Muhammad Iqbal sees Husayn's sacrifice as being similar to that of Ishmael and compares Yazid's opposition to Husayn with the opposition of Pharaoh to Moses. Urdu poet Ghalib compares Husayn's suffering with that of Mansur al-Hallaj, a tenth century Sufi, who was executed on a charge of claiming divinity.
Maqtal literature and legendary accounts
Maqtal (pl. Maqatil) works narrate the story of someone's death. Although Maqatil on the deaths of Ali, Uthman and various others have been written, the Maqtal genre has focused mainly on the story of Husayn's death.
As well as Abu Mikhnaf's Maqtal, other Arabic Maqatil on Husayn were written. Most of these mix history with legend and have elaborate details on Husayn's miraculous birth, which is stated to be on 10 Muharram, coinciding with his date of death. The universe as well as humanity are described as having been created on the day of Ashura (10 Muharram). Ashura is also asserted to have been the day of both Abraham's and Muhammad's birth and of the ascension of Jesus to heaven, and of numerous other events concerning prophets. Husayn is claimed to have performed various miracles, including quenching his companions' thirst by putting his thumb in their mouths and satisfying their hunger by bringing down food from the heavens, and to have killed several thousand Umayyad attackers. Other accounts claim that when Husayn died, his horse shed tears and killed many Umayyad soldiers; the sky became red and it rained blood; angels, jinns and wild animals wept; that light emanated from Husayn's severed head and that it recited the Qur'an; and that all of his killers met calamitous end.
Maqtal later entered Persian, Turkish, and Urdu literature, and inspired the development of rawda.
Marthiya and rawda
When Shi'ism became the official religion of Iran in the 16th century, Safavid rulers such as Shah Tahmasp I, patronized poets who wrote about the Battle of Karbala. The genre of marthiya (poems in the memory of the dead, with popular forms of Karbala related marthiya being rawda and nawha), according to Persian scholar Wheeler Thackston, "was particularly cultivated by the Safavids." Various Persian authors wrote texts retelling romanticized and synthesized versions of the battle and events from it, including Sa'id al-Din's Rawdat al-Islam (The Garden of Islam) and Al-Khawarazmi's Maqtal nur 'al-'a'emmah (The Site of the Murder of the Light of the Imams). These influenced the composition of the more popular text Rawdat al-Shuhada (Garden of Martyrs), which was written in 1502 by Husain Wa'iz Kashefi. Kashefi's composition was an effective factor in the development of rawda khwani, a ritual recounting of the battle events in majalis.
Inspired by Rawdat al-Shuhada, the Azerbaijani poet Fuzûlî wrote an abridged and simplified version of it in Ottoman Turkish in his work Hadiqat al-Su'ada. It influenced similar works in Albanian on the subject. Dalip Frashëri's Kopshti i te Mirevet is the earliest, and longest epic so far, written in the Albanian language; the Battle of Karbala is described in detail and Frashëri eulogizes those who fell as martyrs, in particular Husayn.
Urdu marthiya is predominantly religious in nature and usually concentrates on lamenting the Battle of Karbala. South Indian rulers of Bijapur (Ali Adil Shah), and Golkonda Sultanate (Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah) were patrons of poetry and encouraged Urdu marthiya recitation in Muharram. Urdu marthiya afterwards became popular throughout India. Famous Urdu poets Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Rafi Sauda, Mir Anees, and Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer have also composed marthiya. Comparing Karl Marx with Husayn, Josh Malihabadi argues that Karbala is not a story of the past to be recounted by the religious clerics in majalis, but should be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle towards the goal of a classless society and economic justice.
Sufi poetry
In Sufism, where annihilation of the self (nafs) and suffering in the path of God are paramount principles, Husayn is seen as a model Sufi. Persian Sufi poet Hakim Sanai describes Husayn as a martyr, higher in rank than all the other martyrs of the world; while Farid ud-Din Attar considers him a prototype of a Sufi who sacrificed himself in the love of God. Jalal ud-Din Rumi describes Husayn's suffering at Karbala as a means to achieve union with the divine, and hence considers it to be a matter of jubilation rather than grief. Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai devoted a section in his Shah Jo Risalo to the death of Husayn, in which the incident is remembered in laments and elegies. He too sees Husayn's death as a sacrifice made in the path of God, and condemns Yazid as being bereft of divine love. Turkish Sufi Yunus Emre labels Husayn, along with his brother Hasan, as the "fountain head of the martyrs" and "Kings of the Paradise" in his songs.
Ancestry
See also
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Books
Encyclopedia
External links
Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī an article of Encyclopædia Britannica.
hussain ibn 'Ali by Wilferd Madelung, an article of Encyclopædia Iranica.
hussain ibn 'Ali in popular Shiism by Jean Calmard, an article of Encyclopædia Iranica.
626 births
680 deaths
7th-century imams
Family of Muhammad
7th-century Muslims
Arab Muslims
Children of Ali
Children of Rashidun caliphs
Deaths by blade weapons
Hussainiya
People killed at the Battle of Karbala
People of the Second Fitna
Sahabah killed in battle
Twelve Imams
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazid%20I
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Yazid I
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Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (; 64611 November 683), commonly known as Yazid I, was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate. He ruled from April 680 until his death in November 683. His appointment was the first hereditary succession to the caliphate in Islamic history. His caliphate was marked by the death of Muhammad's grandson Husayn ibn Ali and the start of the crisis known as the Second Fitna.
Yazid's nomination as heir apparent in (56 AH) by his father Mu'awiya I was opposed by several Muslim grandees from the Hejaz region, including Husayn and Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr. The two men refused to recognize Yazid following his accession and took sanctuary in Mecca. When Husayn left for Kufa in Iraq to lead a revolt against Yazid, he was killed with his small band of supporters by Yazid's forces in the Battle of Karbala. Husayn's death caused resentment in the Hejaz, where Ibn al-Zubayr called for a consultative assembly to elect a new caliph. The people of Medina, who supported Ibn al-Zubayr, held other grievances toward the Umayyads. After failing to gain the allegiance of Ibn al-Zubayr and the people of the Hejaz through diplomacy, Yazid sent an army to suppress their rebellion. The army defeated the Medinese in the Battle of al-Harra in August 683 and the city was sacked. Afterward, Mecca was besieged for several weeks until the army withdrew as a result of Yazid's death in November 683. The Caliphate fell into a nearly decade-long civil war, ending with the establishment of the Marwanid dynasty (the Umayyad caliph Marwan I and his descendants).
Yazid continued Mu'awiya's decentralized model of governance, relying on his provincial governors and the tribal nobility. He abandoned Mu'awiya's ambitious raids against the Byzantine Empire and strengthened Syria's military defences. No new territories were conquered during his reign. Yazid is considered an illegitimate ruler and a tyrant by many Muslims due to his hereditary succession, the death of Husayn, and his attack on Medina. Modern historians take a milder view, and consider him a capable ruler, albeit less successful than his father.
Early life
Yazid was born in Syria. His year of birth is uncertain, placed between 642 and 649. His father was Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, then governor of Syria under Caliph Uthman (). Mu'awiya and Uthman belonged to the wealthy Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe, a grouping of Meccan clans to which the Islamic prophet Muhammad and all the preceding caliphs belonged. Yazid's mother, Maysun, was the daughter of Bahdal ibn Unayf, a chieftain of the powerful Bedouin tribe of Banu Kalb. She was a Christian, like most of her tribe. Yazid grew up with his maternal Kalbite kin, spending the springs of his youth in the Syrian Desert; for the remainder of the year he was in the company of the Greek and native Syrian courtiers of his father, who became caliph in 661.
During his father's caliphate, Yazid led several campaigns against the Byzantine Empire, which the Caliphate had been trying to conquer, including an attack on the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. Sources give several dates for this between 49 AH (669–70 CE) and 55 AH (674–5 CE). Muslim sources offer few details of his role in the campaigns, possibly downplaying his involvement due to the controversies of his later career. He is portrayed in these sources as having been unwilling to participate in the expedition to the chagrin of Mu'awiya, who then forced him to comply. However, two eighth-century non-Muslim sources from al-Andalus (Islamic Spain), the Chronicle of 741 and the Chronicle of 754, both of which likely drew their material from an earlier Arabic work, report that Yazid besieged Constantinople with a 100,000-strong army. Unable to conquer the city, the army captured adjacent towns, acquired considerable loot, and retreated after two years. Yazid also led the hajj (the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) on several occasions.
Nomination as caliph
The third caliph Uthman drew the ire of the Muslim settlers of the conquered lands as a consequence of his controversial policies, which were seen by many as nepotistic and interfering in provincial affairs. In 656 he was killed by the provincial rebels in Medina, then capital of the Caliphate, after which Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, was recognized as caliph by the Medinese people and the rebels. In the consequent first Islamic civil war (656–661), Mu'awiya opposed Ali from his stronghold in Syria, fighting him to a stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in 657. In January 661 Ali was assassinated by a Kharijite (a faction opposed to Ali and Mu'awiya), after which his son Hasan was recognized as his successor. In August, Mu'awiya, who had already been recognized as caliph by his partisans in Syria, led his army toward Kufa, the capital of Hasan and Ali in Iraq, and gained control over the rest of the Caliphate by securing a peace treaty with Hasan. The terms of the treaty stipulated that Mu'awiya would not nominate a successor. Although the treaty brought a temporary peace, no framework of succession was established.
Mu'awiya was determined to install Yazid as his successor. The idea was scandalous to Muslims, as hereditary succession had no precedent in Islamic history—earlier caliphs had been elected either by popular support in Medina or by the consultation of the senior companions of Muhammad—and according to Islamic principles, the position of ruler was not the private property of a ruler to award to his descendants. It was also unacceptable by Arab custom, according to which the rulership should not pass from father to son but within the wider clan. According to the orientalist Bernard Lewis, the "only precedents available to Mu'āwiya from Islamic history were election and civil war. The former was unworkable; the latter had obvious drawbacks." Mu'awiya passed over his eldest son Abd Allah, who was from his Qurayshite wife, perhaps due to the stronger support Yazid had in Syria because of his Kalbite parentage. The Banu Kalb was dominant in southern Syria and led the larger tribal confederation of Quda'a. The Quda'a were established in Syria long before Islam and had acquired significant military experience and familiarity with hierarchical order under the Byzantines, as opposed to the more free-spirited tribesmen of Arabia and Iraq. Northern Syria, on the other hand, was dominated by the tribal confederation of Qays, which had immigrated there during Mu'awiya's reign, and resented the privileged position of the Kalb in the Umayyad court. By appointing Yazid to lead campaigns against the Byzantines, Mu'awiya may have sought to foster support for Yazid from the northern tribesmen. The policy had limited success as the Qays opposed the nomination of Yazid, at least in the beginning, for he was "the son of a Kalbi woman". In the Hejaz (western Arabia, where Medina and Mecca are located and where the old Muslim elite resided), Yazid had support among his Umayyad kinsmen, but there were other members of the Hejazi nobility whose approval was important. By appointing Yazid to lead the hajj rituals there, Mu'awiya may have hoped to enlist support for Yazid's succession and elevate his status as a Muslim leader. According to Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. 967), Mu'awiya had also employed poets to influence public opinion in favour of Yazid's succession.
According to the account of Ibn Athir (d. 1233), Mu'awiya summoned a (consultative assembly) of influential men from all of the provinces to his capital, Damascus, in 676 and won their support through flattery, bribes, and threats. He then ordered his Umayyad kinsman Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the governor of Medina, to inform its people of his decision. Marwan faced resistance, especially from Ali's son and Muhammad's grandson Husayn, and Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, Abd Allah ibn Umar, and Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, all sons of prominent companions of Muhammad, who, by virtue of their descent, could also lay claim to the caliphal office. Mu'awiya went to Medina and pressed the four dissenters to accede, but they fled to Mecca. He followed and threatened some of them with death, but to no avail. Nonetheless, he was successful in convincing the people of Mecca that the four had pledged their allegiance, and received the Meccans' allegiance for Yazid. On his way back to Damascus, he secured allegiance from the people of Medina. General recognition of the nomination thus forced Yazid's opponents into silence. The orientalist Julius Wellhausen doubted the story, holding that the reports of the nomination's rejection by prominent Medinese were a back-projection of the events that followed Mu'awiya's death. A similar opinion is held by the historian Andrew Marsham. According to the account of al-Tabari (d. 923), Mu'awiya announced the nomination in 676 and only received delegations from the Iraqi garrison town of Basra, which pledged allegiance to Yazid in Damascus in 679 or 680. According to Ya'qubi (d. 898), Mu'awiya demanded allegiance for Yazid on the occasion of the hajj. All, except the four prominent Muslims mentioned above, complied. No force was used against them. In any case, Mu'awiya arranged a general recognition for Yazid's succession before his death.
Reign
Mu'awiya died in April 680. According to al-Tabari, Yazid was at his residence in Huwwarin, located between Damascus and Palmyra, at the time of his father's death. According to verses of Yazid preserved in Isfahani's , a collection of Arabic poetry, Yazid was away on a summertime expedition against the Byzantines when he received the news of Mu'awiya's final illness. Based on this and the fact that Yazid arrived in Damascus only after Mu'awiya's death, the historian Henri Lammens has rejected the reports of Yazid being in Huwwarin. Mu'awiya entrusted supervision of the government to his most loyal associates, Dahhak ibn Qays al-Fihri and Muslim ibn Uqba al-Murri, until Yazid's return. He left a will for Yazid, instructing him on matters of governing the Caliphate. He was advised to beware Husayn and Ibn al-Zubayr, for they could challenge his rule, and instructed to defeat them if they did. Yazid was further advised to treat Husayn with caution and not to spill his blood, since he was the grandson of Muhammad. Ibn al-Zubayr, on the other hand, was to be treated harshly, unless he came to terms.
Oaths of allegiance
Upon his accession, Yazid requested and received oaths of allegiance from the governors of the provinces. He wrote to the governor of Medina, his cousin Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan, informing him of Mu'awiya's death and instructing him to secure allegiance from Husayn, Ibn al-Zubayr, and Ibn Umar. The instructions contained in the letter were:
Walid sought the advice of Marwan, who suggested that Ibn al-Zubayr and Husayn be forced to pay allegiance as they were dangerous, while Ibn Umar should be left alone as he posed no threat. Husayn answered Walid's summon, meeting Walid and Marwan in a semi-private meeting where he was informed of Mu'awiya's death and Yazid's accession. When asked for his oath of allegiance, Husayn responded that giving his allegiance in private would be insufficient and suggested the oath be made in public. Walid agreed, but Marwan insisted that Husayn be detained until he proffered allegiance. Husayn scolded Marwan and left to join his armed retinue, who were waiting nearby in case the authorities attempted to apprehend him. Immediately following Husayn's exit, Marwan admonished Walid, who in turn justified his refusal to harm Husayn by dint of the latter's close relation to Muhammad. Ibn al-Zubayr did not answer the summons and left for Mecca. Walid sent eighty horsemen after him, but he escaped. Husayn too left for Mecca shortly after, without having sworn allegiance to Yazid. Dissatisfied with this failure, Yazid replaced Walid with his distant Umayyad kinsman Amr ibn Sa'id. Unlike Husayn and Ibn al-Zubayr, Ibn Umar, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, and Abd Allah ibn Abbas, who had also previously denounced Mu'awiya's nomination of Yazid, paid allegiance to him.
Battle of Karbala
In Mecca Husayn received letters from pro-Alid Kufans, inviting him to lead them in revolt against Yazid. Husayn subsequently sent his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil to assess the situation in the city. He also sent letters to Basra, but his messenger was handed over to the governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad and killed. Ibn Aqil informed Husayn of the large-scale support he found in Kufa, signalling that the latter should enter the city. Informed by some Kufan tribal chiefs () of the goings-on, Yazid replaced the governor of Kufa, Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansari, who had been unwilling to take action against pro-Alid activity, with Ibn Ziyad, whom he ordered to execute or imprison Ibn Aqil. As a result of Ibn Ziyad's suppression and political maneuvering, Ibn Aqil's following began to dissipate and he was forced to declare the revolt prematurely. It was suppressed and Ibn Aqil was executed.
Encouraged by Ibn Aqil's letter, Husayn left for Kufa, ignoring warnings from Ibn Umar and Ibn Abbas. The latter reminded him, to no avail, of the Kufans' previous abandonment of his father Ali and his brother Hasan. On the way to the city, he received news of Ibn Aqil's death. Nonetheless, he continued his march towards Kufa. Ibn Ziyad's 4,000-strong army blocked his entry into the city and forced him to camp in the desert of Karbala. Ibn Ziyad would not let Husayn pass without submitting, which Husayn refused to do. Week-long negotiations failed, and in the ensuing hostilities on 10 October 680, Husayn and 72 of his male companions were slain, while his family was taken prisoner. The captives and Husayn's severed head were sent to Yazid. According to the accounts of Abu Mikhnaf (d. 774) and Ammar al-Duhni (d. 750–51), Yazid poked Husayn's head with his staff, although others ascribe this action to Ibn Ziyad. Yazid treated the captives well and sent them back to Medina after a few days.
Revolt of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr
Following Husayn's death, Yazid faced increased opposition to his rule from Ibn al-Zubayr who declared him deposed. Although publicly he called for a to elect a new caliph, in secret Ibn al-Zubayr let his partisans pay allegiance to him. At first, Yazid attempted to placate him by sending gifts and delegations in an attempt to reach a settlement. After Ibn al-Zubayr's refusal to recognize him, Yazid sent a force led by Ibn al-Zubayr's estranged brother Amr to arrest him. The force was defeated and Amr was taken captive and executed. As well as Ibn al-Zubayr's growing influence in Medina, the city's inhabitants were disillusioned with Umayyad rule and Mu'awiya's agricultural projects, which included the confiscation of their lands to boost government revenue. Yazid invited the notables of Medina to Damascus and tried to win them over with gifts. They were unpersuaded and on their return to Medina narrated tales of Yazid's lavish lifestyle. Accusations included Yazid drinking wine, hunting with hounds, and his love for music. The Medinese, under the leadership of Abd Allah ibn Hanzala, renounced their allegiance to Yazid and expelled the governor, Yazid's cousin Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Sufyan, and the Umayyads residing in the city. Yazid dispatched a 12,000-strong army under the command of Muslim ibn Uqba to reconquer the Hejaz. After failed negotiations, the Medinese were defeated in the Battle of al-Harra. According to the accounts of Abu Mikhnaf and al-Samhudi (d. 1533), the city was sacked, whereas per the account of Awana (d. 764) only the ringleaders of the rebellion were executed. Having forced the rebels to renew their allegiance, Yazid's army headed for Mecca to subdue Ibn al-Zubayr. Ibn Uqba died on the way to Mecca and command passed to Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni, who besieged Mecca in September 683. The siege lasted for several weeks, during which the Ka'ba, the sacred Muslim shrine at the center of the Mecca Mosque, caught fire. Yazid's sudden death in November 683 ended the campaign and Ibn Numayr retreated to Syria with his army.
Domestic affairs and foreign campaigns
The style of Yazid's governance was, by and large, a continuation of the model developed by Mu'awiya. He continued to rely on the governors of the provinces and , as Mu'awiya had, instead of relatives. He retained several of Mu'awiya's officials, including Ibn Ziyad, who was Mu'awiya's governor of Basra, and Sarjun ibn Mansur, a native Syrian Christian, who had served as the head of the fiscal administration under Mu'awiya. Like Mu'awiya, Yazid received delegations of tribal notables () from the provinces to win their support, which would also involve distributing gifts and bribes. The structure of the caliphal administration and military remained decentralised as in Mu'awiya's time. Provinces retained much of their tax revenue and forwarded a small portion to the Caliph. The military units in the provinces were derived from local tribes whose command also fell to the .
Yazid approved a decrease in taxes on the Arab Christian tribe of Najran upon their request, but abolished the special tax exemption of the ethno-religious community of Samaritans, which had been granted to them by previous caliphs as a reward for their aid to the Muslim conquerors. He improved the irrigation system of the fertile lands of the Ghouta near Damascus by digging a canal that became known as .
Toward the end of his reign, Mu'awiya reached a thirty-year peace agreement with the Byzantines, obliging the Caliphate to pay an annual tribute of 3,000 gold coins, 50 horses, and 50 slaves, and to withdraw Muslim troops from the forward bases they had occupied on the island of Rhodes and the Anatolian coast. Under Yazid, Muslim bases along the Sea of Marmara were abandoned. In contrast to the far-reaching raids against the Byzantine Empire launched under his father, Yazid focused on stabilizing the border with Byzantium. In order to improve Syria's military defences and prevent Byzantine incursions, Yazid established the northern Syrian frontier district of Qinnasrin from what had been a part of Hims, and garrisoned it.
Yazid reappointed Uqba ibn Nafi, the conqueror of the central North African region of Ifriqiya whom Mu'awiya had deposed, as governor of Ifriqiya. In 681, Uqba launched a large-scale expedition into western North Africa. Defeating the Berbers and the Byzantines, Uqba reached the Atlantic coast and captured Tangier and Volubilis. He was unable to establish permanent control in these territories. On his return to Ifriqiya, he was ambushed and killed by a Berber–Byzantine force at the Battle of Vescera, resulting in the loss of the conquered territories. In 681 Yazid appointed Ibn Ziyad's brother Salm ibn Ziyad as the governor of the northeastern border province of Khurasan. Salm led several campaigns in Transoxiana (Central Asia) and raided Samarqand and Khwarazm, but without gaining a permanent foothold in any of them. Yazid's death in 683 and the subsequent chaos in the east ended the campaigns.
Death and succession
Yazid died on 11 November 683 in the central Syrian desert town of Huwwarin, his favourite residence, aged between 35 and 43, and was buried there. Early annalists like Abu Ma'shar al-Madani (d. 778) and al-Waqidi (d. 823) do not give any details about his death. This lack of information seems to have inspired fabrication of accounts by authors with anti-Umayyad leanings, which detail several causes of death, including a horse fall, excessive drinking, pleurisy, and burning. According to the verses by a contemporary poet Ibn Arada, who at the time resided in Khurasan, Yazid died in his bed with a wine cup by his side.
Ibn al-Zubayr subsequently declared himself caliph and Iraq and Egypt came under his rule. In Syria, Yazid's son Mu'awiya II, whom he had nominated, became caliph. His control was limited to parts of Syria as most of the Syrian districts (Hims, Qinnasrin, and Palestine) were controlled by allies of Ibn al-Zubayr. Mu'awiya II died after a few months from an unknown illness. Several early sources state that he abdicated before his death. Following his death, Yazid's maternal Kalbite tribesmen, seeking to maintain their privileges, sought to install Yazid's son Khalid on the throne, but he was considered too young for the post by the non-Kalbites in the pro-Umayyad coalition. Consequently, Marwan ibn al-Hakam was acknowledged as caliph in a of pro-Umayyad tribes in June 684. Shortly after, Marwan and the Kalb routed the pro-Zubayrid forces in Syria led by Dahhak at the Battle of Marj Rahit. Although the pro-Umayyad stipulated that Khalid would succeed Marwan, the latter nominated his son Abd al-Malik as his heir. Thus the Sufyanid house, named after Mu'awiya I's father Abu Sufyan, was replaced by the Marwanid house of the Umayyad dynasty. By 692 Abd al-Malik had defeated Ibn al-Zubayr and restored Umayyad authority across the Caliphate.
Legacy
The killing of Muhammad's grandson Husayn caused widespread outcry among Muslims and the image of Yazid suffered greatly. It also helped crystallize opposition to Yazid into an anti-Umayyad movement based on Alid aspirations, and contributed to the development of Shi'a identity, whereby the party of Alid partisans was transformed into a religious sect with distinct rituals and memory. After the Battle of Karbala, Shi'a imams from Husayn's line adopted the policy of political quietism.
Traditional Muslim view
Yazid is considered an evil figure by many Muslims to the present day, not only by the Shi'a, who hold that the ruling position rightly belonged to Husayn's father Ali and his descendants, including Husayn, whom Yazid killed to strip him of his right, but also by many Sunnis, to whom he was an affront to Islamic values. For the Shi'a, Yazid is an epitome of evil. He is annually reviled in the Ashura processions and passion plays, and rulers considered tyrannical and oppressive are often equated with him. Before the Iranian Revolution, the Shah of Iran was called the "Yazid of his time" by the Iranian cleric Rouhollah Khomeini, as was the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Shi'a during the Iran–Iraq War for his ban on pilgrimages to the holy sites of Shi'a Islam. Among the Sunnis, the Hanafi school allows cursing of Yazid, whereas the Hanbali school and many in the Shafi'i school maintain that no judgment should be passed on Yazid, rather tyrants in general should be cursed. However, the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201) encouraged the cursing. According to al-Ghazali (d. 1111), cursing Yazid is prohibited, for he was a Muslim and his role in the killing of Husayn is unverified.
Yazid was the first person in the history of the Caliphate to be nominated as heir based on a blood relationship, and this became a tradition afterwards. As such, his accession is considered by the Muslim historical tradition as the corruption of the caliphate into a kingship. He is depicted as a tyrant who was responsible for three major crimes during his caliphate: the death of Husayn and his followers at Karbala, considered a massacre; the aftermath of the Battle of al-Harra, in which Yazid's troops sacked Medina; and the burning of the Ka'ba during the siege of Mecca, which is blamed on Yazid's commander Husayn ibn Numayr. The tradition stresses his habits of drinking, dancing, hunting, and keeping pet animals such as dogs and monkeys, portraying him as impious and unworthy of leading the Muslim community. Extant contemporary Muslim histories describe Yazid as "a sinner in respect of his belly and his private parts", "an arrogant drunken sot", and "motivated by defiance of God, lack of faith in His religion and hostility toward His Messenger". Al-Baladhuri (d. 892) described him as the "commander of the sinners" (), as opposed to the title commander of the faithful () usually applied to the caliphs. Nevertheless, some historians have argued that there is a tendency in early Muslim sources to exonerate Yazid of blame for Husayn's death, and put the blame squarely on Ibn Ziyad. According to the historian James Lindsay, the Syrian historian Ibn Asakir (d. 1176) attempted to stress Yazid's positive qualities, while accepting the allegations that are generally made against him. Ibn Asakir thus emphasised that Yazid was a transmitter of hadith (the sayings and traditions attributed to Muhammad), a virtuous man "by reason of his connection to the age of the Prophet", and worthy of the ruling position.
Modern scholarly view
Despite his reputation in religious circles, academic historians generally portray a more favourable view of Yazid. According to Wellhausen, Yazid was a mild ruler, who resorted to violence only when necessary, and was not the tyrant that the religious tradition portrays him to be. He further notes that Yazid lacked interest in public affairs as a prince, but as a caliph "he seems to have pulled himself together, although he did not give up his old predilections,—wine, music, the chase and other sport". In the view of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, despite the disasters of Karbala and al-Harra, Yazid's rule was "not devoid of achievement". His reputation might have improved had he lived longer, but his early death played a part in sticking of the stigma of "the shocks of the early part of his reign". According to the Islamicist G. R. Hawting, Yazid tried to continue the diplomatic policies of his father but, unlike Mu'awiya, he was not successful in winning over the opposition with gifts and bribes. In Hawting's summation, "the image of Muʿāwiya as operating more like a tribal than a traditional Middle Eastern despot ... also seems applicable to Yazīd". In the view of Lewis, Yazid was a capable ruler "with much of the ability of his father" but was overly criticized by later Arab historians. Expressing a viewpoint similar to Wellhausen's, Lammens remarked, "a poet himself, and fond of music, he was a Maecenas of poets and artists".
The characterization of Yazid in the Muslim sources has been attributed to the hostility of the Abbasid dynasty, during whose rule the histories were written, toward the Umayyads, whom they toppled in 750. Most reports in the traditional Muslim sources focus on the revolts against Yazid, and usually lack detail on his public life in Syria and his activities other than the suppression of the revolts. Lammens has attributed this to the tendency of the Iraq-based, Abbasid-era chroniclers to portray a caliph, under whom Husayn was killed and the holy cities of Islam were attacked, only as an impious drunkard. In contrast, a Syrian source preserved in the Chronicle of 741 describes the Caliph as "a most pleasant man and deemed highly agreeable by all the peoples subject to his rule. He never, as is the wont of men, sought glory for himself because of his royal rank, but lived as a citizen along with all the common people."
Yazidism
In the Yazidi religion, practiced by the mainly Iraq-based Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious community of Yazidis, Sultan Ezid is a highly revered divine figure. Most modern historians hold that the name Ezid derives from the name of Caliph Yazid. In Yazidi religious lore, there is no trace of any link between Sultan Ezid and the second Umayyad caliph. A pro-Umayyad movement particularly sympathetic towards Yazid existed in the Kurdish mountains before the 12th century, when Shaykh Adi, a Sufi of Umayyad descent venerated by Yazidis to this day, settled there and attracted a following among the adherents of the movement. The name Yazidi seems to have been applied to the group because of his Umayyad origins.
Coins
A Sasanian-style silver coin bearing the mint date as "Year I of Yazid" has been reported. The obverse side shows the portrait of the Sasanian king Khosrow II () and his name in the Pahlavi script. The reverse has the usual Zoroastrian fire altar surrounded by attendants. The margins, however, contain the inscription that it was minted during the first year of Yazid's reign. An anonymous coin from the Nishapur mint bearing the mint date 60, which is assumed to be the Hijri year, is also thought to be from Yazid's first regnal year. Other coins from his reign usually have only the name of the governor of the province where the coin originated. Coins bearing the name of the counter-caliph Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr have also been found from the provinces of Fars and Kirman, dated between 61 and 63 (681–683 CE), although Ibn al-Zubayr did not publicly claim the caliphate until after the death of Yazid. This may show that as well as the challenges to his rule in Arabia and Iraq, Yazid's authority was also challenged in southern Persia from roughly the time of his accession. The coins were probably minted in the name of Ibn al-Zubayr to lend legitimacy to the challengers of the Umayyads by using a suitable Qurayshite name.
Wives and children
Yazid married three women and had several concubines. The names of two of his wives are known: Umm Khalid Fakhita bint Abi Hisham and Umm Kulthum, a daughter of the veteran commander and statesman Abd Allah ibn Amir. Fakhita and Umm Kulthum both hailed from the Abd Shams, the parent clan of the Umayyads.
Yazid had three sons from his wives. His eldest, Mu'awiya II, was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of Yazid's death. The name of Mu'awiya II's mother is unknown, but she was from the Banu Kalb. Ill health prevented him from carrying out the caliphal duties and he rarely left his residence. He survived his father only by a few months and died without leaving any offspring. Yazid's second son, Khalid, was from Fakhita, and was born circa 668. Marwan married Fakhita after becoming caliph, to foster an alliance with the Sufyanid house and neutralize her son Khalid's claim to the caliphate. He remained quiet about being sidelined from the succession, although a legendary report says that he protested to Marwan, who in turn insulted him. He had friendly relations with Abd al-Malik, whose daughter he married. Several legendary accounts report Khalid being interested in alchemy and having ordered the translation of Greek works on alchemy, astronomy, and medicine into Arabic. Yazid's daughter Atika was the favourite wife of Abd al-Malik. They had several children, including the future Caliph Yazid II (). Yazid's son Abd Allah, from Umm Kulthum, was a famed archer and horseman. Yazid had several other sons from slave women.
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646 births
683 deaths
7th-century Umayyad caliphs
7th-century monarchs in Asia
7th-century monarchs in Africa
People of the Second Fitna
Umayyad people of the Arab–Byzantine wars
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle%20of%20Karbala
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Battle of Karbala
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The Battle of Karbala () was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid I () and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, at Karbala, Sawad (modern-day southern Iraq).
Prior to his death, the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I () had nominated his son Yazid as his successor. Yazid's nomination was contested by the sons of a few prominent companions of Muhammad, including Husayn, son of the fourth caliph Ali, and Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, son of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. Upon Mu'awiya's death in 680, Yazid demanded allegiance from Husayn and other dissidents. Husayn did not give allegiance and traveled to Mecca. The people of Kufa, an Iraqi garrison town and the center of Ali's caliphate, were averse to the Syria-based Umayyad caliphs and had a long-standing attachment to the house of Ali. They proposed Husayn overthrow the Umayyads. On Husayn's way to Kufa with a retinue of about 70 men, his caravan was intercepted by a 1,000-strong army of the caliph at some distance from Kufa. He was forced to head north and encamp in the plain of Karbala on 2 October, where a larger Umayyad army of 4,000 arrived soon afterwards. Negotiations failed after the Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad refused Husayn safe passage without submitting to his authority, a condition declined by Husayn. Battle ensued on 10 October during which Husayn was killed along with most of his relatives and companions, while his surviving family members were taken prisoner. The battle was the start of the Second Fitna, during which the Iraqis organized two separate campaigns to avenge the death of Husayn; the first one by the Tawwabin and the other one by Mukhtar al-Thaqafi and his supporters.
The Battle of Karbala galvanized the development of the pro-Alid party (Shi'at Ali) into a unique religious sect with its own rituals and collective memory. It has a central place in Shi'a history, tradition, and theology, and has frequently been recounted in Shi'a literature. For the Shi'a, Husayn's suffering and death became a symbol of sacrifice in the struggle for right against wrong, and for justice and truth against injustice and falsehood. It also provides the members of the Shi'a faith with a catalog of heroic norms. The battle is commemorated during an annual ten-day period during the Islamic month of Muharram by Shi'a, culminating on tenth day of the month, known as the Day of Ashura. On this day, Shi'a Muslims mourn, hold public processions, organize religious gathering, beat their chests and in some cases self-flagellate. Sunni Muslims likewise regard the incident as a historical tragedy; Husayn and his companions are widely regarded as martyrs by both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims.
Political background
After the third caliph Uthman's assassination by rebels in 656, the rebels and the townspeople of Medina declared Ali, a cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, caliph. Some of Muhammad's companions including Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (then governor of Syria), and Muhammad's widow A'isha, refused to recognize Ali. They called for revenge against Uthman's killers and the election of a new caliph through shura (consultation). These events precipitated the First Fitna (First Muslim Civil War). When Ali was assassinated by Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam, a Kharijite, in 661, his eldest son Hasan succeeded him but soon signed a peace treaty with Mu'awiya to avoid further bloodshed. In the treaty, Hasan was to hand over power to Mu'awiya on the condition that Mu'awiya be a just ruler and that he would not establish a dynasty. After the death of Hasan in 670, his younger brother Husayn became the head of the Banu Hashim clan to which the Islamic prophet Muhammad also belonged. Though his father's supporters in Kufa gave him their allegiance, he would abide to the peace treaty between Hasan and Mu'awiya as long as the latter was alive.
The Battle of Karbala occurred within the crisis resulting from the succession of Yazid I. In 676, Mu'awiya nominated his son Yazid as successor, a move labelled by the historian Wilferd Madelung as breach of the Hasan–Muawiya treaty. With no precedence in Islamic history, hereditary succession aroused opposition from several quarters. Mu'awiya summoned a shura, or consultative assembly, in Damascus and persuaded representatives from many provinces to agree to his plan by diplomacy and bribes. He then ordered Marwan ibn al-Hakam, then the governor of Medina, where Husayn and several other influential Muslims resided, to announce the decision. Marwan faced resistance to this announcement, especially from Husayn, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, Abd Allah ibn Umar and Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, the sons of Muhammad's prominent companions, all of whom, by virtue of their descent, could also lay claim to the caliphal title. Mu'awiya went to Medina and pressed the four dissenters to accede. He followed and threatened some of them with death, but they still refused to support him. Nonetheless, Mu'awiya convinced the people of Mecca that the four had pledged their allegiance, and received allegiance from them for Yazid. On his return to Damascus, he secured allegiance from the people of Medina as well. There was no further overt protest against the plan for Yazid's succession. According to the historians Fitzpatrick and Walker, Yazid's succession, which was considered as an "anomaly in Islamic history", transformed the government from a "consultative" form to a monarchy. Before his death in April 680, Mu'awiya cautioned Yazid that Husayn and Ibn al-Zubayr might challenge his rule and instructed him to defeat them if they did. Yazid was further advised to treat Husayn with caution and not to spill his blood, since he was the grandson of Muhammad.
Prelude
On his succession, Yazid charged the governor of Medina, al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abu Sufyan, to secure allegiance from Husayn, Ibn al-Zubayr and Abd Allah ibn Umar, with force if necessary. Walid sought the advice of his Umayyad relative Marwan ibn al-Hakam, who suggested that Ibn al-Zubayr and Husayn should be forced to pledge allegiance as they were dangerous, while Ibn Umar should be left alone since he posed no threat. Walid summoned the two, but Ibn al-Zubayr escaped to Mecca. Husayn answered the summons but declined to pledge allegiance in the secretive environment of the meeting, suggesting it should be done in public. Marwan told Walid to imprison or behead him, but due to Husayn's kinship with Muhammad, Walid was unwilling to take any action against him. A few days later, Husayn left for Mecca without acknowledging Yazid. He arrived in Mecca at the beginning of May 680, and stayed there until the beginning of September.
Husayn had considerable support in Kufa, which had been the caliphal capital during the reigns of his father and brother. The Kufans had fought the Umayyads and their Syrian allies during the First Fitna, the five-year civil war which had established the Umayyad Caliphate. They were dissatisfied with Hasan's abdication and strongly resented Umayyad rule. While in Mecca, Husayn received letters from pro-Alids in Kufa informing him that they were tired of the Umayyad rule, which they considered to be oppressive, and that they had no rightful leader. They asked him to lead them in revolt against Yazid, promising to remove the Umayyad governor if Husayn would consent to aid them. Husayn wrote back affirmatively that a rightful leader is the one who acts according to the Qur'an and promised to lead them with the right guidance. Then he sent his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil to assess the situation in Kufa. Ibn Aqil attracted widespread support and informed Husayn of the situation, suggesting that he join them there. Yazid removed Nu'man ibn Bashir al-Ansari as governor of Kufa due to his inaction, and installed Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, then governor of Basra, in his place. As a result of Ibn Ziyad's suppression and political maneuvering, Ibn Aqil's following began to dissipate and he was forced to declare the revolt prematurely. It was defeated and Ibn Aqil was killed. Husayn had also sent a messenger to Basra, another garrison town in Iraq, but the messenger could not attract any following and was quickly apprehended and executed.
Husayn was unaware of the change of political circumstances in Kufa and decided to depart. Abd Allah ibn Abbas and Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr advised him not to move to Iraq, or if he was determined, not to take women and children with him. The sincerity of Ibn al-Zubayr's advice has been doubted by many historians, however, as he had his own plans for leadership and was supposedly happy to be rid of Husayn. Nevertheless, he offered Husayn support if he would stay in Mecca and lead the opposition to Yazid from there. Husayn refused this, citing his abhorrence of bloodshed in the sanctuary, and decided to go ahead with his plan.
Journey towards Kufa
Husayn left Mecca with some fifty men and his family on 9 September 680 (8 Dhu al-Hijjah 60 AH), a day before Hajj. He took the northerly route through the Arabian Desert. On persuasion of Husayn's cousin Abd Allah ibn Ja'far, the governor of Mecca Amr ibn Sa'id sent his brother and Ibn Ja'far after Husayn in order to assure him safety in Mecca and bring him back. Husayn refused to return, relating that Muhammad had ordered him in a dream to move forward irrespective of the consequences. At a place known as Tan'im, he seized a caravan carrying dyeing plants and clothes sent by the governor of Yemen to Yazid. Further on the way, at a place called Tha'labiyya, the small caravan received the news of the execution of Ibn Aqil and the indifference of the people of Kufa. Husayn at this point is reported to have considered turning back, but was persuaded to push forward by Ibn Aqil's brothers, who wanted to avenge his death; according to Madelung and I. K. A. Howard, these reports are doubtful. Later, at Zubala, Husayn learned of the capture and execution of his messenger Qays ibn Musahir al-Saydawi, whom he had sent from the Hejaz (western Arabia) to Kufa to announce his arrival. He informed his followers of the situation and asked them to leave. Most of the people who had joined him on the way left, while his companions from Mecca decided to stay with him.
Ibn Ziyad had stationed troops on the routes into Kufa. Husayn and his followers were intercepted by the vanguard of Yazid's army, about 1,000 men led by al-Hurr ibn Yazid al-Tamimi, south of Kufa near Qadisiyya. Husayn said to them: I did not come to you until your letters were brought to me, and your messengers came to me saying, 'Come to us, for we have no imām. God may unite us in the truth through you.' Since this was your view, I have come to you. Therefore, if you give me what you guaranteed in your covenants and sworn testimonies, I will come to your town. If you will not and are averse to my coming, I will leave you for the place from which I came to you. He then showed them the letters he had received from the Kufans, including some in Hurr's force. Hurr denied any knowledge of the letters and stated that Husayn must go with him to Ibn Ziyad, which Husayn refused to do. Hurr responded that he would not allow Husayn to either enter Kufa or go back to Medina, but that he was free to travel anywhere else he wished. Nevertheless, he did not prevent four Kufans from joining Husayn. Husayn's caravan started to move towards Qadisiyya, and Hurr followed them. At Naynawa, Hurr received orders from Ibn Ziyad to force Husayn's caravan to halt in a desolate place without fortifications or water. One of Husayn's companions suggested that they attack Hurr and move to the fortified village of al-Aqr. Husayn refused, stating that he did not want to start the hostilities. On 2 October 680 (2 Muharram 61 AH), Husayn arrived at Karbala, a desert plain north of Kufa, and set up camp.
On the following day, a 4,000-strong Kufan army arrived under the command of Umar ibn Sa'd. He had been appointed governor of Rayy to suppress a local rebellion, but then recalled to confront Husayn. Initially, he was unwilling to fight Husayn, but complied following Ibn Ziyad's threat to revoke his governorship. After negotiations with Husayn, Ibn Sa'd wrote to Ibn Ziyad that Husayn was willing to return. Ibn Ziyad replied that Husayn must surrender or he should be subdued by force, and that to compel him, he and his companions should be denied access to the Euphrates river. Ibn Sa'd stationed 500 horsemen on the route leading to the river. Husayn and his companions remained without water for three days before a group of fifty men led by his half-brother Abbas was able to access the river. They could only fill twenty water-skins.
Husayn and Ibn Sa'd met during the night to negotiate a settlement; it was rumored that Husayn made three proposals: either he be allowed to return to Medina, submit to Yazid directly, or be sent to a border post where he would fight alongside the Muslim armies. According to Madelung, these reports are probably untrue as Husayn at this stage is unlikely to have considered submitting to Yazid. A mawla of Husayn's wife later claimed that Husayn had suggested that he be allowed to leave, so that all parties could allow the fluid political situation to clarify. Ibn Sa'd sent the proposal, whatever it was, to Ibn Ziyad, who is reported to have accepted but then persuaded otherwise by Shemr ibn Ziljawshan. Shemr argued that Husayn was in his domain and letting him go would be to demonstrate weakness. Ibn Ziyad then sent Shemr with orders to ask Husayn for his allegiance once more and to attack, kill and disfigure him if he was to refuse, as "a rebel, a seditious person, a brigand, an oppressor and he was to do no further harm after his death". If Ibn Sa'd was unwilling to carry out the attack, he was instructed to hand over command to Shemr. Ibn Sa'd cursed Shemr and accused him of foiling his attempts to reach a peaceful settlement but agreed to carry out the orders. He remarked that Husayn would not submit because there was "a proud soul in him".
The army advanced toward Husayn's camp on the evening of 9 October. Husayn sent Abbas to ask Ibn Sa'd to wait until the next morning, so that they could consider the matter. Ibn Sa'd agreed to this respite. Husayn told his men that they were all free to leave, with his family, under the cover of night, since their opponents only wanted him. Very few availed themselves of this opportunity. Defense arrangements were made: tents were brought together and tied to one another and a ditch was dug behind the tents and filled with wood ready to be set alight in case of attack. Husayn and his followers then spent the rest of the night praying.
Battle
After the morning prayer on 10 October, both parties took up battle positions. Husayn appointed Zuhayr ibn Qayn to command the right flank of his army, Habib ibn Muzahir to command the left flank, and his half-brother Abbas as the standard bearer. Husayn's companions, according to most accounts, numbered thirty-two horsemen and forty infantrymen; although forty-five horsemen and one hundred foot-soldiers, or a total of a few hundred men have been reported by some sources. Ibn Sa'd's army totaled 4,000. According to the Shi'a sources, however, more troops had joined Ibn Sa'd in preceding days, swelling his army to 30,000 strong. The ditch containing wood were set alight. Husayn then delivered a speech to his opponents reminding them of his status as Muhammad's grandson and reproaching them for inviting and then abandoning him. He asked to be allowed to leave. He was told that first he had to submit to Yazid's authority, which he refused to do. Husayn's speech moved Al-Hurr ibn Yazid Al-Tamimi to defect to his side.
After Husayn's speech, Zuhayr ibn Qayn attempted to dissuade Ibn Sa'd's soldiers from killing Husayn, but in vain. Ibn Sa'd's army fired several volleys of arrows. This was followed by duels in which several of Husayn's companions were slain. The right wing of the Kufans, led by Amr ibn al-Hajjaj, attacked Husayn's force, but was repulsed. Hand-to-hand fighting paused and further volleys of arrows were exchanged. Shemr, who commanded the left wing of the Umayyad army, launched an attack, but after losses on both sides he was repulsed. This was followed by cavalry attacks. Husayn's cavalry resisted fiercely and Ibn Sa'd brought in armoured cavalry and five hundred archers. After their horses were wounded by arrows, Husayn's cavalrymen dismounted and fought on foot.
Since Umayyad forces could approach Husayn's army from the front only, Ibn Sa'd ordered the tents to be burned. All except the one which Husayn and his family were using were set on fire. Shemr wanted to burn that one too, but was prevented by his companions. The plan backfired and flames hindered the Umayyad advance for a while. After noon prayers, Husayn's companions were encircled, and almost all of them were killed. Husayn's relatives, who had not taken part in the fighting so far, joined the battle. Husayn's son Ali Akbar was killed; then Husayn's half-brothers, including Abbas, and the sons of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, Jafar ibn Abi Talib and Hasan ibn Ali were slain. The account of Abbas' death is not given in the primary sources, al-Tabari and Baladhuri, but a prominent Shi'a theologian Shaykh Al-Mufid states in his account in Kitab al-Irshad that Abbas went to the river together with Husayn but became separated, was surrounded, and killed. At some point, a young child of Husayn's, who was sitting on his lap, was hit by an arrow and died.
Death of Husayn ibn Ali
The Umayyad soldiers hesitated to attack Husayn directly, but he was struck in the mouth by an arrow as he went to the river to drink. He collected his blood in a cupped hand and cast towards the sky, complaining to God of his suffering. Later, he was surrounded and struck on the head by Malik ibn Nusayr. The blow cut through his hooded cloak, which Husayn removed while cursing his attacker. He put a cap on his head and wrapped a turban around it to staunch the bleeding. Ibn Nusayr seized the bloodied cloak and retreated.
Shemr advanced with a group of foot soldiers towards Husayn, who was now prepared to fight as few people were left on his side. A young boy from Husayn's camp escaped from the tents, ran to him, tried to defend him from a sword stroke and had his arm cut off. Ibn Sa'd approached the tents, and Husayn's sister Zaynab complained to him: "'Umar b. Sa'd, will Abu 'Abd Allah (the kunya of Husayn) be killed while you stand and watch?" Ibn Sa'd wept but did nothing. Husayn is said to have killed many of his attackers. They were, however, still unwilling to kill him and each of them wanted to leave this to somebody else. Eventually Shemr shouted: "Shame on you! Why are you waiting for the man? Kill him, may your mothers be deprived of you!" The Umayyad soldiers then rushed Husayn and wounded him on his hand and shoulder. He fell on the ground face-down and an attacker named Sinan ibn Anas stabbed and then decapitated him.
Aftermath
Seventy or seventy-two people died on Husayn's side, of whom about twenty were descendants of Abu Talib, the father of Ali. This included two of Husayn's sons, six of his paternal brothers, three sons of Hasan ibn Ali, three sons of Jafar ibn Abi Talib, and three sons and three grandsons of Aqil ibn Abi Talib. Following the battle, Husayn's clothes were stripped, and his sword, shoes and baggage were taken. The women's jewelry and cloaks were also seized. Shemr wanted to kill Husayn's only surviving son Ali Zayn al-Abidin, who had not taken part in the fighting because of illness, but was prevented by Ibn Sa'd. There are reports of more than sixty wounds on Husayn's body, which was then trampled with horses as previously instructed by Ibn Ziyad. The bodies of Husayn's companions were decapitated. There were eighty-eight dead in Ibn Sa'd's army, who were buried before he left. After his departure, members of the Banu Asad tribe, from the nearby village of Ghadiriya, buried the headless bodies of Husayn's companions.
Husayn's family, along with the heads of the dead, were sent to Ibn Ziyad. He poked Husayn's mouth with a stick and intended to kill Ali Zayn al-Abidin, but spared him after the pleas of Husayn's sister Zaynab. The heads and the family were then sent to Yazid, who also poked Husayn's mouth with a stick. The historian Henri Lammens has suggested that this is a duplication of the report regarding Ibn Ziyad. Yazid was compassionate towards the women and Ali Zayn al-Abidin, and cursed Ibn Ziyad for murdering Husayn, stating that had he been there, he would have spared him. One of his courtiers asked for the hand of a captive woman from Husayn's family in marriage, which resulted in heated altercation between Yazid and Zaynab. The women of Yazid's household joined the captive women in their lamentation for the dead. After a few days, the women were compensated for their belongings looted in Karbala and were sent back to Medina.
Tawwabin uprising
A few prominent Alid supporters in Kufa felt guilty for abandoning Husayn after having invited him to revolt. To atone for what they perceived as their sin, they began a movement known as the Tawwabin, under Sulayman ibn Surad, a companion of Muhammad, to fight the Umayyads. As long as Iraq was in Umayyad hands, the movement remained underground. After the death of Yazid in November 683, the people of Iraq drove out the Umayyad governor Ibn Ziyad; the Tawwabin called on the people to avenge Husayn's death, attracting large-scale support. Lacking any political program, they intended to punish the Umayyads or sacrifice themselves in the struggle. Their slogan was "Revenge for Husayn". Mukhtar al-Thaqafi, another prominent pro-Alid of Kufa, attempted to dissuade the Tawwabin from this endeavor in favor of an organized movement to take control of the city, but Ibn Surad's stature as a companion of Muhammad and an old ally of Ali, prevented most of his followers from accepting Mukhtar's proposal. Although 16,000 men enlisted to fight, only 4,000 mustered. In November 684, the Tawwabin left to confront the Umayyads, after mourning for a day at Husayn's grave in Karbala. The armies met in January 685 at the three-day Battle of Ayn al-Warda in present-day northern Syria; most of the Tawwabin, including Ibn Surad, were killed. A few escaped to Kufa and joined Mukhtar.
Revolt of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi
Mukhtar was an early settler of Kufa, having arrived in Iraq following its initial conquest by the Muslims. He had participated in the failed rebellion of Muslim ibn Aqil, for which he was imprisoned by Ibn Ziyad, before being released after the intervention of Abd Allah ibn Umar. Mukhtar then went to Mecca and had a short-lived alliance with Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who had established himself in Mecca in opposition to Yazid. After Yazid's death, he returned to Kufa where he advocated revenge against Husayn's killers and the establishment of an Alid caliphate in the name of Husayn's half-brother Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, and declared himself his representative. The defeat of the Tawwabin left the leadership of the Kufan pro-Alids in his hands. In October 685, Mukhtar and his supporters, a significant of number of whom consisted of local converts (mawali), overthrew Ibn al-Zubayr's governor and seized Kufa. His control extended to most of Iraq and parts of northwestern Iran. His attitude towards mawali, whom he awarded many favors and equal status with Arabs, provoked a rebellion by the dissatisfied Arab aristocracy. After crushing the rebellion, Mukhtar executed Kufans involved in the killing of Husayn, including Ibn Sa'd and Shemr, while thousands of people fled to Basra. He then sent his general Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar to fight an approaching Umayyad army, led by Ibn Ziyad, which had been sent to reconquer the province. The Umayyad army was routed at the Battle of Khazir in August 686 and Ibn Ziyad was slain. Meanwhile, Mukhtar's relations with Ibn al-Zubayr worsened and Kufan refugees in Basra persuaded Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, the governor of the city and younger brother of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, to attack Kufa. Facing defeat in open battle, Mukhtar and his remaining supporters took refuge in the palace of Kufa and were besieged by Mus'ab. Four months later, in April 687, Mukhtar was killed while some 6,000–8,000 of his supporters were executed. According to Mohsen Zakeri, Mukhtar's attitude towards mawali was one of the reasons behind his failure, as Kufa was not ready for such "revolutionary measures". Mukhtar's supporters survived the collapse of his revolution and evolved into a sect known as the Kaysanites. The Hashimiyya, a splinter group of the Kaysanites, was later taken over by the Abbasids and eventually overthrew the Umayyads in 750.
Primary and classic sources
The primary source of the Karbala narrative is the work of the Kufan historian Abu Mikhnaf titled Kitab Maqtal Al-Husayn. Other early monographs on the death of Husayn, which have not survived, were written by al-Asbagh al-Nubata, Jabir ibn Yazid al-Ju'fi, Ammar ibn Mu'awiya al-Duhni, Awana ibn al-Hakam, al-Waqidi, Hisham ibn al-Kalbi, Nasr ibn Muzahim, and al-Mada'ini; of these al-Nubta's monograph was perhaps the earliest. Although Abu Mikhnaf's date of birth is unknown, he was an adult by the time of the revolt of Ibn al-Ash'ath, which occurred in 701, some twenty years after the Battle of Karbala. As such he knew many eyewitnesses and collected firsthand accounts and some with very short chains of transmission, usually only one or two intermediaries. The eyewitnesses were of two kinds: those from Husayn's side; and those from Ibn Sa'd's army. Since few people from Husayn's camp survived, most eyewitnesses were from the second category. According to Julius Wellhausen, most of them regretted their actions in the battle and embellished the accounts of the battle in favor of Husayn in order to dilute their guilt. Although as an Iraqi, Abu Mikhnaf had pro-Alid tendencies, his reports generally do not contain much bias on his part. Abu Mikhnaf's original text seems to have been lost and the version extant today has been transmitted through secondary sources such as the History of Prophets and Kings, also known as The History of Tabari, by Muḥammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari; and Ansab al-Ashraf by Ahmad ibn Yaḥya al-Baladhuri. Nevertheless, four manuscripts of a Maqtal located at Gotha (No. 1836), Berlin (Sprenger, Nos. 159–160), Leiden (No. 792), and Saint Petersburg (Am No. 78) libraries have been attributed to Abu Mikhnaf. Tabari quotes either directly from Abu Mikhnaf or from his student Ibn al-Kalbi, who took most of his material from Abu Mikhnaf. Tabari occasionally takes material from Ammar ibn Mu'awiya, Awana and other primary sources, which, however, adds little to the narrative. Baladhuri uses same sources as Tabari. Information on the battle found in the works of Dinawari and Ya'qubi is also based on Abu Mikhnaf's Maqtal, although they occasionally provide some extra notes and verses. Other secondary sources include al-Mas'udi's Muruj al-Dhahab, Ibn Ath'am's Kitab al-Futuh, Shaykh al-Mufid's Kitab al-Irshad, and Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani's Maqatil al-Talibiyyin. Most of these sources took material from Abu Mikhnaf, in addition to some from the primary works of Awana, al-Mada'ini and Nasr ibn Muzahim.
Although Tabari and other early sources contain some miraculous stories, these sources are mainly historical and rational in nature, in contrast to the literature of later periods, which is mainly hagiographical in nature.
The Battle of Karbala was also reported by an early Christian source. A history by the Syriac Christian scholar Theophilus of Edessa, who was chief astrologer in the Abbasid court between 775 and 785, is partially preserved in a number of extant Christian chronicles, including those by Michael the Syrian and the Byzantine historian Theophanes the Confessor. Theophilus's history corroborates the death in battle of Husayn and most of his men at Karbala after suffering from thirst. But in contrast to all Muslim sources, which state that Husayn fought Yazid, Theophilus appears to have written that Husayn was killed by Muawiyah as the final engagement of the First Fitna between the Umayyads and Ali's supporters.
Historical analysis
Based on an official report sent to caliph Yazid, which describes the battle very briefly, stating that it lasted for no longer than a siesta, Lammens concludes that there was no battle at all but a quick massacre that was over in an hour; he suggests that the detailed accounts found in the primary sources are Iraqi fabrications, since their writers were dissatisfied with their hero being killed without putting up a fight. This is countered by the historian Laura Veccia Vaglieri, who argues that despite there being some fabricated accounts, all of the contemporary accounts together form "a coherent and credible narrative". She criticizes Lammens' hypothesis as being based on a single isolated report and being devoid of critical analysis. Similarly, Madelung and Wellhausen assert that the battle lasted from sunrise to sunset and that the overall account of the battle is reliable. Vaglieri and Madelung explain the length of the battle despite the numerical disparity between the opposing camps as Ibn Sa'd's attempt to prolong the fight and pressure Husayn into submission instead of attempting to quickly overwhelm and kill him.
According to Wellhausen, the compassion that Yazid showed to the family of Husayn, and his cursing of Ibn Ziyad was only for show. He argues that if killing Husayn was a crime its responsibility lay with Yazid and not Ibn Ziyad, who was only performing his duty. Madelung holds a similar view; according to him, early accounts place the responsibility for Husayn's death on Ibn Ziyad instead of Yazid. Yazid, Madelung argues, wanted to end Husayn's opposition, but as a caliph of Islam could not afford to be seen as publicly responsible and so diverted blame onto Ibn Ziyad by hypocritically cursing him. According to Howard, some traditional sources have a tendency to exonerate Yazid at the cost of Ibn Ziyad and lower authorities.
Modern historical views on motivations of Husayn
Wellhausen has described Husayn's revolt as a premature and ill-prepared campaign by an ambitious person. He writes "He reaches out to the moon like a child. He makes the greatest demands and does not do the slightest; the others should do everything... As soon as he encounters resistance, it is over with him; he wants to go back when it is too late." Lammens has agreed to this view and he sees in Husayn a person who disturbs public peace. According to Heinz Halm, this was a struggle for political leadership between the second generation of Muslims, in which the poorly equipped pretender ended up losing. Fred Donner, G. R. Hawting, and Hugh N. Kennedy see Husayn's revolt as an attempt to regain what his brother Hasan had renounced.
Vaglieri, on the other hand, considers him to be motivated by ideology, saying that if the materials that have come down to us are authentic, they convey an image of person who is "convinced that he was in the right, stubbornly determined to achieve his ends..." Holding a similar view, Madelung has argued that Husayn was not a "reckless rebel" but a religious man motivated by pious convictions. According to him, Husayn was convinced that "the family of the Prophet was divinely chosen to lead the community founded by Moḥammad, as the latter had been chosen, and had both an inalienable right and an obligation to seek this leadership." He was, however, not seeking martyrdom and wanted to return when his expected support did not materialize. Maria Dakake holds that Husayn considered the Umayyad rule oppressive and misguided, and revolted to reorient the Islamic community in the right direction. A similar view is held by Mahmoud Ayoub. S. M. Jafri proposes that Husayn, although motivated by ideology, did not intend to secure leadership for himself. Husayn, Jafri asserts, was from the start aiming for martyrdom in order to jolt the collective conscience of the Muslim community and reveal what he considers to be the oppressive and anti-Islamic nature of the Umayyad regime. M. Momen sides with Jafri, citing the reports that Husayn was warned about the collapse of the Shia revolt in Kufa. Instead of changing his course, however, he pressed on toward Kufa, urging his supporters to leave him and save their lives.
Impact
The killing of the grandson of Muhammad shocked the Muslim community. The image of Yazid suffered and gave rise to sentiment that he was impious. The event has had an emotional impact on Sunnis, who remember the event as a tragic incident and those killed in the company of Husayn as martyrs. The impact on Shi'a Islam has been much deeper.
Shi'a Islam
Prior to the Battle of Karbala, the Muslim community was divided into two political factions. Nonetheless, a religious sect with distinct theological doctrines and specific set of rituals had not developed. Karbala gave this early political party of pro-Alids a distinct religious identity and helped transform it into a distinct religious sect. Heinz Halm writes: "There was no religious aspect to Shi'ism prior to 680. The death of the third imam and his followers marked the 'big bang' that created the rapidly expanding cosmos of Shi'ism and brought it into motion."
Husayn's death at Karbala is believed by Shi'as to be a sacrifice made to prevent the corruption of Islam by tyrannical rulers and to protect its ideology. He is, as such, believed to have been fully aware of his fate and the outcome of his revolt, which was divinely ordained. He is thus remembered as the prince of martyrs (Sayyed al-Shuhada). The historian G. R. Hawting describes the Battle of Karbala as a "supreme" example of "suffering and martyrdom" for Shi'as. According to Abdulaziz Sachedina, it is seen by Shi'as the climax of suffering and oppression, revenge for which came to be one of the primary goals of many Shi'a uprisings. This revenge is believed to be one of the fundamental objectives of the future revolution of the twelfth Shi'a Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, whose return is awaited. With his return, Husayn and his seventy-two companions are expected to be resurrected along with their killers, who will then be punished.
Shi'a observances
Shi'a Muslims consider pilgrimages to Husayn's tomb to be a source of divine blessings and rewards. According to Shi'a tradition the first such visit was performed by Husayn's son Ali Zayn al-Abidin and the surviving family members during their return from Syria to Medina. The first historically recorded visit is Sulayman ibn Surad and the Penitents going to Husayn's grave before their departure to Syria. They are reported to have lamented and beaten their chests and to have spent a night by the tomb. Thereafter this tradition was limited to the Shi'a imams for several decades, before gaining momentum under the sixth Shi'a imam Jafar Sadiq and his followers. Buyids and Safavids also encouraged this practice. Special visits are paid on 10 Muharram (Ashura Pilgrimage) and 40 days after the anniversary of Husayn's (Arba'een Pilgrimage). The soil of Karbala is considered to have miraculous healing effects.
Mourning for Husayn is considered by Shi'as to be a source of salvation in the afterlife, and is undertaken as a remembrance of his suffering. After the death of Husayn, when his family was being taken to Ibn Ziyad, Husayn's sister Zaynab is reported to have cried out after seeing his headless body: "O Muhammad!... Here is Husayn in the open, stained with blood and with limbs torn off. O Muhammad! Your daughters are prisoners, your progeny are killed, and the east wind blows dust over them." Shi'a Muslims consider this to be the first instance of wailing and mourning over the death of Husayn. Husayn's son Zayn al-Abideen is reported to have spent the rest of his life weeping for his father. Similarly, Husayn's mother Fatima is believed to be weeping for him in paradise and the weeping of believers is considered to be a way of sharing her sorrows. Special gatherings (majalis; sing. majlis) are arranged in places reserved for this purpose, called husayniyya. In these gatherings the story of Karbala is narrated and various elegies (rawda) are recited by professional reciters (rawda khwan).
During the month of Muharram, elaborate public processions are performed in commemoration of the Battle of Karbala. In contrast to pilgrimage to Husayn's tomb and simple lamenting, these processions do not date back to the time of the battle, but arose during tenth century. Their earliest recorded instance was in Baghdad in 963 during the reign of the first Buyid ruler Mu'izz al-Dawla. The processions start from a husayniyya and the participants parade barefoot through the streets, wailing and beating their chests and heads before returning to the husayniyya for a majlis. Sometimes, chains and knives are used to inflict wounds and physical pain. In South Asia, an ornately tacked horse called zuljanah, representing Husayn's battle horse, is also led riderless through the streets. In Iran, the battle scenes of Karbala are performed on stage in front of an audience in a ritual called taziya (passion play), also known as shabih. In India however, taziya refers to the coffins and replicas of Husayn's tomb carried in processions.
Most of these rituals take place during the first ten days of Muharram, reaching a climax on the tenth day, although majalis can also occur throughout the year. Occasionally, especially in the past, some Sunni participation in majalis and processions has been observed. According to Yitzhak Nakash, the rituals of Muharram have an "important" effect in the "invoking the memory of Karbala", as these help consolidate the collective identity and memory of the Shi'a community. Anthropologist Michael Fischer states that commemoration of the Battle of Karbala by the Shi'a is not only the retelling of the story, but also presents them with "life models and norms of behavior" which are applicable to all aspects of life, which he calls the Karbala Paradigm. According to Olmo Gölz, the Karbala Paradigm provide Shi'as with heroic norms and a martyr ethos, and represents an embodiment of the battle between good and evil, justice and injustice. Rituals involving self-flagellation have been criticized by many Shi'a scholars as they are considered to be innovative practices damaging reputation of Shi'ism. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has banned the practice in Iran since 1994.
Politics
The first political use of the death of Husayn seems to have been during the revolt of Mukhtar, when he seized Kufa under the slogan of "Revenge for Husayn". Although the Penitents had used the same slogan, they do not seem have had a political program. In order to enhance their legitimacy, Abbasid rulers claimed to have avenged the death of Husayn by dethroning the Umayyads. During the early years of their rule, they also encouraged Muharram rituals. Buyids, a Shi'a dynasty originally from Iran which later occupied the Abbasid capital Baghdad while accepting the Abbasid caliph's suzerainty, promoted the public rituals of Muharram to portray themselves as patrons of religion and to strengthen the Shi'a identity in Iraq. After taking over Iran in 1501, Safavids, who were previously a Sufi order, declared the state religion to be Twelver Shi'ism. In this regard, Karbala and Muharram rituals came to be a vehicle of Safavid propaganda and a means of consolidating the dynasty's Shi'a identity. Riza Yildirim has claimed that the impetus of the Safvid revolution was the revenge of the death of Husayn. The founder of the dynasty, Shah Ismail, considered himself to be the Mahdi (the twelfth Shi'a Imam) or his forerunner. Similarly, Qajars also patronized Muharram rituals such as processions, taziya and majalis, to improve the relationship between the state and the public.
Iranian revolution
Karbala and Shi'a symbolism played a significant role in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. In contrast to the traditional view of Shi'ism as a religion of suffering, mourning and political quietism, Shi'a Islam and Karbala were given a new interpretation in the period preceding the revolution by rationalist intellectuals and religious revisionists like Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Ali Shariati and Nematollah Salehi Najafabadi. According to these, Shi'ism was an ideology of revolution and political struggle against tyranny and exploitation, and the Battle of Karbala and the death of Husayn was to be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle; weeping and mourning was to be replaced by political activism to realize the ideals of Husayn.
After the White Revolution reforms of the Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which were opposed by the Iranian clergy and others, Ruhollah Khomeini labelled the Shah as the Yazid of his time. Condemning the Iranian monarchy, Khomeini wrote: "The struggle of al-Husayn at Karbalâ is interpreted in the same way as a struggle against the non-Islamic principle of monarchy." Opposition to the Shah was thus compared with the opposition of Husayn to Yazid, and Muharram ritual gatherings became increasingly political in nature. According to Aghaie, the Shah's hostility towards various Muharram rituals, which he considered to be uncivilized, contributed to his fall. The Islamic republic that was established after the revolution has since promoted Muharram rituals. The clerics encourage public participation in elections as a form of "political activism" comparable to that of Husayn. Martyrdom spirit influenced by the death of Husayn was frequently witnessed in Iranian troops during the Iran–Iraq war.
In literature and art
South Asian philosopher and poet Muhammad Iqbal sees Husayn's sacrifice as being similar to that of Ishmael and compares Yazid's opposition to Husayn with the opposition of Pharaoh to Moses. Urdu poet Ghalib compares Husayn's suffering with that of Mansur al-Hallaj, a tenth century Sufi, who was executed on a charge of claiming divinity.
Maqtal literature and legendary accounts
Maqtal (pl. Maqatil) works narrate the story of someone's death. Although Maqatil on the deaths of Ali, Uthman and various others have been written, the Maqtal genre has focused mainly on the story of Husayn's death.
As well as Abu Mikhnaf's Maqtal, other Arabic Maqatil on Husayn were written. Most of these mix history with legend and have elaborate details on Husayn's miraculous birth, which is stated to be on 10 Muharram, coinciding with his date of death. The universe as well as humanity are described as having been created on the day of Ashura (10 Muharram). Ashura is also asserted to have been the day of both Abraham's and Muhammad's birth and of the ascension of Jesus to heaven, and of numerous other events concerning prophets. Husayn is claimed to have performed various miracles, including quenching his companions' thirst by putting his thumb in their mouths and satisfying their hunger by bringing down food from the heavens, and to have killed several thousand Umayyad attackers. Other accounts claim that when Husayn died, his horse shed tears and killed many Umayyad soldiers; the sky became red and it rained blood; angels, jinns and wild animals wept; that light emanated from Husayn's severed head and that it recited the Qur'an; and that all of his killers met calamitous end.
Maqtal later entered Persian, Turkish, and Urdu literature, and inspired the development of rawda.
Marthiya and rawda
When Shi'ism became the official religion of Iran in the 16th century, Safavid rulers such as Shah Tahmasp I, patronized poets who wrote about the Battle of Karbala. The genre of marthiya (poems in the memory of the dead, with popular forms of Karbala related marthiya being rawda and nawha), according to Persian scholar Wheeler Thackston, "was particularly cultivated by the Safavids." Various Persian authors wrote texts retelling romanticized and synthesized versions of the battle and events from it, including Sa'id al-Din's Rawdat al-Islam (The Garden of Islam) and Al-Khawarazmi's Maqtal nur 'al-'a'emmah (The Site of the Murder of the Light of the Imams). These influenced the composition of the more popular text Rawdat al-Shuhada (Garden of Martyrs), which was written in 1502 by Husain Wa'iz Kashefi. Kashefi's composition was an effective factor in the development of rawda khwani, a ritual recounting of the battle events in majalis.
Inspired by Rawdat al-Shuhada, the Azerbaijani poet Fuzûlî wrote an abridged and simplified version of it in Ottoman Turkish in his work Hadiqat al-Su'ada. It influenced similar works in Albanian on the subject. Dalip Frashëri's Kopshti i te Mirevet is the earliest, and longest epic so far, written in the Albanian language; the Battle of Karbala is described in detail and Frashëri eulogizes those who fell as martyrs, in particular Husayn.
Urdu marthiya is predominantly religious in nature and usually concentrates on lamenting the Battle of Karbala. South Indian rulers of Bijapur (Ali Adil Shah), and Golkonda Sultanate (Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah) were patrons of poetry and encouraged Urdu marthiya recitation in Muharram. Urdu marthiya afterwards became popular throughout India. Famous Urdu poets Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Rafi Sauda, Mir Anees, and Mirza Salaamat Ali Dabeer have also composed marthiya. Comparing Karl Marx with Husayn, Josh Malihabadi argues that Karbala is not a story of the past to be recounted by the religious clerics in majalis, but should be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle towards the goal of a classless society and economic justice.
Sufi poetry
In Sufism, where annihilation of the self (nafs) and suffering in the path of God are paramount principles, Husayn is seen as a model Sufi. Persian Sufi poet Hakim Sanai describes Husayn as a martyr, higher in rank than all the other martyrs of the world; while Farid ud-Din Attar considers him a prototype of a Sufi who sacrificed himself in the love of God. Jalal ud-Din Rumi describes Husayn's suffering at Karbala as a means to achieve union with the divine, and hence considers it to be a matter of jubilation rather than grief. Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai devoted a section in his Shah Jo Risalo to the death of Husayn, in which the incident is remembered in laments and elegies. He too sees Husayn's death as a sacrifice made in the path of God, and condemns Yazid as being bereft of divine love. Turkish Sufi Yunus Emre labels Husayn, along with his brother Hasan, as the "fountain head of the martyrs" and "Kings of the Paradise" in his songs.
Paintings and murals
Although the Islamic clergy has been disapproving of pictorial representation of early figures of Islam, the popularity of the taziya passion plays in Iran facilitated public acceptance of such representations in the form of paintings depicting battle scenes. The paintings, called shamayel or parda, originated in the Qajar era and were not intended as professional works of high art, but rather as popular representations for the taziya scenes. The "cartoon style" paintings usually depict multiple battle scenes on a single canvas as well as scenes from the hereafter showing Husayn and his supporters enjoying in the paradise and their enemies burning in hell. They are often used to decorate husayniyyas. The shamayel subsequently gave rise to murals when scenes started to be painted directly on walls.
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Battle of Karbalāʾ, Encyclopædia Britannica
Conflicts in 680
Iraq under the Umayyad Caliphate
Battles involving the Umayyad Caliphate
Battle of Karbala
Shia Islam
Last stands
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry%20Rice
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Jerry Rice
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Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 20 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He won three Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers before two shorter stints at the end of his career with the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks. Nicknamed "World" because of his superb catching ability, his accomplishments and numerous records, Rice is widely regarded as the greatest wide receiver of all time and one of the greatest players in NFL history. His biography on the official Pro Football Hall of Fame website names him: "the most prolific wide receiver in NFL history with staggering career totals". In 1999, The Sporting News listed Rice second behind Jim Brown on its list of "Football's 100 Greatest Players". In 2010, he was chosen by NFL Network's NFL Films production The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players as the greatest player in NFL history.
Rice played college football for four seasons with the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils, setting several NCAA and team receiving records, including becoming the all-time leader in NCAA receiving touchdowns. He joined the 49ers in 1985 after being drafted with the 16th overall pick. After a modest rookie season, Rice emerged in the following season as one of the best receivers in the league, leading the NFL in receiving yards and touchdowns: a feat he achieved four times. In 1987, Rice set the record for most receiving touchdowns in a season, with 22, in a twelve-game strike-shortened season. He won back-to-back championships in 1988 and 1989, and was the MVP of the former championship. Rice developed connections with quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young that are viewed as among the best in NFL history, helping him lead the league in both receiving yards and touchdowns six times, and in receptions twice.
Going into the 1990s, Rice won a third Super Bowl in 1994, and a second Offensive Player of The Year Award. After recovering from a knee injury and his play regressing, San Francisco released him in June 2001, where the Raiders would sign him to a 4 year deal. He continued to start for the team, and helped lead them to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII, where they were defeated by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, affecting Rice's previously unblemished Super Bowl record. Midway through 2004, the Raiders traded him to the Seahawks, where he spent his final season. He briefly signed with the Broncos, retiring shortly before the start of the 2005 season.
Rice is the career leader in most major statistical categories for wide receivers, including receptions, receiving touchdowns, receiving yards, scrimmage yards, and total touchdowns, holding the postseason records for these statistics, and once held the single season records for yards and touchdowns. He scored more points than any other non-kicker in NFL history with 1,256. Rice was selected to the Pro Bowl 13 times (1986–1996, 1998, 2002) and named All-Pro twelve times in his 20 NFL seasons, including ten First-team All-Pros, tied for the most by any player. Rice was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006. Rice was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, and in the same year was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. The NFL honored him as a member of the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team and the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team, as well as both the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Early life
Rice was born on October 13, 1962, in Starkville, Mississippi, and lived in Crawford, Mississippi, the sixth of eight children. Crawford was a small town, having only 600 residents. Rice's father, Joe, was a brick mason who built houses by hand, while holding other jobs to provide for the family. Joe was described by Rice as "a tough man" and held him and his siblings to a strict lifestyle. Eddie B., Rice's mother, raised Rice while Joe was working, and after Rice left cleaned the houses of wealthy families. Rice and his brothers often worked with their father building houses, catching bricks on top of scaffolds to make sure his father had bricks to lay. He did not see bricklaying as his future, later saying that: "It taught me the meaning of hard work." The Rice family struggled financially, with Rice sometimes not having many pairs of clothing or having a "hearty meal on the table". To provide for his family, he and his brothers picked corn, cotton, carrots, and hay. Rice asserted that he was shy as a child, and had few friends.
Rice attended B. L. Moor High School in Oktoc, Mississippi. Although he played mock games of basketball and football, Rice initially played no sports in high school. He enjoyed playing sandlot football and watching football on television. His mother didn't allow him to join the school's football team in his freshman year, as she thought that football was "too rough" for Rice. While a sophomore, the school's assistant principal caught Rice skipping class with a friend, causing him to panic and sprint away. After Rice fled, the principal was impressed with his speed, and informed the school's football coach, Charles Davis, who offered Rice a place on the team. Initially unhappy about this, Rice's mother relented after realizing that "the more I fought it, the more determined he was, so I gave it up." Rice played basketball as a forward and was on the track and field team, competing in the high jump. Rice played multiple positions in high school, including running back, defensive back, and tight end. The position he was most skilled at, however, was wide receiver. During the off-season before his junior year, Rice increased his training; running several miles back to his house because he didn't have a ride. Rice had a breakout junior season, primarily playing wide receiver and defensive back.
Rice was a Mississippi All-State selection at wide receiver in his senior year. Due to the small size of Moor, few of his statistics were officially recorded. According to sports journalist Glenn Dickey, Rice caught 50 receptions and 30 touchdowns as a senior, helping to lead the team to a record over his final two seasons. He and Moor's starting quarterback, Willie Gillespie, were very dependable, enough for them to be nicknamed Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry. Rice initially wanted to go to Mississippi State University, who wasn't interested in Rice. Mississippi State was one of over 40 NCAA Division I-A schools that contacted him, but did not offer a scholarship. He was drawn to Mississippi Valley State; in part, because the school's coach, Archie Cooley, ran a pass-heavy offense—so much so that Cooley was nicknamed "The Gunslinger." After Cooley watched him perform in person, and visiting the school's campus, Rice committed to playing at Mississippi Valley State.
College career
Rice attended Mississippi Valley State University from 1981 to 1984. When Rice arrived at Mississippi Valley State, he attended summer school and freshman orientation before the regular season. Two of his former teammates from B.L. Moor were there as well, but both left before the start of training camp. Rice studied receiving techniques from Gloster Richardson, stating: "I soaked up everything I could."
In 1981, Rice's freshman season, he caught 30 passes for 428 yards and two touchdowns. In 1982, Rice played his first season with freshman quarterback Willie Totten. They became friends and practiced into the evening. Under the direction of Cooley, Mississippi Valley State ran an "unusual" offense, playing four wide receivers who tended to line up on one side of the field. Rice caught 66 passes for 1,133 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore that year. Together, Totten and Rice became known as "The Satellite Express." Success on the field did not put any money in his pocket, and many times he relied on friends for food, stating that the food given to him at Mississippi Valley "were not enough for a growing man".
Rice had a record-setting 1983 campaign, including NCAA marks for receptions (102) and receiving yards (1,450). He was named a first-team Division I-AA All-American. He set a single-game NCAA record with 24 receptions against Southern University. He acquired the nickname "World," because of his ability to seemingly catch anything thrown near him.
After an August practice experiment, Cooley had Totten call all the plays at the line of scrimmage without a huddle, resulting in even more staggering offensive numbers. Rice caught 17 receptions for 199 yards against Southern, 17 receptions for 294 yards, and five receiving touchdowns against Kentucky State, and 15 for 285 yards against Jackson State. During the game against Kentucky State, Rice caught twelve passes and scored three touchdowns in a single quarter. As a senior in 1984, he surpassed his own Division I-AA records for receiving yards (1,845), and receptions (112); his 27 touchdown receptions in the 1984 season set the NCAA record for every division. The 1984 Delta Devils averaged more than 60 points per game. Rice was named to the Division I-AA All-American team and finished ninth in Heisman Trophy balloting in 1984.
In the Blue–Gray Classic all-star game played on Christmas Day, he earned MVP honors after four receptions for 101 yards and a 60-yard touchdown. He finished his career with 301 catches for 4,693 yards and 50 touchdowns, (although some sources have his numbers as 310 receptions, 4,856 receiving yards, and 51 touchdowns); his NCAA record for total career touchdown receptions stood until 2006 when New Hampshire wide receiver David Ball recorded his 51st career receiving touchdown. Rice's all-division NCAA record for total career receptions stood until 1999 when Scott Pingel of Division III Westminster logged his 302nd career reception. By the end of his college career, he had broken 18 NCAA records. Rice became a member of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at the Delta Phi chapter. In 1999, the school renamed its football stadium from Magnolia Stadium to Rice–Totten Stadium in honor of the players. Rice was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, and was in the inaugural class of the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
During this time, Rice met Jackie Mitchell at an MVS basketball game, while she was still in high school. Rice eventually approached her, and they dated casually before Rice met her mother. Her mother was initially unhappy about Rice and preferred that Mitchell see another boy that lived in Greenville, Mississippi, but after meeting Rice in person she approved of him.
Professional career
San Francisco 49ers (1985–2000)
Rice's record-breaking season at Mississippi Valley State caught the attention of NFL scouts. Sources vary on his 40-yard dash time, which was measured between 4.45 and 4.71 seconds. Both the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers showed interest in him. San Francisco had won two out of the previous four Super Bowls prior to the draft. Rice later wrote in Go Long! that he was unsure about what success he might have in the league, and that he would "often play head games" with himself; his backup plan if his football career didn't pan out was fixing electronics. In a 2022 interview with Fox News Digital, Rice expressed his doubts about being drafted at the time: "To be honest, I never thought I was going to get drafted, I downplayed everything because I didn't want that disappointment of getting up here and then come down in disappointment if it didn't happen".
In the first round of the 1985 NFL Draft, Dallas had the No. 17 selection and San Francisco, as Super Bowl champion from the previous season, had the last. 49ers coach Bill Walsh sought Rice after seeing television highlights of his college performances. Walsh "saw the deep-threat the 49ers lacked ... a player who could break open a game with one play." The 49ers traded their first, second, and third-round picks for the New England Patriots' first and third-round picks. The 49ers had the No. 16 selection overall and drafted Rice before the Cowboys had a chance. Walsh described Rice as "a swift, smooth player who's got great instincts running with the ball, going to the ball and catching in a crowd." Rice was selected by the United States Football League (USFL), where the Birmingham Stallions selected him with the No. 1 overall pick of the 1985 USFL Draft, but the league folded after its 1986 season. In training camp, Rice had to compete with 49ers Dwight Clark and Freddie Solomon for roster spots at the wide receiver position.
Joe Montana and first two Super Bowls (1985–1989)
In July 1985, Rice was one of 21 rookie players who had not yet signed a contract. Rice signed a rookie contract for five years that paid him $377,000 per year. He wrote that during training camp, he was nicknamed "Fifi" because of his haircut, but he was praised by his teammates for his work ethic. It was with the 49ers where Rice switched from his college number, 88 (which was already taken by teammate Freddie Solomon), to his now famous #80 (in honor of his idol, Steve Largent). Rice made his NFL debut in the 49ers' regular season opener against the Minnesota Vikings. He had four receptions for 67 yards in the 28–21 loss. Rice scored his first receiving touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons on a 25-yard reception from Joe Montana in Week 5. Rice had a breakout game with ten receptions for a then franchise-record 241 yards against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 13, his first over 100 receiving yards, with San Francisco losing 20–27. For his game against the Rams, Rice earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week. After a seven reception, 111-yard performance in a 31–16 victory in the regular season finale against the Dallas Cowboys, while scoring a rushing touchdown, CBS announcer Pat Summerall stated that "When this guy [Rice] is finished [retires], he'll be considered one of the greatest wide receivers to ever play this game." He recorded 49 catches, for 927 yards, and three receiving touchdowns, averaging 18.9 yards per catch in his rookie season, and started four out of sixteen possible games. United Press International (UPI) named Rice the NFC Offensive Rookie of the Year, and he was selected to the PFWA All-Rookie Team. Nevertheless, Rice struggled, dropping numerous passes that season. In a game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Rice dropped two wide-open passes and later fumbled on an 8-yard pass that was intended to boost Rice's confidence. Rice said that his poor play may have been impacted by his increased wealth and the distractions that came with it. The 49ers finished the regular season with a record and made the postseason. During the Wild Card Round against the New York Giants, Rice had four receptions for 44 yards in the 3–17 loss.
During the 1986 off-season, Rice spent much of his time studying the 49ers playbook. Playing against the Los Angeles Rams, Rice had six receptions for 157 yards and a touchdown in a Week 2 loss. He followed that with a seven reception, 120-yard game against the New Orleans Saints in a 26–17 victory in Week 3. Following a two-touchdown game against the Miami Dolphins in Week 4, Rice had six receptions for 172 yards and three touchdowns in a 35–14 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. In Week 10, against the St. Louis Cardinals, he had four receptions for 156 receiving yards and three touchdowns in the 43–17 victory. Rice had his second career 200-yard receiving game against the Washington Redskins, having a 12 reception, 204-yard performance in Week 11. For his game against Washington, he won NFC Offensive Player of the Week. He won NFC Offensive Player of the Month for November. Overall, he caught 86 passes for 1,570 yards and 15 touchdowns, both of which led the league, the first of four seasons in which Rice led the NFL in both receiving yards and touchdown receptions. He was named to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro teams. The 49ers finished the regular season with a 10–5–1 record, won the NFC West, and made the postseason. Rice struggled in the Divisional Round against the eventual Super Bowl-winning Giants, fumbling what would have been a long touchdown on the game's first drive. The 49ers lost 3–49.
In the first game of the 1987 season, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rice went for eight receptions and 108 yards with a touchdown in a 30–17 loss. The following week against the Cincinnati Bengals, Rice recorded four receptions for 86 yards and two touchdowns in a 27–26 victory. The NFL Players Association began a strike after the season's second game, causing Rice to miss the next four games while backups replaced him (including a canceled game). He picketed outside the 49ers practice facility while some of his teammates (including quarterback Joe Montana and halfback Roger Craig), crossed picket lines to play. When the strike ended, Rice resumed playing in Week 7. In Week 10, against the New Orleans Saints, he had four receptions for 108 yards and two touchdowns in the 26–24 loss. In the following game, a 24–10 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he had seven receptions for 103 yards and three receiving touchdowns in the 24–10 victory. His continued his productive streak with seven receptions for 126 yards and three touchdowns in a 38–24 victory over the Cleveland Browns in the following game. For his game against the Browns, he won NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Two weeks later, in Week 14, Rice recorded three receiving touchdowns for the third time in four games in a 41–0 victory over the Chicago Bears. In the final two games of the regular season, Rice recorded four total receiving touchdowns. Rice scored a receiving touchdown in every game he played that season. In total, he scored 22 receiving touchdowns in 12 games, coupled with 1,078 receiving yards from 65 receptions. His touchdown number broke a then-NFL-record previously held by Mark Clayton (18), which Rice officially broke against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 15. The record was broken by Randy Moss in 2007, when he scored 23 receiving touchdowns. After being selected to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro teams, Rice was awarded the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award, becoming the first wide receiver to receive the award. He was also named the NFLs MVP by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. In 1987, the touchdown runner-up was receiver Mike Quick with 11, marking the first time in post-NFL–AFL merger history that a category leader doubled the total of his nearest competitor and the second time in the history of the NFL from its inception; the first being Don Hutson in 1942. The 49ers finished the season 13–2 and made the postseason, but lost in the Wild Card Round to the Minnesota Vikings 24–36, with Rice having three receptions for 28 yards.
Before the 1988 season, Rice signed a five-year, $5.05m contract in June that kept him with the 49ers through 1992. He was plagued by an ankle injury throughout the season, In Week 3, Rice had eight receptions for 163 yards in a loss to the Atlanta Falcons. In the following game, he recorded 163 receiving yards once again and had three touchdowns in a 38–7 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. In Week 13, he had six receptions for 171 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns in a 48–10 victory over the San Diego Chargers. He won NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game against the Chargers. He still put up high numbers in the games he played, finishing the season with 64 receptions for 1,306 yards and nine receiving touchdowns, averaging a career-high 20.4 yards per reception, earning him more selections to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro teams. The 49ers won the NFC West with a 10–6 record. Rice had five receptions for 61 yards and three touchdowns, scoring all three in the first half of the 49er's 34–9 win against the Vikings during the Divisional Round. In the 49ers' 28–3 win over the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship, he had five receptions for 133 yards and two touchdowns. In Super Bowl XXIII, Rice had an 11 reception, 215-yard performance with a touchdown, helping the 49ers to a narrow 20–16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Both his receptions and receiving yards were Super Bowl records. For his performance, Rice was named the Super Bowl MVP; he called the win "stupendous". He became the third wide receiver to earn Super Bowl MVP honors. Even though Rice won the MVP, Montana uttered the famous: "I'm going to Disney World!" line, instead of Rice; Rice attributed him not saying it to racism. Overall, Rice caught 21 receptions for 409 yards and six touchdowns; his yards and touchdown numbers stood as postseason records until Larry Fitzgerald broke both of them in 2008.
After the 1988 season, 49ers head coach Bill Walsh retired from coaching after much speculation, and was to be replaced by George Seifert; Rice was saddened by this, referring to Walsh his "West Coast father". Rice started off the season strong with six receptions for 163 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown in a 30–24 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. In the following game, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he had eight receptions for 122 receiving yards in the 20–16 victory. In the next game, a 38–28 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, he had a season-high 164 receiving yards on six receptions for two touchdowns. Two weeks later, he had seven receptions for 149 receiving yards and a touchdown in a 24–20 victory over the New Orleans Saints in Week 5. Starting in Week 7, Rice had a six-game stretch where he had three games with two receiving touchdowns and three games going over the 100-yard mark. By the end of the 1989 season, Rice had gained 82 receptions for 1,483 yards and 17 receiving touchdowns; both his yards and touchdown numbers led the league. For the fourth straight season, Rice was selected to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro team. San Francisco finished the regular season with a 14–2 record, the league's best. Rice had six receptions for 114 yards and two touchdowns in the Divisional Round against the Minnesota Vikings; the 49ers won 41–13. In the NFC Championship against the Los Angeles Rams, he had six receptions for 55 yards in the 30–3 victory. Rice finished Super Bowl XXIV with seven receptions for 148 yards and three touchdowns in the 49ers 55–10 blowout victory against the Denver Broncos.
Steve Young years (1990–1994)
In the 1990 season, Rice started all 16 games. In Week 3, against the Atlanta Falcons, he had eight receptions for 171 yards and a touchdown in the 19–13 victory. For his game against the Falcons, he won NFC Offensive Player of the Week. On October 14, in Week 6 against the Falcons, Rice caught a career-best five touchdowns to go with 13 receptions for 225 yards in the 45–35 victory. For the second time and against the same opponent in the 1990 season, Rice won NFC Offensive Player of the Week. On November 4 against the Green Bay Packers, Rice had a six reception, 181-yard performance with a touchdown. In the following game, against the Dallas Cowboys, he had 12 receptions for 147 yards and one touchdown in the 24–6 victory. In three of the last four games of the regular season, Rice went over 100 receiving yards. Rice had a successful year, leading the NFL in receptions (100), receiving yards (1,502), and receiving touchdowns (13), becoming the first player to lead the NFL in all three categories in the Super Bowl era: only Sterling Sharpe (1992), Steve Smith Sr. (2005), and Cooper Kupp (2021) have managed the feat since. He was named to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro teams. Rice's efforts helped San Francisco finish the year with an NFL-best 14–2 record. During the Divisional Round against the Redskins, Rice had six receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown in the 28–10 victory. Montana injured his elbow in the NFC Championship against the New York Giants, ending with the 49ers losing 15–13, failing to repeat as NFC champions for a third time; Rice went for five receptions and 54 yards in the game.
In 1991, Montana was ruled out for the season with an injury, making Steve Young the starting quarterback. Along with Montana, teammates Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig had left in free agency, making Rice "the last of the Mohicans" as he described himself, the only remaining star player from San Francisco's 80s dynasty. Rice started the season with six receiving touchdowns in the first four games, which included a 150-yard game against the San Diego Chargers in Week 2. In Week 7, against the Atlanta Falcons, he had seven receptions for 138 yards and one touchdown in the 39–34 loss. Rice recorded 80 receptions for 1,206 yards and led the league in receiving touchdowns with 14 in the 1991 season, and was again selected to the Pro Bowl. He suffered a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) against the Vikings, but the injury did not cost him any games. San Francisco managed to win their final six games to finish with a 10–6 record but they failed to make the postseason, marking the first time in Rice's career that the 49ers failed to do so.
During the 1992 season, a quarterback controversy swirled around Montana and Young. Rice openly supported Montana, but Young ended up starting, while Montana rehabbed. Wanting a high-value contract, Rice skipped training camp. He eventually signed with the 49ers for a three-year, $7.5 million contract, returning to training camp. On September 13, Rice was knocked unconscious against the Buffalo Bills, and was taken out of the game with a concussion. In Week 7, against the Falcons, Rice had a seven reception, 183-yard performance with two touchdowns to go along with a 26-yard touchdown rush, totaling 209 scrimmage yards in the 56–17 victory. He won NFC Offensive Player of the Week for this game against the Falcons. In Week 13 against the Philadelphia Eagles, he had eight receptions for 133 receiving yards and one touchdown in the 20–14 victory. He won NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game against the Eagles. Rice surpassed Steve Largent's career receiving touchdown record on December 6 in a Week 14 game against the Miami Dolphins, scoring his 101st touchdown. In Week 16 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he had seven receptions for 118 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns in the 21–14 victory. Overall, Rice finished the season with 84 catches for 1,201 yards and ten touchdowns, and was once again named to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro team. Rice helped the 49ers to an NFL-best 14–2 record, and they made the postseason. San Francisco won in the Divisional Round against the Redskins, but lost in the NFC Championship against the eventual Super Bowl champion Cowboy, being unable to stop the offense of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. Rice had eight receptions for 123 yards and a touchdown in the game, with the touchdown being his 13th of his postseason career, an NFL record.
After the 1992 season, in April 1993, Montana was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs; Rice wasn't able to properly say goodbye to him, and believed that San Francisco should have "treated Joe with more class" when they traded him. In Week 8, Rice had a 155-yard performance with two receiving touchdowns against the Phoenix Cardinals. In Week 11, Rice had eight receptions for 172 yards and four touchdowns against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 45–21 victory. For his game against Tampa Bay, he won NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Two weeks later, he had eight receptions for 166 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns in the 35–10 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. In Week 16, he had four receptions for 132 receiving yards and one touchdown in the 55–17 victory over the Detroit Lions. Rice caught 98 receptions for 1,503 yards and 15 touchdowns in the 1993 season; both his receiving yards and touchdown numbers led the league. He was awarded his second career NFL Offensive Player of The Year Award, along with being selected to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro teams. San Francisco finished the season 10–6, and made the postseason. Rice and the 49ers won in the Divisional Round against the New York Giants, but once again lost in the NFC Championship against the Dallas Cowboys; Rice recorded nine receptions for 126 yards during the 1993 postseason.
While he didn't get along with free agent addition Deion Sanders, he believed Sanders would help in the 49ers' pursuit of the Super Bowl. These assertions were proven correct, as Rice made it back to the Super Bowl with the 49ers in 1994, recording 112 receptions for 1,499 yards and 13 touchdowns, with Sanders winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award. The season began against the Los Angeles Raiders, where he had a seven reception, 169-yard game with two touchdowns (rushing for one more), moving into first place in the NFL records for career touchdowns, with 127. On September 18 against the Rams, his 147 receiving yards from 11 catches moved him past Art Monk as the NFLs active leader in that category and past Charlie Joiner for third all-time. In Week 12, in another game against the Rams, he had 16 receptions for 165 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns. For his game against the Rams, he won NFC Offensive Player of the Week. In Week 15 against the Chargers, he had 12 receptions for 144 receiving yards in the 38–15 victory. He passed Largent for second place in the 16th game of the season. Rice was selected to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro teams. With a 13–3 record and making the postseason, the 49ers won against the Bears in the Divisional Round. Moving on to the NFC Championship, they faced the Cowboys for the third straight year. After two previous defeats, the 49ers were victorious against the Cowboys 38–28. Rice was a vital component in their 49–26 victory over the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX, combined with a six-touchdown performance by Young, Rice caught ten passes after catching six in the 49ers last two postseason games, coupled with 149 yards and three touchdowns, despite playing with a separated shoulder for much of the game. In three Super Bowl appearances at this point in his career, Rice caught 28 receptions for 512 yards and seven touchdowns, with all three statistics career Super Bowl records.
Final 49ers' seasons (1995–2000)
During the 1995 season, Rice had a record-setting campaign. After an 87-yard, one-touchdown day to start the season against the New Orleans Saints, Rice had 11 receptions for 167 yards and two touchdowns in a 41–10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Following a two-touchdown game against the New England Patriots in Week 3, Rice had 11 receptions for 181 yards in a 27–24 loss to the Detroit Lions. In Rice's next three games, he scored a receiving touchdown in each. On October 29, with an eight reception, 108-yard performance in Week 9, he surpassed James Lofton as the all-time leader in receiving yards against the Saints, with 14,040. Against the Cowboys, he had five receptions for 161 yards and a touchdown in a Week 11 victory. In Week 12, against the Miami Dolphins, he had eight receptions for 149 yards and two touchdowns in the 44–20 victory. Rice had one of the best statistical games in his career against the Vikings, catching 14 passes for a career-high 289 yards (at the time the fifth-most ever in a game), and three touchdowns. Rice won NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his game against the Vikings. Vikings head coach Dennis Green said of Rice: "We did take the 49ers out of their running game, but Jerry was the one ingredient we had a hard time stopping", "In fact, we had a hard time slowing him down". In the final game of the regular season against the Atlanta Falcons, he surpassed Art Monk as the all-time leader in receptions, with 942; his performance included 12 receptions for 153 yards, a 41-yard touchdown-throw, and a fumble recovery for a touchdown; his yards total was enough to break the record for most receiving yards in a season, with 1,848 yards, coupled with 122 receptions and 15 touchdowns. He was selected to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro teams. His single-season receiving yards record was not broken until Calvin Johnson broke it in 2012. With an 11–5 record and making the postseason, the 49ers lost in the Divisional Round to the Green Bay Packers, in which Rice had 11 receptions for 117 yards.
During the offseason of 1996, Rice and Jackie were expecting their third child, and on May 16, 1996, Jada Rice was born. Minutes after the birth, however, Jackie suffered complications and nearly died from blood loss. She made a recovery after many surgeries. This caused Rice to miss almost all of June mini-camp and one week of training camp; he was supported by his teammates and coaches along the way. Even through these troubles, he was available for the start of the regular season. In Week 4, against the Carolina Panthers, he had ten receptions for 127 receiving yards. In Week 7, he had his only game of the season with multiple receiving touchdowns with two against the Green Bay Packers. He had ten receptions for 129 yard and a touchdown in a Week 15 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Overall, he recorded 108 receptions (leading the NFL) for 1,254 yards and eight touchdowns. Rice was selected to the Pro Bowl and First-team All-Pro. With a 12–4 record and making the postseason, San Francisco won in the Wild Card Round against the Philadelphia Eagles 14–0 with Rice scoring a touchdown, but lost to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round, as the 49ers were unable to gain any ground with their offense, with only 196 yards of total offense. Through 1994 and 1996, Rice racked up 342 catches for 4,601 yards and 36 touchdowns.
Before the 1997 season, Rice signed a seven-year, $32 million contract. During the 49ers' opening game of the season, Rice tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee on a reverse. Warren Sapp of the Buccaneers grabbed Rice by the face mask and wrenched him to the ground, drawing a 15-yard personal foul. The injury broke Rice's streak of 189 consecutive games played; throughout high school, college, and the NFL he had never missed a game excluding three strike games. Wanting to make it back in time for the retirement of Montana's jersey number, he made his return 14 weeks later on December 15, much earlier than doctors wanted him to. He scored a touchdown, but he cracked his left patella as he came down with the catch. He missed the Pro Bowl team for the first time in 11 years due to the injury. San Francisco still made the postseason with a 13–3 record, beating the Minnesota Vikings in the Divisional Round 38–22, but lost for the third straight time against the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers 23–10 in the NFC Championship.
Rice made a full recovery, coming back in time for the 1998 regular season opener. In Week 4, against the Atlanta Falcons, he had eight receptions for 162 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns in the 31–20 victory. In Week 11, in another game against the Falcons, he had ten receptions for 169 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown. Overall, he recorded 82 catches for 1,157 yards and nine touchdowns, becoming the oldest receiver ever to record a 1,000-yard season, at age 36, and returned to the Pro Bowl team. San Francisco made the postseason with a 12–4 record. They faced the Packers once again the Wild Card Round. Though Rice only had one catch for six yards in the game, the 49ers defeated the Packers 30–27. San Francisco was defeated in the Divisional Round by the Atlanta Falcons 18–20. Rice had a receiving touchdown in the loss.
In Week 13 of the 1999 season, Rice had nine receptions for 157 receiving yards and two touchdowns in the 44–30 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. In the 49ers' regular season finale against the Atlanta Falcons, he had six receptions for 143 yards in the 34–29 defeat. Rice finished the 1999 season with 67 receptions for 830 yards and five touchdowns. The season was the first that Rice failed to reach 1,000 yards receiving while playing in all 16 games. San Francisco struggled as a whole, going 4–12 and missing the postseason, losing 11 out of their last 12 games after Young had concussion troubles, leading him to retire after the season.
In the 2000 season, his final season in San Francisco, he again missed 1,000 receiving yards, with 75 receptions for 805 yards and seven touchdowns. The 2000 season marked Rice's first without having a game where he recorded at least 100 receiving yards. Before the start of the season, Bill Walsh had informed Rice that it would be his last. In his final home game against the Bears, he had seven receptions for 76 yards in the 17–0 victory. It was the same game in which Terrell Owens set the single-game record for receptions, with 20. This angered Rice as he wanted it to be a special day for him, not for Owens, and many of Owens' receptions were intentionally called in order for him to break the record. San Francisco once again struggled, going 6–10 and missing the postseason.
Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks, and later career (2001–2005)
Oakland Raiders
With the emergence of Terrell Owens in San Francisco and because of their desire to rebuild the team and clear salary, Rice was released by the 49ers in June 2001 and signed with the Oakland Raiders for four years, $7.8 million. He joined a Raiders team coming off a loss in the playoffs to form one of the oldest receiver duos with Tim Brown (age 35). During the season, he had an eight reception, 131-yard performance with three touchdowns against the Chargers, and a nine reception, 108-yard performance against the Broncos. Rice caught 83 passes for 1,139 yards and nine touchdowns for the year. Oakland finished the season with a 10–6 record and made the postseason. The Raiders played the New York Jets in the Wild Card Round, winning 38–24, with Rice having nine receptions for 183 yards and a touchdown. In the Divisional Round, the Raiders faced Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. In what was later called the "Tuck Rule Game", the Raiders lost in overtime 16–13, after officials ruled a Brady fumble was an incomplete pass, allowing the Patriots to kick the game-tying field goal, all in a severe snowstorm.
In 2002, Rice caught 92 passes for 1,211 yards and seven touchdowns, while being named to his 13th Pro Bowl team, and to the Second-team All-Pro team. Rice's teammate, Raiders starting quarterback Rich Gannon, was named the NFLs Most Valuable Player for the 2002 season. Against the Tennessee Titans, where Rice had seven receptions for 144 yards and a touchdown, he surpassed Walter Payton as the all-time leader in scrimmage yards, with 21,281 scrimmage yards. He scored his 200th career touchdown against the Broncos. Oakland finished the season with an 11–5 record and made the postseason. They won in the Divisional Round against the Jets, 30–10. Rice had a receiving touchdown in the win. The team won in the AFC Championship against the Tennessee Titans, 41–24, making it to the Super Bowl. There, against the Buccaneers, coached by former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, they were defeated 21–48, with Gannon throwing five interceptions, including three for touchdowns, and Rice having five receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown. Up to this point, Rice had been undefeated in the Super Bowl, having already won three with San Francisco. The fact that he lost a Super Bowl overwhelmed him to the point of crying in his hotel room after the game.
In Week 4 of the 2003 season, Rice had seven receptions for 126 receiving yards in the 34–31 victory of the San Diego Chargers. In Week 16, against the Green Bay Packers, he had ten receptions for 159 receiving yards in the 41–7 loss. Overall, in the 2003 season, Rice caught 63 passes for 869 yards; he didn't score a touchdown until the 12th game of the season, scoring only two through the whole year. Oakland as a team regressed from their 11–5 record in 2002 to a 4–12 record in 2003, leading to the firing of head coach Bill Callahan. This led Rice to be frustrated about his role with the team.
By the time the 2004 season was starting, Rice struggled, and by the fourth game of the season, Rice had five receptions for only 64 yards. Because of this, he asked Raiders owner Al Davis to trade him.
Seattle Seahawks
Rice was traded to the Seattle Seahawks six games into the 2004 season in exchange for a seventh round pick and reunited with Seattle head coach Mike Holmgren, who had previously worked with Rice as San Francisco's offensive coordinator. After speaking with Largent, Rice was permitted to wear Largent's retired jersey No. 80. In a Monday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys, Rice set the career record for combined net yards by catching a 27-yard touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck, his 35th career record. He finished that game eight receptions for 145 yards and a touchdown. In total Rice had 25 receptions for 362 receiving yards and three touchdowns with the Seahawks, having 30 receptions for 429 yards and three touchdowns in total for the season. At age 41, he managed to play 17 games in a 16-game season, as he was traded before Oakland's bye week and after Seattle's, and never missed a game, so he played six games for the Raiders and 11 for the Seahawks. Rice played his last non-preseason professional game for Seattle, a Wild Card Round loss to the St. Louis Rams in which he did not catch a pass.
Denver Broncos
After the 2004 season, Rice signed a one-year contract worth $790,000 in total salary with the Denver Broncos which was his lowest contract offer in his 20 years in the league. Rice never played for the Broncos, therefore he was only allowed his guaranteed money for a grand total of $25,000.
Retirement
Just before the 2005 season, on September 5, 2005, Rice announced his retirement after twenty-seasons. In August 2006, the 49ers announced that Rice would sign a contract with them, allowing him to retire as a member of the team where his NFL career began. On August 24, he officially retired as a 49er, signing a one-day contract for $1,985,806.49. The number represented the year Rice was drafted (1985), his No. 80, the year he retired (2006), and the 49ers (49). The figure was ceremonial, and Rice received no money. A halftime ceremony honored him during the 49ers' match-up with the Seattle Seahawks on November 19, 2006.
Legacy
Rice holds numerous NFL receiving records. His 197 career touchdown receptions are 41 scores more than the second place of 156 touchdown receptions by Randy Moss; his 208 total touchdowns (197 receiving, ten rushing, and one fumble recovery) are 33 scores ahead of Emmitt Smith's second-place total of 175. His 22,895 career receiving yards are 5,403 yards ahead of the second-place Larry Fitzgerald. His 1,256 career points scored make him the highest-scoring non-kicker in NFL history. Many of these records are considered by sports analysts to be unbreakable. During a career spanning two decades, Rice averaged 75.6 receiving yards per game. He received MVP votes in six out of his 20 seasons, finishing as the runner-up twice in 1987 and 1995. He won two NFL Offensive Player of The Year Awards, and a Bert Bell Award in 1987.
Rice is remembered as one of the best clutch players in football history, often making game-winning catches throughout his career. Rice also was noted as an effective blocking receiver. Rice's "famous" catching ability, sometimes attributed to him having to catch bricks when working with his father during his childhood, led him to 1,549 career receptions, 117 ahead of the second-place Fitzgerald.
Despite being keen about his public image early in his career, Rice is remembered for his work ethic and dedication. He still cared extensively about his physical appearance, often tailoring his uniform and jersey, and combed his hair before putting on his helmet; his philosophy was: "If you look good, feel good, you'll play good", as described by Shawn Rogers, one of his friends. In his 20 NFL seasons, Rice missed only 17 regular season games, 14 of them in the 1997 season and the other three in the strike-shortened season of 1987; his 303 games are the most ever by an NFL wide receiver by a wide margin. In addition to staying on the field, his work ethic showed in his dedication to conditioning and running precise routes, with coach Dennis Green calling him "the best route runner I've ever seen". One of the best-known examples of his dedication and ethic was "The Hill," a steep hill in Edgewood County Park & Natural Preserve that is 2.5 miles (4 km) long. Rice would sprint across the hill every day during the offseason to improve his abilities.
In 1999, Rice was ranked No. 2 on the Sporting News''' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players, behind only Jim Brown, and was 35 places ahead of the next-highest-ranked player then active, Deion Sanders. In 2000, Rice won the ESPY Award for Pro Football Player of the Decade for the 1990s. On November 4, 2010, he was ranked No. 1 on The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players. In 2011, The Sports Network awarded the inaugural Jerry Rice Award, to be given each year to the most outstanding freshman Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) player. The inaugural winner was Towson running back Terrance West.
In January 2015, Rice stated that he put Stickum, a substance that makes the ball easier to catch and hold on to, on his gloves during his career, saying: "I know this might be a little illegal, guys, but you put a little spray, a little Stickum on them, to make sure that texture is a little sticky." Stickum and similar adhesives were banned in the NFL in 1981, four years before Rice joined the league; he commented that "all players" in his era used the substance. The claims were rebutted by Pro Football Hall of Fame members Cris Carter and Michael Irvin. Rice retracted his claim shortly thereafter, stating that he "never used Stickum."
Rice was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2010 in his first year of eligibility. He was inducted in Canton, Ohio, on August 7, 2010, alongside Emmitt Smith, Floyd Little, Russ Grimm, Rickey Jackson, Dick LeBeau, and John Randle. On September 20, 2010, during halftime of a game against the Saints, the 49ers retired Rice's No. 80 jersey. He was officially named to both the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. During his career, he was included in the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team and the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team.
NFL career statistics
Regular season
Postseason
NFL records
As of the end of the 2015 NFL season, Rice holds the following league records:
Most career receiving yards: 22,895
Most career receptions: 1,549
Most career touchdown receptions: 197
Most career yards from scrimmage: 23,540 (22,895 receiving, 645 rushing)
Most career touchdowns from scrimmage: 207 (197 receiving, 10 rushing)
Most career all purpose yards: 23,546 (22,895 receiving, 645 rushing, 6 kick returns)
Most career all purpose touchdowns: 208 (197 receiving, 10 rushing, 1 fumble recovery)
Most career postseason receiving yards: 2,245
Most career postseason receptions: 151
Most career postseason touchdown receptions: 22
Most career Super Bowl receiving yards: 589
Most career Super Bowl receptions: 33
Most career Super Bowl touchdown receptions: 8
Most career Super Bowl points scored: 48
Most games of 100 or more receiving yards: 76
Most consecutive games with a reception: 274
Most consecutive games with a touchdown from scrimmage: 13
Most seasons of 1,000 or more receiving yards: 14
Fastest player to reach 100 touchdown receptions: 120 games
Fastest player to reach 14,000 receiving yards: 164 games
Fastest player to reach 15,000 receiving yards: 172 games
Most points scored by a non-kicker: 1,256
Most games played by a wide receiver: 303 (leads all non-kickers and non-quarterbacks)
Oldest player to catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl: 40 years, 105 days
Most receiving touchdowns in a game: 5 (tied)
Awards and honors
Throughout his collegiate and professional career, Rice has won the following awards and honors:
NFL
3× Super Bowl champion (1988, 1989, 1994)
Super Bowl MVP (1988)
2× NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award (1987, 1993)
6× NFL receiving yards leader (1986, 1989, 1990, 1993–1995)
2× NFL receptions leader (1990, 1996)
6× NFL receiving touchdowns leader (1986, 1987, 1989–1991, 1993)
NFL scoring leader (1987)
13× Pro Bowl (1986–1996, 1998, 2002)
10× First-team All-Pro (1986–1990, 1992–1996)
Second-team All-Pro (2002)
PFWA All-Rookie Team (1985)
Bert Bell Award (1987)
NFL 1980s All-Decade Team
NFL 1990s All-Decade Team
NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team
NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
No. 80 retired by the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame
NCAA
2× First-team Division I-AA All-American (1983, 1984)
Personal life
Rice married Jacqueline Bernice Mitchell on September 8, 1987. Jacqueline Rice filed for divorce in June 2007, which became final in late December 2009. They have three children together: Jaqui Bonet (born 1987), Jerry Rice Jr. (born 1991), and Jada Symone (born 1996). Jerry Jr., who attended high school at Menlo School in Atherton, California, graduated in 2009. Jerry Jr. was a walk-on at UCLA and redshirted his first season. After three seasons and limited playing time, Jerry Jr. graduated from UCLA and transferred to UNLV, and was eligible to play immediately. Jerry Jr. played wide receiver for the Rebels, and participated in a 49ers local pro day before the 2014 NFL Draft, but was not drafted. Jerry has another son, Brenden Rice, who played football for the University of Colorado for two years. On January 1, 2022, it was announced that Brenden was transferring to the University of Southern California. As of October 21, 2019, Rice is married to Latisha Pelayo whom he had dated since 2008.
Rice is a Christian. He said he was raised as a Christian and still maintains the same faith from his youth.
After football
During the 2005–2006 broadcasting season, Rice competed in the reality show Dancing with the Stars. He paired with dancer Anna Trebunskaya, and they reached the final two before losing to singer Drew Lachey and his partner Cheryl Burke. In 2009, Rice portrayed Hal Gore in the film Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling. In the same year, he guest-starred as himself in the episode "Lyin' King" on the sitcom Rules of Engagement. Rice has co-authored two books about his life: Rice (with Michael Silver, published 1996, ) and Go Long: My Journey Beyond the Game and the Fame (with Brian Curtis, published 2007, ). In 2019, he co-authored a book America's Game: The NFL at 100 (with Randy O. Williams, ), celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Football League. Rice and his dog, Nitus, were featured in Jerry Rice & Nitus' Dog Football'', a video game for the Wii that was released on August 16, 2011. Rice served as an alumni captain for "Team Rice" during the 2014 and 2016 Pro Bowls. In 2022, Rice partnered with the American Red Cross to raise awareness about blood donations.
Rice has played golf for over 20 years and woke up early to play golf during his football career. He competed in the Fresh Express Classic at TPC Stonebrae on the Nationwide Tour on April 15–16, 2010, receiving a sponsor's exemption to play in the tournament. Rice missed the cut and finished one shot ahead of last place, 17-over and 151st among the 152 players who completed two rounds. He was a team captain on The Big Break Puerto Rico, where his team won.
After Colin Kaepernick announced that he would be kneeling during the national anthem during games, Rice criticized his actions, stating in a Twitter post: "All lives matter. So much going on in this world today. Can we all just get along! Colin, I respect your stance but don't disrespect the Flag". He backtracked these statements later that month, after being criticized by the public and other players.
See also
List of National Football League career receiving yards leaders
List of National Football League career receptions leaders
List of National Football League career receiving touchdowns leaders
List of National Football League career scoring leaders
List of National Football League annual receiving yards leaders
List of National Football League annual receptions leaders
List of National Football League receiving touchdowns leaders
List of National Football League annual scoring leaders
List of National Football League records (individual)
References
Footnotes
External links
1962 births
Living people
20th-century African-American sportspeople
21st-century African-American sportspeople
African-American players of American football
American football wide receivers
American philanthropists
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Denver Broncos players
Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils football players
National Conference Pro Bowl players
National Football League announcers
National Football League Offensive Player of the Year Award winners
National Football League players with retired numbers
Oakland Raiders players
Participants in American reality television series
People from Crawford, Mississippi
Players of American football from California
Players of American football from Mississippi
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
San Francisco 49ers players
Seattle Seahawks players
Sportspeople from Starkville, Mississippi
Sportspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area
Super Bowl MVPs
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir%20Pierre%20P%C3%A9rier
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Casimir Pierre Périer
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Casimir-Pierre Périer (11 October 1777 16 May 1832) was a prominent French banker, mine owner, political leader and statesman. In business, through his bank in Paris and ownership of the Anzin Coal Co. in the Department of Nord, he contributed significantly to the economic development of France in the early stages of industrialization. In politics, he was a leading liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies throughout the Bourbon Restoration and president of the chamber at the outset of the July Revolution of 1830. He led the liberal-conservative Resistance Party in support of the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe I. He became president of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Interior in the spring of 1831 (13 March 1831 – 16 May 1832). Although his ministry was brief, his strong government succeeded in restoring order at home and keeping peace abroad. He fell victim to the cholera epidemic in France in 1832.
Biography
Early life
Born in Grenoble, Casimir Perier was the fourth of the eight sons of "Milord" Claude-Nicolas Perier (1742–1801), the rich merchant-manufacturer and banker who opened his Château de Vizille to the famous meeting of the Estates of Dauphiné (21 July 1788) foreshadowing the French Revolution. His mother was the former Marie-Charlotte Pascal (1749–1821), the daughter of a prominent linens manufacturer at nearby Voiron. Both his father and grandfather (Jacques Perier, 1702–82) made their fortunes in the commerce of canvas and linen cloths. Claude added the manufacture of printed cotton cloths (Indiennes) at the Château de Vizille, which he purchased in 1780 from Gabriel Louis de Neufville, duc de Villeroy. The Revolution and Napoleon opened up new opportunities for families of the wealthy "bourgeoisie grenobloise" such as the Periers. Claude Perier shifted the center of his business affairs to Paris, where he took up residence beginning in 1794 (rue Saint-Honoré) and mingled with leading French financiers. In 1795 he invested in and became a director of the largest coal mining company in northern France, the Anzin Company; in 1796 he helped to found a major investment bank in Paris, the Caisse des Comtes Courants; and in 1799, shortly after Napoleon's coup d’état of Brumaire, he became one of the founders and first directors of the famous Bank of France.
Claude Perier died on 6 February 1801, leaving his remarkably large family of ten children to share his enormous estate valued at 5,800,000 francs. Casimir, who was twenty-four years old at the time, inherited shares in the Anzin Company, land at Grenoble (Department of Isère) and in common with his brother Scipion, the property in Paris on the rue Saint-Honoré. He'd had little experience in business or banking. His father had anticipated that the three eldest brothers, Augustin, Alexandre and Scipion, would carry on the family businesses at Grenoble/Vizille. Casimir himself gave no clear indication of a specific career choice. He was intelligent, energetic, handsome and eager to succeed, but he had spent his life mostly as a student and received a church-school and Jesuit-tutor classical education. During service with the army in Italy from 1799 to 1800, he began to consider a military career, but his father's death and legacy, the lure of Paris, and his close friendship with his older brother Scipion took him in a much different direction.
Business career
The two brothers, Casimir and Scipion, founded a bank in Paris (8 June 1801), located at No. 8, Place Vendôme until 1809, and after that year at No. 27, rue Neuve du Luxembourg (now the rue Cambon). Henry Flory and William Sabatier, who were former associates with their father at the Bank of France and the Anzin Company, respectively, helped to get the bank started. The youngest Perier brother, Joseph, joined the bank in 1822, approximately one year after the death of Scipion. The affairs of the older Perier bank at Grenoble were by then administered mainly by another younger brother, Alphonse. The bank of "Perier Frères" in Paris, which played a significant and leading role in the early stages of the industrial revolution in France, would be near the peak of its success in the 1820s, numbering importantly by then among a small and select group of private banking houses known collectively as "la haute banque parisienne." Scipion became a regent of the Bank of France in 1818, Casimir in 1820. They both became members of the influential Chamber of Commerce of Paris.
The two most important clients of the Perier bank were the Anzin Coal Company (Department of Nord) and the Perier-owned iron foundry and workshops in Paris at Chaillot. The founder-owner of the Chaillot firm, Jacques-Constantin Perier (1742–1818), who was not related to the Paris bankers, was well known for having brought the Watt steam engine to France. Famously, he used a Watt engine at Chaillot to provide Paris with water pumped from the Seine. In 1802 he supplied the Anzin Company with twenty of his engines for winding and drainage at the mines. Casimir and Scipion Perier purchased the Chaillot firm in 1818 and used its workshops to upgrade Anzin with more efficient Cornish high-pressure engines patented in France by Arthur Woolf. Chaillot was an important part of the most notable entrepreneurial achievement of the Periers during the Restoration, namely, the renovation, managerial reorganization and business expansion of Anzin.
The Anzin Coal Company, which was established in 1757 as a closely held, family-owned firm managed by a self-perpetuating board of six directors, fell on hard times during the Revolution until rescued in 1795 by heavy investments from wealthy representatives of la grande bourgeoisie . Thus Claude Perier became a director of the company. The firm did reasonably well after 1795, although most of the new outsiders ("les Parisiens") who joined the founding families looked on Anzin as simply one of many investments. Not so Casimir and Scipion Perier, who determined to become active owner-directors for purposes of renovating and re-energizing the company for increased production and maximization of profits. The Perier bank in Paris became the company bank, regulating Anzin's accounts and contracts and supervising its large reserve funds. The brothers gradually took over making company policies. They were a good team. Scipion had the broad knowledge of the science and technology of the times (he was a long-standing member of the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry, est. 1801); Casimir acted as the determined, driving force for innovation and risk-taking as opposed to the 'old ways' and too cautious decision-making. He was Anzin's ‘ homme fort’ during the rejuvenation of the company in the 1820s. His much-quoted 1826 general report on Anzin company affairs illustrated the thoroughness of his knowledge of his firm's needs and potential. One measure of success during the Restoration was that output of coal at the mines increased from 250,000 metric tons in 1816 to 509,000 tons in 1830.
In association with other prominent bankers and business leaders, the Periers also engaged in the establishment of new financial institutions of the Restoration. Thus in 1818 Casimir and Scipion were among the founder-directors of the first French savings bank, the Caisse d’Épargne et de Prévoyance de Paris (No. 104, rue Richlieu). Besides the Perier bank, other investors included Jacques Laffitte (governor of the Bank of France, 1814–19) and the banks of Lefebvre, Pillet Will, and Cottier. The same five banking houses helped back the organization during 1816-20 of an important early insurance company, the Compagnie Royale d’Assurances, and in 1823 they would take part in the Compagnie des Quatre Canaux, a joint-stock company for loans to the government to improve the canal system in northern France. Perhaps a best example of the Perier bank's involvement in innovative financial ventures during the Restoration was the case of the ill-starred Société Commanditaire de l’Industrie. Conceived in 1825 mainly by Jacques Laffitte, its prospective president, this joint-stock company capitalized at 100 million francs was intended to help remedy the growing need in France for increased investment capital for large-scale projects in areas such as mining, metallurgy, canal construction and land development. It had the support of the haute banque and foreign banking houses. Casimir Perier and William Ternaux, France's leading woolens manufacturer, were its prospective vice-presidents. But in the end, unfortunately, the conservative Villèle ministry under Charles X refused to authorize the establishment of the Commanditaire.
Casimir Perier's policy as a banker was to spread his capital investment over a wide range of characteristic early nineteenth century business enterprise. He engaged as well in almost continuous investment in land and real estate, calculated most recently at about 15% of his total investments during 1815-30. Most notable were his purchases of highly valued properties on the rue Neuve du Luxembourg, the rue Sainte-Honoré and the Champs-Elysées; a summer residence in the Bois de Boulogne; the Château Saint-Pierre ('le Taillis') in Normandy, near Rouen; and the parkland and ruins of the Château Pont-sur-Seine (Department of Aube), a property owned previously by Napoleon that was destroyed by invading armies in 1814. Casimir's largest investment in Paris real estate during the Restoration was made in 1829-30 when he agreed to pay 744,600 francs for properties on the rue Saint-Honoré owned by Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater. By the time of the Revolution of 1830, Casimir Perier was one of the richest men in Paris. At the age of 55 in 1832, when he died of cholera, his estate was estimated at close to 14 million francs.
Both Casimir and Scipion Perier valued education and believed strongly in the advancement of science and technology. They supported Joseph Degérando's Société pour l’Amélioration de l’Enseignement Élémentaire (est. 1815) and they arranged at Anzin for night-school instruction for workers using courses designed by Charles Dupin. In Paris, they supported the practical education programs provided by the École Spéciale de Commerce, founded in 1816, and the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures established in 1828. After Casimir was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1817, he would vote to protect the budgets of the Conservatory of Arts and Sciences and trade schools in the departments.
Political career
Casimir Perier's wide-ranging business interests and investments help to explain his opposition in the Chamber of Deputies to financial policies of Restoration ministries. In 1817, he opposed the policy of the Richelieu ministry for raising loans to pay the war indemnity demanded by the allied coalition after Napoleon's final defeat. In the 1820s, he was a leader in debates (1821–1822) against the policies of the Villèle ministry for financing canal construction and (1824–1825) for indemnifying the nobility for lands confiscated during the Revolution.
Perier entered the Chamber of Deputies for Paris in 1817, taking his seat in the Left Centre with the moderate opposition, and making his first speech in defense of the freedom of the press. Re-elected for Paris in 1822 and 1824, and in 1827 for Paris and for Troyes, he elected to represent Troyes (Department of Aube), and sat for that constituency until his death. Perier's violence in debate was not associated with any disloyalty to the Bourbon Restoration, and he held resolutely aloof from the Republican conspiracies and intrigues which prepared the way for the revolution of 1830. Under the Martignac ministry, there was some prospect of a reconciliation with the court, and, in January 1829, he was nominated a candidate for the presidency of the chamber; but in August with the elevation to power of Jules, Prince de Polignac, the truce ceased, and on 15 March 1830, Perier was one of the 221 deputies who repudiated the Ordinances put forward by Charles X.
Averse by instinct and by interest to popular revolution, Perier nevertheless sat on the provisory commission of five at the Hôtel de Ville during the Three Glorious Days of July 1830, but he refused to sign the declaration of Charles X's dethronement. Perier reluctantly recognized in the government of Louis Philippe's constitutional monarchy the only alternative to the continuance of the Revolution, but he was no favorite with the new king, whom he scorned for his trucking with the Paris 'mob'. He became President of the Chamber of Deputies, and sat for a few months in the cabinet, though without a portfolio.
President of the Council
During the first years of the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe, following the fall of the weak and discredited ministry of Jacques Laffitte, Perier, who had drifted more and more to the Right, was summoned to power (13 March 1831), and, in the short space of a year, he more or less restored civic order in France and re-established her credit in Europe. Paris was in a constant state of disturbance from March to September, and was only held in check by the premier's determination. The Canut Revolt at Lyon was suppressed after hard fighting; and at Grenoble, in face of the quarrels between the military and the inhabitants, Perier declined to make any concession to the townsfolk. For Perier, the Revolution of 1830 was not the beginning of greater things to come, it was the end of the Revolution of 1789. As he said to Odilon Barrot of Laffitte's "Party of Movement": "No, Monsieur, there has not been a revolution, only a change in the head of state."
As a minister, Perier refused to be dragged into armed intervention in favor of the revolutionary government of Warsaw, but his policy of peace did not exclude energetic demonstrations in support of French interests. He constituted France the protector of Belgium by the prompt expedition of the army of the north against the Dutch in August 1831. French influence in Italy was asserted by the audacious occupation of Ancona (23 February 1832); and the refusal of compensation for injuries to French residents by the Portuguese government was followed by a naval demonstration at Lisbon.
Perier had undertaken the premiership with many forebodings, and overwork and anxiety prepared the way for disease. In the spring of 1832, during the cholera outbreak in Paris, he visited the hospitals in company with Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans. He fell ill the next day of a violent fever, and died six weeks later.
Private life
Casimir Perier married (13 October 1805) Marie Cécile Laurence Loyer, nicknamed "Pauline", the daughter of Laurent-Pouthus Loyer, an old regime magistrate of Lyon who was a victim of the Terror during the Revolution. There were two sons: Auguste Casimir-Perier (1811–1876), deputy for Seine and Aube, and Charles-Paul Perier (1812–1897), deputy and senator for Seine-Inférieur. Auguste-Casimir's son, Jean Casimir-Perier (1847–1907), was elected President of the Third Republic in 1894.
Notes
References
Barral, Pierre. Les Perier dans l'Isère d'après leurs corréspondance familiale (Paris, 1963).
Barker, Richard. "The Perier Bank during the Restoration (1815–1830)," Journal of European Economic History, vol. 2 (Winter 1973).
Barker, Richard. "French Entrepreneurship during the Restoration: The Record of a Single Firm, the Anzin Mining Company," Journal of Economic History, XXI (June 1961).
Bergeron, Louis. Banquiers, Négociants et Manufacturiers parisiens du Directoire à l'Empire (Paris, 1978).
Bertier de Sauvigny, G. La Restauration (Paris,1955).
Bourset, Madeleine. Casimir Perier, Un Prince financier au temps du Romantisme (Paris, 1994).
Chagny, Robert. Une dynastie bourgeoise sous la Révolution: Les Perier (Grenoble, 1984).
Choulet, Eugène. La Famille Casimir-Perier (Grenoble, 1894).
Lucas Dubreton, Jules. La Manière Forte. Casimir Perier et la Révolution de 1830 (Paris, 1929).
Nicoullaud, C. Casimir Perier: député de l'opposition, 1817–1830 (Paris, 1894).
Pinkney, David. The French Revolution of 1830 (Princeton, 1972).
Geiger, Reed. The Anzin Coal Company, 1800–1833 (Newark, DE, 1974).
Geiger, Reed. Planning the French Canals (Newark, DE, 1994).
Gille, Bertrand. La Banque et le crédit en France, 1815–1830 (Paris, 1959).
Lesieur, A. (ed). Opinions et discours de M. Casimir Perier, publiés par sa famille (Paris, 4 vols, 1838).
Rémusat, Charles de. Mémoires de ma vie (Paris, 1872).
Thureau-Dangin, Paul. Histoire de la monarchie de Juillet (Paris, 2 vols, 1884).
Vermale, François. Le père de Casimir Perier, 1742–1801 (Grenoble, 1935).
1777 births
1832 deaths
Businesspeople from Grenoble
Politicians from Grenoble
Orléanists
Prime Ministers of France
French interior ministers
Government ministers of France
Members of the Chamber of Deputies of the Bourbon Restoration
Members of the 1st Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy
Members of the 2nd Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy
Regents of the Banque de France
Deaths from cholera
Infectious disease deaths in France
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al%20Michaels
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Al Michaels
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Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for Thursday Night Football on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on network sports television since 1971, with his most recent work being with NBC Sports after nearly three decades (1976–2006) with ABC Sports. Michaels is known for his many years calling play-by-play of National Football League (NFL) games, including ABC Monday Night Football from 1986 to 2005 and NBC Sunday Night Football from 2006 to 2021. He is also known for famous calls in other sports, including the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.
Early life and education
Michaels was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, to Jay Leonard Michaels and Lila Roginsky/Ross. He grew up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. In 1958, Michaels' family moved to Los Angeles, the same year the Dodgers left Brooklyn. He graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in 1962. Michaels attended Arizona State University, where he majored in radio and television and minored in journalism. He worked as a sports writer for ASU's independent student newspaper, The State Press, and called Sun Devils football, basketball, and baseball games for the campus radio station. He also is a member of Sigma Nu fraternity.
Early career
Michaels's first job in television was with Chuck Barris Productions, choosing women to appear on The Dating Game. His first sportscasting job came in 1967, when he was hired to do public relations for the Los Angeles Lakers and serve as a color commentator on the team's radio broadcasts alongside veteran play-by-play announcer Chick Hearn. However, he was terminated after appearing on just four games due to Chick Hearn's displeasure on working with someone so young.
He resumed his broadcasting career in 1968 after moving to Honolulu, where he worked as a sports anchor for KHVH-TV (now KITV) and called play-by-play for the Hawaii Islanders baseball team in the Pacific Coast League as well as the University of Hawaii's football and basketball teams and local high school football games. He was named Hawaii's ‘Sportscaster of the Year’ in 1969. In 1970, Michaels appeared as attorney Dave Bronstein in an episode of Hawaii Five-O called "Run, Johnny, Run" (Air date: January 14, 1970); the episode also featured a young Christopher Walken.
In 1971, Michaels moved to Cincinnati, where he became the radio play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball. In 1972, after the Reds won the National League Championship Series and advanced to the World Series, he helped to cover the Fall Classic for NBC Sports. He also was the network's play-by-play man for the hockey coverage at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.
In 1973, after NBC announcer Bill Enis died from a heart attack at the age of 39 two days before he was to call the regular-season NFL finale between the Houston Oilers and Cincinnati Bengals, Michaels was brought in to replace Enis in the booth with Dave Kocourek.
In 1974, he left the Reds for a similar position with the San Francisco Giants and also covered basketball for UCLA, replacing Dick Enberg on the Bruins' tape delayed telecasts of their home games, during a period when UCLA was in the midst of an 88-game winning streak. He left NBC that year and announced regional NFL games for CBS Sports in 1975. In 1976 he joined ABC Sports part-time to call the network's backup Monday Night Baseball games. That year, he called two no-hitters: by the Pirates' John Candelaria vs. Los Angeles on August 9 (for ABC) and the Giants' John Montefusco at Atlanta on September 29, 1976 (for Giants radio).
ABC Sports (1977–2006)
In January 1977, Michaels signed with ABC Sports on a full-time basis. In 1983, he became the network's lead baseball announcer, replacing Keith Jackson. Up until that point, Michaels and Jackson would split play–by–play duties for ABC's coverage of the World Series beginning in 1979, with Michaels assigned to call the games from the National League park and Jackson calling games from the American League park.
Over the next three decades, Michaels covered a wide variety of sports for ABC, including Major League Baseball, college football (working alongside the likes of Frank Broyles, Lee Grosscup, and Ara Parseghian from 1977–1985 and later, his Monday Night Football colleagues Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf for the Sugar Bowl from 1989 to 1992), college basketball (normally teaming with Joe B. Hall from 1987–1989), the Indianapolis 500, ice hockey, track and field events, horse racing (including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes from 1986 to 2000), golf, boxing (such as the 1985 Marvin Hagler/Thomas Hearns fight), figure skating (working alongside Dick Button and Peggy Fleming), road cycling (Michaels in particular, provided commentary for those events at the 1984 Summer Olympics with Greg LeMond and Eric Heiden), and many events of the Olympic Games as well as the Olympic trials.
Other prominent events that Michaels covered for ABC included serving as the studio host for the Stanley Cup Finals from –. Also, he served as host for the yearly Tiger Woods Monday night specials that aired in July or August.
Episodes of Wide World of Sports featuring Michaels early in his ABC career have been featured at least two occasions on the ESPN Classic comedy series Cheap Seats.
The Miracle on Ice
Two of Michaels's more famous broadcasts were of the 1980 Winter Olympics ice hockey medal round match between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the attempted third game of the 1989 World Series.
In 1980, an unheralded group of college ice hockey players from the United States won the gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games. The medal round match on February 22—which, contrary to popular belief, did not yet assure the team of the gold medal—was of particular interest, as it was played against a heavily favored professional squad from the Soviet Union, and was in front of an incredibly excited pro-American crowd in Lake Placid, New York. Michaels's memorable broadcast of this game, including his interjection—"Do you believe in miracles? YES!"—as time expired on the 4–3 U.S. victory, earned the game the media nickname of The Miracle on Ice.
Most assume that the game was broadcast live (indeed, CTV, which held Canadian rights to the game, aired it live); but in reality, the game started at 5:05 pm Eastern Standard Time and ABC decided against pre-empting local and network news (on the East Coast) to carry the game live. Instead, most of it—including the entire third period—was broadcast within the regularly scheduled, prime-time telecast from 8:30 to 11 pm Eastern time (and on a six-and-a-half-hour delay on the West Coast from 8:30 to 11 pm Pacific Standard Time). Despite being on tape, the game was one of the highest-rated programs of the 1979–80 television season and remains the most-watched ice hockey game in the history of American television.
Michaels, along with broadcasting partner Ken Dryden, recreated their Olympic commentary in the 2004 movie Miracle. Although Michaels and Dryden recreated the bulk of their commentary for the film, the closing seconds of the game against the Soviet Union used the original ABC Sports commentary from 1980. Gavin O'Connor, the director of Miracle, decided to use the last 10 seconds of Michaels's original "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" call in the film because he felt he couldn't ask him to recreate the emotion he experienced at that moment. Thus they cleaned up the recording to make the transition to the authentic call as seamless as possible.
Michaels later recalled, "When I look back, obviously Lake Placid would be the highlight of my career. I can't think of anything that would ever top it. I can't dream up a scenario."
Michaels was only on this particular assignment because he had done one hockey game, eight years prior. The game in question was the gold medal game (the Soviet Union vs. Czechoslovakia) of the 1972 Winter Olympics (on NBC) in Sapporo, Japan. Other announcers on the ABC Sports roster such as Keith Jackson, Frank Gifford, and Howard Cosell had never done a hockey game before. Michaels recalled this during a Real Sports interview in January 2009. Michaels also apparently beat out WABC-AM and New York Islanders commentator George Michael for the assignment.
Two days later, Michaels would broadcast the gold medal game, in which the U.S. defeated Finland, closing the game out by declaring "This impossible dream comes true!"
Al Michaels continued serving as ABC's lead play-by-play announcer for their ice hockey coverage for their next two Winter Olympics, both with Dryden, the lead color commentator. In 1984 from Sarajevo, Mike Eruzione, who was the captain of the gold medal-winning United States ice hockey team from 1980, primarily worked with Don Chevrier. For ABC's final Winter Olympics four years later, Eruzione was this time, paired with Jiggs McDonald.
Michaels along with John Davidson would later call Games 1 and 4 of the Calgary–Los Angeles Stanley Cup playoff series in 1993 for ABC.
Memorable baseball moments
1972 National League Championship Series
Even though the events of October 17, 1989, in San Francisco are widely considered to be the most dramatic baseball-related moment of Michaels's career, he had several others that were memorable.
In the 1972 National League Championship Series, the defending World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates faced the Cincinnati Reds. In Game 5, with both teams tied at two games apiece, the Pirates led 3–2 in the bottom of the ninth inning and were three outs away from advancing to the World Series. But Pirates closer Dave Giusti unraveled. He surrendered a game-tying home run to Johnny Bench before allowing back-to-back singles to Tony Pérez and Denis Menke before being relieved by Bob Moose, who almost worked out of the jam by recording two outs. But with pinch-hitter Hal McRae at the plate, Moose lost his footing and uncorked a wild pitch sending George Foster, who was pinch running for Pérez, home with the pennant-clinching run and setting off a massive celebration at Riverfront Stadium.
As previously mentioned, later that October, Michaels participated in his first ever World Series as a broadcaster, where he assisted NBC's Curt Gowdy for Games 1–2, 6, and 7 in Cincinnati. Michaels was a product of the then broadcasting policy of announcers who represented the participating teams (a process that ended following the 1976 World Series) being invited to do televised network play–by–play for the World Series. As such, Games 3–5 of the 1972 World Series instead, featured Oakland Athletics broadcaster Monte Moore working for NBC alongside Curt Gowdy.
1983 World Series
On June 6, 1983, Michaels officially succeeded Keith Jackson as the lead play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Baseball. Michaels, who spent seven seasons working backup games (initially teaming with Bob Gibson and Norm Cash), was apparently very miffed over ABC Sports' delay in announcing him as their top baseball announcer. Unlike Jackson, whose forte was college football, Michaels as previously mentioned, had gigs with the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants before joining ABC in 1976. TV Guide huffed about Jackson by saying "A football guy, on baseball!" Jackson was unavailable for several World Series games in and because of conflicts with his otherwise normal college football broadcasting schedule. Thus, Michaels did play-by-play for games on weekends.
1985 World Series
Perhaps Michaels's first historic call with ABC Sports while covering Major League Baseball occurred in what is now known by many as the Don Denkinger game. The Kansas City Royals trailed the St. Louis Cardinals 3–1 in a series that was panned for being low-scoring and dull. After a Royals win in St. Louis forced the action back to Kansas City, the sixth game was also low scoring. However, this contest grew into a tense pitcher's duel.
In the bottom of the 9th, pinch-hitter Jorge Orta led off for the Royals against Cardinals pitcher Todd Worrell with Kansas City trailing 1–0 and hit a ground ball to first baseman Jack Clark. Clark threw over to pitcher Worrell, who was running over to cover first base in time to beat the speedy Orta and did. Yet first base umpire Don Denkinger still called Orta safe at first. Steve Balboni then hit a pop-up to first which Jack Clark missed for an error, keeping Balboni's at-bat alive, and he promptly singled to put men on first and second.
The infamous and controversial leadoff single by Orta and the Jack Clark error eventually led to the Royals loading the bases and putting the tying run on third base and the winning run on second with one out for Dane Iorg. Iorg hit a 2-run single and the Royals came back to win 2–1. The Royals went on to win Game 7 11–0 and complete the comeback after being down 3 games to 1. However, it was Denkinger's dubious 'safe' call, and not Iorg's hit, Clark's error, Jim Sundberg's heroics (for his difficult slide past catcher Darrell Porter for the winning run) or the Game 7 blowout that were most remembered in years to come.
Just prior to the start of the 1985 World Series, ABC removed Howard Cosell from scheduled announcing duties as punishment for his controversial book I Never Played the Game. In Cosell's place came Tim McCarver (joining play-by-play man Michaels and fellow color commentator Jim Palmer), who was beginning his trek of being a part of numerous World Series telecasts. Reportedly, by 1985, Cosell was considered to be difficult to work with on baseball telecasts. Apparently, Cosell and Michaels got into a fairly heated argument following the conclusion of their coverage of the 1984 American League Championship Series due to Cosell's supposed drunkenness among other problems. Rumor has it that Michaels went as far as to urge ABC executives to remove Cosell from the booth. Ultimately, Michaels went public with his problems with Cosell. Michaels claimed that "Howard had become a cruel, evil, vicious person."
1986 American League Championship Series
In 1986, Michaels was also on hand for what he says was "the greatest of all the thousands of games I've done." On October 12 at Anaheim Stadium, Michaels along with Jim Palmer called Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. The California Angels held a 3 games to 1 lead of a best-of-seven against the Boston Red Sox. In the game, the Angels held a 5–2 lead going into the ninth inning. Boston scored two runs on a home run by Don Baylor, closing the gap to 5–4.
When Donnie Moore came in to shut down the rally, there were two outs, and a runner on first base, Rich Gedman, who had been hit by a pitch. The Angels were one out from their first-ever trip to the World Series. But Dave Henderson hit a 2–2 pitch off Moore for a home run, giving the Red Sox a 6–5 lead. The Angels were able to score a run in the bottom of the ninth, pushing the game into extra innings. Moore continued to pitch for the Angels. He was able to stifle a 10th inning Red Sox rally by getting Jim Rice to ground into a double play. Nevertheless, the Red Sox were able to score off Moore in the 11th-inning via a sacrifice fly by Henderson. The Angels could not score in the bottom of the 11th and lost the game 7–6.
The defeat still left the Angels in a 3 games to 2 advantage, with two more games to play at Fenway Park. The Angels were not able to recover, losing both games by wide margins, 10–4 and 8–1. Game 7 of the 1986 ALCS ended with Calvin Schiraldi striking out Jerry Narron.
Despite the fact that ABC Sports and ESPN have been under the same corporate umbrella (The Walt Disney Company) since 1996, Michaels never served as a regular commentator for ESPN Major League Baseball. The only time that Michaels appeared in an ESPN booth of any kind was as a guest commentator on Wednesday Night Baseball in 2003 as part of ESPN's Living Legends Series. Michaels joined Gary Thorne and Joe Morgan, whom he worked with on ABC's 1989 World Series coverage and served as ABC's #2 baseball team behind Michaels, Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver in 1989, for a game at Dodger Stadium between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.
1987 World Series
In a February 2015 interview, Michaels alleged that the Minnesota Twins pumped artificial crowd noise into the Metrodome during the 1987 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Responding to Michaels' theory, Twins President Dave St. Peter said that he did not think the Twins needed "conspiracy theories" in order to win the World Series. Instead, he argued that "appreciation and respect" should be paid to players like Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, and Kirby Puckett, who, he said, "came out of nowhere to win a championship."
1989 World Series
On October 17, 1989, Michaels was in San Francisco, preparing to cover the third game of the 1989 World Series between the home team, the San Francisco Giants, and the visiting Oakland Athletics. ABC's network telecast began with a recap of the first two games (to the soundtrack of James Taylor's "Hello Old Friend"), both won by Oakland. Soon after Michaels handed off to his broadcast partner, Tim McCarver, who started assessing the Giants' chances for victory in the game, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck (at approximately 5:04 p.m. local time). While the network feed was breaking up due to the shaking, Michaels exclaimed "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth —", and at that moment, the feed completely broke up before he could finish his sentence. ABC then put up a green "World Series" telop graphic card on the screen for technical difficulties and restored audio via a telephone link 15 seconds later. Michaels quipped, "Well folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television, bar none!" Michaels then reported from the ABC Sports production truck outside Candlestick Park on the earthquake, for which he later was nominated for an Emmy Award for news broadcasting. Michaels relayed his reports to Ted Koppel, who was stationed at the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C.
According to Tim McCarver, when the earthquake hit, he, Michaels and Jim Palmer immediately grabbed hold of what they perceived to be the armrests. In reality, the announcers were clutching on each other's thighs and they were each left with bruises the next day. Years later (on a 1999 SportsCenter retrospective about the 1989 World Series earthquake), Al Michaels would boldly admit his strong belief that had the earthquake lasted much longer than 15 seconds, he would have been killed. Michaels added that the only time that he really had been scared during the earthquake was when he moved in a position which he perceived to be backward. The three announcers were sitting on a ledge with their backs turned and no bracing behind them.
There was later speculation that if Michaels won an arbitration case involving ABC, he would join CBS as its lead baseball announcer. ABC following the 1989 World Series, had lost its baseball package to CBS for the next four years. Michaels had been feuding with the network over an alleged violation of company policy. Michaels' contract with ABC was originally set to expire in late 1992. Ultimately however, ABC announced a contract extension that sources said would keep Michaels at ABC through at least the end of 1995 and would pay him at least $2.2 million annually with the potential to earn more. That would make Michaels the highest-paid sports announcer in television.
The Baseball Network (1994–1995)
In 1994, ABC resumed their relationship with Major League Baseball for the first time since 1989 with a broadcasting joint-venture with NBC dubbed The Baseball Network. Michaels was once again paired with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver, for whom he had broadcast three World Series (1985, 1987, and 1989), two All-Star Games (1986 and 1988), and the 1988 National League Championship Series with. On the subject of Michaels returning to baseball for the first time since the Loma Prieta earthquake interrupted the World Series, Jim Palmer said, "Here Al is, having done five games since 1989, and steps right in. It's hard to comprehend how one guy could so amaze."
A player's strike in August 1994 would however, force the cancellation of that season's postseason, including the World Series. Then in June 1995, both ABC and NBC announced that they would be dissolving The Baseball Network at the end of the 1995 season. The following month, Michaels along with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver, called the All-Star Game from Arlington, Texas. Come that October, Michaels, Palmer, and McCarver could call Games 1–2 of the National League Division Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers, Game 4 of the NLDS between the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies, Games 1–2 of the National League Championship Series between Atlanta and Cincinnati, and Games 1, 4–5 of the World Series between Atlanta and the Cleveland Indians.
In what would be the final out that he would call for a baseball broadcast on ABC, Michaels yelled "Back to Georgia!" following Cleveland closer José Mesa's strikeout of Atlanta second baseman Mark Lemke. ABC was in-line to televise a possible seventh game (since NBC was already scheduled to broadcast Game 6), but the Braves wound up clinching the world title two nights later. Game 5 of the 1995 World Series would not only prove to be the final Major League Baseball game that Michaels would call (not counting a one shot appearance on MLB Network for a game between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets on July 8, 2011), but it would also prove to be the last time that a Major League Baseball game would be broadcast on ABC until the 2020 Wild Card series.
Michaels would later write in his 2014 autobiography You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television that the competition between the two networks could be so juvenile that neither ABC nor NBC wanted to promote each other's telecasts during the 1995 World Series. To give you a better idea, in the middle of Game 1, Michaels was handed a promo that read "Join us here on ABC for Game 4 in Cleveland on Wednesday night and for Game 5 if necessary, Thursday." Michaels however, would soon follow this up by saying "By the way, if you're wondering about Games 2 and 3, I can't tell you exactly where you can see them, but here's a hint: Last night, Bob Costas, Bob Uecker, and Joe Morgan [NBC's broadcast crew] were spotted in Underground Atlanta."
Monday Night Football
Michaels's longest-running assignment was that of the lead play-by-play announcer on ABC's Monday Night Football telecasts, a position he held for 20 seasons beginning in 1986. Before that, his most notable NFL assignment for ABC was hosting (along with Jim Lampley) the pre-game coverage of Super Bowl XIX at the end of the 1984 season. In 1988, he called his first Super Bowl. Three years later, he was on hand to call the thrilling Super Bowl between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills.
The trio of Michaels, Dan Dierdorf (who joined MNF the year after Michaels's first), and Frank Gifford lasted until the 1997 season when Gifford was replaced following disclosure of an extramarital affair. During the 1980s, Gifford would fill-in for Michaels on play-by-play whenever he went on baseball assignments for the League Championship Series (1986 and 1988) or World Series (1987 and 1989).
Former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Boomer Esiason (who left after the 1999 season) replaced Gifford in 1998, and Dierdorf was dropped after that season. Unexpectedly, comedian Dennis Miller joined the cast in 2000 along with Dan Fouts. In 2002, following Miller and Fouts' departure, John Madden joined Michaels in a well-received pairing.
NBA on ABC
After disastrous ratings in the 2003 NBA Finals, ABC decided to revamp their lead NBA broadcast team. Brad Nessler was reassigned to the second broadcast team, where he was joined by Sean Elliott and Dan Majerle. Michaels was hired to replace Nessler as lead broadcaster of the NBA.
For the first several weeks of the 2003–2004 season, he had no partner. However, Doc Rivers, a critically acclaimed analyst when he worked with Turner Sports, became available after a 1–19 start by his Orlando Magic. Rivers was hired weeks before ABC's Christmas Day season opener. He and Michaels worked that game together, one of only six they did together during the regular season (all other games Rivers worked were with Brad Nessler). During the playoffs, the team worked every single telecast, including the 2004 NBA Finals, which saw great improvement in television ratings. During the 2004 NBA Playoffs, Doc Rivers was hired by the Boston Celtics. Though Rivers continued to work games with him throughout the rest of the playoffs, ABC would have to find a new lead color commentator for the 2004–2005 season.
Early in the 2004–2005 season, ABC found a new partner for Al Michaels. Memphis Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown, a broadcasting legend with CBS, TBS, and TNT, was forced into retirement due to health reasons and was soon after hired to replace Doc Rivers. He and Brown began their partnership on Christmas Day 2004, working the highly anticipated Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant game. After that game, the two did not do a game together again until March 2005. He became sporadic in NBA coverage, doing two games in early March, and then three more games in April. Brown worked every week of ABC's coverage, broadcasting some games with veteran broadcaster Mike Breen. For the 2005–2006 season, the pair were slated to remain as ABC's lead broadcast team. The duo worked that year's Christmas Day game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat and was expected to work the NBA Finals together as well. However, due to his impending departure to NBC, that plan did not come to fruition.
Replacing him on The NBA on ABC was Mike Breen, who became the lead broadcaster for an over-the-air NBA package for the first time in his career. Breen worked the 2006 NBA Finals with Hubie Brown, as well as all the main games ABC broadcast that year. This gave ABC its first consistent lead broadcaster since Brad Nessler, as Breen (unlike Michaels) did games every week. To put things into proper perspective, during his two-season tenure as ABC's lead NBA broadcaster, he called just 13 of a possible 26 regular season games, with all but two games taking place from either Los Angeles (where he resides) or Sacramento.
Besides his inconsistent work, Michaels (despite being initially seen as adding credibility to ABC's NBA broadcasts in contrast to his predecessor, Brad Nessler) was criticized for apparently lacking the kind of enthusiasm and confidence (for instance, Michaels initially reacted to Amar'e Stoudemire's block of Tim Duncan's shot during the 2005 playoffs by calling it a "great, great contested shot") expected of a No. 1 play-by-play voice. Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News said that Michaels was simply "not a basketball guy". Meanwhile, Bill Simmons said during the 2005 Finals that Michaels "shows up for these games, does his job, then drives home thinking, 'Only five weeks to the [NFL] Hall of Fame Game, I'm almost there!'"
Another criticism that he received was that he too often found himself making tediously long-winded explanations. In return, he would tend to talk over two or three possessions in a row (which Michaels seemed to be better suited for football and baseball broadcasts, for which he's better known). The result was that he would hardly have time to comment on the action viewers were seeing because he was so hung up on a prior subplot or storyline that he felt the audience just had to know about.
Move from ABC to NBC
ABC loses NFL rights
In 2003, Michaels was quoted as saying, "ABC Sports has been my professional home for the last 26 years, and I am delighted that will continue to be for several more..." after signing a long-term contract extension.
In 2005, it was announced that Monday Night Football would be moving from ABC to ESPN beginning with the 2006 season, and partner John Madden announced he would be joining NBC Sports, which had acquired the rights to Sunday Night Football games. Despite speculation that Michaels might be joining NBC as well, Michaels stated that he would continue as the MNF play-by-play announcer, stating, "I feel like I'm a creature of Monday night. I'm home and I'm staying home." Plans were for Michaels to be teamed with Joe Theismann (who would be coming over from Sunday Night Football) on the Monday night telecasts.
At the time, then-ABC Television President Alex Wallau said, "For 26 years Al has played a pivotal role here at ABC Sports, and for 17 of those years he's been the face and voice synonymous with television's most successful sports franchise, Monday Night Football... It's Al's outstanding play-by-play coverage, coupled with his breadth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm, that keep MNF fans invigorated, excited and coming back for more." also, "Al Michaels has been invaluable to the Network and we are thrilled to have him remain in our family. [...] Al is the consummate professional and makes everyone around him better" said then-ABC Sports President Howard Katz; however, in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XL, it was widely speculated that Michaels was attempting to get out of his contract with ESPN to join Madden at NBC. By this time, it was clear that NBC's Sunday Night Football would be the NFL's premier prime-time package, with ESPN's Monday Night Football relegated to secondary match-ups similar to that network's previous Sunday night telecasts. Michaels added fuel to the fire by refusing to state his future plans, and he couldn't "respond to rumors ... because that would become a distraction."
On February 8, 2006, ESPN announced that its Monday Night Football team would consist of Mike Tirico on play-by-play, with Theismann and Tony Kornheiser as analysts. ESPN explicitly stated that Michaels would not return to either Monday Night Football broadcasts or ABC's NBA broadcasts (on which Michaels had been lead NBA play-by-play man).
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit "trade"
On February 9, 2006, NBC confirmed that Michaels would be joining Madden at the network to broadcast football on Sunday nights, thus ending Michaels's 20-year run on Monday Night Football and almost 30 years of service with ABC. In exchange for letting Michaels out of his contract with ABC and ESPN, NBCUniversal sold ESPN cable rights to Friday coverage of the next four Ryder Cups, granted ESPN increased usage of Olympic highlights, and sold to parent company Disney the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character developed by Walt Disney himself (which he lost in 1928) but previously owned by Universal Pictures (now NBCUniversal). NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol explained, "We earn nothing from those rights; they've had no value in the United States."
Michaels had a bemused take on the "trade." After it was noted to Michaels that the Kansas City Chiefs gave the New York Jets a draft pick as compensation for releasing coach Herman Edwards from his contract, Michaels stated, "Oswald is definitely worth more than a fourth-round draft choice. I'm going to be a trivia answer someday." In an article with the magazine Game Informer, Warren Spector, a designer on the game Epic Mickey, stated that Disney CEO Bob Iger wanted Oswald to be in the game so badly, he made this trade to get the rights of the character back.
NBC Sports (2006–present)
Sunday Night Football
Michaels and Madden began their new NBC tenure on August 6, 2006, with the network's telecast of the preseason Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, with their regular-season debut on September 7. Michaels called Sunday Night Football with John Madden from August 6, 2006 – April 15, 2009. On April 16, 2009, Cris Collinsworth made an agreement with NBC to join Michaels, replacing Madden for Sunday Night Football. On February 1, 2009, Michaels called Super Bowl XLIII, his first Super Bowl telecast for NBC and seventh overall as a play-by-play announcer. Michaels is the third man to ever do play-by-play for an NBC broadcast of a Super Bowl, following the footsteps of Curt Gowdy and Dick Enberg. Michaels also called Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012, Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015, Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, and Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022, and in doing so, he tied Pat Summerall for the most Super Bowls called by a play-by-play announcer, though Summerall still holds the record for the most Super Bowls announced at 16, having also worked Super Bowl I as a sideline reporter and Super Bowls II, IV, VI, and VIII as a color commentator.
Michaels usually ate his dinner while doing play-by-play commentary during a typical broadcast of Sunday Night Football. Michaels would have cookies and grapes during the first half and a light dinner during the second half, having his bites during commercial breaks.
On May 24, 2022, NBC announced that despite his official departure from Sunday Night Football following the 2021 season, Michaels would still call at least one NFL playoff game for NBC under an "emeritus" role.
NBC Olympic Daytime host
In March 2009, it was announced that Michaels would be serving as the daytime host for NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was Michaels's first involvement in an Olympic telecast since he called ice hockey at the 1988 Calgary Games for ABC, as well as his first non-NFL event for NBC. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said that Michaels had previously expressed an interest in contributing to the network's Olympics coverage. Michaels also co-hosted NBC's coverage of the Closing Ceremony (with Bob Costas). Michaels also served as daytime co-host (with Dan Patrick) for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and co-hosted the Closing Ceremony (with Costas and Ryan Seacrest). For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Michaels served as weekday host on NBCSN and weekend daytime host on NBC. He returned to host daytime coverage for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Michaels, ABC was in the running to purchase the broadcasting rights for the 1996 Summer Games from Atlanta. As a provision in his contract renewal with ABC back in 1992, in the event that ABC were to broadcast the Olympics again, Michaels would get to become the prime time anchor while Jim McKay would instead play an emeritus role. Ultimately though, NBC bought the rights to the Atlanta Games for $456 million, edging out ABC by $6 million.
Premier Boxing Champions
In January 2015, NBC announced that Michaels would be at ringside along with Marv Albert and Sugar Ray Leonard for the PBC on NBC Saturday night bouts. In partnership with Haymon Boxing, NBC would televise 20 PBC on NBC events, including five shown in prime time on Saturday nights.
MLB Network (2011)
On July 8, 2011, Michaels teamed up with Bob Costas (with the two announcers alternating between play-by-play and color commentary) to call a game between the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants on MLB Network. It was Michaels's first appearance on a baseball telecast since August 6, 2003 (when he served as a guest commentator on an ESPN game, as previously mentioned) and his first as a primary announcer since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series on ABC. (Michaels had called Games 1, 4 and 5 of that series with Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver, while Costas called Games 2, 3 and 6 with Joe Morgan and Bob Uecker for NBC.) Michaels and Costas also made appearances on SportsNet New York and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area during the game's middle innings, since the MLB Network broadcast was blacked out in the Mets' and Giants' respective home markets.
Thursday Night Football (2016, 2022–present)
Michaels first called Thursday Night Football in 2016, as part of a deal which would see NBC produce several Thursday night games for broadcast on NFL Network with simulcasts on selected games on NBC. The following year, NBC confirmed that Mike Tirico would take over as the voice of NBC-produced Thursday night games.
On March 23, 2022, the NFL and Amazon announced that Michaels would become the full-time play-by-play announcer for Thursday Night Football, alongside Kirk Herbstreit, for the first year of the package airing exclusively on Amazon Prime Video and Twitch.
Awards and honors
Sportscasting
Five-time Sports Emmy Award winner – Outstanding Sports Personality, Play-by-Play
Three-time NSMA National Sportscaster of the Year
Sportscaster of the Year – American Sportscasters Association (ASA)
Sportscaster of the Year – Washington Journalism Review
ASA Top 50 Sportscasters of All Time.
Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2002).
Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters "Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award" June 16, 2017
Halls of Fame
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
NSMA Hall of Fame inductee (class of 1998)
Television Academy Hall of Fame inductee (class of 2013)
2013 Pete Rozelle Radio & Television Award – Pro Football Hall of Fame
2021 Ford C. Frick Award winner – Baseball Hall of Fame
State/local
Football stadium at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles (Michaels's alma mater) named Al Michaels Field.
Personal life
Michaels is the eldest child of Jay and Lila Michaels. Michaels has a younger brother, David Michaels, and a younger sister, Susan.
Al Michaels currently resides in Los Angeles. He was 21 years old when he married his wife Linda on August 27, 1966. Al and Linda have two children together, Jennifer and Steven. Steven Michaels serves as president and CEO of independent film company Asylum Entertainment in Los Angeles. Michaels is also a Los Angeles Kings season ticket holder.
Al's younger brother David is a television producer. David Michaels has produced such programs as NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games, Triple Crown, and Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory series.
Michaels was arrested and charged for driving under the influence on April 21, 2013. He was released after about five hours. He eventually pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of reckless driving and was sentenced to 80 hours of community service plus probation.
In 2014, Michaels released his autobiography titled You Can't Make This Up: Memories and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television, which reached The New York Times Best Seller list for nonfiction.
Michaels has claimed that he has never knowingly eaten a vegetable in his lifetime.
In popular culture
Michaels had an acting role in a 1970 episode of Hawaii Five-O, and has appeared as himself in the films Jerry Maguire and BASEketball, as well as on several TV shows including Coach and Spin City. His call of the U.S. hockey team's victory in the 1980 Olympics can be heard in the 2004 film Miracle. Michaels re-recorded all his original play-by-play coverage for the film, except for the memorable line.
Brian d'Arcy James portrayed Michaels in the 2002 television movie Monday Night Mayhem. Michaels has also been lampooned on several occasions by noted impressionists, Frank Caliendo and Billy West as well as in the Family Guy episode "Mother Tucker".
Michaels was also the featured voice in HardBall III, a popular computer baseball game for PC. He was also featured, along with John Madden, in the Madden NFL series from Madden NFL 2003 to Madden NFL 09.
Michaels also appeared in two episodes of Arliss, portraying the older cousin of sports agent Arliss Michaels.
Notable broadcasts
Michaels was the play-by-play announcer for all notable events unless otherwise noted.
1972 Winter Olympics men's ice hockey
1972 National League Championship Series
1972 World Series
1977 NAPA National 500
1978 Atlanta 500
1979 Gabriel 400
1979 World Series (Games 3–5)
1980 Atlanta 500
1980 Winter Olympics men's ice hockey ("Miracle on Ice")
1981 World Series (Games 3–5)
1982 Coca-Cola 500
1982 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500
1983 World Series
1984 Winter Olympics men's ice hockey
Super Bowl XIX (1985, co-host with Jim Lampley)
1984 Summer Olympics athletics and road bicycle racing
1985 World Series
112th Kentucky Derby (1986, host)
111th Preakness Stakes (1986, host)
123rd Belmont Stakes (1986, host)
1986 American League Championship Series
113th Kentucky Derby (1987, host)
112th Preakness Stakes (1987, host)
124th Belmont Stakes (1987, host)
1987 World Series
Super Bowl XXII (1988)
1988 Winter Olympics men's ice hockey
114th Kentucky Derby (1988, host)
113th Preakness Stakes (1988, host)
125th Belmont Stakes (1988, host)
1988 NLCS
1989 Sugar Bowl
115th Kentucky Derby (1989, host)
114th Preakness Stakes (1989, host)
126th Belmont Stakes (1989, host)
1989 World Series
1990 Sugar Bowl
116th Kentucky Derby (1990, host)
115th Preakness Stakes (1990, host)
127th Belmont Stakes (1990, host)
1991 Sugar Bowl
Super Bowl XXV (1991)
117th Kentucky Derby (1991, host)
116th Preakness Stakes (1991, host)
128th Belmont Stakes (1991, host)
1992 Sugar Bowl
118th Kentucky Derby (1992, host)
117th Preakness Stakes (1992, host)
129th Belmont Stakes (1992, host)
119th Kentucky Derby (1993, host)
118th Preakness Stakes (1993, host)
1993 Stanley Cup Finals (host)
130th Belmont Stakes (1993, host)
120th Kentucky Derby (1994, host)
119th Preakness Stakes (1994, host)
131st Belmont Stakes (1994, host)
Super Bowl XXIX (1995)
121st Kentucky Derby (1995, host)
120th Preakness Stakes (1995, host)
132nd Belmont Stakes (1995, host)
1995 World Series (Games 1, 4–5)
122nd Kentucky Derby (1996, host)
121st Preakness Stakes (1996, host)
133rd Belmont Stakes (1996, host)
123rd Kentucky Derby (1997, host)
122nd Preakness Stakes (1997, host)
134th Belmont Stakes (1997, host)
124th Kentucky Derby (1998, host)
123rd Preakness Stakes (1998, host)
135th Belmont Stakes (1998, host)
125th Kentucky Derby (1999, host)
124th Preakness Stakes (1999, Host)
1999 Indianapolis 500 (host)
136th Belmont Stakes (1999, host)
Super Bowl XXXIV (2000)
126th Kentucky Derby (2000, host)
125th Preakness Stakes (2000, host)
2000 Indianapolis 500 (host)
2000 Stanley Cup Finals (host)
137th Belmont Stakes (2000, host)
2001 Indianapolis 500 (host)
2001 Stanley Cup Finals (host)
2002 Stanley Cup Finals (host)
Super Bowl XXXVII (2003)
NBA on Christmas Day 2004: Los Angeles Lakers vs Miami Heat
2004 NBA Finals
NBA on Christmas Day 2005: Los Angeles Lakers vs Miami Heat
2005 NBA Finals
Super Bowl XL (2006; last Super Bowl and NFL telecast for ABC)
Super Bowl XLIII (2009; last telecast paired with color commentator John Madden)
2010 Winter Olympics (daytime host and co-host of closing ceremony)
The "Butt Fumble" November 22, 2012
Super Bowl XLVI (2012)
2012 Summer Olympics (daytime host and co-host of closing ceremony)
2014 Winter Olympics (weekday host for NBCSN, weekend daytime host for NBC and co-host for closing ceremony)
Super Bowl XLIX (2015)
2016 Summer Olympics (daytime co-host)
Super Bowl LII (2018)
Super Bowl LVI (2022)
Career timeline
1968–1970: Hawaii Islanders Play-by-play
1971–1973: Cincinnati Reds Radio Play-by-play
1971–1974: NFL on NBC Play-by-play
1972 and 1980–1988: Winter Olympics Hockey Play-by-play (NBC 1972, ABC 1980–1988)
1973–1975: UCLA Basketball TV Play-by-play
1974–1976: San Francisco Giants TV & Radio Play-by-play
1975: NFL on CBS Play-by-play
1976–1989, 1994–1995: Major League Baseball on ABC Play-by-play (Lead Play-by-play from 1983 to 1989 and 1994 to 1995)
1977–1985: College Football on ABC Play-by-play
1986–2005: ABC Monday Night Football Play-by-play
1986–2000: Kentucky Derby Host (ABC)
1986–2000: Preakness Stakes Host (ABC)
1986–2000: Belmont Stakes Host (ABC)
1987–1989: College Basketball on ABC Play-by-play
1989–1992: Sugar Bowl Play-by-play (ABC)
2000–2002: NHL on ABC Stanley Cup Finals host
2003–2005: NBA on ABC Play-by-play
2006–2021: NBC Sunday Night Football Play-by-play
2015: PBC on NBC Host
2016: Thursday Night Football on NBC/NFL Network Play-by-play
2022–present: Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video Play-by-play
2022–present: NBC Sports Emeritus role
Broadcast partners
Hank Stram
Hubie Brown
Frank Broyles
Nelson Burton, Jr.
Norm Cash
Cris Collinsworth
Howard Cosell
Heather Cox
Dan Dierdorf
Ken Dryden
Don Drysdale
Boomer Esiason
Dan Fouts
Bob Gibson
Frank Gifford
Lisa Guerrero
Lee Grosscup
Kaylee Hartung
Kirk Herbstreit
Suzy Kolber
Andrea Kremer
Tommy Lasorda
John Madden
Tim McCarver
Dennis Miller
Joe Nuxhall
Jim Palmer
Ara Parseghian
Doc Rivers
Lon Simmons
Melissa Stark
Michele Tafoya
Kathryn Tappen
Mike Tirico
Bob Uecker
Lesley Visser
Wayne Walker
Earl Weaver
Bill White
References
External links
"Al Michaels Talks TNF, John Madden, Brady, McVay, Rodgers & More with Rich Eisen," The Rich Eisen Show via YouTube.com, Sept. 9, 2023. (Video.)
1944 births
Living people
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Alexander Hamilton High School (Los Angeles) alumni
American horse racing announcers
American radio sports announcers
American sports journalists
American television sports announcers
Arizona State University alumni
Boxing commentators
Bowling broadcasters
California Republicans
Cincinnati Reds announcers
College basketball announcers in the United States
College football announcers
Cycling announcers
Figure skating commentators
Ford C. Frick Award recipients
Golf writers and broadcasters
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors basketball
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football
Jewish American sportspeople
Los Angeles Lakers announcers
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Minor League Baseball broadcasters
Motorsport announcers
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Football League announcers
National Hockey League broadcasters
Olympic Games broadcasters
Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award recipients
San Francisco Giants announcers
Sports Emmy Award winners
People from Brooklyn
People from Los Angeles
Track and field broadcasters
UCLA Bruins basketball
United States Football League announcers
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication alumni
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscreen%20wiper
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Windscreen wiper
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A windscreen wiper (Commonwealth English) or windshield wiper (American English) is a device used to remove rain, snow, ice, washer fluid, water, or debris from a vehicle's front window. Almost all motor vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses, train locomotives, and watercraft with a cabin—and some aircraft—are equipped with one or more such wipers, which are usually a legal requirement.
A wiper generally consists of a metal arm; one end pivots, and the other end has a long rubber blade attached to it. The arm is powered by a motor, often an electric motor, although pneumatic power is also used for some vehicles. The blade is swung back and forth over the glass, pushing water, other precipitation, or any other impediments to visibility from its surface. The speed is usually adjustable on vehicles made after 1969, with several continuous rates and often one or more intermittent settings. Most personal automobiles use two synchronized radial-type arms, while many commercial vehicles use one or more pantograph arms.
On some vehicles, a windscreen washer system is also used to improve and expand the function of the wiper(s) to dry or icy conditions. This system sprays water, or an antifreeze window washer fluid, at the windscreen using several well-positioned nozzles. This system helps remove dirt or dust from the windscreen when used in concert with the wiper blades. When antifreeze washer fluid is used, it can help the wipers remove snow or ice. For these types of winter conditions, some vehicles have additional heaters aimed at the windows, embedded heating wire(s) in the glass, or embedded heating wire(s) in the wiper blade; these defroster systems can melt ice or help to keep snow and ice from building up on the windscreen. Less frequently, miniature wipers are installed on headlights to ensure they function optimally.
History
Early versions
One of the earliest recorded patents for the windscreen wiper is by George J. Capewell of Hartford Connecticut, which was filed on August 6, 1896. His invention was for "windows of slow-moving craft; but it is more particularly adapted and intended for windows of rapidly-moving vehicles, such as high-speed locomotives and cars, with which it is necessary that the observer or driver should have a clear view of the path or track." Similar to current automotive wiper designs, his invention involves "usually two of these wipers, and they can be secured to the frame below the front board of the vehicle or behind the housing surrounding the window in position to be out of sight and in such manner that one will scrape off the heaviest part of the substance collected upon the glass." His patent illustration shows a circular window, although the patent notes "it is not essential that the glass be circular in form."
Other early designs for the windscreen wiper are credited to Polish concert pianist Józef Hofmann, and to Mills Munitions, Birmingham, who also claimed to have been the first to patent windscreen wipers in England.
At least three inventors patented windscreen cleaning devices at around the same time in 1903; Mary Anderson, Robert Douglass, and John Apjohn. In April 1911, a patent for windscreen wipers was registered by Sloan & Lloyd Barnes, patent agents of Liverpool, England, for Gladstone Adams of Whitley Bay.
American inventor Mary Anderson is popularly credited with devising the first operational windscreen wiper in 1903. In Anderson's patent, she called her invention a "window cleaning device" for electric cars and other vehicles. Operated via a lever from inside a vehicle, her version of windscreen wipers closely resembles the windscreen wiper found on many early car models. Anderson had a model of her design manufactured, then filed a patent (US 743,801) on June 18, 1903 that was issued to her by the US Patent Office on November 10, 1903.
Irish born inventor James Henry Apjohn (1845–1914) patented an "Apparatus for Cleaning Carriage, Motor Car and other Windows" which was stated to use either brushes or wipers and could be either motor driven or hand driven. The brushes or wipers were intended to clean either both up and down or in just one direction on a vertical window. Apjohn's invention had a priority date in the UK of 9 October 1903.
John R. Oishei (1886-1968) formed the Tri-Continental Corporation in 1917. This company introduced the first windscreen wiper, Rain Rubber, for the slotted, two-piece windscreens found on many of the automobiles of the time. Today Trico Products is one of the world's largest manufacturers of windscreen wipers. Bosch has the world's biggest windscreen wiper factory in Tienen, Belgium, which produces 350,000 wiper blades every day. The first automatic electric wiper arms were patented in 1917 by Charlotte Bridgwood.
Inventor William M. Folberth and his brother, Fred, applied for a patent for an automatic windscreen wiper apparatus in 1919, which was granted in 1921. It was the first automatic mechanism to be developed by an American, but the original invention is attributed by others to Hawaiian, Ormand Wall. Trico later settled a patent dispute with Folberth and purchased Folberth's Cleveland company, the Folberth Auto Specialty Co. The new vacuum-powered system quickly became standard equipment on automobiles, and the vacuum principle was in use until about 1960. In the late 1950s, a feature common on modern vehicles first appeared, operating the wipers automatically for two or three passes when the windscreen washer button was pressed, making it unnecessary to manually turn the wipers on as well. Today, an electronic timer is used, but originally a small vacuum cylinder mechanically linked to a switch provided the delay as the vacuum leaked off.
Intermittent wipers
The inventor of intermittent wipers (non-continuous, now including variable-rate wipers) might have been Raymond Anderson, who, in 1923, proposed an electro-mechanical design. (US Patent 1,588,399). In 1958, Oishei et al. filed a patent application describing not only electro-mechanical, but also thermal and hydraulic designs. (US Patent 2,987,747). Then, in 1961, John Amos, an engineer for the UK automotive engineering company Lucas Industries, filed the first patent application in the UK for a solid-state electronic design. (US patent 3,262,042).
In 1963, another form of intermittent wiper was invented by Robert Kearns, an engineering professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. (United States Patent 3,351,836 – 1964 filing date). Kearns's design was intended to mimic the function of the human eye, which blinks only once every few seconds. In 1963, Kearns built his first intermittent wiper system using off-the-shelf electronic components. The interval between wipes was determined by the rate of current flow into a capacitor; when the charge in the capacitor reached a certain voltage, the capacitor would be discharged, activating one cycle of the wiper motor, and then repeating the process. Kearns showed his wiper design to the Ford Motor Company and proposed that they manufacture the design. Ford executives rejected Kearns' proposal at the time, but later offered a similar design as an option on the company's Mercury line, beginning with the 1969 models. Kearns sued Ford in a multi-year patent dispute that Kearns eventually won in court, inspiring the 2009 feature film Flash of Genius based on a 1993 New Yorker article that covered the legal battle.
In March 1970, French automotive manufacturer Citroën introduced more advanced rain-sensitive intermittent windscreen wipers on its SM model. When the intermittent function was selected, the wiper would make one sweep. If the windscreen was relatively dry, the wiper motor drew high current, which would set the control circuit timer to a long delay for the next wipe. If the motor drew little current, it indicated that the glass was still wet, and would set the timer to minimize the delay.
Power
Wipers may be powered by a variety of means, although most in use today are powered by an electric motor through a series of mechanical components, typically two 4-bar linkages in series or parallel.
Vehicles with air-operated brakes sometimes use pneumatic wipers, powered by tapping a small amount of pressurized air from the brake system to a small air operated motor mounted on or just above the windscreen. These wipers are activated by opening a valve which allows pressurized air to enter the motor.
Early wipers were often driven by a vacuum motor powered by manifold vacuum. This had the drawback that manifold vacuum varies depending on throttle position, and is almost non-existent under wide-open throttle, when the wipers would slow down or even stop. That problem was overcome somewhat by using a combined fuel/vacuum booster pump.
Some cars, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, had variable-speed, hydraulically-driven wipers, most notably the '61–'69 Lincoln Continental, '69–'71 Lincoln Continental Mark III (but not all '70 models), and '63–'71 Ford Thunderbird. These were powered by the same hydraulic pump also used for the power steering mechanism.
On the earlier Citroën 2CV, the windscreen wipers were powered by a purely mechanical system, a cable connected to the transmission; to reduce cost, this cable also powered the speedometer. The wipers' speed was therefore variable with car speed. When the car was stationary, the wipers were not powered, but a handle under the speedometer allowed the driver to power them by hand.
Shape
Most early wipers used a rubber blade attached to a flat metal base. But as aerodynamic and styling concerns introduced curved windshields, these proved insufficient. In 1945, John W. Anderson, founder of Trico rival Anco, filed a patent for a wiper with branched arms to keep the blade pressed uniformly against both curved and flat glass, adaptable to almost any windscreen curvature. As curved windshields became more popular and widespread, following the debut of the 1947 Studebaker Starlight Coupe, these soon became standard equipment. While they have been superseded by "beam-type" wipers with bodies made of flexible material, this type still remains the most popular.
Wiper blades are made of natural rubber, EPDM rubber (or ethylene propylene rubber) or a combination of both, as natural rubber performs better in cold weather but EPDM rubber doesn't "set" and resists better to thermal aging, UV, ozone and tearing. Some manufacturers coat them with graphite.
Geometry
Most wipers are of the pivot (or radial) type: they are attached to a single arm, which in turn is attached to the motor. These are commonly found on many cars, trucks, trains, boats, airplanes, etc.
Modern windscreen wipers usually move in parallel (Fig. 1, below). However, various Mercedes-Benz models and other cars such as the Volkswagen Sharan employ wipers configured to move in opposite directions (Fig. 2), which is mechanically more complex but can avoid leaving a large unwiped corner of the windscreen in front of the front-seat passenger. A cost benefit to the auto-maker occurs when wipers configured to move in opposite directions do not need to be repositioned for cars exported to right hand drive countries such as the UK and Japan.
Another wiper design (Fig. 6) is pantograph-based, used on many commercial vehicles, especially buses with large windscreens. Pantograph wipers feature two arms for each blade, with the blade assembly itself supported on a horizontal bar connecting the two arms. One of the arms is attached to the motor, while the other is on an idle pivot. The pantograph mechanism, while being more complex, allows the blade to cover more of the windscreen on each wipe. However, it also usually requires the wiper to be "parked" in the middle of the windscreen, where it may partially obstruct the driver's view when not in use. A few models of automobile sometimes employ a pantograph arm on the driver's side and a normal arm for the passenger. The Triumph Stag, Lexus and several US makes employ this method to cover more glass area where the windscreen is quite wide but also very shallow. The reduced height of the windscreen would need the use of short wiper arms which would not have the reach to the edge of the windscreen.
A simple single-blade setup with a center pivot (Fig. 4) is commonly used on rear windscreens, as well as on the front of some cars. Mercedes-Benz pioneered a system (Fig. 5) called the "Monoblade", based on cantilevers, in which a single arm extends outward to reach the top corners of the windscreen, and pulls in at the ends and middle of the stroke, sweeping out a somewhat "M"-shaped path. This way, a single blade is able to cover more of the windscreen, displacing any residual streaks away from the centre of the windscreen.
Some larger cars in the late '70s and early '80s, especially LH driver American cars, had a pantograph wiper on the driver's side, with a conventional pivot on the passenger side. Asymmetric wiper arrangements are usually configured to clear more windscreen area on the driver's side, and so are mostly mirrored for left and right-hand-drive vehicles (for example, Fig. 1 vs. Fig 10). One exception is found on the second generations of the Renault Clio, Twingo and Scénic as well as BMW's E60 5 Series and E63 6 Series, the Peugeot 206 and the Nissan Almera Tino, where the wipers always sweep towards the left. On right-hand-drive models, a linkage allows the right-hand wiper to move outwards towards the corner of the windscreen and clear more area.
Other wiper geometries
Works similar to Fig. 8 but not a split screen windscreen and rest state is at the bottom of the windscreen facing outwards.
Alpine A310 and Renault Alpine GTA
Panhard Dyna Z, Panhard PL 17 and Panhard 24
Works similar to Fig. 2 but one wiper has its resting position up and the other down.
Simca Aronde
Works similar to Fig. 9, but uses a single wiper.
AEC Routemaster
Works similar to Fig. 6, but uses only one wiper.
V2A/V2B/V3A/V3B
Unusual wiper geometries
Works as would Fig. 1, but uses a large, single pantograph wiper.
Audi A2
Honda Today
Renault Twingo I
Renault Kwid/City K-ZE
Dacia Spring
Citroën C1
Peugeot 107
Peugeot 108
Toyota Aygo
Lamborghini Murciélago
Lexus LFA
McLaren MP4-12C
Mercedes W140
Mitsubishi i
Datsun Go
Toyota Etios/Yaris/Vitz (XP130)
Works as would Fig. 6, but the wipers are arranged upside down.
Renault PR100 and its articulated version Renault PR180.2
British Rail Class 92
Works as would Fig. 1 or Fig. 10, but the wipers are arranged upside down.
New Routemaster
Alexander Dennis Enviro400, Alexander Dennis Enviro500
Other automotive applications
Rear wipers
Some vehicles are fitted with wipers (with or without washers) on the back window as well. Rear-window wipers are typically found on hatchbacks, station wagons / estates, sport utility vehicles, minivans, and other vehicles with more vertically-oriented rear windows that tend to accumulate dust. First offered in the 1940s, they achieved widespread popularity in the 1970s after their introduction on the Porsche 911 in 1966 and the Volvo 145 in 1969.
Headlight wipers
In the 1960s, as interest in auto safety grew, engineers began researching various headlamp cleaning systems. In late 1968, Chevrolet introduced high pressure fluid headlamp washers on a variety of their 1969 models. In 1970, Saab Automobile introduced headlight wipers across their product range. These operated on a horizontal reciprocating mechanism, with a single motor. They were later superseded by a radial spindle action wiper mechanism, with individual motors on each headlamp. In 1972, headlamp cleaning systems became mandatory in Sweden.
Headlamp wipers have all but disappeared today with most modern designs relying solely on pressurized fluid spray to clean the headlights. This reduces manufacturing cost, minimizes aerodynamic drag, and complies with EU regulations limiting headlamp wiper use to glass-lensed units only (the majority of lenses today are made of plastic.)
Other features
Windscreen washer
Most windscreen wipers operate together with a windscreen washer; a pump that supplies a mixture of water, alcohol, and detergent (a blend called windscreen washer fluid) from a tank to the windscreen. The fluid is dispensed through small nozzles mounted on the hood. Conventional nozzles are usually used, but some designs use a fluidic oscillator to disperse the fluid more effectively.
In warmer climates, water may also work, but it can freeze in colder climates, damaging the pump. Although automobile antifreeze is chemically similar to windscreen wiper fluid, it should not be used because it can damage paint. The earliest documented idea for having a windscreen wiper unit hooked up to a windscreen washer fluid reservoir was in 1931, Richland Auto Parts Co, Mansfield, Ohio. Uruguayan racecar driver and mechanic Héctor Suppici Sedes developed a windscreen washer in the late 1930s.
Since 2012, nozzles are replaced on some cars (Tesla, Volvo XC60 2018-2021, Citroen C4 Cactus) by a system called AquaBlade, developed by the company Valeo. This system supplies the washing liquid directly from the spoiler element of the wiper blade. This system suppresses visual disturbances during driving and so reduces the reaction time of the driver in case of incident.
Hidden wipers
Some larger cars are equipped with hidden wipers (or depressed-park wipers). When wipers are switched off in standard non-hidden designs, a "parking" mechanism or circuit moves the wipers to the lower extreme of the wiped area near the bottom of the windscreen, but still in sight. For designs that hide the wipers, the windscreen extends below the rear edge of the bonnet. The wipers park themselves below the wiping range at the bottom of the windscreen, but out of sight. Late model vehicles that hide wiper blades under the windscreen need to be placed in a service position in order to lift the wiper blade from the windscreen using the wiper service position.
Rain-sensing wipers
Some vehicles are now available with automatic or driver-programmable windscreen wipers that detect the presence and amount of rain using a rain sensor. The sensor automatically adjusts the speed and frequency of the blades according to the amount of rain detected. These controls usually have a manual override.
Rain-sensing windscreen wipers appeared on various models in the late 20th century, one of the first being the Citroën SM. , rain-sensing wipers are optional or standard on all Cadillacs and most Volkswagens, and are available on many other mainstream manufacturers.
The rain-sensing wipers system currently employed by most car manufacturers today was originally invented and patented in 1978 by Australian, Raymond J. Noack, see U.S. Patents 4,355,271 and 5,796,106. The original system automatically operated the wipers, lights and windscreen washers.
Bladeless alternatives
A common alternative design used on ships, called a clear view screen, avoids the use of rubber wiper blades. A round portion of the windscreen has two layers, the outer one of which is spun at high speed to shed water.
High speed aircraft may use bleed air which uses compressed air from the turbine engine to remove water, rather than mechanical wipers, to save weight and drag. Effectiveness of this method also depends on water-repellent glass treatments similar to Rain-X.
Legislation
Many jurisdictions have legal requirements that vehicles be equipped with windscreen wipers. Windscreen wipers may be a required safety item in auto safety inspections. Some US states have a "wipers on, lights on" rule for cars.
In popular culture
In the 1999 television commercial Synchronicity for the Volkswagen Jetta automobile, windscreen wipers were synchronized with events seen through the car windows, and with the song "Jung at Heart", which was commissioned for the advertising agency Arnold Worldwide and composed by Peter du Charme under the name "Master Cylinder".
See also
Automobile ancillary power
List of auto parts
Squeegee
Notes
References
External links
Vehicle parts
American inventions
Safety equipment
Products introduced in 1903
Rain
Car windows
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402758
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renga
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Renga
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Renga (, linked poem) is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ku (句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. Known as tsukuba no michi ( The Way of Tsukuba) after the famous Tsukuba Mountain in the Kantō region, the form of poetry is said to have originated in a two-verse poetry exchange by Yamato Takeru and later gave birth to the genres haikai () and haiku ().
The genre was elevated to a literary art by Nijō Yoshimoto (, 1320–1388), who compiled the first imperial renga anthology Tsukubashū () in 1356. The most famous renga master was Sōgi (, 1421–1502), and Matsuo Bashō (, 1644–1694) after him became the most famous haikai master. Renga sequences were typically composed live during gatherings of poets, transcribed oral sessions known as rengakai (), but could also be composed by single poets as mainly textual works.
History
Classical and early medieval
The "origin" of renga is traditionally associated with a passage in the , wherein Prince Yamato Takeru speaks to an old man and inquires, by way of a katauta poem, how many nights he had slept since passing Nabari and Tsukuba, to which the old man responds by way of another kata-uta poem, which combined form a single sedōka. Later medieval renga poets, out of reverence for this exchange, would refer to their art as "the Way of Tsukuba", and the first imperial renga anthology, the Tsukubashū, alludes to it in the title.
The earliest extant renga appears in the Manyoshu (), with its 5-7-5 mora jōku ( first stanza) written by Ōtomo no Yakamochi (, 718-785) and its 7-7 mora geku ( last stanza) written by a Buddhist nun ( ama) in an exchange of poems. This two-stanza form is now called tanrenga () to differentiate it from chōrenga (), the hyakuin renga ( 100-stanza renga) to which the general term renga refers.
The tanrenga form was popular from the beginning of the Heian Period until the end of cloistered rule ( insei) and would sometimes appear in imperial anthologies of waka, which it closely resembled at a glance. It was during the insei period that the form began take shape and evolve into chōrenga. The Kin'yōshū () was the first imperial waka anthology to include an explicit section on renga thanks to its compiler Minamoto no Toshiyori (, also Minamoto no Shunrai; ~1055–1129), who was the first to write about renga theory in his poetic treatise Toshiyori Zuinō ().
As tanrenga gained traction and began to feature more intricate and technically complex links between its two stanzas, the genre gained popularity as a game, and events were held to create the best links. Participants began going beyond the original two stanzas of tanrenga, leading to the creation of a chōrenga form more formal than games like iroha renga, in which 47 stanzas beginning with each of the 47 characters of the hiragana writing system were linked. Around the same time, a more straightforward style of linking developed, which also helped to spur the lengthening of the form. Eventually, this 100-stanza renga, which alternated 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora verses (known as tanku and chōku respectively), became the basis for what we know as renga today.
The vocabulary of hyakuin renga was largely limited to the that had been established in the Kokinshū. At this time, poets considered the use of utakotoba as the essence of creating a perfect waka, and use of any other words was considered to be unbecoming of true poetry.
A comparable, though less evolved, tradition of 'linked verse' (lián jù —the same characters as 'renku')—evolved in Qin-dynasty China, and this Chinese form may have influenced Japanese renga during its formative period. However, there are major differences between the two, the Chinese having a unity of subject and a general lightheartedness of tone, neither of which characteristic is present in Japanese renga; furthermore, the history of Japanese poetry shows renga as an apparently natural evolution.
Around the time of the Shin Kokin Wakashū (, 1205) during the rule of Emperor Go-Tōba, hyakuin renga developed enough to gain its first real independence from waka. In the courts, ushin mushin renga () sessions were held in which poets and non-poets were divided into ushin and mushin respectively to link stanzas. The ushin side would offer orthodox elegant stanzas while the mushin side would offer comical or aesthetically "wilder" stanzas ( kyōka), and while submissions from both sides were accepted as appropriate links, the ushin were favored. While this practice ended with the Jōkyū Disturbance (1221), it served as an important foundation for the further development of hyakuin renga, which placed more emphasis on the skill of poets, and stanzas by many major renga participants of the Go-Tōba court such as Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241) were later anthologized in the Tsukubashū.
After the Jōkyū Disturbance, renga moved out of the courts. In the popular hana no moto renga ( "renga under flowers"), commoners would gather for renga sessions under the flowering trees in spring, a tradition that is estimated to have been around for about 100 years by the start of the Nanboku-chō Period. Some of the later resulting works were anthologized in the Tsukubashū. Jige renga ( "underground renga") was born out of hana no moto renga and was pervasive through the Mongol invasions of Japan (1274–1281) and after. The jige renga poets were led by Priest Zen’a (, ??–1312), who built upon the rules of hana no moto renga but also deviated from them, creating new versions of forms such as 1-day 1000-stanza renga ( ichi nichi senku renga)—telling of the genre's wide scale. Renga continued to flourish in the courts as well, and the era saw splendid renga gatherings of even 10,000 verses a day, as well as prominent women poets such as the Buddhist nun Nijō ( nijō no ama).
It was during the Kamakura Period that the rules ( shikimoku) of renga began to develop. At the time, one of the most important rules was fushimono (), titular prompts that had to be followed by every stanza in the entire sequence. For instance, a white-black fushimono would call for each verse to alternate between including a white object and a black object. Others fushimono might be more linguistic, such as requiring odd verses to include three-mora phrases that became a different word upon removal of the middle mora, and even verses to include four-mora phrases that became a different word upon removal of the first and last mora.
Late medieval
In the Nanboku-cho Period, renga began to take form and establish itself as a literary genre, largely owing to the efforts of Nijō Yoshimoto (, 1320–1388), who compiled the first imperial renga anthology Tsukubashū () in 1356. As reflected in the collection, aesthetic and linguistically polished hyakuin renga that embodied the spirit of the renga session became the foundation for the genre as it is known today.
Yoshimoto was a disciple of Gusai (, also Kyūsei or Kyūzei; 1281–1376), who was taught by Zen’a. Gusai, a commoner priest, was a leading jige renga poet and key collaborator in the compilation of the Tsukubashū. Yoshimoto was an aristocrat who served in the Northern Court of the Ashikaga Shogunate. He was originally a waka poet, and his relationship with Gusai, who also had training in courtly literature, brought together common and courtly renga traditions. Yoshimoto was the first to write extensively on renga theory, creating many works laying out the genre’s structure, aesthetic standards, shikimoku, and more. One major change he made was to the fushimono, which remained part of the title but now only applied to the first verse rather than the whole sequence. Other important rules delineated the maximum numbers of stanzas in which certain topics could appear in a row, and maximum numbers of stanzas in which certain topics could appear across the whole sequence. Many of his aesthetic treatises became important pedagogical artifacts for future renga poets. Through his theoretical work and compilation of the Tsukubashū, Yoshimoto elevated renga to the status of an independent literary genre, setting a crucial foundation for its golden age.
The golden age of renga is widely regarded as the Muromachi Period, during which many of the greatest renga masters were active. The era is epitomized by the poet Sōgi (, 1421–1502) and his compilation of the renga anthology Shintsukubashū (, lit. "New Tsukubashū).
Prior to Sōgi, Ichijō Kaneyoshi (, also Kanera; 1402–1481) aimed to succeed his grandfather Nijō Yoshimoto with his compilation of the Aratamashū (), which he worked on with the priest Sōzei (). However, the anthology was lost and the creation of the next major anthology was completed instead by Sozei’s disciple, Sōgi. Sōzei was one of the "seven sages," a group of poets all active around that time. They consisted of Priest Chiun (, 1448–1471), Priest Sōzei (, ??–1455), High Priest Gyōjo (, 1405–1469), Priest Nōa (, 1397–1471), Clergyman Shinkei (; 1406–1475), High Priest Senjun ( 1411–1476), and Priest Sōi (, 1418–1485). Their work was later anthologized by Sōgi in his anthology Chikurinshō (), for which Kaneyoshi wrote the preface.
Sōgi, a commoner priest, studied literature extensively, learning renga from Sōzei and classical literature from Kaneyoshi among others. He spent much time travelling the country as a professional renga poet despite the tumultuous political context of his era. His works often feature the relationship between humans and nature. His anthology Shintsukubashū became the successor to the Tsukubashū, and he also composed many other major works, the two most famous being "Three Poets at Minase" ( Minase Sangin Hyakuin) and "Three Poets at Yuyama" ( Yuyama Sangin Hyakuin). Both sequences were composed by Sōgi and two of his disciples, the priests Shōhaku (, 1143–1527) and Sōchō (, 1448–1532), in 1488 and 1491 respectively. The former was created as an offering for Emperor Go-Toba, the compiler of the Shinkokinshū, making it a formal piece with ceremonial grandeur. "Three Poets at Yuyama," on the other hand, was created in a more relaxed setting and enjoyed greater popularity in its time. It did, however, maintain also many conventions of renga despite its greater flexibility. The two are now considered the most canonical renga sequences and were widely used pedagogically as standards for the genre.
Sōgi’s death in 1502 was followed by a peak in popularity and then decline of renga as the new genre haikai developed. Sōgi’s lineage of disciples continued the renga tradition that ended with the death of Jōha (, 1524–1602), who is considered to be the final major renga poet.
One of Sōgi’s final disciples and also a previous disciple of Sōchō, the priest Sōseki (, 1474–1533), continued the Sōgi line of disciples after the poet’s death. Sōhoku (, ??–1545) was a disciple of Sōchō and Sōseki, and after their deaths rose to the forefront of the renga world. Like his predecessors, he spent much of his time travelling and wrote many works on renga theory in addition to his compositions. His son Sōyō (, 1526–1563) was raised renga poet as well and continued the tradition of travel. He became the top renga master after the death of all of the previous generation. His own death marked the end of the Sōgi tradition of renga, and his contemporary Satomura Jōha rose by default to the top position in the renga world.
Jōha came from another branch of the Sōgi lineage; he studied under Sōseki’s disciple Shūkei (, 1470–1544), and then Shūkei’s disciple Satomura Shōkyū (, 1511–1552) after Shūkei’s death, taking Satomura as his family name. Jōha was heavily involved with major political figures of his time, establishing connections with important people from various factions. His renga moved toward easy understandability and away from the depth and aesthetic standards of the previous tradition. After his death, renga’s period of widespread popularity ended as it was overtaken by haikai, its child genre. Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) became the most prominent haikai poet and was later also famous for his haiku.
Renga was a popular form of poetry even in the confusion of Azuchi–Momoyama period. Yet by the end of this era, the shikimoku had become so complicated and systematic that they stifled the active imagination that had been a part of the rengas appeal. During the medieval and Edo periods, renga was a part of the cultural knowledge required for high society.
Edo–Meiji
In the Edo period, as more and more ordinary citizens became familiar with renga, shikimoku were greatly simplified. The 36-verse Kasen became the most popular form of renga, and commonly spoken words as well as slang and Chinese words were allowed. With this relaxation of the rules, renga were able to express broader humor and wit. This style of renga came to be called haikai no renga ("comical linked verse") or simply haikai, and Matsuo Bashō is known as the greatest haikai poet.
The most favored form of renga in the Edo period was the , a chain consisting of 36 verses. As a rule, kasen must refer to flowers (usually cherry blossoms) twice, and three times to the moon. These references are termed and .
The first stanza of the renga chain, the hokku, is the forebear of the modern haiku. The stand-alone hokku was renamed haiku in the Meiji period by the great Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki. Shiki proposed haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase "haikai no ku" meaning a verse of haikai.
For almost 700 years, renga was a popular form of poetry, but its popularity was greatly diminished in the Meiji period. Masaoka Shiki, although himself a participant in several renga, claimed that . The renga'''s appeal of working as a group to make a complete work was not compatible with the European style of poetry gaining popularity in Japan, where a single poet writes the entire poem.
Structure of and conventions of Hyakuin renga
The hyakuin renga sequence begins with the hokku (), a 5-7-5 mora verse which was the origin of the late haiku genre. Unlike the following verses, the hokku in a renga session was expected to reflect the reality of the ba—its geographical location, season, etc.—and was also the only verse expected to be able to stand independently as a poem. The composition of the hokku was usually left to a skilled poet, and professional renga poets would sometimes be commissioned to write them during their travels. Often, the hokku would be written by the guest of the session, with the host responding with the second verse. Two technical conventions that carried over to haiku were the seasonal word kigo () and a "cutting word" kireji (). The hokku was followed by the wakiku (), daisan (), the names for the second and third verses respectively. Including these two, the rest of the linked verses were called tsukeku (), and verses 4-99 together were called the hiraku (). The final verse was called the ageku ().
During a renga session, the verses were transcribed onto a paper known as kaishi (), using four sheets, or eight sides of paper, total. The first side ( sho-ori) and last side ( nagori-no-ori) contained 8 verses each, and the rest of the sides contained 14 verses each. There were various structural rules based on the paper layout, the most important being the "four blossoms eight moons" rule (). Each sheet should include one verse that used the word hana (), or blossoms, and each side should include one verse that used the word tsuki () to mean moon specifically (as opposed to "month"). Sometimes the "moon" on the last page would be omitted, leaving seven "moons," making that half of rule more flexible than the number of "blossom" verses, which were considered more important and were usually composed by senior poets or those of higher social status.
In addition to the "four blossoms eight moons" rule, which served as a major structural pillar for the sequence, there were many other rules regarding topics or lexical categories and their usage in the context of the whole verse. As the vocabulary of renga largely followed the lexicon of waka, which used a limited number of words, there was a complex but clear system of what words fell under what category. For instance, ikkumono () was a category of specific phrases could only be used once in the entire sequence due to their particularly strong impression, or because they were considered unrefined. Some of the most important topics were the four seasons, love, reminiscence ( jukkai; included topics like grief and nostalgia), travel, and Buddhism. Topics like these had to follow the rules of rinne ( recurrence), which dictated the maximum and/or minimum number of verses each topic could appear in a row. For instance, spring and autumn verses must repeat for at least three and at most five verses in a row. Love originally followed the same rule, but by Sōgi’s era the minimum had dropped to two, and a single verse was allowed by the Edo Period. Summer, winter, travel, and Buddhism, among many others, could repeat for a maximum of three verses and no minimum, as could reminiscence—here, the subtopic of transiency fell under reminiscence, although it did not for other rules.
There were also many conventions governing the flow of movement throughout the sequence. The term for the proper flow of rhythm, which was also used in other art forms such as Noh theatre, was jōhakyū (), or "prelude, development, presto" in the manner of music. The jō contained the first ten verses, which should be graceful, smooth, and subtle. The ha encompassed the 11th to 78th verses, which should be dynamic and exciting. The last 22 verses were the kyū, which should move quickly and easily, particularly the final 8 verses for a clean-cut finish. Another convention regarding the flow of the sequence was the alternation of mon ( "pattern") and ji ( "background") verses. Mon verses contained more striking imagery that drew the audience’s attention, while ji verses were relatively plainer and inconspicuous verses serving to bring out the vividness of the mon. A good flow required skilled but subtle control of the pattern of the two types of verses.
Because in renga each verse is only related to its immediate neighbors, the sequence as a whole does not have very much semantic, stylistic, or thematic unity. Thus, what held the sequence together was the link between each verse, or tsukeai (). The most important rule of linking was that links could only exist between two adjacent verses, i.e. a verse could not be connected with any verses aside from the one it was being linked to. There was a wide range of types of links, from linguistic to semantic and direct to indirect; Nijō Yoshimoto listed thirteen types in his poetic treatise on renga, Renri Hishō ().
The renga session
Renga was typically composed in sessions attended by a group of poets known as the renju (, also renjū)—usually 7-8, though the number could range widely—, a scribe ( shuhitsu), and a master ( sōshō). The setting of the session was called the ba (), and was an integral part of the poetic sequence, providing aesthetic inspiration and often serving as the basis for the hokku. These sessions could take the form of more literary pedagogical events or more informal competitions that drew crowds of spectators.
The scribe sat at a low writing desk ( bundai), with the poets sitting facing the desk and the master beside it. The role of the scribe was not only to transcribe the renga sequence, but also to act as an enforcer of the rules of the genre. Once a poet was ready to offer a verse, he would make eye contact with and recite it to the scribe, who would then check to make sure that there were no infractions and write it down. The scribe was usually a younger, aspiring renga poet who would be able to gather experience and recognition through the session. The job required a remarkable memory, as he was required to not only remember all of the rules, but also to instantly recall all the previous verses in order to check the newest verse against them without wasting time looking through the transcription. In addition, the scribe needed both poetic and social skills in order to maintain the pace of the session. He had to decide when to enforce the rules and when to let infractions go for artistic or social reasons. Because renga sessions often gathered people from different social statuses, the scribe needed to facilitate the social dynamic and reject or accommodate verses without offending those of higher standing.
Unlike the scribe, the master was mainly in charge of the aesthetic progression of the sequence, maintaining the jōhakyū tempo, ji and mon pattern, the yukiyō, and other aspects of the flow by both judging verses and offering his own. He served as the senior poet who contributed many verses and helped other poets refine theirs, exercising a certain amount of authority over their compositions. Professional renga poets ( rengashi) such as Sōgi and his disciples would often be in high demand as masters during their travels.
At the start of the session, the scribe would receive the hokku and write it alongside the fushimono to its right. Then he would continue to receive verses; a poet would recite his verse, the scribe would recite it back, and each verse approved by the master and him would be written and recited again. Once the scribe wrote the final verse, he would count the number of verses each participant had contributed and write the tallies at the end of the last page. Finally, he bound the four pages with a string.
Many treatises and handbooks delineated the proper etiquette and conventions for renga sessions, covering everything from behavior and preparation of individual poets to the setup and dynamic of the ba. There was some variation between time periods and treatises regarding the ideal conditions of a renga session, and there were no doubt many amateur sessions across the country that did not adhere to the strict rules. As a whole, however, the renga session and its conventions played a crucial role in renga composition, and many extant renga today are products of those sessions where sequences were carefully recorded and preserved.
Outside Japan
An early attempt at renga in English appeared in 1968 in Haiku Magazine, and the same magazine published an issue in 1976 devoted to renga and haibun. Since then, many English-language haiku journals have published renga, renku, and other linked poetry.
Formats
Here follows a list of the most common formats in which renga have been written, both ushin (orthodox) renga, and mushin (renku)
Terminology
: The first stanza of renga with a 5-7-5 mora (sound unit) count. This stanza should be created by a special guest when present, and is considered a part of the greeting in a renga gathering. It must include a , as well as a . The kigo usually references the season the renga was created in. Hokku, removed from the context of renga, eventually became the haiku poetry form.
: The second stanza of a renga with a 7-7 mora count. The person who helped to organize the gathering is honored with creating it.
: The third stanza of a renga with a 5-7-5 mora count. It must end with the -te form of a verb to allow the next poet greater freedom in creating the stanza.
: Refers to all verses other than the hokku, waki, daisan, and ageku.
: The last stanza of a renga. Care should be taken to wrap up the renga.
: A note made after the ageku to indicate how many ku each poet read.
: To hold a renga gathering. May also be called .
: To start with the hokku of a famous poet such as Bashō and make a new waki verse to follow on from there.
: May also be called or . Refers to the mixing and matching of unlikely word combinations to spur imagination or evoke an image. One of the interesting features of renga.
: The verse in which tsukeai happens.
: The verse before the maeku.
: A set of rules to lay out the stylistic requirements for change throughout the poem and to prevent a renga from falling apart.
: Modern renga in Bashō's style.
: Literally, "the number of verses". When the theme of a section is a popular topic such as "Love", "Spring", or "Fall", the renga must continue on that theme for at least two verses but not more than five verses. This theme may then be dropped with one verse on any other topic.
: A rule to prevent loops repeating the same image or a similar verse.
: The name for a loop where the same theme, image, or word is repeated. Term taken from Buddhism.
: A type of loop where the uchikoshi and tsukeku have an identical image or theme.
: A stanza prepared beforehand. Should be avoided as stanzas should be created on the spot.
: To make two stanzas in a row. Happens frequently when the degachi rule is used. Should be avoided to let others join.
: A rule to use the stanza of the first poet to create one.
: A rule whereby each poet takes a turn to make a stanza.
: The members of a renga or haikai gathering. The members of a renga gathering are also called .
: Literally, "one seating". Describes the group when the renju are seated and the renga has begun.
: May also be called . The coordinator of an ichiza, he or she is responsible for the completion of a renga. Has the authority to dismiss an improper verse. The most experienced of the renju should be the sōshō to keep the renga interesting.
: The main guest of the ichiza and responsible for creating the hokku.
: The patron of a renga gathering, who provides the place.
: The "secretary" of the renga, as it were, who is responsible for writing down renga verses and for the proceedings of the renga.
: Using letters (i.e. the post), telegraph, telephone, or even fax machines for making a renga. Using the internet is also considered a form of bunnin.yukiyō (行様): The flow of the sequence created by the patterns of links and the shifting of the verses.
See also
Collaborative poetry
Exquisite corpseHokku, the opening verse of renga and renku, as well as a standalone 17-mora poem, which developed into the independent haikuRenku, the popular derivative of renga, which reached its artistic peak in the 17th centuryRenri Hishō, an influential text on renga poeticsRenshi, modern development of renga and renku References
Citations
Works cited
Further reading
A discussion of the features, history and aesthetics of renga, plus two renga'' sequences with Sōgi and others, three haikai sequences with Matsuo Bashō and others, and one haikai sequence with Yosa Buson and a friend.
Collaborative poetry
Japanese literary terminology
Japanese poetic forms
Stanzaic form
Genres of poetry
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest%20Bevin
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Ernest Bevin
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Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader and Labour Party politician. He cofounded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940 and served as Minister of Labour and National Service in the wartime coalition government. He succeeded in maximising the British labour supply for both the armed services and domestic industrial production with a minimum of strikes and disruption.
His most important role came as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour government, 1945–1951. He secured Marshall Aid, strongly opposed communism and aided in the creation of NATO. Bevin was also instrumental to the founding of the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret propaganda wing of the British Foreign Office, which specialised in disinformation, anti-communism and pro-colonial propaganda. Bevin's tenure also saw the end of British rule in India and the independence of India and East and West Pakistan (Bangladesh and Pakistan), as well as the end of the Mandate of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel. His biographer Alan Bullock said that Bevin "stands as the last of the line of foreign secretaries in the tradition created by Castlereagh, Canning and Palmerston in the first half of the 19th century".
Early life
Bevin was born in the village of Winsford in Somerset, England, to Diana Bevin, who since 1877 had described herself as a widow. His father is unknown. After his mother's death in 1889, the young Bevin lived with his half-sister's family and moved to Copplestone in Devon. He had little formal education; he had briefly attended two village schools and then Hayward's School, Crediton, starting in 1890 and leaving in 1892.
He later recalled being asked as a child to read the newspaper aloud for the benefit of adults in his family who were illiterate. At the age of eleven, he went to work as a labourer, then as a lorry driver in Bristol, where he joined the Bristol Socialist Society. In 1910 he became secretary of the Bristol branch of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union, and in 1914 he became a national organiser for the union.
Bevin was a large, strong man, and by the time of his political prominence, he was very heavy. He spoke with such a strong West Country accent that on one occasion, listeners at Cabinet had difficulty in deciding whether he was talking about "Hugh and Nye (Gaitskell and Bevan)" or "you and I". He had developed his oratorical skills from his time as a Baptist lay preacher, which he had given up as a profession to become a full-time labour activist.
Bevin married Florence Townley, daughter of a wine taster at a Bristol wine merchants. They had one child, a daughter, Queenie Mildred Wynne (6 May 1911 – 31 January 2000). Florence Bevin (died 1968) was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1952.
Transport and General Workers' Union
In 1922, Bevin was one of the founding leaders of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), which soon became Britain's largest trade union. Upon his election as the union's General Secretary, he became one of the country's leading labour leaders and the strongest union advocate within the Labour Party. Politically, he was on the right wing of the Labour Party. He was strongly opposed to communism and direct action. His opponents claimed that was partly because of anti-Semitic paranoia, which made him see communism as a "Jewish plot" against Britain. He took part in the British General Strike in 1926 but without enthusiasm.
Bevin had no great faith in parliamentary politics but had nevertheless been a member of the Labour Party from the time of its formation, and he unsuccessfully fought Bristol Central at the 1918 general election. He was defeated by the Coalition Conservative Thomas Inskip. He had poor relations with the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, and was not surprised when MacDonald formed a National Government with the Conservatives during the economic crisis of 1931 for which MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party.
At the 1931 general election, Bevin was persuaded by the remaining leaders of the Labour Party to contest Gateshead on the understanding that if successful he would remain as general secretary of the TGWU. The National Government won a landslide, which resulted in Gateshead being lost by a large margin to the Liberal National Thomas Magnay.
Bevin was a trade unionist who believed in getting material benefits for his members through direct negotiations with strike action to be used as a last resort. During the late 1930s, for instance, Bevin helped to instigate a successful campaign by the Trades Union Congress to extend paid holidays to a wider proportion of the workforce. That culminated in the Holidays with Pay Act 1938, which extended entitlement to paid holidays to about 11 million workers by June 1939.
Foreign policy interests
During the 1930s, with the Labour Party split and weakened, Bevin co-operated with the Conservative-dominated National Government on practical issues, but during that period, he became increasingly involved in foreign policy. He was a firm opponent of fascism and of the British appeasement of the fascist powers. In 1935, arguing that Fascist Italy should be punished by sanctions for its recent invasion of Abyssinia, he made a blistering attack on the pacifists in the Labour Party and accused the Labour leader George Lansbury at the Party Conference of "hawking his conscience around" and of asking to be told what to do with it. Bevin's efforts to promote sanctions were successful, with an overwhelming majority of delegates voting in favour of sanctions.
After the vote at the conference, Lansbury resigned and was replaced as leader by his deputy, Clement Attlee, who, along with Lansbury and Stafford Cripps, had been one of only three former Labour Ministers to be re-elected under that party label at the 1931 general election. After the November 1935 general election, Herbert Morrison, who was newly returned to Parliament, challenged Attlee for the leadership but was defeated. In later years, Bevin gave Attlee, whom he privately referred to as "little Clem", staunch support, especially in 1947, when Morrison and Cripps led further intrigue against Attlee.
Wartime Minister of Labour
In 1940, Winston Churchill formed an all-party coalition government to run the country during the Second World War. Churchill was impressed by Bevin's opposition to trade union pacifism and by his appetite for work (according to Churchill, Bevin was by "far the most distinguished man that the Labour Party have thrown up in my time"). He appointed Bevin to the position of Minister of Labour and National Service. As Bevin was not actually an MP at the time, to remove the resulting constitutional anomaly, a parliamentary position was hurriedly found for him, and Bevin was elected unopposed to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for the London constituency of Wandsworth Central.
The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gave Bevin complete control over the labour force and the allocation of manpower, and he was determined to use the unprecedented authority not just to help win the war but also to strengthen the bargaining position of trade unions in the postwar future. Bevin once quipped: "They say Gladstone was at the Treasury from 1860 until 1930. I'm going to be at the Ministry of Labour from 1940 until 1990," suggesting he aspired to have his doctrines remain at the Ministry of Labour as long as Gladstone's economic policies had governed the Treasury's approach. The industrial settlement he introduced remained largely unaltered by successive postwar administrations until the reforms of Margaret Thatcher's government in the early 1980s.
During the war, Bevin was responsible for diverting nearly 48,000 military conscripts to work in the coal industry (the workers became known as the Bevin Boys), and he used his position to secure significant improvements in wages and working conditions for the working class. He also drew up the demobilisation scheme that ultimately returned millions of military personnel and civilian war workers into the peacetime economy. Bevin remained Minister of Labour until 1945 when Labour left the Coalition government. On VE Day, he stood next to Churchill in looking down on the crowd on Whitehall.
Foreign Secretary
After the 1945 general election, Attlee had it in mind to appoint Bevin as Chancellor and Hugh Dalton as Foreign Secretary, but ultimately changed his mind and swapped them round. One of the reasons may well have been the poor relations which existed between Bevin and Herbert Morrison, who was scheduled to play a leading role in Labour domestic policy.
Diplomats were then recruited from public schools, and it was said of Bevin that it was hard to imagine him filling any other job in the Foreign Office except perhaps that of an old and truculent lift attendant. In praise of Bevin, his Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, Alexander Cadogan, wrote, "He knows a great deal, is prepared to read any amount, seems to take in what he does read, and is capable of making up his own mind and sticking up for his (and our) point of view against anyone". An alternative view is offered by Charmley, who writes that Bevin read and wrote with some difficulty and that examination of Foreign Office documents shows little sign of the frequent annotations made by Anthony Eden. That suggests that Bevin preferred to reach most of his decisions after oral discussion with his advisers.
However, Charmley dismisses the concerns of contemporaries such as Charles Webster and Lord Cecil of Chelwood that Bevin, a man of very strong personality, was “in the hands of his officials”. Charmley argues that much of Bevin's success came because he shared the views of those officials. His earlier career had left him with an intense dislike of communists, whom he regarded as workshy intellectuals whose attempts to infiltrate trade unions were to be resisted. His former Private Secretary, Oliver Harvey, thought Bevin's staunchly anti-Soviet policy was what Eden's would have been had he not been hamstrung by the Potsdam Conference and Churchill's occasional susceptibility to Stalin's flattery, and Cadogan thought Bevin to be “pretty sound on the whole”.
According to Geoffrey Warner:
Bevin's personality was a strange mixture of Jekyll and Hyde. He was adored by his officials, not only because there was never any doubt that foreign policy was made in the Foreign Office while he was its head, but also because he was as solicitous of their welfare and conditions of employment as he had been of those of his union members. His word was universally regarded as his bond and his loyalty once given was unstinting. At the same time, as even his admirers have conceded, he was long-winded, vain, vindictive, profoundly suspicious, and prejudiced against—among others and in no particular order—Jews, Germans, Roman Catholics, and intellectuals of all kinds, groups that, when taken together, comprised a large proportion of those with whom he had to deal.
United States
The historian Martin H. Folly argues that Bevin was not automatically pro-American. Instead, he pushed his embassy in Washington to project a view of Britain that neutralised American criticisms. He felt that Britain's problems were in part caused by American irresponsibility. He was frustrated with American attitudes. His strategy was to bring Washington around to support Britain's policies and argued that Britain had earned American support and ought to compensate it for its sacrifices against the Nazis. Folly considers that Bevin was not coldly pragmatic uncritically pro-American or a puppet manipulated by the British Foreign Office.
Bevin's complex position on the US is betrayed in the following quotation, which was given in response to an American visitor who asked Bevin why he had a portrait of George III behind his desk: "[He's] my hero. If he hadn't been so stupid, you wouldn't have been strong enough to come to our rescue in the War."
Finances
In 1945, Britain was virtually bankrupt as a result of the war but was still maintaining a huge air force and conscript army in an attempt to remain a global power. Bevin played a key role in securing the low-interest $3.75 billion Anglo-American loan as the only real alternative to national bankruptcy. He had asked originally for $5 billion.
The cost of rebuilding necessitated austerity at home to maximise export earnings while Britain's colonies and other client states were required to keep their reserves in pounds as "sterling balances". Additional funds, which did not have to be repaid, came from the Marshall Plan in 1948 to 1950, which also required Britain to modernise its business practices and to remove trade barriers.
Europe
Bevin looked for ways to bring Western Europe together in a military alliance at the beginning of the Cold War. One early attempt was the Dunkirk Treaty with France in 1947. His commitment to the West European security system made him eager to sign the Treaty of Brussels in 1948. It drew Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg into an arrangement for collective security and opened the way for the formation of NATO in 1949. NATO was primarily aimed as a defensive measure against Soviet expansion, but it also helped bring its members closer together, enabled them to modernise their forces along parallel lines and encouraged arms purchases from Britain. Bevin was also instrumental in the creation of the Council of Europe, with the signature of its Statute on 5 May 1949, at St James's Palace, London, by the Foreign Ministers of Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Britain was still closely allied to France, and both countries continued to be treated as major partners at international summits alongside the Americans and the Soviets until 1960. Broadly speaking, they remained Britain's foreign policy until the late 1950s, when the humiliation of the 1956 Suez Crisis and the economic revival of Continental Europe, much of which was now united as the "Common Market", caused a reappraisal.
Empire
Bevin was unsentimental about the British Empire in places for which the growth of nationalism had made direct rule no longer practicable. He was part of the Cabinet that approved a speedy British withdrawal from India in 1947 and neighbouring colonies. However, Britain still maintained a network of client states in the Middle East (Egypt until 1952, Iraq and Jordan until 1959) and major bases in such places as Cyprus and Suez (until 1956) and expected to remain in control of parts of Africa for many more years. Bevin approved the construction of a huge new base in East Africa. Bevin wrote that “we have the material resources in the Colonial Empire, if we develop them... which will show clearly that we are not subservient to the United States... or to the Soviet Union”. Colonial exports then earned $150 million a year, mostly Malayan rubber, West African cocoa, and sugar and sisal from the West Indies. By the end of 1948, colonial exports were 50% higher than before the war, and in the first half of 1948, colonial exports accounted for 10.4% of Britain's imports. After the war, Britain helped France and the Netherlands recover their Far Eastern colonies in the French Indochina and Dutch East Indies in the hope that could lead towards the formation of a third superpower bloc. Bevin agreed with Duff Cooper, the British Ambassador in Paris, that the Dunkirk Treaty would be a step in this direction and thought that Eden's objection in 1944, when Cooper first proposed it, that such moves might alienate the Soviets no longer applied.
In December 1947, Bevin hoped (in vain) that the US would support Britain's "strategic, political and economic position in the Middle East". In May 1950 Bevin told the London meeting of foreign ministers that “the United States authorities had recently seemed disposed to press us to adopt a greater measure of economic integration with Europe than we thought wise”. He was referring to the Schuman Plan to set up the European Coal and Steel Community. In May 1950, he said that because of links with the US and the Commonwealth, Britain was “different in character from other European nations and fundamentally incapable of wholehearted integration with them”.
Cold War
Bevin remained a determined anti-Communist and anti-Soviet. In 1946 during a conference, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov repeatedly attacked British proposals and defended Soviet policies, and in total frustration, Bevin stood, lurched towards the minister and shouted, "I've had enough of this I 'ave!" He was then restrained by security.
He strongly encouraged the United States to take a vigorously anti-Communist foreign policy in the early years of the Cold War. He was a leading advocate for British combat operations in the Korean War. Two of the key institutions of the postwar world, NATO and the Marshall Plan, for aid to postwar Europe, were in considerable part the result of Bevin's efforts during these years. The policy, which was little different from that of the Conservatives ("Hasn't Anthony Eden grown fat?" as wags had it), was a source of frustration to some backbench Labour MPs, who early in the 1945 Parliament formed a "Keep Left" group to push for a more left-wing foreign policy.
In 1945, Bevin advocated the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and said in the House of Commons, "There should be a study of a house directly elected by the people of the world to whom the nations are accountable".
In 1950, Bevin offered recognition to the People's Republic of China.
Atomic bomb
Attlee and Bevin worked together on the decision to produce a British atomic bomb despite intense opposition from pro-Soviet elements of the Labour Party, groups that Bevin detested. The decision was taken in secret by a small Cabinet committee. Bevin told the committee in October 1946, "We've got to have this thing over here whatever it costs.... We've got to have the bloody Union Jack flying on top of it". It was a matter of both prestige and national security. Those ministers who would have opposed the bomb on grounds of cost, Hugh Dalton and Sir Stafford Cripps, were excluded from the meeting in January 1947 at which the final decision was taken.
Palestine and Israel
Bevin was Foreign Secretary during the period when the Mandate for Palestine ended, and the State of Israel was created. Bevin failed to secure the stated British objectives in that area of foreign policy, which included a peaceful settlement of the situation and the avoidance of involuntary population transfers. Regarding Bevin's handling of the Middle East situation, at least one commentator, David Leitch, has suggested that Bevin lacked diplomatic finesse.
Leitch argued that Bevin tended to make a bad situation worse by making ill-chosen abrasive remarks. Bevin, undeniably a plain-spoken man, made some remarks that struck many as insensitive. Critics have accused him of being anti-Semitic. One remark which caused particular anger was made when US President Harry Truman was pressing Britain to immediately admit 100,000 Jewish refugees, survivors of the Holocaust who wanted to immigrate to Palestine. Bevin told a Labour Party meeting the reasons that he thought were behind the American pressure: pressure was being applied because "There has been agitation in the United States, and particularly in New York, for 100,000 Jews to be put in Palestine. I hope I will not be misunderstood in America if I say that this was proposed by the purest of motives. They did not want too many Jews in New York." He was merely restating what he said had been told to him by James F. Byrnes, the US Secretary of State.
For refusing to remove limits on Jewish immigration to Palestine in the aftermath of the war, Bevin earned the hatred of Zionists. According to the historian Howard Sachar, his political foe, Richard Crossman, a fellow Labour Party member of parliament and a pro-Zionist member of the postwar Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry into the Problems of European Jewry and Palestine, characterised his outlook during the dying days of the Mandate as "corresponding roughly with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a tsarist fabrication written to inflame anti-Semitic prejudice. In Sachar's account, Crossman intimated that "the main points of Bevin's discourse were... that the Jews had successfully organised a conspiracy against Britain and against him personally". Bevin's biographer Alan Bullock rejected suggestions that Bevin was motivated by personal anti-Semitism.
Britain's economic weakness and its dependence on the financial support of the United States (Britain had received a large American loan in 1946, and the Marshall Plan began in mid-1947) left him little alternative but to yield to American pressure over Palestine policy. At the reconvened London Conference in January 1947, the Jewish negotiators were prepared to accept only partition and the Arab negotiators only a unitary state, which would automatically have had an Arab majority. Neither would accept limited autonomy under British rule. When no agreement could be reached, Bevin threatened to hand the problem over to the United Nations. The threat failed to move either side, the Jewish representatives because they believed that Bevin was bluffing and the Arab representatives because they believed that their cause would prevail before the UN General Assembly. Bevin accordingly announced that he would "ask the UN to take the Palestine question into consideration".
A week later, the strategic logic of Britain retaining a presence in Palestine was removed when the intention to withdraw from India in August that year was announced. The decision to allow the United Nations to dictate the future of Palestine was formalised by the Attlee government's public declaration in February 1947 that Britain's Mandate in Palestine had become "unworkable"./Of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine which resulted, Bevin commented: "The majority proposal is so manifestly unjust to the Arabs that it is difficult to see how, in Sir Alexander
Cadogan's words, 'we could reconcile it with our conscience.' "
The fighting between the Jewish and Arab communities continued to escalate until the end of the Mandate. Britain's final withdrawal from Palestine was marked by the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when five Arab states intervened in the intercommunal fighting. The Arab armies were led by Jordan, the most effective state, whose military forces were trained and led by British officers. The war ended with Israel, in addition to the territory assigned by the UN for the creation of a Jewish state, which was also in control of much of the Mandate territory that had been assigned by the UN for the creation of an Arab state. The remainder was divided between Jordan and Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of overwhelmingly Arab civilians had been displaced.
Bevin was infuriated by attacks on British troops carried out by the more extreme of the Jewish militant groups, the Irgun and Lehi, commonly known as the Stern Gang. The Haganah carried out less direct attacks until the King David Hotel bombing, when it restricted itself to illegal immigration activities. According to declassified MI6 files, the Irgun and the Lehi attempted to assassinate Bevin himself in 1946.
Bevin negotiated the Portsmouth Treaty with Iraq (signed on 15 January 1948), which, according to Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali, was accompanied by a British undertaking to withdraw from Palestine in such a fashion as to provide for swift Arab occupation of all its territory.
Later life
Owing to failing health, Bevin reluctantly allowed himself to be appointed Lord Privy Seal in March 1951. "I am neither a Lord, nor a Privy, nor a Seal", he is said to have commented. He died from a heart attack in the following month, still holding the key to his red box. His ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey.
When, on Stafford Cripps's death in 1952, Attlee (by this time Leader of the Opposition) was invited to broadcast a tribute by the BBC, he was looked after by announcer Frank Phillips. After the broadcast, Phillips took Attlee to the hospitality room for a drink and in order to make conversation said:"I suppose you will miss Sir Stafford, sir."Attlee fixed him with his eye: "Did you know Ernie Bevin?""I have met him, sir," Phillips replied."There's the man I miss."
James Chuter Ede, Home Secretary throughout the time that Bevin was at the Foreign Office (and for a few months after his death), had worked with Churchill, Attlee, Keynes and many other significant figures. When Bevin's biographer, Alan Bullock, asked Chuter Ede for his view of Bevin, he replied:"Was he the biggest man I met in the Labour movement? He was the biggest man I met in any movement."
A bust of Bevin has been placed opposite Devon Mansions and the former St Olave's Grammar School in Tooley Street, South London. Bevin was offered many honours as his reputation grew, but declined all of them.
Assessments
Martin Folly argues that assessments on Bevin as foreign secretary divide into two schools. After the opening of the British archives, historians, led by the biographer Alan Bullock celebrated Bevin as one of the great men in British diplomatic history. They argued that he dominated foreign policy; led the Foreign Office by strength of character and clarity of vision; and carried through on his grand design for Britain's revised role in world affairs, especially in close alliance with the United States, his support for NATO, and his rejection of an alternative of Britain as a neutral third force, as advocated by the left wing of his party. He succeeded in convincing the United States to take over some of Britain's burdens, especially Greece. He thereby became a major influence in pushing the United States into a leadership role through the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO and the Cold War.
However, a revisionist approach appeared in the late 1980s. It portrays Bevin as a narrow-minded anti-Communist and gives more credit to the Foreign Office for the new foreign-policy. In that interpretation, Bevin lost the opportunity to make Britain a leader in European affairs, and it instead became more of a tail on the American kite.
In popular culture
Bevin was featured prominently in Jack Thorne's 2023 play When Winston Went to War with the Wireless, played by Kevin McMonagle.
See also
Aneurin Bevan, a rival minister in the same Labour government; he was to the left of Bevin
Ernest Bevin Academy
History of trade unions in the United Kingdom
SS Exodus
Information Research Department (IRD)
References
Further reading
Adonis, Andrew. Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill (Biteback Publishing, 2020).
Bullock, Alan. The Life & Times of Ernest Bevin: Volume One: Trade Union Leader 1881 – 1940 (1960); The life and times of Ernest Bevin: volume two Minister of Labour 1940–1945 (1967); The life and times of Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary, 1945–1951 (1983) online
Alan Bullock's magisterial three-volume biography was re-published in a single-volume abridged version by Politicos Publishing in 2002.
[Discusses Bevin's policies apropos of Anglo-American relations of the era]
Deighton, Anne. "Entente Neo-Coloniale?: Ernest Bevin and the Proposals for an Anglo–French Third World Power, 1945–1949," Diplomacy & Statecraft (2006) 17#4 pp 835–852. Bevin in 1945–49 advocated cooperation with France as the base of a "Third World Power," which would be a third strategic center of power in addition to the United States and the Soviet Union.
Folly, Martin H. "‘The impression is growing...that the United States is hard when dealing with us’: Ernest Bevin and Anglo-American relations at the dawn of the cold war." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 10#2 (2012): 150–166.
Goodlad, Graham. "Attlee, Bevin and Britain's Cold War," History Review (2011), Issue 69, pp 1–6
Greenwood, Sean. "Bevin, the Ruhr and the Division of Germany: August 1945 – December 1946," Historical Journal (1986) 29#1 pp 203–212. Argues that Bevin saw the Ruhr as the centerpiece of his strategy for the industrial revitalisation of Europe. He insisted on keeping the Soviets out, and this position made him one of the principal architects of a divided Germany. in JSTOR
Inman, P.F. Labour in the munitions industries (1957), official WW2 history.
Denis MacShane contributed an essay on Bevin to the Dictionary of Labour Biography, Greg Rosen (ed), Politicos Publishing, 2001.
Ferdinand Mount, "The Importance of Being Ernie" (review of Andrew Adonis, Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill, Biteback, July 2020, 352 pp., ), London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 21 (5 November 2020), pp. 27–28.
Ovendale, R. ed. The foreign policy of the British labour governments, 1945–51 (1984) ·
Parker, H. M. D. Manpower: a study of war-time policy and administration (1957), official WW2 history.
Pearce, Robert. "Ernest Bevin: Robert Pearce Examines the Career of the Man Who Was Successively Trade Union Leader, Minister of Labour and Foreign Secretary" History Review (Dec 2002) online
Pearce, Robert. "Ernest Bevin" in Kevin Jefferys, ed., Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown (2002) pp 7–24
Saville, J. The politics of continuity: British foreign policy and the Labour government, 1945–46 (1993)·
Stephens, Mark. Ernest Bevin – Unskilled Labourer and World Statesman (1981)·
Vickers, Rhiannon. The Labour Party and the world, volume 1: The evolution of Labour's foreign policy, 1900–51 (Manchester UP, 2010). online free
Warner, Geoffrey. "Ernest Bevin and British Foreign Policy, 1945–1951" in The Diplomats, 1939–1979 ed. by Gordon A. Craig and Francis L. Loewenheim. (Princeton UP, 1994) pp. 103–134 online
Weiler, Peter. "Britain and the First Cold War: Revisionist Beginnings," Twentieth Century British History (1998) 9#1 pp 127–138 reviews arguments of revisionist historians who downplay Bevin's personal importance in starting the Cold War and instead emphasise British efforts to use the Cold War to perpetuate imperial regional interests, through containment of radical national movements, and to oppose American aggrandisement.
Williams, Francis. Ernest Bevin: Portrait of a Great Englishman (Hutchinson, 1952) online
Wrigley, Chris. "Bevin, Ernest (1881–1951)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004); online edn, January 2008 accessed 2 June 2013 ; brief scholarly biography
External links
Peter Day. Jewish terrorists plotted to assassinate Ernest Bevin in 1946, The Sunday Times, 5 March 2006.
From the hedgerows of Devon to the Foreign Office – Roger Steer.
Annotated bibliography for Ernest Bevin from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
Catalogue of Bevin's trade union papers, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
1881 births
1951 deaths
British Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs
British Secretaries of State
Burials at Westminster Abbey
English Baptists
Foreign Office personnel of World War II
General secretaries of the Transport and General Workers' Union
Labor ministers
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Lords Privy Seal
Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951
Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945
Presidents of the Trades Union Congress
Transport and General Workers' Union-sponsored MPs
UK MPs 1935–1945
UK MPs 1945–1950
UK MPs 1950–1951
20th-century Baptists
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bapaume
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Bapaume
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Bapaume (original Dutch name Batpalmen) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France.
The inhabitants of this commune are known as Bapalmois or Bapalmoises.
Geography
Bapaume is a farming and light industrial town located some 23 km south by south-east of Arras and 50 km north-east of Amiens. Access to the commune is by the D 917 road from Ervillers in the north which passes through the commune in a zig-zag then continues south-east to Beaulencourt. The D 930 goes east by north-east to Frémicourt. The D 929 branches off the D 917 at the edge of the commune and goes south-west to Warlencourt-Eaucourt. The A1 autoroute passes south down the eastern edge of the commune and serves the city by the exit 14.
The Bapaume threshold
Bapaume has been called the Seuil de Bapaume (Bapaume threshold) due to its position as a crossing point between Artois and the Flanders plain on one side, and the Somme valley and the Paris Basin on the other. From the mid-11th century there was a Bapaume toll which was revised in 1202 and again in 1442.
Many roads pass through Bapaume, both old roads between the two regions then the autoroute (1965) and the TGV (1993). In the 19th century, however, the city council opposed the passage through its territory of the Paris–Lille railway.
This position was regretted by 1859 when the municipality called for the construction of a railway linking Achiet-le-Grand (on the Paris-Lille route) to Bapaume with animal traction (possibly they were afraid of steam). The first section of the Achiet–Marcoing railway linked the two communes and was commissioned in 1871, with steam traction. The line was later extended to Marcoing. The TGV came to the town in 1993.
Toponymy
Bapaume (Batpalmen or Bapalmen in Flemish) means "beat your palms" in the sense of "suffering" because of the poverty of the land or some past devastation.
History
Early Bapaume
The current city is not in its original location. During the Gallic period the town was located some 1500 m to the west near an abundant source: the source of the Sensée river. During the Roman Empire the town prospered as it was next to the road linking Bavay to Amiens. This period lasted about three centuries.
The barbarian invasions of 255–280 totally destroyed this first Bapaume.
Under the Late Roman Empire the city was rebuilt in the same place by Batavi settlers who were enlisted as soldier-farmers. Defensive mounds were built around the site of the current Bapaume and the road from Arras to Saint-Quentin and Péronne was diverted to pass near the defences.
This town was called Helena and was the place where Aetius repulsed the Frankish invasion attempt in 448. This invasion was successful in 454 and ended the Roman presence. During the following centuries the city was devastated several times. The Franks built a castle on the Roman mound as the area was inhabited by bandits who hid in the Arrouaise forest. A bandit called Bérenger seized the castle by a ruse and made his mark on it. After his death the people of Helluin (Helena) came to shelter near the fort and thus Bapaume was born. Helluin disappeared gradually. It is through several excavations at this place that traces of this city were found and its history.
The Counts of Flanders
The city gradually grew in importance, the main traffic was not east–west but north–south. To ensure the passage against the bandits a toll was established by the counts of Flanders with soldiers escorting the merchants on the part crossing the Arrouaise Forest and north of the city. Churches were built with this toll. The Lords of Bapaume were subject to the Counts of Flanders.
On 28 April 1180 the marriage of Philip Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut, daughter of Baldwin V was celebrated at Bapaume. Due to this union, in 1191 Bapaume was placed under the control of the King of France.
The Kingdom of France and the County of Artois
Philip Augustus returned several times to Bapaume to grant communal charters. The city became independent with the construction of a town hall with a belfry, the creation of a coat of arms and a seal, and a citizens' militia. In 1202 the toll was first revised then a second time in 1291. It was Louis IX of France, in 1237, who attached Bapaume to the County of Artois from under the thumb of Robert d'Artois, his brother, provided it paid homage to the kings of France. The city enjoyed a period of prosperity from the toll and its fine linen weaving (Batiste) by mulquiniers in the countryside. Robert I, Count of Artois was succeeded by Robert II, Count of Artois then Mahaut, Countess of Artois as head of the County of Artois. The nephew of Mahaut called himself Robert III of Artois and claimed the throne for a long time and, in revenge, helped the English. There followed a long period of war and disasters.
Countess Mahaut often resided at the castle as she traveled frequently. She had her own room there and undertook numerous fortification works. On her death Bapaume passed to the Count of Flanders in 1330. He undertook major works including a surrounding wall and large ditches around the city in 1335. The entire castle and city was one of the most beautiful fortresses and was called the "Key of Artois".
The Hundred Years' War
The fortifications protected the inhabitants of Bapaume repeatedly from frightful depredations by the English in that war. The Bailiwick of Bapaume suffered terribly during this period: it is during this time that villagers hid in their muches (underground hiding places) dug in the chalky soil.
The Dukes of Burgundy
Bapaume was under the control of the Dukes of Burgundy from 1383 to 1494 and it was in this city that John the Fearless took refuge after the assassination of the Duke of Orléans in 1407. It was also at Bapaume that he reunited his army to reenter the campaign on 30 January 1414. In July 1414 the King of France laid siege to Bapaume: John's garrison surrendered without fear and Charles VI then went to besiege Arras. A peace treaty was signed on 30 August and Bapaume was given to John the Fearless, but it was in such a state that on 3 September there were insufficient voters to elect aldermen. After the death of John, his son Philip the Good spent several days at the castle in 1420 and it was he who in 1437 granted the town of Bapaume two free fairs per year. A period of prosperity followed but on 4 April 1472 a terrible fire destroyed the city. It was then looted and burned by the troops of Louis XI on 7 May 1475 and again in 1477. In 1486 Charles VIII attacked Artois again and thus Bapaume. The area suffered much from the fighting between the Burgundians and the French. On 4 June 1488 fire caused further damage to the city.
Administration by the Netherlands
As a result of the Treaty of Senlis of 13 May 1493 concluded between the King of France and Maximilian of Austria, Bapaume came under the rule of the House of Austria and was administered by the governors of the Netherlands and Governors appointed by the kings of Spain until 1641. A new era of prosperity began, troubled by the attempts of Governors to restrict the privileges of the city. On 23 July 1509 Mayor Philippe Leclercq obtained a written statement of the powers of Mayors and Aldermen of Bapaume.
Bapaume suffered much from the rivalry between François I and Charles V. The city was devastated by the French on 15 October 1521 and went to Charles V in the Treaty of Madrid. It was again destroyed by fire in 1543 although in the meantime the Emperor had given the order to rebuild the castle and fortifications. The region was again ravaged by the French armies in 1554.
After an attempt to take the castle by a person called Lelievre, the residents of Bapaume ensured that the fortifications of the castle and the city were rebuilt in 1578. The period troubled by incursions and devastation lasted until 1598 when the Treaty of Vervins was signed on 2 May. An era of peace and prosperity followed, despite a plague epidemic in 1626, which ended in March 1635 when Louis XIII declared war on Philip IV of Spain. On 18 September 1641 Bapaume surrendered after a siege by the French army. This capitulation was highly celebrated in Paris since Bapaume was considered one of the main strongholds of Artois and Flanders.
Bapaume and the Kingdom of France
Louis XIII confirmed the powers of the city in 1642. He reinforced the fortifications that had suffered during the siege. The city and the surrounding countryside still had to suffer the presence of Spanish and French armies until 1654 (Arras was taken by Louis XIV who passed through Bapaume twice in August).
The sun king passed through Bapaume several times in 1667 while returning from Flanders. On 11 May 1670 he came to review the troops stationed near the city. On 7 May 1673 he passed the night at the castle after inspecting the fortifications.
In 1681 Bapaume was destroyed by fire after which it was forbidden to rebuild with thatched roofs. In 1723 a statue of Louis XV on a horse was erected in the square. This was the first statue of the young monarch in France. On 24 July 1744 the king passed through Bapaume and was highly acclaimed by the people. He again passed through the city on 6 September 1745, 2 May and 11 June 1746, and 25 September 1747.
The Fortifications
Its position subjected Bapaume to multiple wars. Defensive structures were built: first a Roman camp, then a Motte-and-bailey castle, and finally and a castle in the location of the motte. Queen Mahaut of Artois had her chamber in this castle and it seems that Joan of Arc spent one night there.
In 1335 the city itself was fortified away from the castle. These fortifications were not, however, very effective and the city was taken repeatedly. In 1540 Charles V ordered a fortified place to be built. Thick walls with bastions surrounding the city and the castle were included. In 1578 the castle and the city were united into one whole. These fortifications by Charles V were later reinforced by Vauban. Elaborate defensive systems such as mines and tunnels were built.
In 1550 Wallerand de Hauteclocque, Squire and Lord of Wail, Havernas, and Hauteclocque, was appointed by the king as lieutenant and captain of the town and castle of Bapaume.
Later Dominique de Grossolles, knight and Lord of Saint-Martin, became "Major of the town and castle of Bapaume".
In the 19th century Bapaume was not considered a walled city. The dismantling of fortifications was therefore undertaken in 1847. This was done by the Army as part of maneuvers and experiments with explosives. The walls and bastions were leveled and the ditches were filled. Only the tower and part of the Dauphin bastion are still visible.
Work has been done recently to restore the underground galleries and make them available to visit: firstly, the Bastion of Reyne south-east of the city and then, on the other side, the Dauphin Bastion. These tunnels served as shelter during the two world wars.
The French Revolution
Bapaume society was transformed during the French revolution. During the Terror, the Castle was not sufficient to imprison citizens suspected of not being favourable to the Revolution. Homes vacated by residents who had fled were requisitioned to serve as prisons.
Joseph Le Bon came to the commune revive the actions of the revolutionary committee.
The city was the capital of the district from 1790 to 1795.
The Battle of Bapaume on 2 and 3 January 1871
The Battle of Bapaume was fought on 2 and 3 January 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 on the territories of Biefvillers-lès-Bapaume and Bapaume.
General Louis Léon César Faidherbe at the head of the Northern Army stopped the Prussians.
World War I
In 1916 Bapaume was one of the cities considered to be strategic objectives by the allies in the framework of the Battle of the Somme.
Bapaume was occupied by the Germans on 26 September 1914 then by the British on 17 March 1917. The town hall was destroyed on 25 March by a delayed action mine left by the Germans, killing 24 people including Australian soldiers and two French members of parliament.
On 24 March 1918, the Germans took over the city again.
In 1918 the Second Battle of Bapaume, 21 August–3 September, was part of the second phase of the Battle of Amiens, the British and Commonwealth attack that was the turning point of the First World War on the Western Front and the beginning of the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive. Improved armoured support and artillery bombardment weakened once impregnable positions and helped the Allied forces tear holes through trench lines. On 29 August the New Zealand Division, after heavy fighting, occupied Bapaume, having broken through, with the British 5th Infantry Division, the very strong Le Transloy-Loupart trench system and having overcome many other strong points around the town.
The Germans set up a trap in the town hall with a mine and a timer which exploded just before the arrival of the Australians. The First Battle of Bapaume ran from 24 to 25 March 1918 and the Second Battle of Bapaume from 21 August to 3 September 1918.
After the armistice the slow and dangerous work of demining began. The city was classified as a red zone and major work was done for reconstruction. The English city of Sheffield provided assistance for reconstruction.
There remains from this time a war memorial and two military cemeteries that also have graves from the Second World War:
The Bapaume Communal Cemetery
The Bapaume Australian Cemetery houses the remains of 88 soldiers from 1914 to 1918 at a place called the Pré Pot de Chart. This is a cemetery which was created in March 1917 by the 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station. It was closed in June 1917 then after that 23 German bodies were added in April and May 1918.
Bapaume church was demolished by shelling in 1916
World War II
During World War II Bapaume was again an area of intense fighting. The mayor, Abel Guidet, was a member of the Resistance and was arrested and deported to the camp of Gross-Rosen where he died on 27 November 1944.
Since 1948 there has been a monument showing the moment of his arrest to honour his memory. At the Town Hall are an urn with soil from Groß-Rosen and a painting featuring the Mayor.
Heraldry
Administration
List of Successive Mayors
Twinning
Bapaume has twinning associations with:
Moers-Kapellen, Germany since 1974.
The pairing with Moers is the work of Henri Guidet, the son of Abel Guidet, who is involved in Franco-German reconciliation.
Anstruther, Fife, Scotland (since October 1991)
Demography
In 2017 the commune had 3,887 inhabitants.
Distribution of Age Groups
The population of the town is relatively old.
Percentage Distribution of Age Groups in Bapaume and Pas-de-Calais Department in 2017
Source: INSEE
Economy
There is a Centre of Detention which is particularly known for being the last detention centre that hosted Lucien Léger (1937–2008) who was the oldest prisoner in France (and Europe) and stayed there for several years until his release in 2005.
Sites and monuments
The Town Hall and belfry
The town hall with its current belfry was built in 1931 and 1932 with architecture similar to the previous building built in 1610 and destroyed in 1917. The first belfry was built in the 12th century according to charters that had been issued to the city of Bapaume. Subsequently, the building became too small and aldermen obtained permission to extend it in 1374. Because of the wars that followed the belfry became dangerous and was demolished in 1537. A new belfry was started in 1583 but after many vicissitudes the building was built then destroyed and it was Philip II of Spain in 1590 who authorized the construction of a new building which was completed in 1610. It had columns and arches on the façade similar to the Arras Town Hall. For its construction the Bapaume aldermen had authorisation to establish a right of passage.
The statue of General Faidherbe
A statue of Louis Faidherbe was dedicated on 27 September 1891 and originally sculpted by Louis Noël. On 29 September 1916 the statue was requisitioned by the Germans who believed it was bronze and the statue disappeared. The pedestal, pitted by shrapnel, remained empty for 13 years. It was not until 1926 that the town decided to ask the sculptor Déchin, stepson of Louis Noël, from Paris to recreate the statue from the original plans. The new monument was inaugurated on 18 August 1929 by Paul Painlevé, Minister of War. During the redevelopment of the square in 1997 the statue was moved a few metres lower on 26 September.
Monument to Briquet and Taillandier
A monument was erected in front of the town hall in memory of Albert Taillandier and Raoul Briquet who were killed in the explosion of the Town Hall on 25 March 1917. They were both elected representatives of Pas-de-Calais but of different parties: Taillandier was a Conservative while Briquet was a Socialist. They were on an inspection mission to the front on behalf of the National Assembly of France and wished to spend the night in the building but they were trapped and killed by the explosion. Ernst Jünger wrote in his Storm of Steel that the explosion was caused by an Improvised explosive device (IED) that had been left by retreating German troops.
The Church of Saint Nicolas
The origin of the parish of Saint-Nicolas coincides with the origin of the town. The first church was built in 1085 when the town first became important but had disappeared by the end of the 14th century. The second church was built around the year 1600 but destroyed during the First World War. It was rebuilt on the same foundations between 1924 and 1929. The Church contains three items that are registered as historical objects:
A Bas-relief: the Resurrection (16th century) (disappeared in 1916)
A Statue: Virgin of Pity (16th century). This statue was the only object from the Church to survive the First World War.
The Organ (1934)
The War memorial
This structure consists of a stone wall, topped by a pediment decorated with the coat of arms of the city, bordered on either side of a balustrade. Under the pediment above the three column list of soldiers killed in 1914–1918 are the words "Pro Patria" in large size followed by the text "La ville de Bapaume à ses enfants" (The city of Bapaume to its children). Further down on the side there is a standing woman with a child clearly symbolizing a widow and an orphan. The woman, hair partially covered with a veil which descends down her back until mid-legs, has her right arm raised to designate a name using a palm held in her hand. She has, in a sign of protection, her left hand placed on the left shoulder of the child who, in short pants, head high, and confident, holds a beret in his right hand and holding a wreath around the left forearm. The bottom section of the monument contains a list in four columns of the missing from the 1939–1945 war.
Other sites of interest
A Motte-and-bailey castle. Nothing is left of the old castle other than sections of wall from the fortifications of the city. The site itself has retained its crater shape and was converted into a green park and place for walking. This site is nicknamed "Le Donjon" (The Dungeon) by the people of Bapaume.
The Australian War Cemetery has an area of 459 m2 with 88 graves from the First World War. This cemetery was opened in March 1917 by the 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Station and used until June 1917. In April and May 1918 23 German graves were added.
Notable people linked to the commune
Gaspard de Bavincourt, born in Bapaume, Knight of Saint John of Jerusalem, a monk from Anchin Abbey
G. Prévot, born in Bapaume in 1820. Photographer of the Imperial Guard of the French Second Empire. He lived at 5 Boulevard Montmartre in Paris
General Louis Léon César Faidherbe
Mayor Abel Guidet
Jean-Paul Delevoye, former Mayor of Bapaume. He held the office of Médiateur de la République (Ombudsman of France) from 2004 to 2010. He was elected President of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) on 16 November 2010
Jean-Jacques Cottel, Mayor of Bapaume
Michèle Bellon, born in Bapaume in 1949, President of the Directorate of the Electricity Distribution Network of France (ERDF), the largest employer in France in 2012 (35,000 staff)
Hugues De Beaumetz 1140–1198, Squire, Lord and Châtelain of Bapaume
Gilles I de Beaumetz 1170–1214, Lord of Bapaume and Beaumetz-les-Loges
Gilles II de Beaumetz 1205–1267, Châtelain of Bapaume
See also
Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department
Notes
References
External links
Bapaume official website
Bapaume on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website
Bapaume on the 1750 Cassini Map
Communes of Pas-de-Calais
County of Artois
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy%20Serkis
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Andy Serkis
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Andrew Clement Serkis (born 20 April 1964) is an English actor, director and producer. He is best known for his motion-capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for computer-generated characters such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), King Kong in the eponymous 2005 film, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy (2011–2017), Captain Haddock / Sir Francis Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011), Baloo in his self-directed film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) and Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), also portraying Kino Loy in the Star Wars Disney+ series Andor (2022).
Serkis' film work in motion capture has been critically acclaimed. He has received an Empire Award and two Saturn Awards for his motion-capture acting. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of serial killer Ian Brady in the British television film Longford (2006) and was nominated for a BAFTA for his portrayal of new wave and punk rock musician Ian Dury in the biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010). In 2020, Serkis received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 2021, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for the series The Letter for the King (2020).
Serkis portrayed Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Black Panther (2018), as well as the Disney+ series What If…? (2021). He has played Alfred Pennyworth in The Batman (2022). Serkis has his own production company and motion capture workshop, The Imaginarium in London, which he used for Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. He made his directorial debut with Imaginarium's 2017 film Breathe. He directed Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), which is set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU).
Early life
Serkis was born on 20 April 1964 in Ruislip Manor in Middlesex (now within Greater London). He grew up in both Ruislip and Baghdad, Iraq. His mother, Lylie Weech, was half Iraqi and half English, and taught disabled children; his father, Clement Serkis, was an Iraqi-Armenian gynaecologist. His parents are Catholic. His ancestors' original surname was "Sarkisian". His father often worked abroad in the Middle East, while Serkis and his siblings were raised in Britain, with regular holidays in the Middle Eastern cities of Tyre, Sidon, Damascus and Baghdad.
Serkis was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing. He studied visual arts and theatre as part of his degree at Lancaster University and graduated in 1985. Serkis was a member of The County College and part of the student radio station Bailrigg FM. He joined the Nuffield Studio, getting involved in designing and producing plays.
Having agreed to act in a couple of productions towards the end of his first year, Serkis played the lead role in Barrie Keeffe's play Gotcha as a rebellious teenager holding a teacher hostage. As a result, he changed his major subject to acting, constructing his Independent Studies Degree around acting and set design, studying Konstantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht, and including minor modules in art and visual graphics. In his final year at Lancaster he adapted Raymond Briggs's graphic novel The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman, a satire about the Falklands War, as a one-man show, which he performed to acclaim.
Career
In his third year at university, Serkis joined the backstage team at the local Duke's Playhouse to earn his Equity card. On graduating, although advised to take a one-year post-graduate acting course, he joined Dukes as an actor. Under director Jonathan Petherbridge, who used workshops based on the methods of Augusto Boal, he spent 18 months acting in a broad range of productions from Brecht, Shakespeare and modern British playwrights.
After 16 months, and having gained his Equity card, Serkis joined a series of touring companies, including productions of: Bouncers opposite Hull Truck; Florizel in The Winter's Tale; and the fool in King Lear with director Max Stafford-Clark. In the early 1990s he settled in London, and took a role in April de Angelis' Hush (Royal Court) as Dogboy. Also the Royal Court Theatre's production of Mojo, and Wilson Milam's production of Hurlyburly (1997) at the Queen's Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, with Rupert Graves and David Tennant. Serkis also developed a career in television, appearing in small roles such as Greville in an episode of The Darling Buds of May (1992) and a criminal called Maxwell in an episode of Pie in the Sky (1994). Serkis joined director Mike Leigh's ensemble for two film productions, and appeared in the romantic comedy Loop (1997) alongside Susannah York. Serkis portrayed Victorian choreographer John D'Auban in Topsy-Turvy, a 1999 film about Gilbert and Sullivan's creation of The Mikado. In 1999, Serkis played Bill Sikes in ITV's adaptation of Oliver Twist. He appeared alongside Sacha Baron Cohen in The Jolly Boys' Last Stand in 2000.
Serkis first came to wide public notice for his performance as Sméagol / Gollum, in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003), for which he provided motion-capture movements and voice for the CGI character. His work on The Lord of the Rings started a debate on the legitimacy of CGI-assisted acting. Some critics felt Serkis should have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, since his voice, body language and facial expressions were used.
Serkis has performed motion-capture work in several other films, including the title character in the 2005 version of King Kong (in which he also played the ship's cook in live-action) and as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). He also worked with game developers Ninja Theory on the 2007 release Heavenly Sword, providing the motion capture and voice for King Bohan (the game's main villain).
In 2006, Serkis starred as serial killer Ian Brady in the BAFTA-nominated Longford, co-starring Samantha Morton as Myra Hindley and Jim Broadbent as Lord Longford. That same year, Serkis appeared in the role of Mr. Grin in the film rendition of Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker. He also acted in the film The Prestige as Mr. Alley (assistant to Nikola Tesla), as the voice of one of the henchrats in the Aardman Animations film Flushed Away named Spike, and appeared in Jim Threapleton's improvised feature film Extraordinary Rendition, which premiered in 2007. In 2007, he appeared in Sugarhouse, a low-budget independently made film, playing local crime lord Hoodwink, who terrorises an east London housing estate. For the role, Serkis shaved his head and had sessions lasting 20 hours each to have temporary tattoos stencilled onto his body. The film premiered at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival and released in the UK on 24 August. Also that year, Serkis provided the voiceover for Monkey Life, on Five broadcast for three weeks from 13 to 31 August 2007. This series was about Monkey World, the popular ape and monkey sanctuary and zoo near Wool, Dorset. In the joint BBC/HBO production Einstein and Eddington, (2008) Serkis played Albert Einstein, following the development of his theory of relativity, while David Tennant played scientist Sir Arthur Eddington. In 2008, Serkis appeared as Rigaud in the BBC Television adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit and as Capricorn in Inkheart, the film adaptation of Cornelia Funke's novel. In 2010, Serkis played 1970s new wave singer Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.
Serkis reunited with Peter Jackson, as a cast member in Jackson's and Steven Spielberg's Tintin trilogy, based on The Adventures of Tintin. Serkis supplied the voice and motion capture performance of Captain Haddock (adopting a Scottish accent) as well as his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. Filming began in January 2009 and the film was released in 2011. Filming was due to begin in September 2008, but was delayed due to Universal pulling out of backing the project.
In 2009, Serkis voiced the role of the demon Screwtape in Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre audio adaptation of C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. In 2010, Serkis was cast as William Hare, with Simon Pegg as Burke, in the John Landis black comedy film Burke and Hare based on the Burke and Hare murders in Scotland in 1828. He also featured in the TV series The Accused, in "Liam's Story", written by Danny Brocklehurst and Jimmy McGovern. He played Caesar in the 20th Century Fox science-fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Serkis was acclaimed for his performance as Caesar in 2011, and in a high-profile campaign by 20th Century Fox for him to be honoured with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, his co-star James Franco stated: "Andy Serkis is the undisputed master of the newest kind of acting called 'motion capture,' and it is time that Serkis gets credit for the innovative artist that he is." In 2010, Serkis played Monkey, the lead character along with Lindsey Shaw in the videogame Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
In January 2011, it was confirmed that Serkis would reprise the role of Gollum in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey the first film in the three-part The Hobbit films. It was released in 2012, and the follow-ups were released in 2013 and 2014. He was also the trilogy's second unit director, which included directing aerial shots and battle scenes. He was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2012 along with 175 other individuals. In 2014, Serkis reprised his role as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and again in 2017 for War for the Planet of the Apes, the last of the trilogy.
In Gareth Edwards' 2014 science-fiction monster film Godzilla, Serkis was the consultant on the film's motion capture sequences in order to "control the souls" of the creatures. Serkis played Ulysses Klaue in Marvel Studios' Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and was also a motion capture consultant on the film. He reprised the role in Marvel Studios' Black Panther (2018), and provided the voice in the sixth episode of Marvel's What If...?. He played Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and reprised the role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Serkis appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the 2019 BBC/FX three-part miniseries A Christmas Carol. In 2019, it was announced that Serkis would play Alfred Pennyworth in The Batman (2022).
In late 2015, it was announced that Serkis was working on a modern film adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin, titled Steelskin. In addition to starring in the film, Serkis will serve as producer and director.
Serkis received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Daytime Fiction Program in 2021 for his role as Mayor of Mistrinaut, the father of his real life daughter Ruby's character, in the Netflix fantasy series The Letter for the King. Also for Netflix, Serkis is scheduled to star alongside Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo in a new TV movie of Elba's show, Luther. In 2022, Serkis returned to the Star Wars franchise in a different, non-CGI role in the Disney+ television series Andor, as Kino Loy.
The Imaginarium Studios
In 2011, Serkis founded The Imaginarium Studios with film producer Jonathan Cavendish. The Imaginarium is a production company and creative digital studio based in Ealing, London and is dedicated to invention of believable, emotionally engaging digital characters using Performance Capture technology, in which Serkis specialises. On 20 October 2012, the studio acquired rights to The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon and a new motion capture adaptation of Animal Farm, which Serkis has confirmed is his next film he will be directing.
Directing
Serkis has served as the second unit director for The Hobbit films and made his directorial debut with Breathe. He also directed and starred in the film, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. In 2021, Serkis directed the sequel to Venom, titled, Venom: Let There Be Carnage. It was released on 1 October in the US and 15 October in the UK. In 2022, he was set to direct Animal Farm an animated adaptation of George Orwell's novel of the same name.
Other activities
Serkis made an appearance in the music video for Neneh Cherry's "Woman", portraying an abusive boyfriend, in 1996. After portraying Gollum in The Lord of the Rings series, he published a memoir about his experiences, titled Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic, published in late 2004. In 2015, Serkis collaborated with rock band Coldplay in the making of the music video for "Adventure of a Lifetime". The group performed as chimpanzees with Serkis acting as a motion-capture consultant.
In December 2018, he appeared in a video for People's Vote as UK Prime Minister Theresa May using the voice of Gollum, spoofing May's Brexit deal. He also appears in the BBC Earth programme, Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors.
Serkis, together with fellow Lord of the Rings castmates Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban and Elijah Wood, plus writer Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson, on 1 May 2020 joined Josh Gad's YouTube series Reunited Apart, which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and promotes donations to non-profit charities.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, on VE Day, Serkis read the entire book of The Hobbit to raise money for NHS Charities Together and Best Beginnings, a pregnancy charity of which he has been an ambassador. More than 650,000 people tuned in worldwide, and Serkis raised more than £283,000 ($351,000). On 2 July 2020, HarperCollinsUK announced that Serkis would professionally narrate The Hobbit again to be published for Audible. The audiobook was released on 3 September 2020 in the UK, published by HarperCollins, and 21 September in the US, published by Recorded Books. The cover art, by Alan Lee, was drawn specially for the release.
On 7 July 2021, HarperCollinsUK and Recorded Books announced Serkis would follow up his narration of The Hobbit with a professional recording of all three The Lord of the Rings novels that were released on 16 September. The CDs were released on 14 October 2021.
Serkis and producer Andrew Levitas will release a seven-part comic book series in 2022, titled Eternus, about Heracles, the son of Zeus, trying to identify Zeus's killer. The series will be published by Thunder Books.
In 2023 he starred in the Netflix Film Luther: The Fallen Sun, based on the BBC TV Series Luther, playing a psychopathic killer.
In 2022, Serkis recorded a new audiobook version of the Terry Pratchett Discworld book "Small Gods" with Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz.
Personal life
Serkis was born to Catholic parents. An atheist since his teenage years, he is "drawn to the karmic possibilities of energy transference", specifically "the idea that your energy lives on after you".
Serkis married actress Lorraine Ashbourne in July 2002. He lives in Crouch End, North London with Ashbourne and their three children: Ruby (b. 1998), Sonny (b. 2000) and Louis (b. 2004), all of whom are actors. Louis and Ruby starred in the 2019 film The Kid Who Would Be King and the 2020 Netflix series The Letter for the King respectively. Serkis also starred alongside Ruby, and they played father and daughter. Louis also voiced Bhoot in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, which was directed by and co-starred his father as Baloo.
Filmography and accolades
Selected theatre
The Porter in Macbeth. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1988)
Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith. Directed by James Maxwell at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1990)
Sean Grogan in Your Home in the West by Rod Wooden. World premiere directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1991)
Doctor Jan Heart in Doctor Heart by Peter Muller. English premiere directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1991)
David in Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love by Brad Fraser. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1995)
Iago in Othello. Directed by Braham Murray at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (2002)
See also
Motion-capture acting
References
External links
Official website for The Imaginarium Studios
Andy Serkis on Inkheart and Tintin at AMCtv.com
Andy Serkis Interview
The Jolly Boys Last Stand
1964 births
Living people
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
Alumni of Lancaster University
Alumni of County College, Lancaster
Audiobook narrators
BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award
Daytime Emmy Award winners
English atheists
English male film actors
English male musical theatre actors
English male non-fiction writers
English male Shakespearean actors
English male stage actors
English male television actors
English male voice actors
English non-fiction writers
English people of Armenian descent
English people of Arab descent
English people of Iraqi descent
English theatre directors
Former Roman Catholics
Male motion capture actors
Method actors
People from Crouch End
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
People educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing
People from Ruislip
Socialist Workers Party (UK) members
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel%20Kadett
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Opel Kadett
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The Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel from 1936 until 1940 and then from 1962 until 1991 (the Cabrio continued until 1993), when it was succeeded by the Opel Astra.
Originally, the Kadett was Opel's smallest model, however as it grew in size with each generation (ultimately competing in the European C-segment), the Opel Corsa became GM/Opel's entry level model.
Kadett I (1936–1940)
The first Opel car to carry the Kadett name was presented to the public in December 1936 by Opel's Commercial-Technical director, Heinrich Nordhoff, who would in later decades become known for his leadership role in building up the Volkswagen company.
The new Kadett followed the innovative Opel Olympia in adopting a chassis-less unibody construction, suggesting that like the Vauxhall 10 introduced in 1937 by Opel's English sister-company, the Opel Kadett was designed for high volume low-cost production.
Kadett serie 11234 (1937)
For 1937 the Kadett was offered as a small and unpretentious two door "Limousine" (sedan/saloon) or, at the same list price of , as a soft top "Cabrio-Limousine". The body resembled that of the existing larger Opel Olympia and its silhouette reflected the "streamlining" tendencies of the time. The 1,074 cc side-valve engine came from the 1935 Opel P4 and came with the same listed maximum power output of at 3,400 rpm. The wheelbase, at , was right between the little P4 and the larger Olympia. The "11234" nomenclature stands for the engine's displacement in deciliters (11) followed by the wheelbase in centimeters (234).
The brakes were now controlled using a hydraulic mechanism. The suspension featured synchronous springing, a suspension configuration already seen on the manufacturer's larger models and based on the Dubonnet system for which General Motors in France had purchased the license. The General Motors version, which had been further developed by Opel's North American parent, was intended to provide a soft ride, but there was some criticism that handling and road-holding were compromised, especially when the system was applied to small light-weight cars such as the Kadett. By the end of 1937 33,402 of these first-generation Kadetts had been produced.
Kadett "KJ38" and "K38 Spezial" (1938–1940)
From December 1937 a modified front grill identified an upgrade. The 1,074cc Opel engine and the wheelbase were unchanged, with few differences between the cars for 1937 and those for 1938.
The manufacturer now offered two versions of the Kadett, designated the "Kadett KJ38 and the "Kadett K38" the latter also being sold as the "Kadett Spezial". Mechanically and in terms of published performance there was little to differentiate the two, but the "Spezial" had a chrome stripe below the window line and extra external body trim in other areas such as on the front grill. The interior of the "Spezial" was also better equipped. To the extent that the 300 Mark saving for buyers of the car reflected reduced production costs, the major difference was that the more basic "KJ38" lost the synchromous springing with which the car had been launched, and which continued to be fitted on the "Spezial". The base car instead reverted to traditional rigid axle based suspension similar to that fitted on the old Opel P4.
The base car was available only as a two-door "Limousine" (sedan/saloon). Customers looking for a soft-top "Cabrio-limousine" would need to specify a "Kadett Spezial". For the first time Kadett buyers, provided they were prepared to choose a "Kadett Spezial" could also specify a four-door "Limousine" (sedan/saloon) bodied car, priced at as against for a "Spezial Cabrio-Limousine" and for a two-door "Spezial Limousine".
The "Kadett KJ38" was intended to fill the market segment of the Opel P4, but the KJ38, priced at , was more expensive than the P4 and its reduced specification left it with the image of a car for poor people (..Image des Arme-Leute-Autos..) at a time when economic growth in Germany was finally fostering a less minimalist approach to car buying. The "Kadett K38 Spezial" fared better in the market place: in 1938 and again in 1939 it was Germany's top-selling small car. By May 1941 the company had produced 17,871 "Kadett KJ38"s and 56,335 "Kadett K38 Spezial"s.
Commercial
Competitive pricing led to commercial success, and Kadetts continued to be produced during the early months of the war: by the time production ended in May 1940, following the intensification of World War II, 106,608 of these Opel Kadetts were produced on the assembly line at Opel's Rüsselsheim plant, which had been the first major car plant in Germany to apply the assembly-line techniques pioneered by Henry Ford.
Soviet afterlife
After the Second World War the Soviet Union requested the tooling from the Opel Rüsselsheim car plant in the American occupation zone as part of the war reparations agreed by the victorious powers, to compensate for the loss of the production lines for the domestic KIM-10-52 in the siege of Moscow. Faced with a wide range of German "small litrage" models to choose from, Soviet planners wanted a car that closely followed the general type of the KIM – a 4-door sedan with an all-metal body and 4-stroke engine. They, therefore, rejected both the rear-engined, two-door KdF-Wagen (future VW Beetle) and the two-stroke powered, front-wheel-drive, wooden-bodied DKW F8, built by the Auto Union Chemnitz plant in the Soviet occupation zone. The closest analog of the KIM to be found was the 4-door Kadett K38.
On 26 August 1945, the State Defense Committee published Order No. 9905, which prescribed the start of production of the 4-door Kadett on the Moscow small car plant "without any changes to the design". The implementation of the plan was far from smooth. The Rüsselsheim plant had been deeply involved in the Nazi war effort, producing aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe, and consequently has been heavily damaged by the Allied air raids. Very little was left to be salvaged – mostly incoherent drawings and plans, with several stamping dies for the 2-door version of the Kadett to add.
Still, a number of Kadetts had been captured as trophies by the Red Army and were available for study and reverse-engineering. This project was conducted by design bureaus formed as Soviet-German joint ventures under the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD). There were 11 of them in total. One in Berlin reverse-engineered the engine and transmission. Another in Schwarzenberg worked on the steel body. The wooden-bodied station wagon was developed in Chemnitz. The vast majority of the personnel of these design bureaus were German specialists and craftsmen hired by the Military Administration. These design bureaus not only prepared the necessary blueprints and documentation, but also provided the wooden master model for the body. They even developed the new trim pieces which distinguished the Moskvitch from its Opel prototype, including hood emblems and hubcaps with a large "M" (for "Moskvitch"). However, the stamping dies and most of the tooling had to be produced in the USSR.
Production started on 4 December 1946. The Moskvitch 400/420 continued to be made in Moscow with some minor changes until 1956, when it was replaced by the Moskvitch 402. The latter was an all-new design apart from the engine, for which Moskvitch continued to use the Kadett side-valve engine until 1958, when it was replaced with a domestically designed OHV engine.
Kadett A (1962–1965)
The Kadett was reintroduced in 1962, with deliveries beginning on 2 October, a little more than 22 years after the original model was discontinued in May 1940. The new car (designated the Kadett A) was a small family car like its predecessor, although it was now available in 2-door saloon, 3-door estate ("Car-A-Van") and coupé versions.
Kadett B (1965–1973)
The Kadett B was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in late summer 1965, The Kadett B was larger all-round than the Kadett A: 5% longer both overall and in terms of the wheelbase, 7% wider and 9% heavier (unladen weight), albeit lower in basic standard "Limousine" (sedan/saloon) form. Production ended in July 1973, with the successor model introduced a month later following the summer shut-down, in August. The two-seat Opel GT was heavily based on Kadett B components, its body made by a French contractor, Brissonneau & Lotz, at their Creil factory.
Kadett C (1973–1979)
The Kadett C appeared in August 1973 and was Opel's version of the General Motors' "T-Car". It was the last small Opel to feature rear-wheel drive, and remained in production at Opel's Bochum plant until July 1979, by which time Opel had produced 1,701,076. Of these, 52% had been exported outside West Germany, most of them to markets in other parts of western Europe.
The Kadett C was mirrored in Europe by its British derivative - the Vauxhall Chevette. For the first time the Opel Kadett and its Vauxhall equivalent were now very clearly the same car, and marked the gradual convergence of Opel and Vauxhall models, which would be completed with the later Kadett D.
Kadett D (1979–1984)
The Kadett D was introduced in the middle of August 1979, with deliveries on the home market beginning early in September 1979. In November 1979, the car went on sale in the United Kingdom, some five months before the Vauxhall Astra Mark 1, the British version, was launched in April 1980. The cars were designed as three- or five-door hatchbacks and estates or station wagons. There were also two- and four-door sedans featuring separate boots/trunks, which shared the silhouettes of the hatchbacks: in the United Kingdom, the sedan versions were soon withdrawn, until the 1986 launch of the MKII-based Belmont. For the first time since 1965, there was no coupé-bodied Kadett in the range: the previous Kadett C coupé was indirectly replaced by the three-door 1.3 SR sports model.
Technologically, the Kadett D was part of a major investment for Opel (and General Motors as a whole) in a new front-wheel drive architecture, with an all-new family of engines and transmissions which would later be applied in the larger Ascona C and the smaller Corsa A in 1981, and 1982, respectively. It was also the first application of the Family I engine, with a single overhead camshaft, aluminium-alloy cylinder head, hydraulic valve lifters, with capacities of 1297 cc (producing 60 PS and 75 PS) and had a transaxle design that allowed the clutch to be replaced without removing the transmission unit. A carry-over 1196 cc Opel OHV engine from previous generations of the Kadett producing and a top speed of was also offered on entry level models from launch,. The larger Family II engine debuted in 1600 cc form and was offered after Frankfurt 1981, followed by an 1800 cc version introduced for the Kadett GSE/Astra GTE model. The Kadett D was also equipped with a 1600 cc diesel engine, an option which was first presented at the Brussels Motor Show in 1982. Another frugal model, mostly sold in Italy, was the 1.0 liter model with .
This range of engines was also used for later models of the Corsa/Nova, and the mid-sized Cavalier/Ascona. From May 1981, the 1.3 was also available with a three-speed automatic. The automatic was made available to the diesel in September 1982. In the United Kingdom, Opels and Vauxhalls were initially sold through separate marketing operations, with overlapping lineups that competed directly with each other. By 1982 this anomaly had been sorted out and the Opel lineup was limited to the well-equipped five-door Berlina (1.3S or 1.6S) and the sporty 1.6 SR, leaving most of the market to the Vauxhall-badged cars.
One interesting version which first appeared in mid-1982 was the Kadett Pirsch, (for deer stalking, a stealthy form of hunting). In non-German-speaking countries it was generally marketed as the "Kadett Off Road." This was a station wagon with rustic trim, fitted with a limited-slip differential, reinforced suspension and more suitable tires, increased ground clearance, a skid plate, and shortened front fenders. In Sweden, a special postal Kadett ("Opel Kadett Post") was offered, fitted with a high roof (necessitating a unique and much taller windshield) and a sliding right-hand door, RHD, and the automatic transmission. This version was converted by Karosseriefabrik Voll in Würzburg, Germany. Voll also made a postal version of the later Kadett E.
The Kadett D was also sold as the IDA Kadett and assembled Kikinda, Yugoslavia. In Indonesia, PT. Garmak Motor was also reproduced Kadett D after 1984 in Jakarta, only for local market general buyers and taxi fleets until around 1995. It was later replaced by Opel Optima (Astra F) sedan. Only available as a 5-door hatchback, with carburetted 1298 cc GM Family 1 engine and 5-speed manual transmission.
Models
South Africa
The Opel Kadett D was also built in South Africa by General Motors South African (Pty) Ltd. The South African range was made up of four-door fastback sedans, five-door hatchbacks, and a five-door estate model called the Voyage. The engines used are Opel's 1.2-litre overhead valve inline-four (L models only), or the OHC 1.3-litre (GL, GLS, and Voyage). Power is and respectively. Later a 1.6 L was added and also a 1.8 L in the GTE performance model.
Small engine sizes with round lights on the bonnet while large engine sizes would have square lights on the bonnet.
Kadett E (1984–1995)
The Kadett E (Vauxhall Astra Mark 2 in the United Kingdom) was introduced in August 1984, and was voted the 1985 European Car of the Year. The 1984 model was also developed into a more conventional three-box design with a boot (trunk), badged as the Vauxhall Belmont in the United Kingdom, launched at Frankfurt 1985. This was awarded the 1985 Semperit Irish Car of the Year in Ireland. There was a station wagon called the "Caravan", available with either three or five doors. In South Africa, the Kadett notchback was sold as the Opel Monza, along with a convertible. This replaced the Opel Ascona.
The car was noted for its advanced aerodynamics and distinctive "teardrop" shape - mirroring the trend in the mid 1980s for swooping aerodynamic styling - with the front end styling taken directly from the Opel Tech 1 concept car of 1981, although some styling cues from the Kadett D were retained for continuity such as its 'Kamm tail' and oversized C-pillar extraction vent.
A convertible version was also available, for the first time in 1987, built by Bertone of Torino, Italy, bringing it to line with competitors, such as the Ford Escort and Volkswagen Golf. For the 1988 model, capacities were raised from 1.3 to 1.4 litres. In the fall of 1986 a new 1,998 cc engine replaced the 1.8 hitherto used on the GSi and Vauxhall Astra GTE in many markets, although the 1.8 continued to be sold in some places. In 1988, a 16-valve twin-cam version was developed for a high-performance GSi/GTE model (the first application of the 20XE "Red Top" engine), yielding in non-catalyzed form, six less horsepower with a catalytic converter fitted. While criticized for a lack of refinement, the GSi 16V was also lauded as the most powerful car available in its class at the time. Aside from the "16V" badging, it could be told from an eight-valve GSi by its twin rectangular exhaust pipes.
The Kadett E was a grey import in the United Kingdom, but not popular compared to its badge engineered sister, the Vauxhall Astra Mk II. It was never officially sold in Britain, and by 1989, General Motors was only marketing the Vauxhall brand in the United Kingdom, although Astras assembled at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant were exported to the rest of Europe badged as Opel Kadetts. There was also a van version with a raised roof, called the Opel Kadett Combo in Europe, and the Bedford Astramax in the United Kingdom.
Other markets
In Brazil, the Kadett E succeeded some versions of the Chevrolet Chevette and was introduced as the Chevrolet Kadett, with the station wagon version called the Chevrolet Ipanema. The latter had three doors until model year 1993, when five doors became mandatory. The hatchback was only available with three doors, and the sedan was never offered. Brazilian production of the hatchback commenced in April 1989, with the Ipanema being added in October. From 1995 all versions featured fuel injection. Brazilian cars received either 1.8 or 2.0 L petrol or ethanol fours. The Ipanema was discontinued in 1996, and the Kadett, in 1998.
While the Ipanema clearly succeeded the Marajó, production of the Chevette (by now in sedan form only, the hatchback having been discontinued after the 1987 model year) and of the Kadett noticeably overlapped; the newer model was placed above the old one in Chevrolet's lineup. While Chevrolet entertained the possibility of a pick-up version of the Kadett E, it never materialized.
A convertible version of the Kadett was also offered in Brazil. It was made available between 1991 and 1994, its body was sent to the Bertone factory in Italy and finished in Brazil. It was only available with the 2.0-litre multi-point electronic injection engine with 121 ps / 120 hp.
In the early 1990s, South African Kadett GSi's were further upgraded based on their success in production car racing and initially 500 special units were built as road cars for homologation purposes. This was a minimum requirement for entry into the Stannic Group N races. They went against BMW's 325iS (A 2.7 L homologation special from BMW). They featured more aggressive 276-degree camshafts made by Schrick with 2 different settings for timing overlap (110° and 107°), revised intake and exhaust modifications (4-in-1 branch manifold and freeflow exhaust), Irmscher spring kit, modified engine management system by Promotec, a limited-slip differential developed by Andre Verwey and special Aluett 7Jx15-inch ET35 alloy wheels, they were nicknamed the "Superboss" and held the world record for the most torque per litre (114 Nm per litre) for a naturally aspirated car until being beaten by the Ferrari 458 (117 Nm per litre) in 2009. After the required 500 units were produced, many more were built to satisfy public demand.
The Kadett E formed the basis of the Daewoo LeMans (later known as the Daewoo Cielo, Racer and Nexia) in South Korea, Nexia being the hatchback version), which was sold in the United States and New Zealand as the Pontiac LeMans, and in Canada (initially) as the Passport Optima. LeMans sales ended in 1993. The Nexia was produced until 2016 at the UzDaewoo plant in Asaka, Uzbekistan. The Cielo was last being produced at Automobile Craiova, a semi-independent (from GM) plant in Craiova, Romania. Their license expired in the fall of 2006, and Cielo was produced until 2007.
Astra shape
In 1991, GM Europe decided to standardise model names across its two brands, and Opel adopted Vauxhall's name for the Kadett, Astra, for the replacement car for Europe which debuted that year. Only South Africa kept the Kadett name until the 1999 (Astra/Kadett F), whereafter all models took the Astra name.
However, under Opel's internal naming convention, successive generations of the Astra platform are treated as a logical continuation of the Kadett lineage, hence the original 1991 Astra was designated Astra F in relation to the previous Kadett E. This convention has continued through the current Astra L.
See also
GM Stir-Lec I, 1969 concept hybrid electric car based on Opel Kadett body
References
Literature
Kadett
Compact cars
Hatchbacks
Sedans
Station wagons
Cars introduced in 1937
1940s cars
1960s cars
1970s cars
1980s cars
1990s cars
Group 4 (racing) cars
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kajol
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Kajol
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Kajol Devgan (née Mukherjee; born 5 August 1974), known mononymously as Kajol, is an Indian actress. Described in the media as one of the most successful actresses of Hindi cinema, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Filmfare Awards, among which she shares the record for most Best Actress wins with her late aunt Nutan. In 2011, she was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.
The daughter of Tanuja and Shomu Mukherjee, Kajol made her acting debut with Bekhudi (1992) while still in school. She subsequently quit her studies, and had commercial successes in Baazigar (1993), opposite Shah Rukh Khan, and Yeh Dillagi (1994). Starring roles with Khan in the top-grossing romances Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) established her as a leading star in the 1990s and earned her two Filmfare Awards for Best Actress. She also gained critical appreciation for playing a psychopathic killer in Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997) and an avenger in Dushman (1998).
After starring in the family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), which won her a third Filmfare Award, Kajol took a sabbatical from full-time acting and worked infrequently over the next decades. She won two more Best Actress awards at Filmfare for starring in the romantic thriller Fanaa (2006) and the drama My Name Is Khan (2010). Her highest-grossing releases came with the comedy Dilwale (2015) and the period film Tanhaji (2020). She has since starred in the streaming projects Tribhanga (2021) and The Trial (2023).
In addition to acting in films, Kajol is a social activist and noted for her work with widows and children. She has featured as a talent judge for the reality show Rock-N-Roll Family in 2008, and holds a managerial position at Devgn Entertainment and Software Ltd. Kajol has been married to the actor and filmmaker Ajay Devgn, with whom she has two children, since 1999.
Early life and background
Kajol was born in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) on 5 August 1974. Her mother, Tanuja, is an actress, while her father Shomu Mukherjee was a film director and producer. Her younger sister, Tanishaa, is also an actress. Her maternal aunt was actress Nutan and her maternal grandmother, Shobhna Samarth, and great-grandmother, Rattan Bai, were both involved in Hindi cinema. Her paternal uncles, Joy Mukherjee and Deb Mukherjee, are film producers, while her paternal and maternal grandfathers, Sashadhar Mukherjee and Kumarsen Samarth, respectively, were filmmakers. Kajol's cousins Rani Mukerji, Sharbani Mukherjee, and Mohnish Bahl are also actors; whereas Ayan Mukerji is a director.
Kajol describes herself as being mischievous, stubborn, and impulsive at a young age. Her parents separated when she was young, but Kajol was unaffected by it since the matter was never discussed at home. Kajol was looked after by her maternal grandmother, who "never let me feel that my mother was away and working". According to Kajol, her mother inculcated a sense of independence in her since she was young. Growing up between two separate cultures, she inherited her "Maharashtrian pragmatism" from her mother and her "Bengali temperament" from her father. As part of tradition, along with the Mukherjee family, Kajol, a practising Hindu, celebrates the Durga Puja festival in the suburban neighbourhood of Santacruz annually.
Kajol was educated at St. Joseph's Convent School, Panchgani. Apart from her studies, she participated in extra-curricular activities, such as dancing. It was in school that she began to form an active interest in reading fiction, as it helped her "through the bad moments" in her life. In the early 1990s, Tanuja tried to direct a film to launch her as an actress, but it was shelved after a few days of shooting. At sixteen, Kajol began work on Bekhudi, which according to her was a "big dose of luck"; she was cast by him when she visited the studio of the photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, who also wrote the film's screenplay. She intended to return to school after shooting during her two-months summer vacation but eventually dropped out to pursue a full-time career in film—though she later regretted the decision.
Film career
Early work (1992–1994)
Kajol made her acting debut at age seventeen in the 1992 romantic drama Bekhudi alongside another debutant, Kamal Sadanah, and her mother Tanuja. Kajol played Radhika, who falls in love with Sadanah's character against her parents' disapproval. The film turned out to be a box office flop, but Kajol's performance gained positive notice. The following year, she was cast in Abbas–Mustan's crime thriller Baazigar (1993), the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year with revenues of . Co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Shilpa Shetty, the film saw Kajol in the role of Priya Chopra, a young woman who falls in love with her sister's murderer, unaware of his identity. Baazigar marked the first of her many collaborations with Khan. Although her performance drew critical attention, Kajol was criticised for her looks.
In 1994, Kajol appeared in Udhaar Ki Zindagi as an orphaned girl who visits her estranged grandparents (Jeetendra and Moushumi Chatterjee). It failed to do well at the box office, however, Kajol was named the Best Actress (Hindi) by the Bengal Film Journalists' Association. The film was an emotionally draining experience for Kajol, and she later maintained that it had affected her so deeply that after shooting ended, she was on the verge of a crisis. Consequently, she made a deliberate decision to sign up lighter films in which she would have roles of minimal importance and no intense dramatic efforts, including Hulchul, Gundaraj, and Karan Arjun—all released a year later.
She gained wider public recognition for her role in Yeh Dillagi, a romance produced by Yash Raj Films and based on the 1953 American play Sabrina Fair. She starred as Sapna, a chauffeur's daughter who becomes a model and catches the interest of the two sons of her father's employers (Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan). A financial success, Yeh Dillagi proved to be a breakthrough for Kajol, earning her a first Best Actress nomination at the annual Filmfare Awards. The Indian Express took note of her believable performance, and Screen concluded that Yeh Dillagi had changed her screen persona from a girl next door to a beauty extraordinaire.
Established actress (1995–1998)
In 1995, Kajol had two major commercial successes opposite Shah Rukh Khan: Karan Arjun and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. The former is an action film by Rakesh Roshan, based on the concept of reincarnation, and it offered her the small part of Sonia Saxena Singh, Khan's love interest. She explained her minor role in the film, saying that she wanted to be in an ornamental role and admitting she had nothing to do in the film except be glamorous. The film emerged as the second-highest-grossing film of the year in India. Kajol's next releases—Taaqat, Hulchul and Gundaraj—underperformed at the box office; the latter two were her earliest collaborations with her future-husband, Ajay Devgn, and trade analysts linked the failure to their chemistry.
In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kajol's final 1995 release, she and Shah Rukh Khan starred as non-resident Indians from London who fall in love during a trip across Europe and reunite in India to persuade her conservative father to call off her upcoming arranged marriage. Kajol spoke of her attachment to the project and her full emotional involvement with her character, Simran. One of the most successful films of all-time in India, it has been continuously running in Mumbai and, having surpassed 1000 weeks of screening in 2014, became the longest-running Indian film ever. Equally popular with critics, the film earned ten Filmfare Awards, including a first Best Actress for Kajol. It has been voted one of the best films ever made in polls by the British Film Institute. Raja Sen from Rediff.com thought Kajol was well-cast as Simran, arguing that "the real-as-life actress bringing warmth and credulity to the initially prudish and reluctant Simran". 1996 saw her in the poorly received action film Bambai Ka Babu.
In 1997, Kajol's portrayal of Isha Diwan, an obsessive lover turned psychopathic serial killer, in Gupt: The Hidden Truth, was labelled by critics a turning point. The director Rajiv Rai said that he "tapped the versatile artistry in Kajol", commending her for the finesse she brought to the part. The suspense thriller, also starring Bobby Deol and Manisha Koirala, was a mainstream success. India Today noted Kajol for outpacing her co-stars, and The Times of India wrote in 2016 that she was "probably the first to have broken her goody-two-shoes image". In 2002, Rediff.com included her performance in its listing of best villain performances. Kajol eventually became the first female actor to be nominated for and win the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. In later years, Kajol said she accepted the part to avoid typecasting and expressed her desire to play more roles of the type.
Following a leading role in the reincarnation-based film Hameshaa, Kajol replaced Madhuri Dixit to play the lead opposite Prabhu Deva and Arvind Swamy in Rajiv Menon's Tamil-language romantic musical Minsara Kanavu. Kajol found dancing alongside Deva (himself a dance choreographer) difficult and it took her dozens of retakes and rehearsals to get the steps right. She played Priya Amalraj, a convent student who aspires to become a nun, and her voice was dubbed by actress Revathi. The Indian Express reviewed: "Kajol is full of beans and fits into her character with commendable ease. Hers is perhaps one of the most expressive faces of the present". While the original version was embraced by audiences, the Hindi-dubbed version of the film (titled Sapnay) failed commercially. Her next release was Indra Kumar's comedy-drama Ishq, alongside Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla and Ajay Devgn. A commercial success, the film won critical praise for the performances of the four leads.
In 1998, Kajol reinforced her status as a leading actress of Hindi cinema by featuring in the three highest-grossing productions of the year: Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai; all of which were nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Film, with the lattermost winning it. Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, where she played a naïve village girl, released first and won her positive feedback. She next played twin sisters, Sonia and Naina, in Dushman. Revolving around Naina's quest to avenge the murder of Sonia, the film saw Kajol in one of her best-reviewed performances. Having initially refused the offer due to her lack of comfort shooting the rape scene, she finally accepted it on the condition that a body-double be used in it. The film won her the Screen Award for Best Actress. Suparn Verma noted her for being in "superb form" in both roles.
Anees Bazmee's romantic comedy Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, a remake of the 1995 American film French Kiss, followed. She played the comic role of Sanjana, a clumsy woman who travels from Paris to India in search of her philandering fiancé, but falls for another man (Ajay Devgn). The film became a hit and fetched Kajol another Best Actress nomination at Filmfare that year. Deepa Deosthalee from The Indian Express called Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha "Kajol's film all the way" and commended her presence that made the film to be worth-watching; Khalid Mohamed referred to her as "the show's super-saving grace. Bubbly and spontaneous as ever, hers is a perfectly balanced performance, rescuing even the loudest scenes from going over the top."
The biggest success of 1998 for Kajol was her final release of that year, Karan Johar's directorial debut, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. The first Indian feature to be shot in Scotland, it emerged as an all-time blockbuster in both India and overseas. Kajol played Anjali Sharma, a tomboyish college student who is secretly in love with her best friend from college (Shah Rukh Khan). The story follows their renewed encounter years later when he is widowed and she has transformed her appearance and is already engaged to marry someone else. Critics considered Kajol's performance bold and convincing, despite an otherwise unrealistic plot. Nikhat Kazmi wrote that she is "almost mesmeric" in the part. She won her second Best Actress award at the 44th Filmfare Awards and first Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female for her work. Filmfare included Kajol's performances in both Dushman and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in its listing of Indian cinema's "80 Most Iconic performances". In a year-end column, The Tribune Madhur Mittal reported that Kajol had "emerged as the consummate heroine with her excellent emoting and sensational screen presence in each portrayal".
Career fluctuations and hiatus (1999–2001)
Journalists speculated that the supporting role of the other woman of Ajay Devgn's character in Dil Kya Kare, Kajol's first release after marriage, would be "the acid test" for her. She explained that she accepted the role solely "because it had shades of grey". The film met with largely negative reviews, though Deccan Herald noted her for playing the role with finesse. Commercially too, the film failed to do well. The drama Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain, on the other hand, performed well with critics and audiences. Co-starring Anil Kapoor, it gave her experience with "the stereotypical, sacrificing woman role" and earned her another Best Actress Filmfare nomination. The film generated media coverage for being one of the few woman-centered films to attract viewers in Indian cinemas. Her final release of the year was Hote Hote Pyar Ho Gaya. The Hindustan Times noted her chemistry with Jackie Shroff but wrote off the film.
The following year, Kajol and her husband starred together in his home-production Raju Chacha, whose plot revolves on the love story between a conman and a governess of three children belonging to a wealthy family. The children's film, with a production cost of , was declared as among the most expensive Hindi films at the time. Dinesh Raheja wrote of the lack of imagination in the script, which affected the chemistry between Kajol and Ajay Devgn. In Rahul Rawail's Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001) Kajol played twin sisters who are separated at birth. The film was poorly reviewed as was Kajol's dual role, dismissed as "a double bore". Roshmila Bhattacharya from Screen defended Kajol's presence and her energetic performance. Both Raju Chacha and Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi were flops at the box office.
Later that year, Kajol played a leading role in Karan Johar's ensemble drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., which was the top-grossing Indian production of all-time in the overseas market. She played Anjali Sharma, a young Punjabi woman from the Chandni Chowk area who falls for a wealthy man (Shah Rukh Khan). She identified herself with the character's noisy nature and found similarities between it and that of Hema Malini in Sholay (1975). The role required Kajol to speak in Punjabi, a language she was not fluent in, and although she struggled at first to master it, she achieved the pronunciation and diction with the help of producer Yash Johar and some of the crew members. Her comic-dramatic performance and Punjabi dialect met with critical acclaim and won her a third Filmfare Award in the Best Actress category. Ziya Us Salam, in a review for The Hindu, asserted: "Kajol steals the thunder from under very high noses indeed. With her precise timing and subtle lingering expression, she is a delight all the way."
Following Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., Kajol took a sabbatical from full-time acting and declined a number of film roles. She has said that she did so to focus on her marriage. Film observers generally perceived at this time that her career was over.
Success with intermittent work (2006–2020)
Kunal Kohli's romantic thriller Fanaa (2006) marked Kajol's return to films. She portrayed Zooni Ali Beg, a blind Kashmiri woman who unwittingly falls in love with a terrorist (Aamir Khan). The film was promoted as her comeback, a term she disliked saying that she did not retire but only took a break. Upon release, the film was a financial success, grossing against its budget. Both the film and Kajol's performance were received well. Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu wrote Kajol is enough of a reason to watch it, and Deepa Gahlot believed Kajol's conviction in the part made up for the film's flaws. Fanaa fetched Kajol a fourth Filmfare Award and second Zee Cine Award for Best Actress.
Kajol worked intermittently through the rest of the decade. In 2007, she started filming for Rajkumar Santoshi's unreleased mythology film Ramayana, based on the epic of the same name, where she played the goddess Sita. She considered her husband's directorial debut U Me Aur Hum (2008) a special film in her career. In it, she starred as Piya Thapar, a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Although the film underperformed commercially, she received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress for her performance. The Economic Times Gaurav Malini noted that Kajol's "simmering pace and ... recurring amnesiac spells, rather than getting repetitive, add compelling credibility to the story".
Kajol was next cast opposite Shah Rukh Khan in My Name Is Khan (2010), based on the discrimination faced by American Muslims after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was the first Indian film distributed by Fox Star Studios. It opened to mixed-to-positive reviews, and emerged as an international success. My Name Is Khan was screened at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and the Rome Film Festival. Kajol's portrayal of Mandira, a Hindu single mother who marries a Muslim man with Asperger syndrome was praised by Indian and overseas critics. Rajeev Masand wrote positively of Kajol's sensitive performance, while the Los Angeles Times found her to be appealing in an emotion-based role. For the film, Kajol won her fifth Best Actress award at Filmfare, thereby sharing the record with her late aunt, Nutan. Additionally, she was nominated for the Screen Award for Best Actress, the Stardust Award for Best Actress in a Drama and the Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female.
In the same year, Kajol was the protagonist in Siddharth Malhotra's We Are Family, an adaptation of the 1998 American drama Stepmom, alongside Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. Kajol played Maya, a character she identified with for being a "control freak" in chase of perfection, and found it largely different from the one played by Susan Sarandon in the original. Malhotra modelled Maya in part after his grandmother Bina Rai. Mayank Shekhar singled out Kajol's performance as being better than Sarandon's, and Rachel Saltz of The New York Times commented that "her naturalism gives the movie a genuine emotional kick". Kajol's next release that year, Toonpur Ka Super Hero featured her as Priya Kumar, a woman stuck in a cartoon world. Kajol spoke of the challenge and difficulty dubbing for the film. Dubbed the first Hindi live-action animated film, the film polarised critics and failed to attract an audience. Her role was dismissed as not having provided her with scope to perform. She followed it with a second hiatus upon the birth of her son in 2010 although she provided voiceover to the opening credits of the Hindi version of the fantasy film Eega, which released in 2012.
Following a five-year absence, Kajol teamed with Shah Rukh Khan for the seventh time in Rohit Shetty's action romance Dilwale (2015). She portrayed Meera Dev Malik, the daughter of a mafia don who falls for a man from the rival family. Reviewers were varied in their opinions about the film; Mint declared it as the "most tiresome film of the year". The mixed critical response led her to express regret over her choice of the film over the thriller Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh (2016). Still, Kajol's performance drew positive comments despite a lesser character; in the words of Suhani Singh of India Today, "Kajol is a radiant presence on the screen and delivers what's expected out of her—which is not much." Dilwale emerged as a major commercial success, grossing more than worldwide, and ranks among of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time. Kajol's performance garnered Best Actress nominations at various award ceremonies, including Filmfare.
Later that year, she made her debut as a producer with the Marathi period drama Vitti Dandu, co-produced by Ajay Devgn and Leena Deore, and exploring the relationship between a grandfather and his grandson. The film won the Best Marathi Film trophy at the Screen Awards and was well received by critics. In 2017, Kajol starred opposite Dhanush in Velaiilla Pattadhari 2, a sequel to the 2014 masala film Velaiilla Pattadhari and her second Tamil-language film after Minsara Kanavu. She was cast as Vasundhara Parameshwar, the chairwoman of the construction company Vasundhara Constructions. Kajol was somewhat apprehensive about doing the film but eventually accepted the role due to her faith in Dhanush and director Soundarya Rajinikanth, citing them for giving the bravery she needed to acting in a non-Hindi-language film. Velaiilla Pattadhari 2 opened to a negative critical reception but succeeded financially.
In 2018, Kajol portrayed a helicopter parent with an aspiration to be a singer who enrolls at her son's (Riddhi Sen) college to complete her education in the drama Helicopter Eela, based on Anand Gandhi's Gujarati play Beta, Kaagdo. She was particularly drawn to the role for its colourful personality and her relationship with her son. The feature failed both commercially and with critics, and Kajol's performance was not well-received. A reviewer for Scroll.in wrote that she "doesn't have Riddhi Sen's comfort level in the comic scenes. She settles down when the movie finally does." The same year she dubbed the character Helen Parr in the computer-animated superhero film Incredibles 2 Hindi version.
By 2020, Kajol said she preferred to consider the importance of character rather than its length. Her first release of the year was the period drama Tanhaji, co-starring Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan. Based on the life of Tanaji Malusare, it went onto become the highest-grossing film of the year, earning . She played Tanhaji's wife Savitribai whom she called a strong character which she found similar to herself. Critics were appreciative of her turn despite her limited screen time. Later in the year, she was seen in her first short film, Devi, a suspense drama about nine women who stay in one room sheltered from the outer world. It was reviewed positively by critics, and Kajol was singled out for leading the diverse ensemble.
Streaming projects (2021–present)
Kajol's next project was Renuka Shahane's social drama Tribhanga (2021), which marked her first collaboration with Netflix. It revolves around the intergenerational conflicts between three women from one family (Kajol, Mithila Palkar and Tanvi Azmi), with Kajol starring as foul-mouthed Odissi dancer Anuradha Apte. She found resemblance between the relationship of the three leading characters and her own with her mother and daughter. The film and Kajol's performance received positive reviews. Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV praised her for providing the thrilling atmosphere the film needs "to keep trundling along at an even pace"; Stutee Ghosh of The Quint found Azmi and Kajol's strong performances to have "a stunning hold and it's difficult to focus on anyone else when they are in the frame". At the 2nd Filmfare OTT Awards, her performance was nominated in the Best Actress category.
In 2022, Kajol starred in Revathi's Salaam Venky, a drama about euthanasia. The film and her performance was not well-received. It also emerged as a box office bomb. The following year, Kajol starred in a segment of the Netflix anthology film Lust Stories 2 and in Disney+ Hotstar's legal drama series, The Trial, an adaptation of the American show The Good Wife. Reviewing the latter, Divya Nair of Rediff.com found her "brilliant" and was appreciative of her chemistry with her co-stars.
Kajol will next star alongside Prithviraj Sukumaran and Ibrahim Ali Khan in the thriller, Sarzameen, as well as Netflix's mystery thriller, Do Patti, with Kriti Sanon.
Off-screen work
In 1998, Kajol participated in concert tour "Awesome Foursome" alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, and Akshay Kumar. After travelling across the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, Kajol refused to participate in any more world tours, unable to handle the stress. In 1999, following the launch of Ajay Devgn's production company, Devgan Films (renamed as Devgn Entertainment and Software Ltd.), Kajol worked towards building a website: "I'm computer savvy. Or at least I know more about computers than those around me. So I should be of some help there."
In 2000, she launched the filmmaking-related online portal Cineexplore for the company, working as the supervisor. Devgn established another company, Ajay Devgn FFilms, in 2009. Kajol clarified she was not involved in its production aspect, but participated in the supervising and overseeing. She featured as a talent judge with husband Ajay Devgn and mother Tanuja in Zee TV's 2008 reality show Rock-N-Roll Family, which she found to be a much tougher experience than that of in films. She was named a part-time member of the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati in 2016. In 2019, she wrote the foreword of a biography on the actress Sridevi, entitled Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess.
Kajol has been actively involved in several philanthropic endeavours related to women and children. She is involved with Shiksha, a non-governmental organisation for children's education, and in 2009 she launched a campaign to support the cause. In 2011, Kajol participated in a fashion show organised by the Cancer Patients Aid Association, to generate funds for the organisation, and as the international goodwill ambassador and patron of The Loomba Trust (a charity organisation devoted to supporting widows and their children around the world, particularly in India). In 2012, Kajol was appointed as the brand ambassador of Pratham, a charity organization for children, and she featured in a short film on education and literacy, with the Hanuman Basti Primary School's students in Mumbai, to support it. Also that year, she made a documentary about protection of the girl child as a part of the Government of Maharashtra's campaign "Save the Girl Child". For her contribution in social service, Kajol was awarded the Karmaveer Puraskar.
Personal life
Kajol began dating actor Ajay Devgn in 1994, while filming Gundaraj. Members of the media, however, labelled them as an "unlikely pair" due to their contrasting personalities. Devgn explained their relationship by saying, "We never resorted to the usual 'I love you' routine. A proposal never happened. We grew with each other. Marriage was never discussed, but it was always imminent". The couple married on 24 February 1999 in a traditional Maharashtrian ceremony at Devgn's house. The wedding was subject to wide media scrutiny, as certain members of the media criticised Kajol's decision to settle down at the pinnacle of her career. Kajol, however, maintained that she would not quit films, but would cut down on the amount of work that she did.
Following her marriage, Kajol moved in with Devgn and his parents at the latter's ancestral house in Juhu. Tabloids have often romantically linked Devgn with other Bollywood actresses, and reported an imminent divorce. Dismissing the rumors as gossip, Kajol attested to not giving attention to such talk.
Kajol prefers not to talk much about her personal life and dislikes being interviewed, considering it "a waste of time". She gave birth to a daughter, Nysa, on 20 April 2003. Seven years later, on 13 September 2010, she gave birth to a son, Yug. She described motherhood as "fab" and added that her kids brought out "the best in her". Kajol has used Devgn as her surname since 2015. She speaks English, Hindi and Marathi, and "can understand Bengali".
Screen persona and reception
Kajol is acknowledged for her natural acting prowess. The Hindu stated she "does not act out her scenes and deliver her lines; she inhabits her characters." After portraying leading roles in a series of family dramas, Kajol showed her acting versatility with Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997), for which she was noted as being one of the first actresses of her era to play female anti-hero characters and becoming more popular than the male actors. She was also praised for her lively and spirited nature on-screen. Rajiv Menon credited Kajol as representing the joie de vivre of the 1990s, and Khalid Mohammed described her as "a great packet of talent". According to Open, her spontaneity brought "a unique energy" to her films, and Karan Johar said, "I would call 'action' on a shoot and expect a little atom bomb explosion on set every time Kajol was around because that is who she was. She kept us all on our toes." The scholar Ashish Rajadhyaksha observed that she was the actress "around whom a script can be written and a film made".
Kajol has been paired with the actor Shah Rukh Khan in many successful films, and commentators have described them as one of the greatest, on-screen pairs of the Hindi cinema. Summing up the total collection of their films ranging from Baazigar (1993) to Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001), India Today estimated that they had grossed over worldwide, calling this "a magic that subsequent jodis have found hard to replicate". After the success of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), many directors have attempted to pair the two in their films; one of whom is Karan Johar, who directed them in three films and said that he did so in tribute to Baazigar, the first film to feature the couple. In a 2013 poll conducted by Filmfare, Kajol and Khan were voted as the "most stylish on-screen couple". In an article comparing her pairing with Khan to that with her husband Ajay Devgn published the same year, Filmfare Parampara Patil Hashmi concluded that both pairings performed well financially but noted that the former one is much superior since all films starring them succeeded at the box office.
Unlike most of her contemporaries, Kajol has had a successful career post-marriage and motherhood, for which she was characterised as "the archetypal New Age woman". On breaking the stereotype, she opined: "Perceptions have changed a lot in the last few years. Married actresses don't necessarily have to play character roles in films. Filmmakers are experimenting and this is truly the best time for actresses like us." Following her marriage, journalists speculated it would be the ending point of her career. She continued to work in films but has been more selective, attributing it to the lack of worthy offers and her unwillingness to see herself in "films that are absolutely meaningless". Critics however noted that her success is attached to her collaborations with the filmmakers Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra. She defended this by saying of her preference to working with people she is comfortable with. Similar thoughts were expressed by the film distributor Ramesh Sippy, who stated that she added prospects to films she starred in.
In the media
Known for her impulsive and stubborn nature, Kajol has been described by commentators to have a striking personality. Sukanya Verma wrote, "Think Kajol, think emotions. Either she is the firebrand or the emotional sensitive type. And sometimes she is pure, wicked fun." While interviewing her for the Hindustan Times in 2008, the journalist Hiren Kotwani took note of her straightforwardness when she was answering the given questions. India Today presumed that her outspoken behaviour have contributed in helping her winning film awards, and further commented, "There is a sparkling spontaneity to Kajol ... Film brats are rapidly tutored on the conventional wisdom of the industry, the line to success that needs to be toed. Maybe Tanuja never taught it, maybe Kajol never listened, for she has abandoned the predictable."
Kajol has been criticised for her lack of interest in maintaining her appearance. Gautam Rajadhyaksha stated she was apathetic of hairstyles and clothes, and would be really happy if she was allowed to wear jeans, a white shirt, and a scarf every day. The journalist Kaveree Bamzai elaborated, "She hardly looks into the mirror, barely even glances at the set monitor, usually the crutch of every insecure actor, puts on make-up only under extreme duress, and ... never watches her old movies." Comparing her to Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, the producer Mahesh Bhatt observed that Kajol "may not have [their] earthy sensuality but she has that extra sparkle in her eyes and a kind of energy she generates on screen which make her incredible". Filmfare however labelled her an "unconventional beauty", adding that she "set her own rules in the '90s".
Kajol was listed in Box Office India's "Top Actresses" for five consecutive years (1995–1999), topping the list in 1998. In 2001 and 2006, Kajol featured in Rediff.com's annual "Top Bollywood Actresses" listing. Rediff.com also featured her in other lists: "Best Bollywood Actresses Ever", "Best Dressed Woman" and "Top 10 Actresses of 2000–2010". She peaked the fifth position as "the all-time favorite female star" in a 2008 poll conducted by Outlook. In 2012, Kajol was placed at the fourth position by NDTV in the listing of "The Most Popular Actress of All Time", behind Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi and Meena Kumari, and Yahoo! featured her as "one of the ten most iconic beauties of Hindi cinema". Kajol was included on Forbes Indias "Celebrity 100", a list based on the income and popularity of India's celebrities, in 2012, 2013 and 2017.
In 2002, Kajol was presented with the Rajiv Gandhi Awards by the Mumbai Pradesh Youth Congress. She was one of the four Bollywood actors, alongside Priyanka Chopra, Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan, whose miniature dolls were launched in the United Kingdom, under the name of "Bollywood Legends" in 2006. Kajol and Khan also became the first Indian actors to be invited by NASDAQ to open the NYSE American for promoting their film, My Name Is Khan (2010). In the next year, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour of the country, for her contribution to India's cinema. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis honoured her with the Swabhimani Mumbaikar Awards. Kajol unveiled her wax statue at Singapore's Madame Tussauds museum in 2018.
See also
List of Indian film actresses
List of Bengali actresses
References
Bibliography
External links
1974 births
Living people
Actresses from Kolkata
Actresses from Mumbai
Actresses in Hindi cinema
Actresses in Tamil cinema
Bengali actresses
Bengali Hindus
Filmfare Awards winners
Indian Hindus
Marathi people
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Screen Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
20th-century Indian actresses
21st-century Indian actresses
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Hunchback%20of%20Notre%20Dame%20%281996%20film%29
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the 1831 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay written by Tab Murphy, Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White. Featuring the voices of Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, and Kevin Kline, the film follows Quasimodo, the deformed and confined bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his yearning to explore the outside world and be accepted by society, against the wishes of his cruel, puritanical foster father Claude Frollo, who also wants to exterminate Paris' Roma population.
The film is considered to be one of Disney's darkest animated films due to its mature subject matter such as infanticide, lust, antiziganism, and Christianity, despite the changes made from the original source material in order to ensure a G rating from the MPAA. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had previously collaborated on Pocahontas (1995). The pair later also collaborated on 2007's Enchanted and its 2022 sequel Disenchanted.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame premiered at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on June 19, 1996, and was released in the United States on June 21. The film received generally positive reviews, with praise to its score, mature themes, and visuals, but criticism for its tonal inconsistencies; it has similarly received both praise and criticism from Christian groups. The film was also a commercial success, grossing over $325 million worldwide and becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 1996. The film received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for its musical score. A stage adaptation of the film was produced by Walt Disney Theatrical in 1999. A direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, was released in 2002.
Plot
Clopin, a Roma puppeteer, narrates a story to a group of children.
A group of Roma immigrating to Paris are ambushed by Judge Claude Frollo, Paris' Minister of Justice, and his soldiers. One woman attempts to flee with her baby, reaching the doors of Notre Dame pleading for sanctuary. Frollo chases her down and knocks her onto the cathedral's steps, where she fractures her skull and dies. Seeing her baby's appearance, Frollo believes it to be a demon and tries to drown the child but is interrupted by the archdeacon, who scolds Frollo for murdering an innocent woman. Afraid for his soul, Frollo reluctantly agrees with the archdeacon's suggestion to raise the child as his own, naming him "Quasimodo" (meaning 'half-formed') and hiding him away in the cathedral's bell tower.
Twenty years later, Quasimodo has grown into a kind yet isolated young man, now with a pronounced hunchback. He has lived his entire life in the cathedral with his only company being a trio of living stone gargoyles Victor, Hugo, and Laverne. The gargoyles encourage him to attend the annual Festival of Fools, despite Frollo's warnings that he would be shunned for his appearance. Quasimodo attends and is celebrated for his appearance but then, prompted by Frollo's guards, is humiliated by the crowd. Frollo refuses Quasimodo's pleas for help, but he is rescued by Esmeralda, a kind Roma who stands up to Frollo for his tyranny. Frollo, who intends to commit genocide against Roma people living in Paris, orders her arrest but Esmeralda escapes using a magic trick.
Quasimodo retreats back into the cathedral, followed by Esmeralda and Captain Phoebus of Frollo's guard. Phoebus refuses to arrest her for witchcraft inside Notre Dame and instead tells Frollo that she has claimed asylum. Esmeralda finds and befriends Quasimodo, who helps her escape Notre Dame out of gratitude for defending him. She entrusts Quasimodo with a pendant containing a map to the Roma hideout called the Court of Miracles. Frollo develops an obsessive lust for Esmeralda and, upon realizing this, begs the Virgin Mary to save him from her "spell" and avoid eternal damnation.
When Frollo discovers that Esmeralda escaped, he searches for her, bribing and arresting Travellers/Roma and setting fire to houses while trying to find her. Phoebus defies Frollo when ordered to burn down a house with a family inside and Frollo orders him executed. Phoebus flees but is struck by an arrow and falls into the River Seine, where he is found by Esmeralda and taken to Notre Dame for refuge. The gargoyles encourage Quasimodo to confess his feelings for Esmeralda, but he is heartbroken to discover she and Phoebus have fallen in love. Realizing that Quasimodo helped Esmeralda escape, Frollo angrily scolds him, and then reveals he knows about the Court of Miracles and plans to attack it at dawn with 1,000 of his soldiers. Using the map Esmeralda gave him, Quasimodo and Phoebus find the court to warn the Roma, only for Frollo and the soldiers to follow them and capture Phoebus, Esmeralda, and all the Roma present.
When Esmeralda again rejects Frollo's advances, he attempts to burn her at the stake at Place du Parvis, but a horrified Quasimodo swoops down and carries her to the cathedral tower. When Frollo attempts to seize the cathedral, Phoebus releases the Roma and rallies the Paris citizens against Frollo's guards. Quasimodo and the gargoyles pour molten lead onto the streets to prevent anyone entering, but Frollo himself manages to break into the cathedral beforehand. Violating the tradition of sanctuary, he pursues Quasimodo and Esmeralda to the bell tower with the intent of killing them both. He finds and attempts to comfort Quasimodo while also preparing to stab him, but an enraged Quasimodo seizes Frollo's dagger and berates him for lying to him about the world, just as Esmeralda regains consciousness. Frollo chases Esmeralda and Quasimodo throughout the cathedral balcony and corners them on the edge of the turret. Frollo tries to kill Quasimodo, but the latter panics and falls from a ledge, pulling Frollo with him. Frollo manages to climb on top of a gargoyle and prepares to stab Esmeralda, but the gargoyle breaks off, sending Frollo plummeting to his death in the molten lead while Quasimodo is saved by Phoebus. In the aftermath, Quasimodo accepts that Phoebus and Esmeralda are in love, and he gives them his blessing. They encourage him to leave the cathedral. He does so as the people of Paris hail him as a hero.
Voice cast
Tom Hulce as Quasimodo
Demi Moore as Esmeralda (singing voice by Heidi Mollenhauer)
Tony Jay as Judge Claude Frollo
Kevin Kline as Captain Phoebus
Paul Kandel as Clopin Trouillefou
Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, and Mary Wickes as Hugo, Victor, and Laverne respectively. This was Wickes' final acting performance as she died a year before its release, at age 85. Jane Withers provided Laverne's remaining dialogue for the film.
David Ogden Stiers as the Archdeacon
Production
Development
The idea to adapt The Hunchback of Notre Dame came from development executive David Stainton in 1993, who was inspired to turn Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame into an animated feature film after reading the Classics Illustrated comic book adaptation. Stainton then proposed the idea to then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. After the release of Beauty and the Beast (1991), Gary Trousdale had taken a sabbatical break from directing, instead spending several months developing storyboards for The Lion King (1994). Following this, Trousdale and Kirk Wise subsequently developed an animated feature based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice titled A Song of the Sea, adapting it to make the central character a humpback whale and setting it in the open ocean. While they were working on the project they were summoned to meet with Katzenberg. "During that time," explained Trousdale, "while we working on it, we got a call from Jeffrey. He said, 'Guys, drop everything – you're working on Hunchback now. According to Wise, they believed that it had "a great deal of potential... great memorable characters, a really terrific setting, the potential for fantastic visuals, and a lot of emotion."
Production on The Hunchback of Notre Dame began in the summer of 1993. In October 1993, directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, art director David Goetz, Roy Conli, Ed Ghertner, Will Finn, Alan Menken, and Stephen Schwartz took a trip to Paris, France, for ten days; three days were devoted to exploring Notre Dame including a private tour of rarely glimpsed sites such as passageways, stairwells, towers, and a hidden room. The production crew also visited the Palace of Justice and an original location of the Court of Miracles.
Writing
Writer Tab Murphy was brought on board to write the screenplay, and it was decided early on that Quasimodo would be the center of the story, as he was in preceding live-action film adaptations. In the early drafts, Quasimodo served as a Cyrano between Phoebus and Esmeralda, but it was discarded to focus more on Quasimodo. Meanwhile, a love story between Quasimodo and Esmeralda was also conceived, according to Murphy, but "we decided to make Phoebus more heroic and central to the story. Out of that decision grew the idea of some sort of a triangle between Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Phoebus." Some of the novel's key characters were jettisoned entirely. The gargoyles of Notre Dame were added to the story by Trousdale and Wise. Their portrayal as comedic friends and confidantes of Quasimodo was inspired by a portion of the novel, which reads: "The other statues, the ones of monsters and demons, felt no hatred for Quasimodo…The saints were his friends and blessed him; the monsters were his friends, and protected him. Thus he would pour out his heart at length to them."
One of the first changes made to accommodate Disney's request was to turn the villainous Claude Frollo into a judge rather than an archdeacon, thus avoiding religious sensibilities in the finished film. "As we were exploring the characters, especially Frollo, we certainly found a lot of historical parallels to the type of mania he had: the Confederate South, Nazi Germany, take your pick," explained Wise. "Those things influenced our thinking." Producer Don Hahn evaluated that one inspiration for Frollo was found in Ralph Fiennes's performance as Amon Goeth in Schindler's List (1993), who had murdered Jews yet lusted after his Jewish maid.
For the opening sequence, Disney story veteran Burny Mattinson constructed an effective sequence that covered much exposition, although Katzenberg felt something was missing. Following Stephen Schwartz's suggestion to musicalize the sequence, French animators Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi storyboarded the sequence to Menken and Schwartz's music resulting in "The Bells of Notre Dame." Lyricist Stephen Schwartz also worked closely with the writing team even suggesting that the audience should be left wondering what the outcome of what Phoebus would do before he extinguishes the torch in water in retaliation against Frollo. Another was the film's conclusion. While Frollo's death was made more explicit, Quasimodo and Esmeralda were both spared their fates and given a happy ending. This revised ending was based in part on Victor Hugo's own libretto to a Hunchback opera, in which he had permitted Captain Phoebus to save Esmeralda from her execution.
Casting
In late 1993, pop singer Cyndi Lauper was the first actor cast during the film's initial stages. She had been hired one week after reading for a part with the directors, who felt her performance was "hilarious and sweet". Thinking she had been cast as Esmeralda, Lauper was startled to learn she was to voice a gargoyle named Quinn. The development team had come up with the names of Chaney, Laughton and Quinn—named after the actors who portrayed Quasimodo in preceding Hunchback film adaptations. However, Disney's legal department objected to the proposed names of the gargoyles, fearing that the estates of Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, or Anthony Quinn (who was still alive at the time) would file a lawsuit over the unauthorized use of their names, so the idea was dropped. Trousdale and Wise then suggested naming the characters Lon, Charles, and Anthony, which would have resulted in the same legal concern. Instead, they would name the first two gargoyles after Victor Hugo, and the third gargoyle after Andrews Sisters singer LaVerne Andrews as suggested by Wise.
Now cast as Laverne, Lauper was deemed too youthful for a friend who would provide wise counsel to Quasimodo. At the same time, Sam McMurray—best known for his work on The Tracey Ullman Show—was hired for Hugo. Meanwhile, Charles Kimbrough was cast as Victor, who was initially unimpressed at an animated adaptation of Hunchback, but later became rather impressed at the level of research that went into the film and how the story ideas transitioned from the novel to the screen. After several recording sessions and test screenings, Lauper and McMurray were called by the directors who released them from their roles. At one point, Jeffrey Katzenberg had considered Arsenio Hall, David Letterman, and Jay Leno to voice the gargoyles, but he eventually cast Jason Alexander, due to his previous role in The Return of Jafar (1994). After a suggestion by supervising animator Will Finn, Laverne was then re-envisioned into a wiser, mature character with Mary Wickes cast in the role. Following Wickes' death in October 1995, Jane Withers was hired to voice her six remaining lines.
Katzenberg had also wanted Meat Loaf for the role of Quasimodo, but he passed on the role after Disney could not come to an agreement with his record company. Mandy Patinkin was also approached for the title role, but his style of portraying Quasimodo collided with the producers' demands, and Patinkin stated, I [was] just there at the audition [and I] said, 'I can't do this. Tom Hulce was cast as Quasimodo following his first audition for the role, and according to the actor, he noticed during the audition that the Disney executives, producers, and directors "were staring at the floor. It looked like everyone was at a memorial service" until he noticed the floor was lined with storyboard sketches. According to Wise, the filmmakers "like to audition the voices with our eyes closed, so we see the character's face." Quasimodo was originally portrayed as older and with more of a speech impediment during the early rehearsals, but Hulce commented that "we experimented, endlessly. At one point I was ready to call in and say 'Things just aren't happening'." Ultimately, the directors desired to portray Quasimodo with a younger voice different from the previous portrayals since "[Victor] Hugo described Quasimodo as 20." Additionally, Hulce was permitted to do his own singing after performing a demo recording of "Out There."
Due to her deeper voice than actresses who had previously played Disney heroines, Demi Moore was cast as Esmeralda, and met with Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz on singing. After several singing demos, the actress said, "You'd better get someone else," according to Schwartz. New York City cabaret singer Heidi Mollenhauer was selected to provide the singing voice. For the role of Phoebus, co-director Kirk Wise explained that "As we're designing the characters, we form a short list of names...to help us find the personality of the character." Subsequently, the filmmakers modeled his portrayal on the personalities of Errol Flynn and John Wayne, and "One of the names on the top of the list all the time was Kevin Kline." Moore and Kline were the only actors to have the role directly offered to them instead of auditioning. British actor Tony Jay, who declared his role as Frollo as his "bid for immortality," was cast after the directors had worked with him in Beauty and the Beast (1991). Anthony Hopkins was originally considered for the role, but he turned down the offer. After watching his portrayal as Uncle Ernie in the musical The Who's Tommy, Broadway actor Paul Kandel was selected to voice Clopin.
Animation
Alongside Pocahontas (1995), storyboard work on The Hunchback of the Notre Dame was among the first to be produced for an animated film on the new Disney Feature Animation building adjacent to the main Disney lot in Burbank, which was dedicated in 1995. However, most animators were occupied with The Lion King (1994) and Pocahontas (1995) at the time, and as a result, more animators were hired from Canada and United Kingdom to join the production team for the film. As the development phase furthered along, most of the entire animation team moved out into a large warehouse facility on Airway in Glendale, California. As the Disney story artists, layout crew, and animators moved in their new quarters, they decided to name the building "Sanctuary."
Since Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), other animators hired by Disney Feature Animation were from Germany, France, Ireland, and additional ones from Canada were involved in providing animation duties at the recently opened satellite studio, Walt Disney Animation Paris, of which about 20 percent of the film was done. Meanwhile, at the Feature Animation Florida studio, which had been working on Mulan (1998), their first in-house production, at least seven animators penned about four minutes of screen time, which mostly involved Frollo and Quasimodo. The studio had also provided additional layout, cleanup, and special-effects animation.
During early development, Trousdale and Wise realized they needed crowds of people, but for this time, they wanted them to move as opposed to being traditionally drawn as painted backdrops. Recalling the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King (1994), they landed on the idea of using computer animation to generate them. For that reason, the CGI department, headed by Kiran Joshi, created the software Crowd to achieve large-scale crowd scenes, particularly for the Feast of Fools sequence and the film's climax. The software was used to create six types of characters—males and females either average in weight, fat, or thin—which were programmed and assigned 72 specific movements ranging from jumping and clapping. Digital technology also provided a visual sweep that freed Quasimodo to scamper around the cathedral and soar around the plaza to rescue Esmeralda.
Music
Having worked on Pocahontas (1995) for a year, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz were offered multiple film projects to collaborate on when they chose to work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame. According to Schwartz, they had both been attracted to underlying themes of social outcast and Quasimodo's struggle to break free of the psychological abuse of Frollo.
The film has many musical motifs that carry throughout the film, weaving their way in and out of various pieces of music, and having varying timbres depending on the action in the story at that point. The film's soundtrack includes a musical score composed by Menken and songs written by him and Stephen Schwartz. The film's songs include "The Bells of Notre Dame" for Clopin, Frollo and the Archdeacon, "Out There" for Quasimodo and Frollo, "Topsy Turvy" for Clopin, "God Help the Outcasts" for Esmeralda, "Heaven's Light" for Quasimodo, "Hellfire" for the Archdeacon and Frollo, "A Guy Like You" for the gargoyles and "The Court of Miracles" for Clopin and the other Roma.
Three songs written for the film were discarded for the storyboarding process. Trousdale and Wise were not certain what musical number could be placed for the third act, though Menken and Schwartz conceived two love songs, "In a Place of Miracles" and "As Long as There's a Moon," between Esmeralda and Phoebus in the film. However, Trousdale and Wise felt the song took too much focus off of Quasimodo, and ultimately decided to have Clopin sing about sentencing Phoebus and Quasimodo to death for finding their Roma sanctuary. Menken and Schwartz had also written "Someday" originally for the film, but the directors suggested that a religious song be sung in the cathedral, and the song was instead featured in the end credits. R&B group All-4-One recorded the song for the end credits of the North American English release, and by the British R&B girl group Eternal in the British English version. Luis Miguel recorded the version for the Latin American Spanish version, which became a major hit.
Themes and interpretations
The Hunchback of Notre Dames thematic concerns include infanticide, lust, damnation, and sin, as well as the belief in a loving, forgiving God. According to Mark Pinsky, it is also a "condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, and racism, and [a] moral resistance to genocide."
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was the first – and currently only – Disney animated feature to have a major focus on traditional religious faith; in this case, pre-Reformation Catholicism. In fact, the words "God," "Lord", and "Hell" are uttered more times in this film than in any other produced by Disney. The Gospel According to Disney explains that "it is the church... that interposes, or attempts to interpose itself between the villain and his evil intentions." During production, the studio executives expressed concerns about various aspects of the film, especially those relating to the religious content in the story, "for their failure to defend the poor and the powerless" and concerns that the story was "too controversial." Deconstructing Disney notes that the studio "approached the name of God with an almost Hebraic zeal (that it should never be stated) yet here it is invoked in a manner both pious and puritan." Many of the songs were adapted from genuine Latin prayers and chants, such as "Hellfire", which uses the Tridentine form of the Confiteor as a counterpoint melody. The Gospel According to Disney includes a quote that says "religion... appears as an impotent, irrelevant caricature [and] Disney refuses to admit a serious role for religion." At one point, the archdeacon says to Esmeralda, "You can't right all the wrongs of this world by yourself... perhaps there is someone in here who can," referring either to God or Mary. This questions the power religious people actually have in making the world a moral and happy place, according to Pinsky.
The Gospel According to Disney explains that "while Frollo's stated goal is to purge the world of vice and sin, according to the opening song, he 'saw corruption everywhere except within.'" Because "killing the woman on the steps has put Frollo's soul in mortal danger," he has to take the child and look after him as penance. Even then, he absolves himself of agency in the murder by claiming "God works in mysterious ways," and ponders whether "the child may be of use to him one day." During the song "God Help the Outcasts," Esmeralda wonders if "Were you once an outcast too?" while looking at a statue of Mary with the infant Jesus, referencing the Flight into Egypt.
According to the film's production notes, Quasimodo is "symbolically viewed as being an angel in a devil's body." He is "trapped between heaven above [and] the gritty streets of urban Paris viewed as Hell." The version of the alphabet Quasimodo recites in a daily ritual reflects Frollo's view of the world – full of abominations and blasphemy. He is also constantly called deformed, ugly, a monster, and an outcast who would be hated if he ever left the confines of the church.
Release
In 1994, the film was scheduled for a Christmas 1995 release, though the film was reportedly delayed following the departure of Katzenberg from The Walt Disney Company. By January 1995, it was later pushed back to a summer 1996 release. The film premiered on June 19, 1996, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, where it was played on six enormous screens. The premiere was preceded by a parade through the French Quarter, beginning at Jackson Square and utilizing floats and cast members from Walt Disney World. The film was widely released two days later.
Marketing
As part of the promotion of the film, Walt Disney Records shipped two million products, including sing-along home videos, soundtrack CDs, and the "My First Read Along" novelized version of the film. Upon release, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was accompanied by a marketing campaign of more than $40 million with commercial tie-ins with Burger King, Payless Shoes, Nestlé and Mattel. By 1997, Disney earned approximately $500 million in profit with the spin-off products based from the film.
Home media
The Hunchback of Notre Dame was first released on VHS, standard CLV LaserDisc, and special edition CAV LaserDisc on March 4, 1997, under the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection label. By mid-1998, the operating income of the VHS release had accumulated to $200 million. It was originally planned for a DVD release in December 2000 as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, but instead, it was re-issued on March 19, 2002, as a special edition along with its direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002).
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released The Hunchback of Notre Dame on Blu-ray alongside its sequel in a Special Edition "2-Movie Collection" on March 12, 2013.
Reception
Box office
The Hunchback of Notre Dame grossed $21.3 million during its opening weekend, ranking in second place at the box office behind Eraser. At the time, both Warner Bros. and Disney already had big summer hits with Twister and The Rock respectively. In a new box office strategy, Disney also included ticket sales which were sold from Disney Stores nationwide, which added about $1 million to the box office numbers. However, the film had earned slightly less when compared to Pocahontas, which had grossed $29 million the year previous. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution president Dick Cook defended the results claiming it was comparable to Beauty and the Beast (1991), which opened in half as many theaters, and grossed about $9 million. In its second weekend, The Hunchback of Notre Dame dropped into third place behind The Nutty Professor and Eraser, but stayed above Striptease and made a total $14.3 million.
The film ultimately grossed just over $100.1 million domestically. In foreign markets, by December 1996, the film became the fifteenth film that year to gross over $100 million, and went on to accumulate $225.2 million, surpassing Pocahontas $204.5 million international gross. Worldwide, The Hunchback of Notre Dame grossed over $325.3 million, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of 1996.
Critical reception
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film positive rating based on reviews, along with an average rating of . The consensus reads, "Disney's take on the Victor Hugo classic is dramatically uneven, but its strong visuals, dark themes, and message of tolerance make for a more-sophisticated-than-average children's film." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 74 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert rewarded the film 4 stars, calling it "the best Disney animated feature since Beauty and the Beast – a whirling, uplifting, thrilling story with a heart touching message that emerges from the comedy and song." In his review for the Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel awarded the film (out of a possible 4) stars, describing the film as "a surprisingly emotional, simplified version of the Victor Hugo novel" with "effective songs and, yes, tasteful bits of humor." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film an A, labeling it as "the best of Disney's 'serious' animated features in the multiplex era, (...) an emotionally rounded fairy tale that balances darkness and sentimentality, pathos and triumph, with uncanny grace."
Richard Corliss of Time magazine praised the film, stating that "the result is a grand cartoon cathedral, teeming with gargoyles and treachery, hopeless love and tortured lust" and also said "Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz have written the largest, most imposing score yet for an animated film." Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph gave it a positive review, saying "it is thrillingly dramatic, and for long stretches you forget you are watching a cartoon at all... A dazzling treat." Variety also gave the film a positive review, stating that "there is much to admire in Hunchback, not least the risk of doing such a downer of a story at all" and also saying: "the new film should further secure Disney's dominance in animation, and connoisseurs of the genre, old and young, will have plenty to savor." Janet Maslin wrote in her The New York Times review: "In a film that bears conspicuous, eager resemblances to other recent Disney hits, the filmmakers' Herculean work is overshadowed by a Sisyphean problem. There's just no way to delight children with a feel-good version of this story."
Upon opening in France in March 1997, reception from French critics towards Hunchback was largely positive. French critics and audiences found resonance in the film which recounted a real-life incident from August 1995 when French police raided a Parisian church and seized over 200 immigrants seeking refuge from deportation under France's strict expulsion laws. "It is difficult not to think of the undocumented immigrants of St. Bernard when Frollo tries to sweep out the rabble," wrote one reviewer.
Audience response
Arnaud Later, a leading scholar on Hugo, accused Disney of simplifying, editing, and censoring the novel in numerous aspects, including the personalities of the characters. In his review, he later wrote that the animators "don't have enough confidence in their own emotional feeling" and that the film "falls back on clichés." Descendants of Hugo bashed Disney in an open letter to the Libération newspaper for their ancestor receiving no mention on the advertisement posters, and describing the film as a "vulgar commercialization by unscrupulous salesmen."
Some audiences expressed concerns about whether the film was appropriate for children. Jason Alexander said that while "Disney would have us believe this movie's like the Ringling Bros., for children of all ages," he would not take his then-four-year-old child to view the film. However, some newspaper publications reported child audiences being unaffected by the mature content and praising the film. Some audiences criticized the film for having "homosexual undertones," noticeably with the song "Out There," being the name of a gay pressure group and as a call to come out of the closet.
In June 1996, the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly to urge its sixteen million members to boycott Disney films, theme parks, and merchandise, saying the company "disparages Christian values." The cause of the protests—unrelated to the film—stemmed from the company's domestic partnership policy and gay and lesbian theme days at Walt Disney World. Trousdale also claimed that Southern Baptists were outraged over the casting of Demi Moore as Esmeralda, as she had just come off of the film Striptease (1996), in which she played an exotic dancer. Disney officials would not comment on the motivation for the religious content displayed in the film beyond comments on the subject included in the film's press kit, with Disney vice president John Dreyer commenting, "The film speaks for itself." Nevertheless, there was praise from religious organizations for its portrayal of religion in the film. Louis P. Sheldon, a Presbyterian pastor and chairman of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, said two months before its premiere: "I am thrilled at what I hear about Hunchback, that Disney is seeking to honour Christianity and its role in Western civilization. I only pray that it will accomplish much good in the minds and hearts of its viewers."
Following protests in the United States, thousands of British parents banned their kids from seeing The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In reaction to the controversy, Walt Disney Feature Animation president Peter Schneider said, "The only controversy I've heard about the movie is certain people's opinion that, 'Well, it's OK for me, but it might disturb somebody else." Schneider also stated in his defense that the film was test-screened "all over the country, and I've heard nobody, parents or children, complain about any of the issues. I think, for example, the issue of disabilities is treated with great respect." and "Quasimodo is really the underdog who becomes the hero; I don't think there's anything better for anybody's psychological feelings than to become the hero of a movie. The only thing we've been asked to be careful about is the word hunchback, which we have to use in the title."
Accolades
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
2006: AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – Nominated
2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
Nominated Animation Film
Franchising
Stage musical
The film was adapted into a musical production, re-written and directed by James Lapine and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical, in Berlin, Germany. The musical Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (translated in English as The Bellringer of Notre Dame) was very successful and played from 1999 to 2002, before closing. A cast recording was also recorded in German. An English-language revival of the musical premiered in San Diego on October 28, 2014.
Sequel and spin-offs
In June 1998, Disney had announced production had begun on a sequel titled The Hunchback of Notre Dame Deux: The Secret of the Bells, and was slated for release in fall 1999. However, the sequel was delayed from its planned fall release in order to accommodate the recording of "I'm Gonna Love You" by Jennifer Love Hewitt. The sequel reunited its original voice cast, with Hewitt, Haley Joel Osment and Michael McKean voicing new characters. In 2002, the direct-to-video sequel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, was released on VHS and DVD.
Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Victor, Hugo, Laverne and Frollo all made guest appearances on the television series House of Mouse. Frollo could also be seen amongst a crowd of Disney Villains in the direct-to-video film Mickey's House of Villains.
Live-action remake
A live-action remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame was announced in January 2019. The script was set to be penned by David Henry Hwang with Menken and Schwartz returning to write the music. Josh Gad, David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman were set to produce, with Gad being possibly considered to play Quasimodo. The film, titled Hunchback, would draw elements from both the animated film and Hugo's novel. In January 2021, Gad stated that the project was still in the works and that he and the studio were "getting closer" to making it happen.
In May 2023, Menken suggested that development on the live-action remake had stalled owing to the original movie's content and themes: "It's a tough one, because the Hunchback movie, Hunchback story involves a lot of real, real issues that are important issues and should be explored to be discussed. And there has to be an agreement about how we deal with those issues. You know, do we do a Hunchback without 'Hellfire'? I don't think so ... So it sits in this limbo right now."
Video games
In 1996, a tie-in game entitled The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Topsy Turvy Games was released by Disney Interactive for the PC and the Nintendo Game Boy, which is a collection of mini games based around the Festival of Fools that includes a variation of Balloon Fight.
A world based on the movie, "La Cité des Cloches" (The City of Bells), made its debut appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. It was the first new Disney world confirmed for the game.
In 2022, Hunchback content was made available for a limited time within the Disney Magic Kingdoms game by Gameloft.
Other media
Disney has converted its adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame into other media. For example, Disney Comic Hits #11, published by Marvel Comics, features two stories based upon the film. Characters from The Hunchback of Notre Dame make very rare appearances at the Disney Parks and Resorts, but can be seen as figures inside Clopin's Music Box in Fantasyland.
References
Bibliography
External links
The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Comically Framing Virtue and Vice, chapter four in Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film
1996 animated films
1996 films
1996 children's films
1990s American animated films
1996 comedy-drama films
1990s musical films
1990s English-language films
American children's animated musical films
American comedy-drama films
American dark fantasy films
American musical comedy films
American musical drama films
Animated buddy films
American animated drama films
Animated films based on French novels
Disney Renaissance
Animated films about prejudice
Films based on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Films directed by Gary Trousdale
Films directed by Kirk Wise
Films produced by Don Hahn
Films scored by Alan Menken
Films set in the 1480s
Animated films set in Paris
Films set in religious buildings and structures
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (franchise)
Walt Disney Animation Studios films
Walt Disney Pictures animated films
Gargoyles in popular culture
Films about Romani people
1990s children's animated films
Films adapted into comics
Films with screenplays by Irene Mecchi
Films with screenplays by Jonathan Roberts (writer)
Films with screenplays by Noni White
Films with screenplays by Tab Murphy
Films with screenplays by Bob Tzudiker
Disney controversies
Films with screenplays by Sue C. Nichols
Films about disability
Films with screenplays by Burny Mattinson
Religious controversies in film
Religious controversies in animation
Animated films set in the 15th century
Animated films about race and ethnicity
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled%20water
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Bottled water
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Bottled water is drinking water (e.g., well water, distilled water, reverse osmosis water, mineral water, or spring water) packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not. Sizes range from small single serving bottles to large carboys for water coolers.
History
Although vessels to bottle and transport water were part of the earliest human civilizations, bottling water began in the United Kingdom with the first water bottling at the Holy Well in 1622. The demand for bottled water was fueled in large part by the resurgence in spa-going and water therapy among Europeans and American colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries. 'Bristol Water' taken from the spa at Hotwells was one of the first drinking waters to be bottled and marketed widely. Daniel Defoe noted in 1724 that there were over 15 glasshouses in Bristol, "which are more than in London...and vast numbers of bottles are used for sending the water of the Hotwell not only over England but all over the world."
The first commercially distributed water in America was bottled and sold by Jackson's Spa in Boston in 1767. Early drinkers of bottled spa waters believed that the water at these mineral springs had therapeutic properties and that bathing in or drinking the water could help treat many common ailments.
The popularity of bottled mineral waters quickly led to a market for imitation products. Carbonated waters developed to reproduce the natural effervescence of spring-bottled water, and in 1809 Joseph Hawkins was issued the first U.S. patent for "imitation" mineral water. Technological innovation in the 19th century led to cheaper glass and quicker bottling. So bottled water could be produced on a larger scale and grew in popularity. Many saw bottled water as safer than municipal water supplies, which could spread diseases such as cholera and typhoid. By around 1850, one of America's most popular bottlers, Saratoga Springs, was producing more than 7 million bottles of water annually.
In the United States, the popularity of bottled water declined in the early 20th century, when the advent of water chlorination reduced public concerns about water-borne diseases in municipal water supplies. But it remained popular in Europe, where it spread to cafés and grocery stores in the second half of the century. Perrier water had been bottled since the 19th century and widely sold throughout the British Empire; in 1977 Perrier launched in the United States. Today, bottled water is the most popular commercial beverage in the United States, with about 25% of the consumption share versus 18.7% for soft drinks.
Water chemistry
Many of the early developments in the field of chemistry can be attributed to the study of natural mineral waters and attempts to replicate them for commercial sale. Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen in 1775, made his first contributions to the field of chemistry by dissolving carbon dioxide in water, for which he was awarded the Copley Medal in 1773. He later worked with Johann Jacob Schweppe, founder of Schweppes, in developing "aerated" waters for commercial sale.
PET plastic bottles
In 1973, DuPont engineer Nathaniel Wyeth patented Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, the first plastic bottle to withstand the pressure of carbonated liquids. Today, PET plastic has replaced glass as the preferred material for single-serving bottled water containers due to its light weight and resistance to breaking.
Types
Some of the more common types of bottled water are:
Alkaline water – this type of water has increased pH levels produced through electrolysis
Artesian water – this is water that originates from a confined aquifer that has been tapped and in which the water level stands at some height above the top of the aquifer and flows naturally to the surface.
Fluoridated – this type of water contains added fluoride. This category includes water classified as "For Infants" or "Nursery."
Groundwater – this type of water is from an underground source that is under a pressure equal to or greater than atmospheric pressure.
Mineral water – water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. It comes from a source tapped at one or more bore holes or spring, and originates from a geologically and physically protected underground water source. No minerals may be added to this water.
Purified water – this type of water has been produced by distillation, deionization, reverse osmosis, or other suitable processes. Purified water may also be referred to as "demineralized water".
Sparkling water – Sparkling water contains the same amount of carbon dioxide that it had at emergence from the source. The carbon dioxide may be removed and replenished after treatment.
Spring water – this type of water comes from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the Earth's surface.
Sterile water – this type of water meets sterilization requirements, for example, those specified under "sterility tests" in the United States Pharmacopoeia.
Well water – well water is taken from a hole tapping, etc. This hole may be bored, drilled, or otherwise constructed in the ground.
Product forms
The Beverage Marketing Corporation defines the bottled water market segment as "retail PET, retail bulk, home and office delivery, vending, domestic sparkling and imports", but excluding "flavored and enhanced water."
Purified water vending machines
A number of cities and companies worldwide have vending machines that dispense purified water into customers' own containers. All dispensers filter the location's tap water. In North America, these machines are typically located outside of supermarkets.
Bottled water service
It is not uncommon for businesses or individuals to subscribe to a bottled water service. These services deliver water either monthly or weekly, sometimes even daily. Traditionally, water in glass bottles (jugs) was provided to electric coolers in areas of businesses without plumbing. Plastic containers have replaced those glass jugs, however, dispensers at businesses now may stand alongside existing water taps or fountains.
Storage
Bottled water is often stored as part of an emergency kit in case of natural disaster. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says the "safest" and "most reliable" source of drinking water is store-bought bottled water. Commonly, disaster management experts recommend storing of water per person, per day for at least three days. This amount is intended to include water for drinking and cooking as well as water for hand washing, washing dishes, and personal hygiene. Factory containers of water have an indefinite shelf life, as long as they remain unopened and undamaged. The sell-by date is voluntarily and individually set by manufacturers to indicate the length of time that they believe the water will taste and smell fresh, rather than to indicate any issue of contamination or food safety.
PET recycling
The most common packaging material for single-serve, non-carbonated bottled water in the United States and Europe is polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. Marked in many countries with resin identification code number "1", PET is 100% recyclable, though recycling rates vary by region. In 2014, approximately 1.8 billion pounds of post-consumer PET bottles were collected in the United States and 1.75 million metric tons (approximately 3.9 billion pounds) were collected in the European Union, making it the most recycled plastic in both the United States and Europe. In the United States, the recycling rate for PET packaging was 32% in 2014; in the European Union, the recycling rate for PET packaging for the same period was approximately 52%.
The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), the trade association for the PET plastic packaging industry in the United States and Canada, identifies five major, generic end-use categories for recycled PET plastic:
Packaging applications, including new bottles.
Sheet and film applications, including some thermoforming applications.
Strapping.
Engineered resins applications.
Fiber applications.
In Europe, more than one-third of recovered PET plastic is used to produce polyester fibers, and another quarter is used in the production of preformed plastic containers—such as egg cartons, fruit boxes, and other plastic beverage bottles.
Water and energy usage
On average, it takes 1.32 litres (L) of water to produce 1 L of bottled water. This includes 1 L of ingredient water and 0.32 L of water used in facility processes such as treatment, bottling, and maintenance. Small pack facilities (facilities that package water in containers between 8 oz. and 2.5 gallons) use the least amount of water (1.26 L per 1 L), followed by mixed packaging facilities (1.46 L per 1 L). Facilities that package water for home and office delivery in sizes of 2.5 gallons to 5 gallons use the most water (1.56 L per 1 L).
Bottled water has lower water usage than bottled soft drinks, which average 2.02 L per 1 L, as well as beer (4 L per 1 L) and wine (4.74 L per 1 L). The larger per-litre water consumption of these drinks can be attributed to additional ingredients and production processes, such as flavor mixing and carbonization for soft drinks and fermentation for beer and wine. In the United States, bottled water production represents 0.011% of annual water consumption.
Critics of bottled water argue that the industry should take in to account not just water used in its production and packaging process, but the total water footprint of its supply chain, which includes water used in the production of its packaging.
A 2011 IBWA lifecycle inventory study found that the production, packaging, and transportation of bottled water within the United States consumes of energy annually, which represents about 0.07% of yearly energy consumption in the country. According to the same study, 6.8 million tons of equivalent are emitted by the bottled water industry a year in the United States, about 0.08% of annual emissions. An Aetna Group study in 2015 concluded that each litre of bottled water requires 240 kilojoules of energy to produce. The lifecycle carbon footprint for a half litre of small pack bottled water is 111 grams equivalent. By comparison, the same sized PET plastic-bottled soft drink produces 240 grams equivalent. Soft drink bottles require much thicker plastic due to carbonation, and therefore many more grams of eqivalent.
Regulation
Bureau of Indian Standards – India
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the national standards body of India working under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 which came into effect on 23 December 1986. The minister in charge of the ministry or department having administrative control of the BIS is the ex-officio president of the BIS.
Food and Drug Administration – US
Bottled water is comprehensively regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a packaged food product. By law, the FDA regulations for bottled water must be at least as stringent as the Environmental Protection Agency standards for tap water.
The FDA has established "Standards of Identity" for bottled water products sold in the U.S. For a product to be considered "bottled water", it cannot contain sweeteners or chemical additives (other than flavors, extracts or essences) and must be calorie-free and sugar-free. If flavors, extracts and essences—derived from spice or fruit—are added to the water, these additions must comprise less than 1% by weight of the final product. The FDA Code of Federal Regulations establishes limitations for the amount of fluoride that can be added to water. Mineral water contains at least 250 parts per million total dissolved solids (TDS). "Purified water" is defined in the United States Pharmacopoeia.
Food Standards Code – Australia & New Zealand
Food Standards Australia New Zealand's Food Standards Code limits fluoride in bottled water to between 0.6 and 1.0 milligrams per litre, and requires any addition to be specified on the product label.
Industry reform – Canada
The Council of Canadians, a social action organization, stressed the need for bottled water industry reform after launching a boycott of Nestlé in September 2016 after the company outbid a small town aiming to secure a long-term water supply through a local well as the country battles drought and depletion of ground water reserves. Premier Kathleen Wynne stated that her government will look for ways to put community needs ahead of bottled water corporations, saying "as we look at the water bottling industry, that has to be a question because we're talking about what we could argue is our most precious resource" that they have this "discussion about our water, the status of and the treatment of water bottling companies, that needs to be taken into consideration".
Markets
Global sales
Global bottled water consumption crossed the 3 billion hectoliter threshold in 2014. In 2017, the global rate of consumption rose by an estimated 7.6 percent. Per capita consumption was 50.1 liters, up by 3 liters from 2016's 47.1 liters.
Australia
The Australasian Bottled Water Institute is a regional member of the International Council of Bottled Water Associations. The bottled water industry in Australia is worth approximately $400 million per year,
An upmarket restaurant in Sydney has stopped selling bottled water and started using a machine costing A$5000 to filter, chill and carbonate tap water to get the same quality water.
Despite ongoing water restrictions, an application to extract groundwater for bottled water was approved in 2020.
European Union
Directive 2009–54/EC deals with the marketing and exploitation of natural mineral waters in the European Union. The two main types of bottled water recognized are mineral water and spring water.
Broadly speaking, "mineral water" is groundwater that has emerged from the ground and flowed over rock. Treatment of mineral water is restricted to removal of unstable elements such as iron and sulfur compounds. Treatment for such minerals may extend only to filtration or decanting with oxygenation. Free carbon dioxide may be removed only by physical methods, and the regulations for introduction (or reintroduction) of CO2 are strictly defined. Disinfection of natural mineral water is completely prohibited, including the addition of any element that is likely to change bacterial colony counts. If natural mineral water is effervescent, it must be labelled accordingly, depending on the origin of the carbon dioxide: naturally carbonated natural mineral water (no introduction of CO2); natural mineral water fortified with gas from the spring (reintroduction of CO2); carbonated natural mineral water (CO2 added following strict guidelines).
Directive 2001–83/EC deals with bottled water that is considered a "medicinal product" and is thus excluded from the scope of the other regulation.
India
The bottled water industry in India witnessed a boom in the late 1990s soon after Bisleri launched its packaged drinking water in the country. This significant growth was fuelled by a surge in advertising by the industry players that "bottled water was pure and healthy".
The total market was valued at in 2013, of which the top five players (Bisleri, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Parle) accounted for 67% of the market share. This market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22%, to reach in 2018.
In 2016, the state of Sikkim announced restrictions on the usage of plastic water bottles (in government functions and meetings) and styrofoam products as it is associated with adverse health and environment impacts.
Lebanon
Lebanon has one of the fastest growth rate of per capita consumption of bottled water. Lebanon has seven major brands of bottled mineral water for local consumption and for exportation to the water-starved countries on the Arabian Peninsula and in the Persian Gulf.
New Zealand
Bottled water in New Zealand is regulated by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and must comply with the Food Act 1981. From July 2009 fluoride was allowed to be present in bottled water as an additive or as a natural occurring mineral.
Pakistan
Due to contaminated water being widespread, in the mid-1980s urban families started installing filtration units at home. This later developed into companies providing mineral water delivery services at home. Use of these bottles that could be attached to a dispenser is still widespread.
Bottled water was made famous by one of the largest marketing campaigns in Pakistan history undertaken by Nestle. Other bottlers include dozens of local ones, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mineral Drops by water icon, Nature, Vey, Nova Pure Water Larkana, Mina Water, Great Water Islamabad, and Dew Drop. Other imported brands such as Evian also began marketing in the country.
United States
The U.S. is the second largest consumer market for bottled water in the world, followed by Mexico, Indonesia, and Brazil. China surpassed the United States to take the lead in 2013. In 2016, bottled water outsold carbonated soft drinks (by volume) to become the number one packaged beverage in the U.S. In 2018, bottled water consumption increased to 14 billion gallons, up 5.8 percent from 2017, with the average American drinking 41.9 gallons of bottled water annually.
In the United States, bottled water and tap water are regulated by different federal agencies: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the quality of tap water. The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) is headquartered in Alexandria, VA.
From 1970 (16 brands) over 1998 (50 brands) to 2012 (195 brands), the number of mineral water brands in the U.S. has grown exponentially.
Consumer information
Labeling
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates all packaged foods and beverage products, including bottled water, and mandates labeling requirements. FDA labeling requirements include a statement of the type of water in the container, compliance with the applicable definitions in the FDA Standards of Identity, ingredient labeling, name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributor, net weight, and, if required, nutrition labeling.
Consumer information
Public water systems are required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide households in their service territories with a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) that provides information on the quality of their water during the previous year. Such disclosures are not required by the FDA of any packaged food or beverage product, including bottled water. All packaged foods and beverages, must be manufactured according to FDA regulations and must meet all applicable quality and safety standards.
In Canada, bottled water must meet the standards in the Food and Drugs Act & Regulations (FDAR) as it is considered a food. The FDAR works in partnership with Health Canada and Canadian in developing the policies regarding bottled water. The CFIA focuses more on regulations pertaining to packaging, labeling, advertising, and other safety practices, whereas the FDAR focuses more on the water itself. For example, the bottled water must meet the Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Regulations in Division 12, Part B of the Act must be met before it is approved for sale. Some of the regulations include: labeling terms, safety standards (i.e.: what is acceptable), and microbiological standards (i.e.: chlorine). In addition to this, the type of filtration method the water has gone through must be shown on the label, as stated in Section B.12.009 Additional information regarding regulations can be found on the CFIA website. The regulations specific to bottled water is in Division 12 and 15, which specify what can be added, such as the amount of arsenic and lead. Regulations are always being updated to conform with new scientific data, laws, new products, and new improvements. In terms of the types of water sold, spring and mineral water must meet the following criteria:
originate from an underground source which is not part of a community water supply; and
be naturally fit to drink (potable) at the source; and
before bottling, not be treated in any way that changes the original chemical composition of the water. (The allowable treatments are discussed in section 1.2.)
In Canada, there are two categories of bottled water: 1) spring/mineral water, or 2) water other than mineral water or spring water.
Emergency preparedness
Emergency preparedness refers to the steps taken prior to a natural disaster or emergency to ensure safety throughout the event. The American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommend that individuals and families maintain disaster supply kits in the event that an emergency disrupts food supply or public water systems, blocks roads, or leaves people unable to find essentials. Following disasters such as floods, blizzards, or earthquakes, water sources can be cut off or contaminated, limiting access to safe, clean drinking water. For this reason, FEMA recommends that all disaster supply kits include one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days for drinking and sanitation. In hot climates, FEMA recommends doubling this quantity.
For the water supply, FEMA recommends commercially bottled water kept in a cool, dark place. As an alternative, FEMA recommends using disinfected food-grade water containers to store tap water and replacing the water every six months.
Contamination
In August 2014, city officials in Toledo, Ohio, banned local tap water after toxins from an algae bloom in Lake Erie were found in the city's water supply. The American Red Cross and AmeriCares responded by helping coordinate the distribution of bottled water to the 500,000 area residents impacted by the ban.
Additionally, the city of Flint, MI, supplied bottled water to its residents for four years after it was discovered that their tap water was contamintated with lead, and elevated levels of total trihalomethanes (TTHM) – cancer-causing chemicals that are by-products of the chlorination of water. In addition, the contaminated tap water was blamed for a massive outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Concerns
Most bottled water containers are made from recyclable PET plastic, and some of these bottles end up in the waste stream in landfills. The financial and environmental costs of transportation of bottled water has been another concern because of the energy used and the consequent release of carbon dioxide and the potential impact on climate change.
Bottled water is bought for many different reasons including taste, convenience, poor tap water quality and safety concerns, health concerns and as a substitute for sugary drinks. The environmental impact, container safety, water origin, emergency supplies and role of the bottled water industry continue to be areas of concern for many people. In some cases it can be shown that bottled water is actually tap water. However, it is also argued that the quality specifications for some bottled waters in some jurisdictions are more stringent than the standards for tap-water. In the US, bottled water that comes from municipal suppliers must be clearly labeled as such unless it has been sufficiently processed to be labeled as "distilled" or "purified".
One American study showed that "even in areas with safe tap water, African American and Latino parents were three times more likely to give their children mostly bottled water compared to non-Latino white children, because of their belief that bottled water is safer, cleaner, better tasting, or more convenient." The economic implications of this also showed serious inequities: as a percentage of household income, whites reported median spending of 0.4% of their income on bottled water; African Americans and Latinos reported median spending to be more than twice as high." The study volunteers, "For poor families, the use of bottled water may lead to less availability of resources for other health needs ... by the rather striking levels of expenditure on water relative to household income." On a global scale, markets for bottled water in poorer developing countries are growing rapidly due to increased fears of "contaminated tap water, inadequate municipal water systems, and increased marketing on the part of bottled water companies." Sales of bottled water in Mexico, China, and parts of India are rising steeply.
Perceptions about bottled water
Bottled water is perceived by many as being a safer alternative to other sources of water such as tap water. Bottled water usage has increased even in countries where clean tap water is present. This may be attributed to consumers disliking the taste of tap water or its organoleptics. Another contributing factor to this shift could be the marketing success of bottled water. The success of bottled water marketing can be seen by Perrier's transformation of a bottle of water into a status symbol. However, while bottled water has grown in both consumption and sales, the industry's advertising expenses are considerably less than other beverages. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC), in 2013, the bottled water industry spent $60.6 million on advertising. That same year, sports drinks spent $128 million, sodas spent $564 million, and beer spent $1 billion.
Consumers tend to choose bottled water due to health related reasons. In communities that experience problems with their tap water, bottled water consumption is significantly higher. The International Bottled Water Association guidelines state that bottled water companies cannot compare their product to tap water in marketing operations. Consumers are also affected by memories associated with particular brands. For example, Coca-Cola took their Dasani product off the UK market after finding levels of bromate that were higher than legal standards because consumers in the UK associated this flaw with the Dasani product.
"Bottled water sales are higher amongst African-American, Asians and Hispanic groups, which typically have lower incomes than whites." Some hypothesize that these differences are due to the geographic distribution of ethnic groups. It was theorized that ethnic differences in bottled water usage "mirror the variability of water system quality between urban, suburban and rural areas (Abrahams et al. 2000) and it was also pointed out that they might reflect the memory of past problems caused by deficient tap-water systems in deprived areas (Olson 1999)." In France, a similar geographic study in the early 1970s found that bottled water consumption was found to be much higher in urban areas (Ferrier 2001). This finding was "also explained in terms of the poor quality of urban tap water and of the bad condition of the old lead pipes in French cities. Nonetheless, while poor tap water quality may motivate the public to search for alternative sources, it alone does not necessarily lead to higher consumption of bottled water."
Some surveys "found that bottled water, far from being an alternative to tap water, seems to be mostly consumed as a substitute for alcoholic and traditional soft drinks (e.g. AWWA-RF 1993; FWR 1996) – the exception being when water contamination presents serious health risks and the trust in the tap water company is highly eroded (e.g. Lonnon 2004)." Another explanation for the rise in popularity of bottled water is that "the consumption of 'pure' and 'natural' bottled water in degraded environments may represent a symbolic purging behavior." Additional research has analyzed the commodification of bottled water through the corporate and cultural branding of nature, and how this commodification has added to the discourse around access to water as a human right. There is a long and storied history of the portrayal of water as a product of and necessity for nature. Richard Wilk argues that somewhere along the way from the early Christian idealization of water as a pure substance to our modern abilities to exert power over nature, people have formed opinions on the adequacy of water based on its delivery. Public access to clean water was once a dream of the industrial world, but now, according to Wilk, it is seen as dirty. Drawing on his own research and that of other scholars, he presents a complex ideological system: bottled water (which is water that has been exposed to human intervention) is understood as pure or acceptable; water directly from a natural source (which is water that has not been exposed to human intervention – a spring, river, glacier, etc.) is assumed to be dirty and not to be trusted; and water that is provided for the public (which is water from an anonymous source that is controlled by the town or state) is also seen as dirty and untrustworthy. Despite these varying views, bottled water companies have successfully infiltrated the consumer market. Marketers have recognized and fed into the fetishization or degradation of these different water sources. These marketing schemes have an emphasis on "very old forms of value" and the manipulation of "distance, either increasing or decreasing it in geography, time, or social proximity". Wilk argues that the lack of consistency in which types and brands of water are available to all American consumers restricts individuals from exercising their personal moral and ethical ideals on sourcing their water. The struggle between trust and distrust of these water sources – whether it is natural or perceived to be natural – is central in the commodification of water.
Many low-income families avoid drinking tap water because they fear it may cause sickness. Bottled, filtered, and tap water are all for the most part safe in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency regulations for tap water are "actually stricter than the Food and Drug Administration regulations for bottled water." A study of drinking water in Cincinnati, Ohio, discovered that bacterial counts in bottled water were often higher than those in tap water and fluoride concentration was inconsistent.
Globally, there is an intensifying environmental backlash against bottled water usage. As global consumption of bottled water soars, environmental groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Greenpeace have warned of the huge environmental footprint of the plastic in which the water is packaged. In 2001, a WWF study, "Bottled water: understanding a social phenomenon", warned that in many countries, bottled water may be no safer or healthier than tap water and it sold for up to 1,000 times the price. It said the booming market would put severe pressure on recycling plastics and could lead to landfill sites drowning in mountains of plastic bottles. Also, the study found that the production of bottled water uses more water than the consumer actually buys in the bottle itself.
Pricing
Bottled water is more expensive than municipally-supplied tap water. Tap water sources and delivery systems (taps and faucets) are fixed in place while bottled water is available at many differing price points and in a variety of size formats.
"The consumption of bottled and filtered water has dramatically increased in the United States during the past decade, with bottled water sales tripling to about $4 billion a year. More than 50% of the US population drinks bottled water and 'people spend from 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they typically do for tap water.' An annual supply of bottled water for a person who consumes 8 glasses a day would cost approximately $200; the same amount of tap water would cost approximately $0.33. In general, women are more likely to drink bottled water than men, and Hispanic women are the group most likely to drink bottled water."
The Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) states that in 2013, the average wholesale price per gallon of domestic non-sparkling bottled water was $1.21. BMC's research also shows that consumers tend to buy bottled water in bulk from supermarkets (25.3%) or large discount retailers (57.9%) because it costs significantly less. Convenience stores are likely to have higher prices (4.5%), as do drug stores (2.8%). The remaining 9.5% is accounted for through vending machines, cafeterias and other food service outlets, and other types of sales.
Bans
In response to environmental and financial concerns, a few localities and U.S. colleges are banning bottled water sales.
In 2009, the small New South Wales town of Bundanoon voted to become the first town in the world to ban the selling or dispensing of bottled water. Bundanoon caught the attention of many other cities around the world.
After a Sydney-based beverage company wanted to open a water extraction plant in the New South Wales town Bundanoon, residents outlawed the sale of bottled water. The town continues to fight the company's proposal in court.
"In the same week the New South Wales state premier also banned all state departments and agencies from buying bottled water because of its huge environmental footprint, joining more than 70 cities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom that have banned bottled water in their departments."
In 2012, the town of Concord, Massachusetts, became the first in the United States to ban the sale of bottled water. Specifically, sales of non-sparkling, unflavored drinking water in single-serving polyethelyne terephthalate (PET) bottles of 1 litre (34 ounces) or less are prohibited. The ban went into effect on 1 January 2013.
Health concerns
In the United States, bottled water and tap water are regulated by different federal agencies: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the quality of tap water. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act the EPA has set maximum contaminant levels for approximately 90 contaminants that might be found in drinking water and 15 secondary maximum contaminant levels.
In some areas, tap water may contain added fluoride, which helps prevent tooth decay and cavities. Some bottled water manufacturers in the United States add fluoride to their product, or provide a fluoridated bottled water product. The FDA of the United States does not require bottled water manufacturers to list the fluoride content on the label. However, unlike tap water where the amount of fluoride added by municipalities to drinking water is not federally regulated, the FDA has set specific limits for how much fluoride may be found in bottled water. Water fluoridation remains controversial in countries that require it (the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and a handful of other countries). Several studies have examined the content of fluoride and other chemicals in bottled water as well as the accuracy of these values as printed on the labels showing some significant difference between labeled and measured value.
According to a 1999 NRDC study, in which roughly 22 percent of brands were tested, at least one sample of bottled drinking water contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits. Some of the contaminants found in the study could pose health risks if consumed over a long period of time. The NRDC report conceded that "most waters contained no detectable bacteria, however, and the level of synthetic organic chemicals and inorganic chemicals of concern for which [they] were tested were either below detection limits or well below all applicable standards." Meanwhile, a report by the Drinking Water Research Foundation found that of all samples tested by NRDC, "federal FDA or EPA limits were allegedly exceeded only four times, twice for total coliforms and twice for fluorides."
Studies show that the plastics used for bottles contain chemicals having estrogenic activity, even when they claim otherwise. Although some of the bottled water contained in glass were found polluted with chemicals as well, the researchers believe some of the contamination of water in the plastic containers may have come from the plastic containers. Leaching of chemicals into the water is related to the plastic bottles being exposed to either low or high temperatures.
A study has recently found that the vast majority of bottled water contains microplastics. Following this, the World Health Organization has launched a review into the safety of drinking microplastics. Analysis of some of the world's most popular bottled water brands found that more than 90% contained tiny pieces of plastic. The tests were carried out at the State University of New York at Fredonia as part of a project involving original research and reporting by the US-based journalism organization Orb Media. Using a dye called Nile Red, which binds to free-floating pieces of plastic, the university's Sherri Mason found an average of 10 plastic particles per litre of water, each larger than the size of a human hair. Smaller particles assumed to be plastic but not positively identified were found as well – an average of 314 per litre.
In 2008, researchers from Arizona State University found that storing plastic bottles in temperatures at or above 60 °C can cause antimony to enter the water contained in the bottles. Therefore, frequently drinking from bottles stored in places such as cars during the summer months may have negative health effects.
Safety
There have been no major outbreaks of illness or serious safety concerns associated with bottled water in the past decade, an FDA official stated in testimony before a 9 July 2009 Congressional hearing. Conversely, as noted in the Drinking Water Research Foundation's (DWRF) 2013 report, Microbial Health Risks of Regulated Drinking Waters in the United States, EPA researchers reported an estimated 16.4 million cases of acute gastrointestinal illness per year are caused by tap water. Subsequent research has estimated that number of illnesses to be closer to 19.5 million cases per year.
Bottled water versus carbonated beverages
Bottled noncarbonated drinking water competes in the marketplace with carbonated beverages (including carbonated water) sold in individual plastic bottles. Consumption of water often is considered a healthier substitute for sodas.
According to the Container Recycling Institute, sales of flavoured, non-carbonated drinks are expected to surpass soda sales by 2010. In response, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have introduced new carbonated drinks that are fortified with vitamins and minerals, Diet Coke Plus and Tava, marketed as "sparkling beverages".
Bottled water versus tap water
Bottled water may have reduced amounts of copper, lead, and other metal contaminants since it does not run through the plumbing pipes where tap water is exposed to metal corrosion; however, this varies by the household and plumbing system.
In much of the developed world, chlorine often is added as a disinfectant to tap water. If the water contains organic matter, this may produce other byproducts in the water such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, which has shown to increase the risk of cancer. The level of residual chlorine found at around 0.0002 g per litre, which is too small to cause any health problems directly. The chlorine concentration recommended by World Health Organization is between 0.0005 and 0.0002 g/L.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund have urged their supporters to consume less bottled water. Anti-bottled-water-campaigns and organizations, such as Corporate Accountability International, typically argue that bottled water is no better than tap water, and emphasize the detrimental environmental side-effects of disposable plastic bottles.
In a 2003 episode of the Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, restaurant diners appeared unable to discern between bottled water and water from a garden hose behind the restaurant.
The documentary Tapped argues against the bottled water industry, asserting that tap water is healthier, more environmentally sustainable, and more ecologically sound than bottled water. The film focuses on the bottled water industry in the United States. The film has received largely positive reviews, and has spawned college campus groups such as Beyond the Bottle. Yet, as many people remain generally unaware of the negative health and environmental impacts associated with bottled water, recent research in environmental psychology has started to investigate how to reduce the public's consumption of bottled water.
See also
Canned water
International Bottled Water Association
List of bottled water brands
Reuse of water bottles
References
Further reading
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Regulation of Bottled Water: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, First Session, July 8, 2009.
External links
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974%20Super%20Outbreak
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1974 Super Outbreak
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The 1974 Super Outbreak was the second-largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, just behind the 2011 Super Outbreak. It was also the most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded, with 30 F4/F5 tornadoes confirmed. From April 3–4, 1974, there were 148 tornadoes confirmed in 13 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario. In the United States, tornadoes struck Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York. The outbreak caused roughly $843 million USD (~equivalent to $4.58 billion in 2019) in damage, with more than $600 million (~equivalent to $3.3 billion in 2019) occurring in the United States. The outbreak extensively damaged approximately along a total combined path length of . At one point, as many as 15 separate tornadoes were occurring simultaneously.
The 1974 Super Outbreak was the first tornado outbreak in recorded history to produce more than 100 tornadoes in under a 24-hour period, a feat that was not repeated globally until the 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak and in the United States until the 2011 Super Outbreak. In 2023, tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis created the Outbreak Intensity Score (OIS) as a way to rank various tornado outbreaks. The 1974 Super Outbreak received an OIS of 446, making it the worst and most violent tornado outbreak in recorded history.
Meteorological synopsis
A powerful springtime low pressure system developed across the North American Interior Plains on April 1. While moving into the Mississippi and Ohio Valley areas, a surge of unusually moist air intensified the storm further, while there were sharp temperature contrasts between both sides of the system. Officials at NOAA and in the National Weather Service forecast offices were expecting a severe weather outbreak on April 3, but not to the extent that ultimately occurred. Several F2 and F3 tornadoes had struck portions of the Ohio Valley and the South in a separate, earlier outbreak on April 1 and 2, which included three killer tornadoes in Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee. The town of Campbellsburg, northeast of Louisville, was hard-hit in this earlier outbreak, with a large portion of the town destroyed by an F3. Between the two outbreaks, an additional tornado was reported in Indiana in the early morning hours of April 3, several hours before the official start of the outbreak. On Wednesday, April 3, severe weather watches already were issued from the morning from south of the Great Lakes, while in portions of the Upper Midwest, snow was reported, with heavy rain falling across central Michigan and much of Ontario.
By 12:00 UTC on April 3, a large-scale trough extended over most of the contiguous United States, with several modest shortwaves rotating around the broad base of the trough. The mid-latitude low-pressure center over Kansas continued to deepen to , and wind speeds at the 850-mb level increased to () over portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Due to significant moisture advection, destabilization rapidly proceeded apace; the warm front near the Gulf Coast dissipated and then redeveloped northward over the Ohio River valley. Consequently, CAPE levels in the region rose to 1,000 J/kg. However, a warm temperature plume in the elevated mixed layer kept thunderstorms from initiating at the surface. Meanwhile, a large mesoscale convective system (MCS) that had developed overnight in Arkansas continued to strengthen due to strong environmental lapse rates. Later in the day, strong daytime heating caused instability to further rise. By 18:00 UTC, CAPE values in excess of 2,500 J/kg were present over the lower Ohio and the Mississippi Valley. As wind speeds in the troposphere increased, Large-scale lifting overspread the warm sector. At the same time, the forward-propagating MCS spread into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys, where it evolved into the first of three main convection bands that produced tornadoes. This first convective band moved rapidly northeast, at times reaching speeds of about (). However, thunderstorm activity, for the moment, remained mostly elevated in nature.
By 16:30 UTC, the large MCS began to splinter into two sections: the southern part slowed, lagging into southeast Tennessee, while the northern part accelerated, reaching Pennsylvania by 19:30 UTC. The split was related to several factors, including a band of subsidence over eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia; local downslope winds over the Appalachians; and an inversion over the same area. These factors allowed the northern part of the MCS to accelerate due to efficient ducting, while the southern part slowed as the boundary layer warmed and moistened. Numerous surface-based supercells began to develop in the southern area, beginning with one that produced an F3 tornado at about 16:30 UTC near Cleveland, Tennessee. Meanwhile, a new band of scattered thunderstorms developed at 15:00 UTC over eastern Arkansas and Missouri; over the next four hours, this band became the focus for several intense supercells, starting in eastern Illinois and southern Indiana. In the wake of the MCS, backing low-level winds, rapid diurnal destabilization, and perhaps cool, mid-level advection had occurred over the warm sector, weakening the convective inhibition (CINH) layer, and favorable wind profiles bolstered helicity to over 230 m2/s²—a combination of factors conducive to tornadogenesis. Consequently, the storms increased in intensity and coverage as they moved into Illinois, Indiana, and northern Kentucky, producing several tornadoes, including the first F5 tornado of the day, at 19:20 UTC, near Depauw, Indiana. Several of the storms to form between 19:20 and 20:20 UTC became significant, long-lived supercells, producing many strong or violent tornadoes, including three F5s at Depauw; Xenia, Ohio; and Brandenburg, Kentucky. These storms formed the second of three convective bands to generate tornadoes.
While violent tornado activity increased over the warm sector, a third band of convection developed at about 16:00 UTC and extended from near St. Louis into west-central Illinois. Based upon real-time satellite imagery and model data, differential positive vorticity advection coincided with the left exit region of an upper-level jet streak that reached wind speeds of up to (), thereby enhancing thunderstorm growth. Storms grew rapidly in height and extent, producing baseball-sized hail by 17:20 UTC in Illinois and, shortly thereafter, in St. Louis, Missouri, which reported a very severe thunderstorm early in the afternoon that, while not producing a tornado, was the costliest storm to hit the city up to that time. By 19:50 UTC, supercells producing F3 tornadoes hit the Decatur and Normal areas in Illinois. As thunderstorms moved into the warmer, moister air mass over eastern Illinois and Indiana, they produced longer-lived tornadoes—one of which began near Otterbein and ended near Valentine in Indiana, a distance of .
Meanwhile, by 00:00 UTC the southern half of the first convective band became indistinguishable from new convection that had formed farther south over Alabama and Tennessee in connection with convective band two. In this area, increasing west-southwesterly wind shear at all levels of the troposphere, juxtaposed over near-parallel outflow boundaries, allowed successive supercells, all producing strong, long-tracked tornadoes, to develop unconstrained by their outflow in a broad region from eastern Mississippi to southern Tennessee. These storms, forming after 23:00 UTC, produced some of the most powerful tornadoes of the outbreak, including a large and long-tracked F4 that struck the western and central portions of Alabama, tracking for just over , two F5s that both slammed into Tanner, causing extensive fatalities, an extremely potent F5 that devastated Guin in Alabama, and multiple violent, deadly tornadoes that affected and caused fatalities in Tennessee.
Michigan was not hit as hard as neighboring states or Windsor, with only one deadly tornado that hit near Coldwater and Hillsdale, killing people in mobile homes; however, thunderstorm downpours caused flash floods, and north of the warm front in the Upper Peninsula, heavy snowfall was reported. Activity in the south moved towards the Appalachians during the overnight hours and produced the final tornadoes across the southeast during the morning of April 4. A series of studies by Dr. Tetsuya T. Fujita in 1974–75—which were later cited in a 2004 survey by Risk Management Solutions—found that three-quarters of all tornadoes in the 1974 Super Outbreak were produced by 30 'families' of tornadoes—multiple tornadoes spawned in succession by a single thunderstorm cell. The majority of these were long-lived and long-tracked individual supercells.
Confirmed tornadoes
Note: An F3 tornado was confirmed in Ontario.
This tornado outbreak produced the most violent (F4 and F5) tornadoes ever observed in a single tornado outbreak. There were seven F5 tornadoes and 23 F4 tornadoes. More than 100 tornadoes associated with 33 tornado families. The first tornado of the outbreak is disputed, with some sources indicating an isolated F2 in Indiana at 13:30 UTC while Fujita marked the outbreak's onset at 18:10 UTC with a F0 in Illinois. As the storm system moved east where daytime heating had made the air more unstable, the tornadoes grew more intense. A tornado that struck near Monticello, Indiana was an F4 and had a path length of , the longest path length of any tornado for this outbreak. A total of 19 people were killed in this tornado. The first F5 tornado of the day struck the city of Depauw, Indiana, at 3:20 pm EDT. It killed 6 and injured 86 others along its 65-mile path, leveling and sweeping away homes in Depauw and Daisy Hill.
Seven F5 tornadoes were observed—one each in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, three in Alabama and the final one which crossed through parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Thirty-one people were killed in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and 28 died in Guin, Alabama. An F3 tornado also occurred in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, killing nine and injuring 30 others there, all of them at the former Windsor Curling Club. During the peak of the outbreak, a staggering 16 tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously. At one point forecasters in Indiana, frustrated because they could not keep up with all of the simultaneous tornado activity, put the entire state of Indiana under a blanket tornado warning. This was the first and only time in U.S. history that an entire state was under a tornado warning.
There were 18 hours of nearly continuous tornado activity that ended in Caldwell County, North Carolina, at about 7:00 am on April 4. A total of 319 were killed in 148 tornadoes from April 3 through April 4 and 5,484 were injured.
The 1974 Super Outbreak occurred at the end of a very strong, nearly record-setting La Niña event. The 1973–74 La Niña was just as strong as the 1998–99 La Niña. Despite the apparent connection between La Niña and two of the largest tornado outbreaks in United States history, no definitive linkage exists between La Niña and this outbreak or tornado activity in general. Some tornado myths were soundly debunked (not necessarily for the first time) by tornado activity during the outbreak.
Depauw–Daisy Hill, Indiana
Of the F5 tornadoes produced by the outbreak, the Depauw-Daisy Hill tornado was the first to form, touching down at 3:20 pm local time. It is probably the least-known of the F5 tornadoes in the outbreak as it traveled through rural areas in southern Indiana northwest of Louisville, traversing about through parts of Perry and Harrison Counties. F5 damage was observed near the community of Depauw, where numerous farms were leveled. Areas near Palmyra and Borden were also heavily affected by the tornado. Morgan Elementary School in northern Harrison County Indiana was directly hit by the tornado. Four classrooms were destroyed and the roof was removed from the school and placed on the cars of the faculty. Fortunately, the children and faculty, who were huddled in the hallways, were not injured. All but 10 homes in Martinsburg were destroyed; and in the Daisy Hill community homes were completely swept away at F5 intensity. Published photographs of this storm reveal a very wide debris cloud and wall cloud structure, with no visible condensation funnel at times. Overall, six were killed by the storm and 86 were injured. One of the fatalities occurred when a woman was crushed by a school bus that flew into a ditch she was sheltering in. The tornado had a peak width of .
Xenia, Ohio
The tornado that struck the city of Xenia, Ohio stands as the deadliest individual tornado of the 1974 Super Outbreak, killing 32 people and destroying a significant portion of the town. The tornado formed near Bellbrook, Ohio, southwest of Xenia, at about 4:30 pm EDT. It began as a moderate-sized tornado, then intensified while moving northeast at about . The tornado exhibited a multiple-vortex structure and became very large as it approached town. The massive tornado slammed into the western part of Xenia, completely flattening the Windsor Park and Arrowhead subdivisions at F5 intensity, and sweeping away entire rows of brick homes with little debris left behind in some areas. Extensive wind-rowing of debris occurred in nearby fields.
When the storm reached central Xenia at 4:40 pm, apartment buildings, homes, businesses, churches, and schools including Xenia High School were destroyed. Students in the school, practicing for a play, took cover in the main hallway seconds before the tornado dropped a school bus onto the stage where they had been practicing and extensively damaged the school building. Several railroad cars were lifted and blown over as the tornado passed over a moving Penn Central freight train in the center of town. It toppled headstones in Cherry Grove Cemetery, then moved through the length of the downtown business district, passing west of the courthouse (which sustained some exterior damage). Numerous businesses in downtown Xenia were heavily damaged or destroyed, and several people were killed at the A&W Root Beer stand as the building was flattened. Upon exiting Xenia, the tornado passed through Wilberforce, heavily damaging several campus and residential buildings of Wilberforce University. Central State University also sustained considerable damage, and a water tower there was toppled. Afterwards, the tornado weakened before dissipating in Clark County near South Vienna, traveling a little over .
A total of 32 people lost their lives in the tornado, and about 1,150 were injured in Xenia, several of whom took proper shelter. In addition to the direct fatalities, two Ohio Air National Guardsmen deployed for disaster assistance were killed on April 17 when a fire swept through their temporary barracks in a furniture store. The memorial in downtown Xenia lists 34 deaths, in honor of the two Guardsmen. About 1,400 buildings (roughly half of the town) were heavily damaged or destroyed. Damage was estimated at US$100 million ($471.7 million in 2013 dollars).
Dr. Ted Fujita and a team of colleagues undertook a 10-month study of the 1974 Super Outbreak. Fujita initially assigned the Xenia tornado a preliminary rating of F6 intensity ± 1 scale, before deeming F6 ratings "inconceivable".
Monticello tornado family
The most prolific and longest-lasting tornado family of the outbreak tracked from central Illinois and the entirety of northern Indiana from 2:47 p.m. – 6:59 p.m. (UTC−05:00), a span of 4 hours and 12 minutes. Eight tornadoes touched down, including the longest-tracked single tornado of the outbreak: the F4 Monticello tornado. However, that tornado may itself have been composed of three individual tornadoes.
Otterbein–Monticello–Wolcottville, Indiana
This half-mile (0.8 km) wide F4 tornado developed (as part of a tornado family that moved from Illinois to Michigan for 260 miles) during the late afternoon hours. This tornado produced the longest damage path recorded during the 1974 Super Outbreak, on a southwest to northeast path that nearly crossed the entire state of Indiana. According to most records (including the presented map of north Indiana), this tornado formed just southwest of Otterbein in northeast Warren County in west central Indiana, and ended in LaGrange County just northwest of Valentine – a total distance of about . Further analysis by Ted Fujita indicated that at the start of the tornado path near Otterbein, downburst winds (also called "twisting downburst") disrupted the tornado's inflow which caused it to briefly dissipate before redeveloping near Brookston in White County at around 4:50 pm EDT and then traveled for . It also struck portions of six other counties, with the hardest hit being White County and its town of Monticello. Much of the town was destroyed including the courthouse, some churches and cemeteries, 40 businesses and numerous homes as well as three schools. It also heavily damaged the Penn Central bridge over the Tippecanoe River. Overall damage according to the NOAA was estimated at US$250 million with US$100 million damage in Monticello alone.
After the tornado struck Monticello, the tornado reached peak strength and completely leveled several farms northwest of town. The tornado then went on to tear through the west side of Rochester, where businesses were destroyed and homes were completely leveled and swept away. Riddle Elementary School was badly damaged as well. The tornado then struck Talma, destroying most of the town, including a fastening plant and the schoolhouse. The tornado continued northeast and struck the south sides of Atwood and Leesburg, with additional severe damage occurring at both locations. The tornado then crossed Dewart Lake and Lake Wawasee, destroying multiple lakeside homes and trailers. The Wawasee Airport was hard hit, where hangars were destroyed and planes were thrown and demolished. The tornado destroyed several buildings as it passed between Ligonier and Topeka, including Perry School and a Monsanto plant. Train cars near the plant were blown off the tracks and thrown into the building. The tornado then finally dissipated near Oliver Lake airfield.
A total of 18 people were killed during the storm including five people from Fort Wayne when their mini-bus fell into the Tippecanoe River near Monticello. One passenger did survive the fall. Five others were killed in White County, six in Fulton County and one in Kosciusko County. The National Guard had assisted the residents in the relief and cleanup efforts and then-Governor Otis Bowen visited the area days after the storm. One of the few consolations from the tornado was that a century-old bronze bell that belonged to the White County Courthouse and served as timekeeper was found intact despite being thrown a great distance. The tornado itself had contradicted a long-time myth that a tornado would "not follow terrain into steep valleys" as while hitting Monticello, it descended a hill near the Tippecanoe River and heavily damaged several homes immediately afterwards.
Hanover/Madison, Indiana
Soon after the Depauw tornado lifted, the Hanover/Madison F4 tornado formed near Henryville and traveled through Jefferson County and leveled many structures in the small towns of Hanover and Madison. A total of 11 people were killed in this storm while an additional 300 were injured. According to a WHAS-TV Louisville reporter in a special report about the outbreak, 90% of Hanover was destroyed or severely damaged, including the Hanover College campus. Despite the fact that no one was killed or seriously injured at the college, 32 of the college's 33 buildings were damaged, including two that were completely destroyed and six that sustained major structural damage. Hundreds of trees were down, completely blocking every campus road. All utilities were knocked out and communication with those off campus was nearly impossible. Damage to the campus alone was estimated at US$10 million. In Madison alone, where seven of the fatalities took place, about 300 homes were destroyed. The tornado also brushed the community of China causing additional fatalities.
The same storm would later strike the Cincinnati area, producing multiple tornadoes, including another F5 tornado.
Brandenburg, Kentucky
The Brandenburg tornado, which produced F5 damage and took 31 lives, touched down in Breckinridge County around 3:25 pm CDT and followed a path. The tornado first moved across the north edge of Hardinsburg, inflicting F3 damage to homes at that location. The tornado quickly became violent as it moved into Meade County, producing F4 damage as it passed north of Irvington, sweeping away numerous homes in this rural area. Vehicles were thrown hundreds of yards from residences and mangled, and a few were completely wrapped around trees. One home that was swept away sustained total collapse of a poured concrete walk-out basement wall. A news photographer reported that the tornado "left no grass" as it crossed KY 79 in this area, and canceled checks from near Irvington were later found in Ohio. Past Irvington, the tornado tore directly through Brandenburg at F5 intensity, completely leveling and sweeping away numerous homes, some of which were well-built and anchor-bolted. The town's downtown area was also devastated with 18 of the fatalities occurring along Green Street alone. Trees and shrubbery in town were debarked and stripped, extensive wind-rowing of debris occurred, and numerous vehicles were destroyed as well, some of which had nothing left but the frame and tires. A curtain rod was found speared deeply into the trunk of one tree in town. Several tombstones in the Cap Anderson cemetery were toppled and broken, and some were displaced a small distance. Exiting Brandenburg, the tornado crossed into Indiana producing F4 damage there before dissipating. The same storm would later produce tornadoes in the Louisville metro area.
When the tornado struck on April 3, 1974, many of the Brandenburg residents at that time had also experienced a major flood of the Ohio River that affected the area in 1937 as well as numerous other communities along the river, including Louisville and Paducah. The Brandenburg tornado is the only tornado to have officially produced documented F5/EF5 damage in the state of Kentucky, with the 1971 Gosser Ridge, Kentucky tornado being rated F5 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, before being downgraded to F4 after 2000.
Cincinnati/Sayler Park, Ohio
The Sayler Park tornado was among a series of tornadoes that earlier struck portions of southern Indiana from north of Brandenburg, Kentucky, into southwest Ohio. This tornado was witnessed on television by thousands of people, as WCPO aired the tornado live during special news coverage of the tornadoes. It was also noted for the rarity in that its path was in parts of three states. It began shortly before 4:30 pm CDT or 5:30 pm EDT in southeastern Indiana in Ohio County north of Rising Sun near the Ohio River. It then traveled through Boone County, Kentucky, producing F4 damage in the Taylorsport area before crossing the Ohio River a second time into Ohio. Here, the tornado reached F5 intensity as it slammed into Sayler Park. The first area of town hit was the Morehead Marina, where numerous boats were thrown and destroyed. A large floating restaurant barge at this location was lifted, ripped from its moorings, and flipped by the tornado. It was later recovered several miles downstream. A nearby house was lifted from its foundation and thrown into the river. At a further inland area of Sayler Park, the tornado maintained F5 intensity as numerous homes were swept away at a hilly area near a lake, with only bare slabs remaining. NWS surveyors noted that a pickup truck in this area was carried a half block over the roofs of five homes before being smashed to the ground. The tornado weakened somewhat as it continued northeastward, passing through multiple Cincinnati neighborhoods and destroying numerous homes. Some of the worst affected areas were Bridgetown, Mack, Dent and Delhi. Damage in Delhi was rated as high as F4. The tornado took three lives and injured 210 with 190 of the injuries were in Hamilton County, Ohio alone. It was considered the most-photographed tornado of the outbreak.
This tornado dissipated west of White Oak, but the same thunderstorm activity was responsible for two other tornado touchdowns in the Lebanon and Mason areas. The Mason tornado, which started in the northern Cincinnati subdivisions of Arlington Heights and Elmwood Place, was rated F4 and took two lives, while the Warren County tornado was rated an F2 and injured 10.
Louisville, Kentucky
About an hour after the Brandenburg tornado, the same supercell spawned an F4 tornado that formed in the southwest part of Jefferson County near Kosmosdale. Another funnel cloud formed over Standiford Field Airport, touched down at The Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, and destroyed the majority of the horse barns at the center and part of Freedom Hall (a multipurpose arena) before it crossed I-65, scattering several vehicles on that busy expressway. The tornado continued its journey northeast where it demolished most of Audubon Elementary School and affected the neighborhoods of Audubon, Cherokee Triangle, Cherokee-Seneca, Crescent Hill, Indian Hills, Northfield, Rolling Fields, and Tyler Park. Numerous homes were destroyed in residential areas, including a few that were leveled. The tornado ended near the junction of Interstates 264 and 71 after killing three people, injuring 207 people, destroying over 900 homes, and damaging thousands of others. Cherokee Park, a historic municipal park located at Eastern Parkway and Cherokee Road, had thousands of mature trees destroyed. A massive re-planting effort was undertaken by the community in the aftermath of the tornado.
Dick Gilbert, a helicopter traffic reporter for radio station WHAS-AM, followed the tornado through portions of its track including when it heavily damaged the Louisville Water Company's Crescent Hill pumping station, and gave vivid descriptions of the damage as seen from the air. A WHAS-TV cameraman also filmed the tornado when it passed just east of the Central Business District of Louisville.
WHAS-AM broke away from its regular programming shortly before the tornado struck Louisville and was on-air live with John Burke, the chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Louisville office at Standiford Field when the tornado first descended. The station remained on the air delivering weather bulletins and storm-related information until well into the early morning hours of April 4. As electrical power had been knocked out to a substantial portion of the city, the radio station became a clearinghouse for vital information and contact with emergency workers, not only in Louisville but across the state of Kentucky due to its 50,000-watt clear-channel signal and the fact that storms had knocked numerous broadcasting stations in smaller communities, such as Frankfort, off the air. Then-Governor Wendell Ford commended the station's personnel for their service to the community in the time of crisis, and Dick Gilbert later received a special commendation from then-President Richard Nixon for his tracking of the tornado from his helicopter.
Tanner, Alabama (1st tornado)
As the cluster of thunderstorms was crossing much of the Ohio Valley and northern Indiana, additional strong storms developed much further south just east of the Mississippi River into the Tennessee Valley and Mississippi. It produced the first deadly tornadoes in Alabama during the early evening hours. Most of the small town of Tanner, west of Huntsville in Limestone County, was destroyed when two F5 tornadoes struck the community 30 minutes apart.
The first tornado formed at 6:30 pm CDT in Lawrence County, Alabama and ended just over 90 minutes later in Madison County, Alabama, killing 28 people. The tornado first touched down near the small community of Mt. Hope, and then tracked into Mt. Moriah, where the tornado rapidly intensified and swept away homes and hurled fleeing vehicles, and where a family of six were killed. Further along the track, many homes were swept away near Moulton. A water pump was completely lifted out of a wellhouse along SR 157 in this area. In one case, the destruction was so complete that a witness reported that the largest recognizable objects among scattered debris from an obliterated house were some bed-springs. The tornado crossed into Morgan County, causing additional destruction in rural areas near Hillsboro and Trinity. Crossing the Tennessee River into Limestone County as a large waterspout, the tornado flattened a ¾-mile–wide swath of trees on the opposite bank. Ground scouring occurred in this area, as reddish soil was dug up and plastered against trees. The storm then slammed into Tanner, where many homes were swept away, vehicles were tossed, shrubbery was debarked, and Lawson's Trailer Park sustained major damage. The tornado then continued into Madison County and struck the Capshaw and Harvest areas. Numerous homes in Harvest and surrounding rural areas of the county were swept completely away and scattered, and extensive wind-rowing of debris was noted. A bathtub from one residence was found deeply embedded into the ground. Past Harvest, the tornado abruptly dissipated northeast of town, having a peak width of 500 yards.
Jasper/Cullman, Alabama
While tornadoes were causing devastation in the northwesternmost corner of the state, another supercell crossing the Mississippi-Alabama state line produced another violent tornado that touched down in Pickens County before heading northeast for nearly 2 hours towards the Jasper area causing major damage to its downtown as the F4 storm struck. Damage was reported in Cullman from the storm before it lifted.
The Jasper tornado first touched near Aliceville, producing scattered damage as it tracked northeastward. The damage became more intense continuous as the tornado entered Tuscaloosa County. The tornado continued to strengthen south of Berry, and two people were killed near the Walker County line when a church was destroyed. The tornado tore directly through downtown Jasper at 6:57 PM, resulting in severe damage and at least 100 injuries. Numerous buildings and storefronts were heavily damaged in downtown Jasper, and many streets were blocked with trees and power lines. The Walker County courthouse sustained major damage, and a new fire station was completely leveled. The fireman on duty at the time took shelter underneath a nearby bridge, and survived without injury. The Walker County Library and the Jasper First Methodist Church were also damaged. The tornado crossed Lewis Smith Lake and moved across the south side of Cullman at 7:40 pm. Multiple homes and shopping centers were damaged or destroyed in the area, resulting in one death and 36 injuries. The tornado finally dissipated northeast of Cullman a short time later.
In total, the storm took three lives, but injured one hundred and fifty residents of Jasper or Cullman. Five hundred buildings were destroyed, with nearly four hundred other buildings severely damaged. At the same time, a third supercell was crossing the state line near the track of the previous two.
Tanner, Alabama (2nd tornado)
While rescue efforts were underway to look for people under the destroyed structures, few were aware that another violent tornado would strike the area. The path of the second tornado, which formed at 7:35 pm CDT was 83 miles in length, also had a peak width of 500 yards, and the storm formed along the north bank Tennessee River less than a mile from the path of the earlier storm; with much of its path very closely paralleling its predecessor as it tore through Limestone and Madison Counties. 16 people were killed by this second tornado. Tanner was the first community to be hit, and many structures that were left standing after the first tornado were destroyed in the second one. A man injured at Lawson's Trailer Park in the first tornado was taken to a church in the area, which collapsed in the second tornado, killing him.
After devastating what was left of Tanner, the tornado continued across rural Limestone County and into Madison County, where the communities of Capshaw and Harvest were devastated once again. Numerous homes throughout Madison County were swept completely away, with extensive wind-rowing of debris noted once again. Past Harvest, the tornado swept away multiple additional homes in the Hazel Green area. The tornado continued northeastward through rural portions of Madison County before crossing into Tennessee, where major damage and 6 deaths occurred in Franklin and Lincoln Counties before the tornado dissipated in Coffee County. Two of the fatalities in Tennessee occurred when a church was destroyed during service. The death toll from the two tornadoes was over 45 and over 400 were injured. Most of the fatalities occurred in and around the Tanner area. Over 1,000 houses, 200 mobile homes and numerous other outbuildings, automobiles, power lines and trees were completely demolished or heavily damaged. The most recent official National Weather Service records show that both of the Tanner tornadoes were rated F5. However, the rating of the second Tanner tornado is still disputed by some scientists; analysis in one publication estimates F3-F4 damage along the entirety of the second storm's path. This was the second state to have been hit by more than two F5 tornadoes during the 1974 Super Outbreak.
Guin, Alabama
The fast-moving nighttime tornado that devastated the town of Guin, was the longest-duration F5 tornado recorded in the outbreak, and considered to be one of the most violent ever recorded. The Guin Tornado traveled over , from the town of Vernon, Alabama, to just south of the small town of Basham, before lifting just after 10:30 pm CDT. It formed at around 8:50 pm CDT near the Mississippi-Alabama border, north of the town of Vernon, striking the Monterey Trailer Park, resulting in major damage at that location. The tornado then became extremely violent as it approached and entered Guin, with multiple areas of F5 damage noted in and around town. The tornado first struck the Guin Mobile Home Plant as it entered the town, completely obliterating the structure. Nothing was left of the plant but a pile of mangled steel beams, and its foundation was partially pushed clean of debris. The town's downtown area was also heavily damaged, with many brick businesses and two churches completely destroyed. Trees in town were debarked, ground scouring occurred, and vehicles were thrown and mangled as well. Residential areas in Guin suffered total devastation, with many homes swept completely away and scattered across fields. According to NWS damage surveyor Bill Herman, the damage in one 6-block area was particularly extreme, and remarked that "It was just like the ground had been swept clean. It was just as much of a total wipeout as you can have." Surveyor J.B. Elliot noted that the destruction was so complete, that even some of the foundations were "dislodged, and in some cases swept away." A total of 23 people were killed in Guin.
The tornado continued past Guin and struck the small community of Twin, destroying numerous homes, mobile homes, and businesses at that location, though the damage was less intense than that observed in Guin. Crossing into Winston County, the tornado struck the small community of Delmar, destroying additional homes and killing 5 people. Mobile homes in Delmar were obliterated, with their frames wrapped around trees. Past Delmar, the tornado grew up to a mile wide as it tore through the William B. Bankhead National Forest, flattening a huge swath of trees. Surveyors noted that timber damage was equally severe at all elevations in this area, with numerous trees snapped both along exposed ridges and in deep gorges. So many trees were snapped in this area that the tornado path was visible from satellite. The tornado finally dissipated south of Basham after destroying 546 structures. The same supercell then re-strengthened and produced a new tornado just south of the town of Decatur. The Guin tornado was originally believed by Fujita to have had a long path, that went all the way from Vernon, to the small town of Hytop, just a few miles south of the Tennessee state line. However, the section of the original path, from Decatur to Hytop, was determined later to be from the F3 tornado listed below.
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville was affected shortly before 11:00 pm EDT by a strong F3 tornado produced by the same thunderstorm that produced the Guin tornado. This tornado produced heavy damage in the south end of the city, eventually damaging or destroying nearly 1,000 structures.
The tornado touched down north of Hartselle and moved northeast toward Huntsville. It first hit the Redstone Arsenal, damaging or destroying numerous buildings at that location. But thanks to early warning from an MP picket line on Rideout Road (now Research Park Boulevard (SR 255)), there were only three, relatively minor, injuries. One of the buildings destroyed was a publications center for the Nuclear Weapons Training School on the Arsenal. For months afterwards, portions of classified documents were being returned by farmers in Tennessee and Alabama. Many homes were badly damaged or destroyed as the tornado passed through residential areas of the city, and a school was destroyed as well. Many businesses were also heavily damaged, and numerous trees and power lines were downed throughout the city. The Glenn'll trailer park was completely destroyed by the tornado, and some sources list a fatality occurring at that location. The tornado then reached Monte Sano Mountain, which has an elevation of , where additional homes were torn apart. The National Weather Service office at Huntsville Jetplex was briefly "closed and abandoned" due to the severe weather conditions. The tornado eventually dissipated near Jacobs Mountain. Remarkable electrical phenomenon was reported as the tornado passed through Huntsville, with reports of luminous clouds, ball lightning, and multi-colored flashes and glowing areas in the sky as the storm moved through the city. These aforementioned flashes were more than likely Power Flashes, which are flashes of light caused by arcing electrical discharges from damaged electrical equipment, most often severed power lines.
Non-tornadic effects
Severe thunderstorms on April 4 brought of rain to tornado-stricken areas of northwest Georgia. Flash floods were considered a major risk in the region's mountainous terrain.
In Alderson, West Virginia, "tornado-like winds" caused extensive damage to homes and businesses primarily along WV 3, some of which had their roof torn off. Many trees and power lines were downed leaving more than 7,000 people without electricity.
Aftermath
On April 5, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter declared 13 counties as disaster areas and put in a request to President Nixon for federal aid, citing damage in excess of $15.5 million. Service centers were opened at two National Guard Armories, one in Dalton and the other in Calhoun, as well as a church in Dawsonville. The National Guard provided four-wheel drive vehicles for search and rescue efforts.
West Virginia Governor Moore declared 14 counties as disaster areas by April 5 and requested the assistance of the National Guard. President Nixon approved federal aid for Fayette, Greenbriar, Raleigh, and Wyoming Counties on April 11. Total damage from the tornadoes and thunderstorms in the state reached $3,655,000, more than half of which was incurred by Raleigh County. The West Virginia State Department of Highways provided two water trucks. The local Red Cross provided $3,000 to victims in Fayette County and assisted residents with acquiring supplies and dealing with medical bills. Sightseers traveling to look at the damage clogged up roadways. The Federal Disaster Assistance Administration (later FEMA) indicated that trailers refurbished after the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood would be used to house displaced persons.
On April 10, voting on the Disaster Relief Act of 1974 was expedited and passed unanimously in the United States Senate in direct response to the scale of damage from the tornado outbreak. The primary purpose of the act was to overhaul how disasters are handled on a federal level and to make acquiring federal aid easier. Notably, it would prompt the creation of a disaster coordinating agency. President Nixon signed it into federal law on May 22.
See also
List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
List of North American tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
List of Canadian tornadoes and tornado outbreaks
List of tornadoes striking downtown areas of large cities
List of F5 and EF5 tornadoes
Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021 - One of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in Kentucky's history.
2011 Super Outbreak – A very similar, but larger and deadlier outbreak that occurred in April 2011.
Notes
References
Further reading
Tornado! the 1974 super outbreak, by Jacqueline A. Ball; consultant, Daniel H. Franck. New York: Bearport Pub., 2005. 32 pages. (lib. bdg), (paperback).
Tornado at Xenia, April 3, 1974, by Barbara Lynn Riedel; photography by Peter Wayne Kyryl. Cleveland, OH, 1974. 95 pages. No ISBN is available. Library of Congress Control Number: 75314665.
Tornado, by Polk Laffoon IV. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. 244 pages. .
Tornado alley: monster storms of the Great Plains, by Howard B. Bluestein. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 180 pages. (acid-free paper).
Delivery of mental health services in disasters: the Xenia tornado and some implications, by Verta A. Taylor, with G. Alexander Ross and E. L. Quarantelli. Columbus, OH: Disaster Research Center, Ohio State University, 1976. 328 pages. There is no ISBN available. Library of Congress Control Number: 76380740.
The widespread tornado outbreak of April 3–4, 1974: a report to the Administrator. Rockville, Md: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1974. 42 pages. There is no ISBN available. Library of Congress Control Number: 75601597.
The tornado, by John Edward Weems. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977. 180 pages. .
External links
Natural Disaster Survey Report: The Widespread Tornado Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Full map of The Super Outbreak Tornado History Project
"WHAS Radio Covers the April 3, 1974 Tornado Disaster," excellent-quality recorded coverage of the tornado at LKYRadio.com
1974 Windsor Tornado – CBC Archives
April 3, 1974 Superoutbreak (NWS Indianapolis, IN)
The Monticello Tornado (NWS Northern Indiana)
April 3, 1974 Super Outbreak (NWS Nashville, TN)
The April 3rd and 4th 1974 Tornado Outbreak in Alabama (NWS Birmingham, AL)
The Super Outbreak: Outbreak of the Century (Slide show) (NOAA-NWS-NCEP Storm Prediction Center)
The 3–4 April 1974 Super Outbreak: Outbreak of the Century (Slide show – Revised) (NOAA-NWS-NCEP Storm Prediction Center)
The Super Outbreak: Outbreak of the Century (22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society)
Revisiting the 3–4 April 1974 Super Outbreak of Tornadoes (Weather and Forecasting, American Meteorological Society)
Potential insurance losses from a major tornado outbreak: the 1974 Super Outbreak example (22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms, American Meteorological Society)
A website dedicated to the Super Outbreak
The Weather Channel's Storm of the Century list – #2 The Super Outbreak
Super Outbreak 30th Anniversary Special (WHAS Louisville)
WHAS April 3, 1974 Live Breaking News Coverage: Part 1, Part 2
1974 Alabama tornado table including tornadoes from the Super Outbreak – Courtesy of NWS Birmingham, Alabama
Footage is included in Encounters with Disaster (1979), directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr.
F5 tornadoes
Tornado outbreaks
Super Outbreak
Tornadoes in Ontario
Tornadoes in Alabama
Tornadoes in Georgia (U.S. state)
Tornadoes in Kentucky
Tornadoes in Illinois
Tornadoes in Indiana
Tornadoes in Michigan
Tornadoes in Mississippi
Tornadoes in New York (state)
Tornadoes in North Carolina
Tornadoes in Ohio
Tornadoes in Tennessee
Tornadoes in Virginia
Tornadoes in West Virginia
Essex County, Ontario
History of Cincinnati
History of Louisville, Kentucky
History of Windsor, Ontario
Super Outbreak, 04
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliance%20Industries
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Reliance Industries
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Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai. Its businesses include energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is the largest public company in India by market capitalisation and revenue, and the 100th largest company worldwide. It is India's largest private tax payer and largest exporter, accounting for 7% of India's total merchandise exports. The company has relatively little free cash flow and high corporate debt.
History
1958–1980
Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up in 1958 by Dhirubhai Ambani as a small venture firm trading commodities, especially spices and polyester yarn. In 1965, the partnership ended and Dhirubhai continued the polyester business of the firm. In 1966, Reliance Textiles Industries Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in Maharashtra. It established a synthetic fabrics mill in the same year at Naroda in Gujarat. On 8 May 1973, it became Reliance Textiles Industries Limited. In 1975, the company expanded its business into textiles, with "Vimal" becoming its major brand in later years. The company held its Initial public offering (IPO) in 1977. The issue was over-subscribed by seven times. In 1979, a textiles company Sidhpur Mills was amalgamated with the company. In 1980, the company expanded its polyester yarn business by setting up a Polyester Filament Yarn Plant in Patalganga, Raigad, Maharashtra with financial and technical collaboration with E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., U.S.
1981–2000
In 1985, the name of the company was changed from Reliance Textiles Industries Ltd. to Reliance Industries Ltd. During 1985 to 1992, the company expanded its installed capacity for producing polyester yarn by over 145,000 tonnes per annum.
The Hazira petrochemical plant was commissioned in 1991–92.
In 1993, Reliance turned to the overseas capital markets for funds through a global depository issue of Reliance Petroleum. In 1996, it became the first private sector company in India to be rated by international credit rating agencies. S&P rated Reliance "BB+, stable outlook, constrained by the sovereign ceiling". Moody's rated "Baa3, Investment grade, constrained by the sovereign ceiling".
In 1995/96, the company entered the telecom industry through a joint venture with NYNEX, USA, and promoted Reliance Telecom Private Limited in India.
In 1998 , Reliance took over Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited during privatization of public sector enterprises.
In 1998/99, RIL introduced packaged LPG in 15 kg cylinders under the brand name Reliance Gas.
The years 1998–2000 saw the construction of the integrated petrochemical complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, the largest refinery in the world.
2001 onwards
In 2001, Reliance Industries Ltd. and Reliance Petroleum Ltd. became India's two largest companies in terms of all major financial parameters. In 2001–02, Reliance Petroleum was merged with Reliance Industries.
In 2002, Reliance announced India's biggest gas discovery (at the Krishna Godavari basin) in nearly three decades and one of the largest gas discoveries in the world during 2002. The in-place volume of natural gas was more than 7 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to about 120 crore (1.2 billion) barrels of crude oil. This was the first-ever discovery by an Indian private sector company.
In 2002–03, RIL purchased a majority stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. (IPCL), India's second largest petrochemicals company, from the government of India, RIL took over IPCL's Vadodara Plants and renamed it as Vadodara Manufacturing Division (VMD). IPCL's Nagothane and Dahej manufacturing complexes came under RIL when IPCL was merged with RIL in 2008.
In 2005 and 2006, the company reorganised its business by demerging its investments in power generation and distribution, financial services and telecommunication services into four separate entities.
In 2006, Reliance entered the organised retail market in India with the launch of its retail store format under the brand name of 'Reliance Fresh'. By the end of 2008, Reliance Retail had close to 600 stores across 57 cities in India.
In November 2009, Reliance Industries issued 1:1 bonus shares to its shareholders.
In 2010, Reliance entered the broadband services market with acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services Limited, which was the only successful bidder for pan-India fourth-generation (4G) spectrum auction held by the government of India.
In the same year, Reliance and BP announced a partnership in the oil and gas business. BP took a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts that Reliance operates in India, including the KG-D6 block for $7.2 billion. Reliance also formed a 50:50 joint venture with BP for sourcing and marketing of gas in India.
In 2017, RIL set up a joint venture with Russian Company Sibur for setting up a Butyl rubber plant in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to be operational by 2018.
In August 2019, Reliance added Fynd primarily for its consumer businesses and mobile phone services in the e-commerce space.
On 18 August 2021, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) stated that it had shut down its manufacturing units at Nagothane town in Maharashtra.
In December 2022, Reliance Industries Market cap stood at Rs.17,59,017.23 crore.
Shareholding
The number of shares of RIL are approx. 644.51 crore (6.44 billion). The promoter group, the Ambani family, holds 50.39% of the total shares whereas the remaining 49.61% shares are held by public shareholders, including FII and corporate bodies. Life Insurance Corporation of India is the largest non-promoter investor in the company, with 6.49% shareholding.
In January 2012, the company announced a buyback program to buy a maximum of 12 crore (120 million) shares for ₹10,400 crore (US$1.5 billion). By the end of January 2013, the company had bought back 4.62 crore (46.2 million) shares for .
Listing
The company's equity shares are listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and the BSE Limited. The Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) issued by the company are listed on London Stock Exchange. It has issued approx. 5.6 crore (56 million) GDRs wherein each GDR is equivalent to two equity shares of the company. Approximately 3.46% of its total shares are listed on Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
Its debt securities are listed at the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) Segment of the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE).
It has received domestic credit ratings of AAA from CRISIL (S&P subsidiary) and Fitch. Moody's and S&P have provided investment grade ratings for international debt of the company, as Baa2 positive outlook (local currency issuer rating) and BBB+ outlook respectively.
On 28 December 2017, RIL announced that it will be acquiring the wireless assets of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications for about ₹23,000 crores.
Operations
The company's petrochemical, refining, and oil and gas-related operations form the core of its business; other divisions of the company include cloth, retail, telecommunications, and special economic zone (SEZ) development. In 2012–13, it earned 76% of its revenue from refining, 19% from petrochemicals, 2% from oil & gas and 3% from other segments.
In July 2012, RIL informed that it was going to invest US$1 billion over the next few years in its new aerospace division which will design, develop and manufacture equipment and components, including aircraft, engine, radars, avionics and accessories for military and civilian aircraft, helicopters, unmanned airborne vehicles, and aerostats.
As of 16 March 2023, the company had 234 subsidiary companies and 11 associate companies.
Subsidiaries
Jio Platforms
Jio Platforms Limited, essentially a technology company, is a majority-owned subsidiary of RIL.It has a valuation of more than $100 billion on expert view as of October 2022.It is the result of a corporate restructuring announced in October 2019, resulting in all the digital initiatives and the telecommunication assets being housed under this new subsidiary. This new subsidiary holds all the digital business assets including Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which in turn holds the Jio connectivity business - mobile, broadband and enterprise, and also the other digital assets (JIO Apps, Tech backbone and Investments in other tech entities like Haptic, Hathaway and Den Networks among others). In April 2020, RIL announced a strategic investment of by Facebook into Jio Platforms. This investment translated into a 9.99% equity stake, on a fully diluted basis. Further in May 2020, RIL sold roughly 1.15% stake in Jio Platforms for to the American private equity investor, Silver Lake Partners. Intel became the 12th company to invest in Reliance Jio platforms after it invested ₹1,894.50 crore ($250 million),the total investments in Jio platforms is ₹117,588.45 crore so far. On 16 July 2020, Google announced that it will acquire a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms for ₹33,737 crore. Mukesh Ambani has named his son, Mr.Akash Mukesh Ambani as the chairperson of Jio in 2022.
Reliance Retail
Reliance Retail is the retail business wing of the Reliance Industries. In March 2013, it had 1466 stores in India. It is the largest retailer in India. Many brands like Reliance Fresh, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Time Out, Reliance Digital, Reliance Wellness, Reliance Trends, Reliance Autozone, Reliance Super, Reliance Mart, Reliance iStore, Reliance Home Kitchens, Reliance Market (Cash n Carry) and Reliance Jewel come under the Reliance Retail brand. Its annual revenue for the financial year 2012–13 was with an EBITDA of .Its market value is more than $60 billion. Mukesh Ambani stepped down from the position of chairperson of Reliance Retail and handed over the job to his daughter Mrs. Isha Ambani Piramal. Mr. Ambani announced it during the 45th Reliance AGM, in 2022. As per reports, this act is a part of Ambani's leadership transition.
Reliance Industrial Infrastructure
Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited (RIIL) is an associate company of RIL. It was incorporated in September 1988 as Chembur Patalganga Pipelines Limited, with the main objective being to build and operate cross-country pipelines for transporting petroleum products. The company's name was subsequently changed to CPPL Limited in September 1992, and thereafter to its present name, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited, in March 1994. RIIL is mainly engaged in the business of setting up and operating industrial infrastructure. The company is also engaged in related activities involving leasing and providing services connected with computer software and data processing.
Network 18
Network 18, a mass media company. It has interests in television, digital platforms, publication, mobile apps and films. It also operates two joint ventures, namely Viacom 18 and History TV18 with Viacom and A+E Networks respectively. It has also acquired a partial part of ETV Network and since renamed its channels under the Colors TV brand.
Other
Reliance Global Corporate Security is a private security company which provides enterprise wide security to assets of Reliance Industries. It is composed of former member of the military and paramilitary forces, law enforcement agencies, intelligence services as well as technical experts from other industries.
Reliance Life Sciences works around medical, plant and industrial biotechnology opportunities. It specialises in manufacturing, branding, and marketing Reliance Industries' products in bio-pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, clinical research services, regenerative medicine, molecular medicine, novel therapeutics, biofuels, plant biotechnology, and industrial biotechnology sectors of the medical business industry.
Embibe a Bengaluru-based EdTech start-up raised funding of ₹89.91 crores from RIL in February 2020. Over three years, Reliance Industries had invested around $180 million in the start-up. A part of it was towards acquiring a stake of 72.69% from Embibe's existing investors. In December 2019, Embibe, under the proprietary name (Individual Learning Private Limited), announced that it picked up equity shares in Bengaluru-based K12 startup Funtoot (eDreams Edusoft). The deal was capped at ₹71.64 crores in cash, which holds 90.5% of the equity share capital of Funtoot. In February 2020, it acquired the rival platform OnlineTyari.
Reliance Logistics is a single-window company selling transportation, distribution, warehousing, logistics, and supply chain-related products. Reliance Logistics is an asset based company with its own fleet and infrastructure. It provides logistics services to Reliance group companies and outsiders.
Reliance Solar, the solar energy subsidiary of Reliance, was established to produce and retail solar energy systems primarily to remote and rural areas. It offers a range of products based on solar energy: solar lanterns, home lighting systems, street lighting systems, water purification systems, refrigeration systems and solar air conditioners. In 2022 RIL AGM, Mukesh Ambani specified that his youngest son Anant Ambani will take over the new energy business.
Reliance Eros Productions LLP, joint venture with Eros International to produce film content in India.
Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited (RIIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL which provides financial services. The Company owns securities of companies other than banks, as well as offers investment services. RIIHL bought majority stakes in two companies - logistics firm Grab A Grub Services Private Limited and software company C-Square Info Solutions - for over ₹146 crores in March 2019. RIIHL also sponsored the Tower Investment trust (InvITs) for the acquisition of 49% equity in RJio's tower assets for ₹25,215 crores by the Canadian asset management firm Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. On 22 April 2021, RIIHL acquired the entire issued share capital of Stoke Park Ltd, company that owns and manages sporting and leisure facilities in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire for £57 million.
Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Limited (RSBVL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL bought a 51.78% stake in robotics and AI firm Asteria Aerospace for ₹23.12 crore and an 85% stake in NowFloats Technologies for ₹141.63 crores in Dec 2019. It also holds 18.83% in EIH Limited, the flagship company of The Oberoi Group, one of the largest luxury hotel chains in India. In November 2019, RSBVL invested an undisclosed amount in SkyTran Inc. for 12.7%, increased it further to 26.3% by April 2020. In February 2021, RIL became the majority stakeholder with 54.46% with an additional investment of $26.76 million.
Reliance Sibur is a joint venture between Reliance Industries and Silbur in the business of making synthetic rubber.
Relicord is a cord blood banking service owned by Reliance Life Sciences. It was established in 2002. It has been inspected and accredited by AABB, and also has been accorded a licence by Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Government of India.
Reliance Institute of Life Sciences (RILS), established by Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation, is an institution offering higher education in various fields of life sciences and related technologies.
Reliance Clinical Research Services (RCRS), a contract research organisation (CRO) and wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Life Sciences, specialises in the clinical research services industry. Its clients are primarily pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.
LYF, a 4G-enabled VoLTE device brand from Reliance Retail.
Former holdings
In March 2017, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) completed the sale process of its 76% equity stake in Mauritius-based oil retailer Gulf Africa Petroleum Corp (GAPCO) to Total Marketing & Services, a subsidiary of the French oil and gas firm Total SE.
The East West Pipeline has been acquired by India Infrastructure Trust, which is owned by Brookfield Asset Management for a consideration of ₹13,000 cr.
Awards and recognition
International Refiner of the year in 2017 at Global Refining and Petrochemicals Congress 2017
International Refiner of the Year in 2013 at the HART Energy's 27th World Refining & Fuel Conference. This is the second time that RIL has received this Award for its Jamnagar Refinery, the first being in 2005.
The Brand Trust Report ranked Reliance Industries as the 7th most trusted brand in India in 2013 and 9th in 2014.
RIL was certified as 'Responsible Care Company' by the American Chemistry Council in March 2012.
RIL was ranked at 25th position across the world, on the basis of sales, in the ICIS Top 100 Chemicals Companies list in 2012.
RIL was awarded the National Golden Peacock Award 2011 for its contribution in the field of corporate sustainability.
In 2009, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) named Reliance Industries as the world's fifth biggest 'sustainable value creator' in a list of 25 top companies globally in terms of investor returns over a decade.
The company was selected as one of the world's 100 best managed companies for the year 2000 by IndustryWeek magazine.
From 1994 to 1997, the company won National Energy Conservation Award in the petrochemical sector.
Reliance demerger and family feud
The Ambani family holds around 45% of the shares in RIL. Since its inception, the company was managed by its founder and chairman Dhirubhai Ambani. After suffering a stroke in 1986, he handed over the daily operations of the company to his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani. After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002, the management of the company was taken up by both the brothers. In November 2004, Mukesh Ambani, in an interview, admitted to having differences with his brother Anil over 'ownership issues'. He also said that the differences "are in the private domain". The share prices of RIL were impacted by some margin when this news broke out. In 2005, after a bitter public feud between the brothers over the control of the Reliance empire, mother Kokilaben intervened to broker a deal splitting the RIL group business into two parts. In October 2005, the split of Reliance Group was formalised. Mukesh Ambani got Reliance Industries and IPCL. Younger brother Anil Ambani received telecom, power, entertainment, and financial services business of the group. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group includes Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Power.
The division of Reliance group business between the two brothers also resulted in de-merger of 4 businesses from RIL. These businesses immediately became part of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The existing shareholders in RIL, both the promoter group and non-promoters, received shares in the de-merged companies.
Criticism and controversies
ONGC litigation
In May 2014, ONGC moved to Delhi High Court accusing RIL of pilferage of 18 billion cubic metres of gas from its gas-producing block in the Krishna Godavari basin. Subsequently, the two companies agreed to form an independent expert panel to probe any pilferage.
Cronyism
Seminar magazine (2003) detailed Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani's proximity to politicians, his enmity with Bombay Dyeing's Nusli Wadia, the exposes by the Indian Express and Arun Shourie about illegal imports by the company and overseas share transactions by shell companies, and the botched attempt to acquire Larsen & Toubro.
As early as 1996, Outlook magazine addressed other controversies related to fake and switched shares; insider trading; and a nexus with the state-owned Unit Trust of India. Five main allegations concerning Reliance, which have plunged the Indian capital markets into a period of uncertainty unsurpassed since the days of the securities scam were:
Reliance issued fake shares.
It switched shares sent for transfer by buyers to make illegal profits.
It indulged in insider trading in shares.
It established a nexus with the Unit Trust of India to raise huge sums of money to the detriment of UTI subscribers.
It attempted to monopolize the private telecom services market through front companies.
2005 Criminal investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet in a Mumbai court against Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and four retired employees of National Insurance Company Limited (NICL), including a former CMD, under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for criminal conspiracy and other charges. Acting on a reference from CVC in March 2005, the CBI started probing the conspiracy that led to the filing of the charge sheet on 9 December 2011. The 2005 complaint had alleged irregularities in the issuance of insurance policies — for coverage of default payments — by NICL to RIL. The charge sheet also mentioned criminal offenses with dishonest intention and causing wrongful loss totaling ₹147.41 crores to NICL and wrongful gain to the private telecom provider.
Two retired senior officials of National Insurance Company Limited and 11 others were awarded varying jail terms by a Delhi court in Jan 2014.
RIL plane grounded
A business jet owned by Reliance Industries (RIL) was grounded by The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 22 March 2014 during a surprise inspection, for carrying expired safety equipment on board; its pilot was also suspended for flying without a license.
Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin gas controversy
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) was supposed to relinquish 25% of the total area outside the discoveries in 2004 and 2005, as per the Production Sharing Contract (PSC). However, the entire block was declared as a discovery area and RIL was allowed to retain it. In 2011, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) criticized the Oil Ministry for this decision. The CAG also faulted RIL for limiting the competition in contracts, stating that RIL awarded a $1.1 billion contract to Aker on a single-bid basis.
Petition against Reliance Jio
A PIL filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, through Prashant Bhushan, challenged the grant of a pan-India license to RJIL by the Government of India. The PIL alleged that RJIL was allowed to provide voice telephony along with its 4G data service, by paying an additional fee of just INR 16,580 million (US$280 million) which was arbitrary and unreasonable and contributed to a loss of INR 228,420 million (US$3.8 billion) to the exchequer.
The CAG in its draft report alleged rigging of the auction mechanism, whereby an unknown ISP, Infotech Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, acquired the spectrum by bidding 5000 times its net worth, after which the company was sold to Reliance Industries.
Future Retail deal and possession
In February 2022, Reliance terminated the leases of hundreds of Future Retail locations, the next largest retail chain in India, and took possession of those brick-and-mortar shops. Future Retail had a deal to sell its assets to Reliance, but that deal was contested by Amazon.com, which in 2019 acquired a stake in a subunit of Future Retail along with certain rights with respect to the transfer of the retailer's assets. Reliance's possessions came after rounds of legal wrangling, including a 2020 arbitration in Singapore and an antitrust review by the Competition Commission of India.
Stock manipulation and penalty
For manipulating shares of Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL), Reliance Industries was fined Rs. 950 crore (about 447 crore in retracted gains and 500 crore in interest) in 2007. In April 2006, RPL went public as a Reliance subsidiary at a price of Rs. 60 per share. The market crashed by 30% after it floated at roughly Rs. 100, and RPL was back at 60. In accordance with Securities and Exchange Board of India directive, RIL carried out an organised operation with the help of its agents in order to obtain unauthorised profits from the trading of its formerly listed unit, RPL, which was combined with the former in 2009.
See also
List of companies of India
Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex
References
External links
Conglomerate companies of India
Oil and gas companies of India
Petrochemical companies of India
Chemical companies of India
Multinational companies headquartered in India
Multinational oil companies
Natural gas companies of India
Energy companies established in 1966
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1958
1958 establishments in India
BSE SENSEX
NIFTY 50
Indian companies established in 1958
Telecommunications companies of India
Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynsham
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Keynsham
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Keynsham ( ) is a town and civil parish located between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. It had a population of 19,603 at the 2021 Census. It was listed in the Domesday Book as Cainesham (as it is pronounced), which is believed to mean the home of Saint Keyne.
The site of the town has been occupied since prehistoric times, and may have been the site of the Roman settlement of Trajectus. The remains of at least two Roman villas have been excavated, and an additional 15 Roman buildings have been detected beneath the Keynsham Hams. Keynsham developed into a medieval market town after Keynsham Abbey was founded around 1170. It is situated at the confluence of the River Chew and River Avon and was subject to serious flooding before the creation of Chew Valley Lake and river level controls at Keynsham Lock in 1727. The Chew Stoke flood of 1968 inundated large parts of the town. It was home to the Cadbury's chocolate factory, Somerdale, which opened in 1935 as a major employer in the town.
It is home to Memorial Park, which is used for the annual town festival and several nature reserves. The town is served by Keynsham railway station on the London-Bristol and Bristol-Southampton trunk routes and is close to the A4 road which bypassed the town in 1964. There are schools, religious, sporting, and cultural clubs and venues.
History
Roman Trajectus
Evidence of occupation dates back to prehistoric times, and during the Roman period, Keynsham may have been the site of the Roman settlement of Trajectus, which is the Latin word for "bridgehead." It is believed that a settlement around a Roman ford over the River Avon existed somewhere in the vicinity, and the numerous Roman ruins discovered in Keynsham make it a likely candidate for this lost settlement.
In 1877 during construction of the Durley Hill Cemetery, the remains of a grand Roman villa with over 30 rooms was discovered. However, construction of the cemetery went ahead, and the majority of the villa is now located beneath the Victorian cemetery and an adjacent road. The cemetery was expanded in 1922, and an archeological dig was carried out ahead of the interments, leading to the excavation of 17 rooms and the rescue of 10 elaborate mosaics.
At the same time as the grand Roman villa was being excavated at Durley Hill Cemetery, a second smaller villa was discovered during the construction of Fry's Somerdale Chocolate Factory. Two fine stone coffins were found, interred with the remains of a man and a woman. The villa and coffins were removed to a place near the gates of the factory grounds, and construction on the factory went ahead. Fry's built in the grounds of the factory a museum which for many years housed the Durley Hill mosaics, the coffins, and numerous other artefacts. In 2012, Taylor Wimpey, about to develop the factory site, made a detailed geophysical assessment of the area, and discovered an additional 15 Roman buildings centered around a Roman road beneath Keynsham Hams, with evidence of additional Roman buildings that had been disturbed by quarrying.
Medieval Keynsham
According to legend, Saint Keyne, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog (Brecon), lived here on the banks of the River Avon during the 5th century. Before settling here, she had been warned by the local King that the marshy area was swarming with snakes, which prevented habitation. St Keyne prayed to the heavens and turned the snakes to stone. The fossil ammonites found in the area were believed to be the result. However, there is no evidence that her cult was ever celebrated in Keynsham.
Some scattered archeological evidence suggests that an Anglo-Saxon settlement existed in Keynsham in the High Street area, and that in the 9th century a Minster church existed in Keynsham as well. The earliest documentary reference to Keynsham is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (c. 980) which refers to it as Cægineshamme, Old English for 'Cæga's Hamm.' The town is also listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Cainesham." It has therefore been suggested that the origin of Keynsham's name is not, in fact Saint Keyne, but from "Ceagin (Caega)."
Around 1170, Keynsham Abbey was founded by the Victorine congregation of canon regulars. Archeological evidence suggests that the abbey was built over the site of the previous Saxon Minster church. The settlement developed into a medieval market town, and the abbey of Keynsham was given ownership of the Keynsham Hundred.
The abbey survived until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539, and a house was subsequently built on the site. The remains have been designated as a Grade I listed building by English Heritage.
Stuart era
Keynsham played a part in the Civil War as the Roundheads occupied the town and also camped there for the night, using the pub now known as the Lock Keeper Inn as a guard post. During the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 the town was the site of a battle between royalist forces and the rebel Duke of Monmouth. Bridges Almshouses were built around 1685 and may have been for the widows of those killed in the rebellion.
Post World War II
Keynsham rose to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s when it featured in a long-running series of advertisements on Radio Luxembourg for Horace Batchelor's Infra-draw betting system. To obtain the system, listeners had to write to Batchelor's Keynsham post office box, and Keynsham was always painstakingly spelled out on-air, with Batchelor famously intoning "Keynsham – spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M – Keynsham, Bristol". This was done because the proper pronunciation of Keynsham – "Cane-sham" – does not make the spelling of Keynsham immediately obvious to the radio listener.
Since the 1950s Keynsham has become a dormitory town for Bristol and Bath. The High Street shopping area has been remodelled, and a Town Hall, Library, and Clock Tower were built in the mid-1960s.
Before the creation of Chew Valley Lake and river level controls at Keynsham Lock and weir, Keynsham was prone to flooding. The Great Flood of 1968 inundated large parts of the town, destroying the town's bridges including the county bridge over the Avon which had stood since medieval times, and private premises on Dapps Hill; the devastation was viewed by the Duke of Edinburgh. After the flood the Memorial Park, which had been laid out after World War II was extended.
2010s regeneration
Design work for regeneration of the town hall area was awarded by Bath and North East Somerset Council to Aedas in 2010, with the works cost stated in 2011 to be ( in 2012). Realisation of the plans is hoped to "attract new business and jobs", in the aftermath of the announcement of the Cadbury Somerdale Factory closure.
In January 2012, it was announced that the Willmott Dixon Group had been appointed as contractor on the scheme. The Council's planning committee in August 2012 deferred the approval decision, pending alterations to the external appearance of the building. These were approved in October 2012, with demolition commencing in the same month. The regenerated Civic Centre area came back into use in late 2014 and early 2015.
In the latter half of the 2010s, Keynsham underwent rapid expansion with hundreds of new homes built.
Governance
Keynsham Town Council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council's operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The town council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The town council's role includes projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning.
Playing fields and playgrounds are provided in Memorial Park, Downfield, Kelston Road, Teviot Road, Holmoak Road and Manor Road with basketball facilities at Teviot Road and Holmoak Road and a BMX track at Keynsham Road. The Keynsham town council is also responsible for the football pitches and pavilion at Manor Road and the floodlit Multi Sport Site in Memorial Park. It also provides support for community groups organising music and cultural events. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.
The town council was formed in 1991 and consists of 15 members elected every four years. The town council is divided into three wards. As of May 2023, Keynsham East is represented by five Liberal Democrat councillors, Keynsham North has four Liberal Democrat councillors and one Green Party councillor and Keynsham South is represented by three Labour and two Liberal Democrat councillors. Keynsham has one official twin town: Libourne in France.
Formerly an urban district within the county of Somerset, between 1974 and 1996 the town became part of the larger district of Wandsdyke within the short-lived county of Avon. The town is now represented as part of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the ceremonial county of Somerset. Bath and North East Somerset Council was established in 1996 under the Local Government Act 1992. The town is divided into three wards on the unitary authority, Keynsham East which has two Liberal Democrat Councillors, Keynsham North, which has two Liberal Democrat councillors, Keynsham South which is represented by one Conservative and one Labour councillor.
Bath and North East Somerset provides a single tier of local government, with responsibility for almost all local government functions within its area, including local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection, recycling, cemeteries, crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. It is also responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning, although fire, police and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the South Western Ambulance Service.
Bath and North East Somerset's area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in Bath, but many departments are headquartered in Keynsham. Between 1 April 1974 and 1 April 1996, it was the main town of the Wansdyke district of the county of Avon. Before 1974 the parish was part of the Keynsham Urban District.
The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the North East Somerset constituency, which is a county constituency created by the Boundary Commission for England as the successor seat to the Wansdyke Parliamentary Seat. It came into being at the 2010 general election, and is represented by the Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Geography
Keynsham is located where the River Chew meets the River Avon. Fishing rights for the Millground and Chewton sections of the Chew are owned by Keynsham Angling Club. The Mill Ground stretch of the River Chew consists of the six fields on the western bank from Chewton Place at Chewton Keynsham to the Albert Mill. The water is home to chub, roach, European perch and rudd, along with good numbers of gudgeon, dace and trout. Keynsham Lock on the Avon opened in 1727. Just above the lock are some visitor moorings and a pub, on an island between the lock and the weir. The weir side of the island is also the mouth of the River Chew.
Memorial Park, the northern part of which has existed as parkland since the 19th century, as shown by the ordnance Survey maps of 1864 and 1867, was formally laid out after World War II was extended after the floods of 1968. It covers of woodland and grass alongside the River Chew. It commemorates the war dead of Keynsham and includes facilities including two children's play areas, a skateboard park, multi-sport area, bowling green, public toilets, a bandstand and refreshment kiosk. The formal gardens within the park are adjacent to the River Chew with the Dapps Hill Woods at its western end. Part of the park is known locally as Chew Park because of its proximity to the river and another area, close to Keynsham Abbey as Abbey Park. The park received the Green Flag Award in 2008/09, and again for 2009/10.
On the outskirts of Keynsham lies Keynsham Humpy Tumps, one of the most floristically rich acidic grassland sites within the Avon area. The site is on a south-facing slope running alongside the Bristol to Bath railway line. It consists of open patches of grassland and bare rock, interspersed with blocks of scrub. It is the only site in Avon at which upright chickweed Moenchia erecta, occurs. Other locally notable plant species found here include annual knawel Scleranthus annuus, sand spurrey Spergularia rubra, subterranean clover Trifolium subterraneus and prickly sedge Carex muricata ssp. lamprocarpa. The site does not have any statutory conservation status, and is not managed for its biodiversity interest. Threats to its ecological value include the encroachment of scrub onto the grassland areas, and damage from motorcycle scrambling. Between Keynsham and Saltford, a area of green belt has been planted, with over 19,000 trees, as the Manor Road Community Woodland, which has been designated as a Nature Reserve. Nearby is the Avon Valley Country Park tourist attraction.
Along with the rest of South West England, Keynsham has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The annual mean temperature is about 10 °C (50 °F) with seasonal and diurnal variations, but due to the modifying effect of the sea, the range is less than in most other parts of the United Kingdom. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between 1 °C (34 °F) and 2 °C (36 °F). July and August are the warmest months in the region with mean daily maxima around 21 °C (70 °F). In general, December is the dullest month and June the sunniest. The south west of England enjoys a favoured location, particularly in summer, when the Azores High extends its influence north-eastwards towards the UK.
Cloud often forms inland, especially near hills, and reduces exposure to sunshine. The average annual sunshine totals around 1600 hours. Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. In summer, convection caused by solar surface heating sometimes forms shower clouds and a large proportion of the annual precipitation falls from showers and thunderstorms at this time of year. Average rainfall is around 800–900 mm (31–35 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest. The predominant wind direction is from the south west.
Demography
In the 2001 census Keynsham had a population of 15,533, in 6,545 households, of which 6,480 described themselves as White. Keynsham East Ward had a population of 5,479, Keynsham North 5,035 and Keynsham South 5,019. In each of the wards between 75 and 80% of the population described themselves as Christians, and around 15% said that they had no religion.
In 1881 the population of the civil parish was 2,482. This grew gradually until 1931 when there were 4,521, before there was a steeper rise to 1951 when there were 8,277. Over the next ten years this nearly doubled to 15,152 in 1961.
Economy
An important industry in the town was Cadbury's chocolate factory, the Somerdale Factory. The J. S. Fry & Sons business merged with Cadbury in 1919, and moved their factory in the centre of Bristol to Keynsham in 1935. As Quakers, Cadbury's built the factory on a greenfield site with social facilities, including playing fields and recreational sports grounds. Called Somerdale after a national competition in 1923, Keynsham Cadbury was the home of Fry's Chocolate Cream, the Double Decker, Dairy Milk and Mini Eggs, Cadbury's Fudge, Chomp and Crunchie.
On 3 October 2007, Cadbury announced plans to close the Somerdale plant by 2010 with the loss of some 500 jobs. Production was to be moved to factories in Birmingham and Poland, and in the longer term it was expected that the site would be redeveloped for housing. Labour MP for Wansdyke, Dan Norris, said "news of the factory's closure is a hard and heavy blow, not just to the workforce, but to the Keynsham community as a whole". By late 2007 campaigns to save the Cadbury's factory in Somerdale were in full swing, and one local resident started a campaign to urge English Heritage to protect the site and preserve the history of the factory.
In 2009 the US corporation Kraft made a takeover bid for Cadbury. Cadbury's were seen as iconic of British manufacturing industry, and the bid became a cause célèbre of national interest. To sweeten their case before the Monopolies Commission, Kraft made a pledge to keep the Cadbury factory at Somerdale open if they were successful in their bid for the company; and their bid was duly successful. However, within a week of completing their purchase of Cadbury, Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld released a statement announcing that Kraft were to close the factory by 2011, as originally planned by Cadbury. The stated reason for this was that it was only after the purchase had been made that Kraft realised how advanced Cadbury's plans were, but industry experts questioned this, arguing that Kraft invested so much in researching their bid for Cadbury that they should have been aware of the extent to which plans had been advanced.
Culture
In 1969 the town was featured as the title of the fourth album Keynsham by the Bonzo Dog Band. The title was chosen in honour of Horace Batchelor, who had been referenced in previous Bonzo Dog Band recordings. In the early 1960s, Batchelor became known through his regular advertisements on Radio Luxembourg for his football pools prediction service. When giving his contact address, he would slowly spell out 'Keynsham' letter by letter, and this became an amusing feature for many young listeners.
Keynsham Festival, which started in the late 1990s, takes place in the Memorial Park each July, and attracts around 16,000 people. There is also a Victorian evening held in the town each November. This has since been renamed Keynsham Winter Festival. Keynsham and Saltford local history society was formed in 1965 and is concerned with researching and recording the history of the area.
Keynsham was chosen as the outdoor location for a dramatic story-line in the BBC One TV serial EastEnders in September 2012 with filming taking place in a cordoned-off section of the High Street.
In Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Catherine and her friends ride to ″within view of the town of Keynsham″.
Transport
The town is served by Keynsham railway station on the London-Bristol and Bristol-Southampton trunk routes. It opened in 1840 and was renamed Keynsham and Somerdale in 1925. The chocolate factory had its own rail system which was connected to the main line, but the connection was taken out of use 26–27 July 1980. The station's name reverted to Keynsham on 6 May 1974. The station was rebuilt in 1985 as a joint project between British Rail and Avon County Council.
The A4 trunk road used to run through the town, but much of this traffic is now carried on the bypass, which was constructed in 1964. The bypass runs from Saltford, a village which adjoins Keynsham, to Brislington in Bristol. Keynsham is about 10 miles (16 km) from junction 1 of the M32 via the Avon Ring Road A4174 and provides a fast route to the M4 and M5.
Keynsham is on the Monarch's Way long-distance footpath which approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester.
In May 2017, the High Street was made one-way for traffic heading towards Saltford and Bath with all Bristol-bound diverted along Ashton Way. There is now no access to Temple Street from High Street with the exception of buses and taxis, all traffic for Temple Street is diverted along Ashton Way.
The town is served by 6 bus routes, 1 of which connects Bath with Bristol International Airport, another bus service runs from Ashton Way at the back of the shops to Southmead Hospital and one bus service runs to Cribbs Causeway. In numerical order:
A4 Bath to Bristol Airport
17 Keynsham to Southmead Hospital
18 Bath to Cribbs Causeway
39 Bath to Bristol
178 Radstock to Bristol
349 Keynsham to Bristol
All buses towards Bristol, Southmead and Cribbs Causeway use the bus stop on Ashton Way at the back of the shops, whilst all buses towards Bath use the stop on the High Street opposite the Post Office.
Education
State-funded schools are organised within the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. A review of Secondary Education in Bath was started in 2007, primarily to reduce surplus provision and reduce the number of single-sex secondary schools in Bath, and to access capital funds available through the government's Building Schools for the Future programme. There are four primary schools in Keynsham, St John's Primary School, Castle Primary School, Chandag (Infants and Junior schools) and St Keyna Primary School (formed when Keynsham Primary School and 150 year old Temple Primary School merged in 2007). There are also three secondary schools: Wellsway; Broadlands; and IKB Academy.
Wellsway School is an 11–18, mixed comprehensive school which was established in 1971, by amalgamating Keynsham Grammar School and Wellsway County Secondary School both of which opened on a shared site in the mid-1950s. Most students that attend the school live in Keynsham and Saltford or the nearby villages. As of 2014, approximately 1335 students attend the school, ranging in age of 11–18, with 64% achieving 5 or more A-C grades at GCSE. Wellsway's bid for specialist school status was accepted in September 2007. In 2013 it became an academy and was the founder school of Wellsway Multi Academy Trust which later rebranded itself as Futura Learning Partner in September 2021.
Broadlands Academy became an academy in 2012. It has 430 students between the ages of 11 and 16 years.
IKB Academy opened in September 2015, and has a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) subjects. It is a studio school for pupils aged 14–19, and offers GCSEs, A Levels, and BTECs, in conjunction with weekly or fortnightly work placements.
Nearby Bath has two universities. The University of Bath was established in 1966. It is known, academically, for the physical sciences, mathematics, architecture, management and technology. Bath Spa University was first granted degree-awarding powers in 1992 as a university college (Bath Spa University College), before being granted university status in August 2005. It has schools in Art and Design, Education, English and Creative Studies, Historical and Cultural Studies, Music and the Performing Arts, and Social Sciences. The city contains one further education college, City of Bath College, and several sixth forms as part of both state, private, and public schools. In England, on average in 2006, 45.8% of pupils gained 5 grades A-C including English and Maths; for Bath and North East Somerset pupils taking GCSE at 16 it is 52.0%. Special needs education is provided by Three Ways School.
Religious sites
Begun in 1292, the Church of England parish church of St John the Baptist, Keynsham gradually evolved until taking its present general form during the reign of Charles I, after the tower collapsed into the building during a storm in 1632. The tower, built over the north-east corner of the nave, now rises in three stages over the Western entrance and is surmounted by a pierced parapet and short crocketted pinnacles and is said to have been built from the ruins of the abbey church. The south aisle and south porch date from 1390. The chancel, then the responsibility of the abbey, was rebuilt in 1470 and further restoration was carried out in 1634–1655, following the collapse of the tower. There is a pulpit dating from 1634 and is also a screen of the same age which shuts off the choir vestry. It has been designated as a Grade II* listed building.
A former organ is said to have stood in the church, but "had tones so mellow" that Handel bargained for it, offering a peal of bells in exchange. The offer was accepted. The musician went off with the organ and the bells were delivered. There are eight bells in total, some made by the Bilbie family of Chew Stoke, the smallest bears these lines:
"I value not who doth me see
For Thomas Bilbie casted me;
Althow my sound it is but small
I can be heard amongst you all."
St John the Baptist church is one of five churches in the Church of England Parish of Keynsham, the others being the village churches of St Michael's in Burnett and St Margaret's in Queen Charlton, the "Mission Church" in Chewton Keynsham (formerly the school building), and St Francis' Church on the Park Estate which in 2013 - 2015 underwent extensive modernisation and offers two halls for use by community groups.
There are also the Victoria and Queens Road Methodist churches, St Dunstan's Roman Catholic Church and an Elim Church. The churches work together, also with churches in Saltford, under the banner of "Churches Together in Keynsham and Saltford" and often with the strapline "More to Life".
Sport
Keynsham Cricket Club play at the Frank Taylor Memorial Ground, their 1st XI compete in the West of England Premier League Division 2. Marcus Trescothick is the most noticeable player to have played for the club. His family remain members of the club, which incorporates over 100 senior members and 100 junior members.
Keynsham Rugby Football Club play at Crown Field. The club's most notable and tragic event occurred on 24 December 1992, when there was a fatal road accident outside the club's ground. A Ford Fiesta car ploughed into 11 people leaving the annual festive disco. One woman, 21-year-old Sarah Monnelle, died at the scene. A second person, 24-year-old rugby player Richard Barnett, died in hospital two days later from his injuries. Clive Sutton was later found guilty on a double charge of causing death by dangerous driving and sentenced to four years in prison at Bristol Crown Court.
Keynsham Hockey Club play at Wellsway School. The club currently runs 3 ladies’, 2 men's and 1 mixed team, plus 5 youth teams at various age groups for children aged 7 and upwards. The club was formerly known as Fry's Hockey Club and had existed for nearly 100 years. Fry's Hockey Club was based at Fry Club on the Somervale site for Fry's, then Cadbury's before it closed in 2012. Hockey was played at the site from the 1920s when the Fry's chocolate factory reputedly had more than 15 ladies teams. By the 1970s the club had shrunk to only two ladies' teams whose games were played only as friendlies on a Saturday using a grass pitch. Since then, the club has grown to its present structure.
Keynsham Town F.C. were founded in 1895. They have played continuously apart from a break during World War II and moved to their current ground, the Crown Field, in 1945. They first played in the Bristol & District League and progressed through the Bristol Combination, Bristol Premier and Somerset Senior League and won the Somerset Senior Cup in 1951–52 and 1957–58. They were elected to the Western League in 1973 but were relegated three years later in 1976. Since then they have been promoted to the Premier Division three times and relegated three times. They won the Somerset Senior Cup for the third time in 2002–03 and reached the 5th round of the FA Vase in 2003–04. They currently play in the Western Football League Division 1.
There is a bowls club situated at the Memorial Park. The Fry Tennis Club has courts located within the town's Somerdale estate. Keynsham leisure centre was built in 1965 by British Gas as a gift to the town. It includes a swimming pool, gymnasium and sauna.
Notable residents
Several notable people have been born or lived in Keynsham. The comedian Bill Bailey was raised in the town. Another entertainer Neil Forrester, who was a research assistant and became known as a cast member on The Real World: London was also a local. Celebrated children's author Mimi Thebo has been resident since 2002. Sports players from Keynsham include Mark Regan a professional rugby player and a former player at Keynsham Rugby Football Club, Luke Sutton of Lancashire County Cricket Club who played as both a wicket-keeper and batsman, Marcus Trescothick, the Somerset and England cricketer. and Judd Trump, a professional snooker player.
Horace Batchelor, who sold a system for the football pools, lived in Keynsham, making the town famous by spelling its name in his regular advertisements on Radio Luxembourg.
References
External links
Keynsham Town Council
Wherearoundme.co.uk local businesses
Keynsham Leisure Centre
Towns in Bath and North East Somerset
Civil parishes in Somerset
Market towns in Somerset
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Treaty of Sèvres
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The Treaty of Sèvres () was a 1920 treaty signed between the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty ceded large parts of Ottoman territory to France, the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy, as well as creating large occupation zones within the Ottoman Empire. It was one of a series of treaties that the Central Powers signed with the Allied Powers after their defeat in World War I. Hostilities had already ended with the Armistice of Mudros.
The treaty was signed on 10 August 1920 in an exhibition room at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres porcelain factory in Sèvres, France.
The Treaty of Sèvres marked the beginning of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty's stipulations included the renunciation of most territory not inhabited by Turkish people and their cession to the Allied administration.
The ceding of Eastern Mediterranean lands saw the introduction of novel polities, including the British Mandate for Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon.
The terms stirred hostility and Turkish nationalism. The treaty's signatories were stripped of their citizenship by the Grand National Assembly, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, which ignited the Turkish War of Independence. Hostilities with Britain over the neutral zone of the Straits were narrowly avoided in the Chanak Crisis of September 1922, when the Armistice of Mudanya was concluded on 11 October, leading the former Allies of World War I to return to the negotiating table with the Turks in November 1922. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which superseded the Treaty of Sèvres, ended the conflict and saw the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.
Summary
Parties
George Dixon Grahame signed for the United Kingdom, Alexandre Millerand for France and Count Lelio Longare for Italy. One Allied power, Greece, did not accept the borders as drawn, mainly because of the political change after the 1920 Greek legislative election and so never ratified the treaty. There were three signatories for the Ottoman Empire:
Ex-Ambassador Hadi Pasha,
Ex-Minister of Education Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı,
Second secretary of the Ottoman embassy in Bern, Reşat Halis.
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was not a party to the treaty because it had negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Ottoman Empire in 1918.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed with the German Empire before the Treaty of Sèvres and annulled German concessions in the Ottoman sphere, including economic rights and enterprises.
Also, France, Britain, and Italy signed a Tripartite Agreement on the same date. It confirmed Britain's oil and commercial concessions and turned the former German enterprises in the Ottoman Empire over to a tripartite corporation.
The United States, having refused in the Senate to assume a League of Nations mandate over Armenia, decided not to participate in the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The US wanted a permanent peace as quickly as possible, with financial compensation for its military expenditure. However, after the Senate rejected the Armenian mandate, the only US hope was its inclusion in the treaty by the influential Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos.
Provisions
thumb|upright=1.4|Original map from 1920 illustrating the Treaty of Sèvres region (not depicting the zones of influence)
The treaty imposed a number of territorial losses on Turkey and had a number of provisions that applied to the territory recognised as belonging to Turkey.
Non-territorial
Financial restrictions
The Allies were to control the Ottoman Empire's finances, such as approving and supervising the national budget, implementing financial laws and regulations and totally controlling the Ottoman Bank. The Ottoman Public Debt Administration, instituted in 1881, was redesigned to include only British, French, and Italian bondholders. The Ottoman debt problem had dated back to the time of the Crimean War (1854–1856) during which the Ottoman Empire had borrowed money from abroad, mainly from France. Also the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire, which had been abolished in 1914 by Talaat Pasha, were restored.
The empire was required to grant freedom of transit to people, goods, vessels etc. passing through its territory, and goods in transit were to be free of all customs duties. Future changes to the tax system, the customs system, internal and external loans, import and export duties and concessions would need the consent of the financial commission of the Allied Powers to be implemented. To forestall the economic repenetration of Germany, Austria, Hungary or Bulgaria, the treaty demanded the empire to liquidate the property of citizens of those countries living within its territories. The public liquidation was to be organized by the Reparations Commission. Property rights of the Baghdad Railway were to pass from German control.
Military restrictions
The Ottoman Army was to be restricted to 50,700 men, and the Ottoman Navy could maintain only seven sloops and six torpedo boats. The Ottoman Empire was prohibited from creating an air force. The treaty included an interallied commission of control and organisation to supervise the execution of the military clauses.
International trials
The treaty required determination of those responsible for the Armenian genocide. Article 230 of the Treaty of Sèvres required the Ottoman Empire to "hand over to the Allied Powers the persons whose surrender may be required by the latter as being responsible for the massacres committed during the continuance of the state of war on territory which formed part of the Ottoman Empire on August 1, 1914". However, the inter-allied tribunal attempt to prosecute war criminals as demanded by the Treaty of Sèvres was eventually suspended, and the men who orchestrated the genocide escaped prosecution and traveled relatively freely throughout Europe and Central Asia.
Foreign zones of influence
France
Within the territory retained by Turkey under the treaty, France received Syria and neighbouring parts of southeastern Anatolia, including Antep, Urfa and Mardin. Cilicia, including Adana, Diyarbakır and large portions of east-central Anatolia all the way north to Sivas and Tokat, were declared a zone of French influence.
Greece
The Greek government administered the occupation of Smyrna from 21 May 1919. A protectorate was established on 30 July 1922. The treaty transferred "the exercise of her rights of sovereignty to a local parliament" but left the region within the Ottoman Empire. The treaty had Smyrna to be administered by a local parliament, with a plebiscite overseen by the League of Nations after five years to decide if Smyrna's citizens wished to join Greece or to remain in the Ottoman Empire. The treaty accepted Greek administration of the Smyrna enclave, but the area remained under Turkish sovereignty. To protect the Christian population from attacks by the Turkish irregulars, the Greek army expanded its jurisdiction also to nearby cities creating the so-called "Smyrna Zone".
Italy
Italy was formally given possession of the Dodecanese Islands, which had been under Italian occupation since the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912 despite the Treaty of Ouchy according to which Italy should have returned the islands to the Ottoman Empire. Large portions of southern and west-central Anatolia, including the port city of Antalya and the historic Seljuk capital of Konya, were declared to be an Italian zone of influence. Antalya Province had been promised by the Triple Entente to Italy in the Treaty of London, and the Italian colonial authorities wished the zone to become an Italian colony under the name of Lycia.
Territorial provisions
Zone of the Straits
A Zone of the Straits was proposed to include the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara. Navigation would be open in the Dardanelles in times of peace and war alike to all vessels of commerce and war, regardless of flag. That would effectively lead to the internationalisation of the waters, which were not to be subject to blockade, and no act of war could be committed there except to enforce decisions of the League of Nations.
Free zones
Certain ports were to be declared to be of international importance. The League of Nations insisted on the complete freedom and the absolute equality in treatment at such ports, particularly regarding charges and facilities, to ensure that economic provisions in commercially-strategic places were carried out. The regions were to be called "free zones". The ports were Constantinople from San Stefano to Dolmabahçe, Haidar-Pasha, Smyrna, Alexandretta, Haifa, Basra, Trabzon and Batum.
Thrace
Eastern Thrace (up to the Chatalja line), the islands of Imbros and Tenedos and the islands of the Sea of Marmara were ceded to Greece. The waters surrounding the islands were declared international territory and left to the administration of the "Zone of the Straits".
Kurdistan
The Kurdistan region, including Mosul Province, was scheduled to have a referendum to decide its fate.
There was no general agreement among Kurds on what the borders of Kurdistan should be because of the disparity between the areas of Kurdish settlement and the political and administrative boundaries of the region. The outlines of Kurdistan as an entity had been proposed in 1919 by Şerif Pasha, who represented the Society for the Elevation of Kurdistan (Kürdistan Teali Cemiyeti) at the Paris Peace Conference. He defined the region's boundaries as follows:
The frontiers of Turkish Kurdistan, from an ethnographical point of view, begin in the north at Ziven, on the Caucasian frontier, and continue westwards to Erzurum, Erzincan, Kemah, Arapgir, Besni and Divick (Divrik?); in the south they follow the line from Harran, Sinjar Mountains, Tel Asfar, Erbil, Süleymaniye, Akk-el-man, Sinne; in the east, Ravandiz, Başkale, Vezirkale, that is to say the frontier of Persia as far as Mount Ararat.
That caused controversy among other Kurdish nationalists, as it excluded the Van Region (possibly as a sop to Armenian claims to that region). Emin Ali Bedir Khan proposed an alternative map that included Van and an outlet to the sea via what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. Amid a joint declaration by Kurdish and Armenian delegations, Kurdish claims concerning Erzurum vilayet and Sassoun (Sason) were dropped, but arguments for sovereignty over Ağrı and Muş remained.
Neither proposal was endorsed by the treaty of Sèvres, which outlined a truncated Kurdistan on what is now Turkish territory (leaving out the Kurds of Iran, British-controlled Iraq and French-controlled Syria). The current Iraqi–Turkish border was agreed upon in July 1926.
Article 63 explicitly granted the full safeguard and protection to the Assyro-Chaldean minority, but that provision was dropped in the Treaty of Lausanne.
Armenia
Armenia was recognised as a "free and independent" state in Section VI "Armenia", Articles 88-93. By Article 89, "Turkey and Armenia, as well as the other High Contracting Parties agree to submit to the arbitration of the President of the United States of America the question of the frontier to be fixed between Turkey and Armenia in the vilayets of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis, and to accept his decision thereupon, as well as any stipulations he may prescribe as to access for Armenia to the sea, and as to the demilitarisation of any portion of Turkish territory adjacent to the said frontier".
The treaty specified that the frontiers between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Georgia were to be determined by direct negotiation between those states, with the Principle Allied Powers making the decision if those states fail to agree.
British Mandate for Iraq
The details in the treaty regarding the British Mandate for Iraq were completed on 25 April 1920 at the San Remo Conference. The oil concession in the region was given to the British-controlled Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC), which had held concessionary rights to Mosul Province. British and Iraqi negotiators held acrimonious discussions over the new oil concession. The League of Nations voted on the disposition of Mosul, and the Iraqis feared that without British support, Iraq would lose the area. In March 1925, the TPC was renamed the "Iraq Petroleum Company" (IPC) and granted a full and complete concession for 75 years.
British Mandate for Palestine
The three principles of the British Balfour Declaration regarding Palestine were adopted in the Treaty of Sèvres:
Article 95: The High Contracting Parties agree to entrust, by application of the provisions of Article 22, the administration of Palestine, within such boundaries as may be determined by the Principal Allied Powers, to a Mandatory to be selected by the said Powers. The Mandatory will be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on 2 November 1917 by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon
The French Mandate was settled at the San Remo Conference: it comprised the region between the basin of the Euphrates River and the Syrian Desert on the east and the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and extended from the Nur Mountains in the north to Egypt in the south. This represented an area of about with a population of about 3,000,000, including Lebanon and an enlarged Syria, both of which were later reassigned under a League of Nations Mandate. The region was divided under the French into five governments as follows: Aleppo, from the Euphrates region to the Mediterranean, which included the autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta (modern-day Hatay); Damascus, including Damascus, Hama, Homs and the Hauran; Greater Lebanon, extending from Tripoli to Palestine; the Alawite State, comprising the coast between the Sanjak of Alexandretta and Greater Lebanon, and the Jabal Druze State, around the city of As-Suwayda. Faisal ibn Husayn, who had been proclaimed king of Syria by a Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July the same year. The next year, he became king of Iraq.
Kingdom of Hejaz
The Kingdom of Hejaz, on the Arabian Peninsula, was granted international recognition and had an estimated area of and a population of about 750,000. The main cities were the Holy Places of Makka, with a population of 80,000, and Medina, with a population of 40,000. Under the Ottomans, it had been the vilayet of Hejaz, but during the war, it became an independent kingdom under British influence.
Abandonment
The Treaty of Sèvres imposed terms on the Ottoman Empire that were far more severe than those imposed on the German Empire by the Treaty of Versailles. France, Italy and Britain had secretly begun planning the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire as early as 1915. The open negotiations covered a period of more than 15 months, started at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, continued at the Conference of London of February 1920 and took definite shape only after the San Remo Conference in April 1920. The delay occurred because the powers could not come to an agreement, which, in turn, hinged on the outcome of the Turkish National Movement. The Treaty of Sèvres was never ratified, and after the Turkish War of Independence, most of the Treaty of Sèvres's signatories signed and ratified the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and 1924.
While the Treaty of Sèvres was still under discussion, the Turkish national movement under Mustafa Kemal Pasha split with the monarchy, based in Constantinople, and set up a Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara in April 1920. He demanded for the Turks to fight against the Greeks, who were trying to take the land that had been held by the Ottoman Empire and given to Greece in the treaty. That started the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), which resulted in a Turkish victory.
On 18 October, the government of Damat Ferid Pasha was replaced by a provisional one under Ahmed Tevfik Pasha as Grand Vizier, who announced an intention to convene the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Sèvres if national unity was achieved. That required seeking the co-operation of Mustafa Kemal, who expressed disdain for the treaty and started a military assault. As a result, the Turkish government issued a note to the Entente that the ratification of the treaty was impossible at the time.
Eventually, Mustafa Kemal succeeded in his War of Independence and forced most of the former wartime Allies to return to the negotiating table.
Aside from Mustafa Kemal's armed opposition to the treaty in Anatolia, Arabs in Syria were unwilling to accept French rule, the Turks around Mosul attacked the British, and Arabs were up in arms against British rule in Baghdad. There was also disorder in Egypt.
Subsequent treaties
During the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish Army successfully fought Greek, Armenian and French forces and secured the independence of a territory similar to that of present-day Turkey, as was aimed at by the Misak-ı Milli.
The Turkish national movement developed its own international relations with the Treaty of Moscow with Soviet Russia on 16 March 1921, the Accord of Ankara with France putting an end to the Franco-Turkish War, the Treaty of Alexandropol with the Armenians and the Treaty of Kars to fix the eastern borders.
Hostilities with Britain over the neutral zone of the Straits were narrowly avoided in the Chanak Crisis of September 1922, when the Armistice of Mudanya was concluded on 11 October, leading the former Allies of World War I to return to the negotiating table with the Turks in November 1922. That culminated in 1923 in the Treaty of Lausanne, which replaced the Treaty of Sèvres and restored a large territory in Anatolia and Thrace to the Turks. Under the Treaty of Lausanne, France and Italy had only areas of economic interaction, rather than zones of influence. Constantinople was not made an international city, and a demilitarised zone between Turkey and Bulgaria was established.
See also
Sèvres syndrome
Paris Peace Conference
Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine
Treaty of Trianon
Minority Treaties
Sykes–Picot Agreement
Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
References
Treaty of Peace between the British Empire and Allied Powers and Turkey UK Treaty Series No. 11 of 1920; Command paper Cmd.964
Notes
Further reading
Darwin, John, and Beverley Nielsen. Britain, Egypt and the Middle East: Imperial policy in the aftermath of war 1918–1922 (Springer, 1981).
Helmreich, Paul C. From Paris to Sèvres: the partition of the Ottoman Empire at the Peace Conference of 1919–1920 (Ohio State UP, 1974).
Howard, Harry N. (1931), The Partition of Turkey, U of Oklahoma Press, online
Karčić, Hamza. "Sèvres at 100: The Peace Treaty that Partitioned the Ottoman Empire." Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (Sept 2020) 40#3 pp 470–479.
Macfie, A. L. “The British Decision Regarding the Future of Constantinople, November 1918–January 1920.” Historical Journal 18#2 (1975), pp. 391–400.
Montgomery, A. E. "The Making of the Treaty of Sevres of 10 August 1920." Historical Journal 15#4 (1972): 775–787.
Sion, Abraham. To Whom Was the Promised Land Promised? (Mazo, 2020)
External links
Text of the Treaty of Sèvres
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture%20of%20Argentina
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Culture of Argentina
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The culture of Argentina is as varied as the country geography and is composed of a mix of ethnic groups. Modern Argentine culture has been influenced largely by the Spanish colonial period and the 19th/20th century European immigration (mainly Italian and Spanish), and also by Amerindian culture, particularly in the fields of music and art. Buenos Aires, its cultural capital, is largely characterized by both the prevalence of people of Southern European descent, and of European styles in architecture. Museums, cinemas, and galleries are abundant in all of the large urban centers, as well as traditional establishments such as literary bars, or bars offering live music of a variety of music genres.
An Argentine writer reflected on the nature of the culture of Argentina as follows:
Language
The spoken languages of Argentina number at least 40, although Spanish is dominant. Others include native and other immigrant languages; some languages are extinct and others are endangered, spoken by elderly people whose descendants do not speak the languages.
The most prevalent dialect is Rioplatense, also known as "Argentine Spanish", whose speakers are located primarily in the basin of the Río de la Plata. Argentines are amongst the few Spanish-speaking countries (like Uruguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras) that almost universally use what is known as voseo – the use of the pronoun vos instead of tú (Spanish for "you").
In many of the central and north-eastern areas of the country, the "rolling r" takes on the same sound as the ll and y ('zh' – a voiced palatal fricative sound, similar to the "s" in the English pronunciation of the word "vision").
South Bolivian Quechua is a Quechuan language spoken by some 800,000 people, mostly immigrants who have arrived in the last years. There are 70,000 estimated speakers in Salta Province. The language is also known as Central Bolivian Quechua, which has six dialects. It is classified as a Quechua II language, and is referred to as Quechua IIC by linguists.
Guaraní is also spoken, mainly in the Mesopotamia, and is an official language in the province of Corrientes.
Literature
Argentina has a detailed literary history, as well as one of the region's most active publishing industries. Argentine writers have figured prominently in Latin American literature, since becoming a fully united entity in the 1850s, with a strong constitution and a defined nation-building plan. The struggle between the Federalists (who favored a loose confederation of provinces based on rural conservatism) and the Unitarians (pro-liberalism and advocates of a strong central government that would encourage European immigration), set the tone for Argentine literature of the time.<ref name=wilson>Wilson, Jason. Cultural Guide to the City of Buenos Aires'. Oxford, England: Signal Books, 1999.</ref>
The ideological divide between gaucho epic Martín Fierro by José Hernández, and Facundo by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, is a great example. Hernández, a federalist, was opposed to the centralizing, modernizing, and Europeanizing tendencies. Sarmiento wrote in support of immigration as the only way to save Argentina from becoming subject to the rule of a small number of dictatorial caudillo families, arguing such immigrants would make Argentina more modern and open to Western European influences, and therefore a more prosperous society.
Argentine literature of that period was fiercely nationalist. It was followed by the modernist movement, which emerged in France in the late 19th century, and this period in turn was followed by vanguardism, with Ricardo Güiraldes as an important reference. Jorge Luis Borges, its most acclaimed writer, found new ways of looking at the modern world in metaphor and philosophical debate, and his influence has extended to writers all over the globe. Borges is most famous for his works in short stories such as Ficciones and The Aleph.
Some of the nation's notable writers, poets, and intellectuals include: Juan Bautista Alberdi, Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Arlt, Enrique Banchs, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Bullrich, Eugenio Cambaceres, Julio Cortázar, Esteban Echeverría, Leopoldo Lugones, Eduardo Mallea, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Victoria Ocampo, Manuel Puig, Ernesto Sabato, Osvaldo Soriano, Alfonsina Storni, María Elena Walsh and Oliverio Girondo.
Visual arts
Painting and sculpture
Argentine painters and sculptors have a rich history, dating from both before and since the development of modern Argentina in the second half of the 19th century. Artistic production did not truly come into its own, until after the 1852 overthrow of the repressive regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas. Immigrants like Eduardo Schiaffino, Eduardo Sívori, Reinaldo Giudici, Emilio Caraffa, and Ernesto de la Cárcova left behind a realist heritage influential to this day.
Impressionism did not make itself evident among Argentine artists until after 1900, however, and never acquired the kind of following it did in Europe, though it did inspire influential Argentine post-impressionists such as Martín Malharro, Ramón Silva, Cleto Ciocchini, Fernando Fader, Pío Collivadino, Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós, Realism, and aestheticism continued to set the agenda in Argentine painting and sculpture, noteworthy during this era for the sudden fame of sculptor Lola Mora, a student of Auguste Rodin.
As Lola Mora had been until she fell out of favor with local high society, monumental sculptors became in very high demand after 1900, particularly by municipal governments and wealthy families, who competed with each other in boasting the most evocative mausolea for their dearly departed. Though most preferred French and Italian sculptors, work by locals Erminio Blotta, Ángel María de Rosa, and Rogelio Yrurtia resulted in a proliferation of soulful monuments and memorials made them immortal. Not as realist as the work of some of his belle-époque predecessors in sculpture, Yrurtia's subtle impressionism inspired Argentine students like Antonio Pujía, whose internationally prized female torsos always surprise admirers with their whimsical and surreal touches, while Pablo Curatella Manes' sculptures drew from cubism.
Becoming an intellectual, as well as artistic circle, painters like Antonio Berni, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, and Juan Carlos Castagnino were friends as well as colleagues, going on to collaborate on masterpieces like the ceiling at the Galerias Pacifico arcade in Buenos Aires, towards 1933.
As in Mexico and elsewhere, muralism became increasingly popular among Argentine artists. Among the first to use his drab surroundings as a canvas was Benito Quinquela Martín, whose vaguely cubist pastel-colored walls painted in his Buenos Aires neighborhood of La Boca during the 1920s and 1930s, have become historical monuments and Argentine cultural emblems, worldwide. Lithographs, likewise, found a following in Argentina sometime after they had been made popular elsewhere. In Argentina, artists like Adolfo Bellocq, used this medium to portray often harsh working conditions in Argentina's growing industrial sector, during the 1920s and 1930s. Antonio Seguí, another lithographer, transferred his naïve style into murals in numerous nations, as did Ricardo Carpani, though in a realist style.
The vanguard in culturally conservative Argentina, futurists and cubists like Xul Solar and Emilio Pettoruti earned a following as considerable as that of less abstract and more sentimental portrait and landscape painters, like Raúl Soldi. Likewise, traditional abstract artists such as Romulo Macció, Anselmo Piccoli, Eduardo Mac Entyre, Luis Felipe Noé, and Luis Seoane co-existed with equal appeal as the most conceptual mobile art creators such as the unpredictable Pérez Celis, Gyula Kosice of the Argentine Madí Movement, and Marta Minujín, one of Andy Warhol's most esteemed fellow Conceptual artists.
The emergence of avant-garde genres in Argentine sculpture also featured Pablo Curatella Manes and Roberto Aizenberg, and constructivists such as Nicolás García Uriburu and Leon Ferrari, one of the world's foremost artists in his genre, today. In the 1960s and 1970s, many of these figures' abstract art found their way into popular advertising and even corporate logos.
Generally possessing a strong sentimental streak, the Argentine public's taste for naïve art and simple pottery cannot be overlooked. Since Prilidiano Pueyrredón's day, artists in the naïve vein like Cándido López have captured the absurdity of war; Susana Aguirre, and Aniko Szabó, the idiosyncrasies of everyday neighborhoods; Guillermo Roux's watercolors, a circus atmosphere; and Gato Frías, childhood memories. Illustrator Florencio Molina Campos's tongue-in-cheek depictions of gaucho life have endured as collectors' items.
To help showcase Argentine and Latin American art and sculpture, local developer and art collector Eduardo Constantini set aside a significant portion of his personal collection, and in 1998, began construction on Buenos Aires' first major institution specializing in works by Latin American artists. His foundation opened the Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art (MALBA) in 2001.
Graphic arts
In the 1920s, Buenos Aires was overflowing with creative drawings and design. Argentine illustrators and sketchers were attracting worldwide recognition, including artists such as Jose Freire Segundo, creator of gráfica of Aikal (1940); Jose Luis Salinas, called upon by King Features to create a comic strip of worldwide fame, Cisco Kid; and Florencio Molina Campos, the brilliant sketcher of the Alpargatas Almanacs of rural life (1930), who collaborated on three Walt Disney films.
The culmination was the arrival, in 1927, of French painter, poster artist and sculptor Lucien Achille Mauzan, who was part of the artistic Art Deco movement. He settled in Buenos Aires and founded his own company Editorial Affiches Mauzan (Editorial Mauzan Posters) and created between 130 and 150 posters in the six years he spent in Argentina. He marks deeply in the poster art in Argentina, where his reputation is enormous. One of his well-known works is the amicably tortured head of Geniol.www.OldShopStuff.com History of Enamel Signs in Argentine, advertising (1898–1960). Retrieved on 12 May 2015.
In the 1950s renowned Uruguayan-Argentine journalist, caricaturist Hermenegildo Sábat, portrayed political figures, as well as artists and other personalities. Many of his "Argentine cultural icons" are reproduced in ceramic tile in the Buenos Aires Underground.
Comics
Argentine comics were living its "Golden Age" between the 1940s and the 1960s. Cartoonists and comic creators have contributed prominently to national culture, including Alberto Breccia, Dante Quinterno, Oski, Francisco Solano López, Horacio Altuna, Guillermo Mordillo, Roberto Fontanarrosa, whose grotesque characters captured life's absurdities with quick-witted commentary, and Quino, known for the soup-hating Mafalda, and her comic strip gang of childhood friends, the theorist Oscar Masotta synthesized its contributions in the development of their own models of action comics (Héctor Oesterheld, Hugo Pratt), humor comics (Divito, Quino) and folkloric comics (Walter Ciocca) and the presence of four great artists (José Luis Salinas, Arturo Pérez del Castillo, Hugo Pratt and Alberto Breccia).
Architecture
The architecture of Argentina can be said to start at the beginning of the Spanish colonization, though it was in the 18th century that the cities of the country reached their splendour. Cities like Córdoba, Salta, Mendoza, and also Buenos Aires conserved most their historical Spanish colonial architecture in spite of their urban growth.
The simplicity of the Rioplatense baroque style can be clearly appreciated in Buenos Aires, in the works of Italian architects such as André Blanqui and Antonio Masella, in the churches of San Ignacio, Nuestra Señora del Pilar, the Cathedral, and the Cabildo.
Italian and French influences increased after the war for independence at the beginning of the 19th century, though the academic style persisted until the first decades of the 20th century. Attempts at renovation took place during the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, when the European tendencies penetrated into the country, reflected in numerous important buildings of Buenos Aires, such as the Santa Felicitam Church, by Ernesto Bunge; the Central Post Office and Palace of Justice, by Norbert Maillart; and the National Congress and the Colón Opera House, by Vittorio Meano.
The architecture of the second half of the 20th century continued adapting French neoclassical architecture, such as the headquarters of the National Bank of Argentina, and the NH Gran Hotel Provincial, built by Alejandro Bustillo, and the Museo de Arte Hispano Fernández Blanco, by Martín Noel.
Numerous Argentine architects have enriched their own country's cityscapes, and in recent decades, those around the world. Juan Antonio Buschiazzo helped popularize Beaux-Arts architecture, and Francisco Gianotti combined Art Nouveau with Italianate styles, each adding flair to Argentine cities during the early 20th century. Francisco Salamone and Viktor Sulĉiĉ left an Art Deco legacy, and Alejandro Bustillo created a prolific body of Rationalist architecture. Clorindo Testa introduced Brutalist architecture locally, César Pelli's and Patricio Pouchulu's Futurist creations have graced cities, worldwide. Pelli's 1980s throwbacks to the Art Deco glory of the 1920s, in particular, made him one of the world's most prestigious architects.
Argentina cities have varied architecture. Commonly each house has an individual design, and is very rare to find any tract housing neighborhood.
Popular culture
Cinema
The Argentine film industry created around 170 full-length titles in 2012. The world's first animated feature films were made and released in Argentina, by cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, in 1917 and 1918. Argentine cinema enjoyed a 'golden age' in the 1930s through the 1950s with scores of productions, many now considered classics of Spanish-language film. The industry produced actors who became the first movie stars of Argentine cinema, often tango performers such as Libertad Lamarque, Floren Delbene, Tito Lusiardo, Tita Merello, Roberto Escalada, and Hugo del Carril.
More recent films from the "New Wave" of cinema since the 1980s have achieved worldwide recognition, such as The Official Story (Best foreign film Oscar in 1986), Man Facing Southeast, A Place in the World, Nine Queens, Son of the Bride, The Motorcycle Diaries, Blessed by Fire, The Secret in Their Eyes, winner of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Wild Tales. Although rarely rivaling Hollywood productions in popularity, local films are released weekly, and widely followed in Argentina and internationally. A number of local films, many of which are low-budget productions, have earned prizes in cinema festivals (such as Cannes), and are promoted by events such as the Mar del Plata Film Festival and the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.
The per capita number of screens is one of the highest in Latin America, and viewing per capita is the highest in the region. A new generation of Argentine directors have caught the attention of critics worldwide. Cinema is an important facet of local culture, as well as a popular pastime, and levels of cinema attendance are comparable to those of European countries. Argentine composers Luis Bacalov, Gustavo Santaolalla, and Eugenio Zanetti have been honored with Academy Award for Best Original Score nods. Lalo Schifrin has received numerous Grammys, and is best known for the Mission:Impossible theme.
MusicTango, the music and lyrics (often sung in a form of slang called lunfardo), is Argentina's musical symbol. The Milonga dance was a predecessor, slowly evolving into modern tango. By the 1930s, tango had changed from a dance-focused music to one of lyric and poetry, with singers such as Carlos Gardel, Hugo del Carril, Roberto Goyeneche, Raúl Lavié, Tita Merello, and Edmundo Rivero. The golden age of tango (1930 to mid-1950s) mirrored that of jazz and swing in the United States, featuring large orchestral groups too, like the bands of Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo, Francisco Canaro, Julio de Caro, and Juan d'Arienzo. Incorporating acoustic music and later, synthesizers into the genre after 1955, bandoneón virtuoso Astor Piazzolla popularized "new tango" creating a more subtle, intellectual and listener-oriented trend. Today, tango enjoys worldwide popularity; ever-evolving, neo-tango is a global phenomenon with renowned groups like Tanghetto, Bajofondo, and the Gotan Project.
Argentine rock, called rock nacional, is the most popular music among the youth. Arguably the most listened-to form of Spanish-language rock, its influence and international success are owed to a rich, uninterrupted development. Bands such as Soda Stereo or Sumo, and composers like Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Fito Páez and Andrés Calamaro are referents of national culture. Mid-1960s Buenos Aires and Rosario were cradles of the music, and by 1970, Argentine rock was well established among middle class youth (see: Almendra, Sui Generis, Pappo, Crucis, Pescado Rabioso). Serú Girán bridged the gap into the 1980s, when Argentine bands became popular across Latin America and elsewhere (Enanitos Verdes, Fabulosos Cadillacs and Virus). There are many subgenres: underground, pop-oriented, and some associated with the working class (La Renga, Divididos, Hermética, V8 and Los Redonditos). Current popular bands include Babasónicos, Los Auténticos Decadentes, Rata Blanca, Horcas, Attaque 77, Bersuit, Los Piojos, Catupecu Machu, Carajo and Callejeros.
European classical music is well represented in Argentina. Buenos Aires is home to the world-renowned Colón Theater. Classical musicians, such as Martha Argerich, Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, Daniel Barenboim, Eduardo Delgado, and Alberto Lysy, and classical composers such as Juan José Castro and Alberto Ginastera, and contemporary composers such as Osvaldo Golijov, Gerardo Gandini, and Oscar Edelstein are internationally acclaimed. All major cities in Argentina have impressive theaters or opera houses, and provincial or city orchestras. Some cities have annual events and important classical music festivals like Semana Musical Llao Llao in San Carlos de Bariloche, and the multitudinous Amadeus in Buenos Aires.
Argentine folk music is uniquely vast. Beyond dozens of regional dances, a national folk style emerged in the 1930s. Perón's Argentina would give rise to Nueva Canción, as artists began expressing in their music objections to political themes. Atahualpa Yupanqui, folk musician, and Mercedes Sosa would be defining figures in shaping Nueva Canción, gaining worldwide popularity in the process. The style found a huge reception in Chile, where it took off in the 1970s, and went on to influence the entirety of Latin American music. Today, Chango Spasiuk and Soledad Pastorutti have brought folk back to younger generations. León Gieco's folk-rock bridged the gap between Argentine folklore and Argentine rock, introducing both styles to millions overseas in successive tours.
Theater
Buenos Aires is one of the world's great capitals of theater. The Teatro Colón is a national landmark for opera and classical performances; built at the end of the 19th century, its acoustics are considered the best in the world, and is currently undergoing a major refurbishment in order to preserve its outstanding sound characteristics, the French-romantic style, the impressive Golden Room (a minor auditorium targeted to Chamber Music performances), and the museum at the entrance. With its theater scene of national and international caliber, Corrientes Avenue is synonymous with the art. It is thought of as the street that never sleeps, and sometimes referred to as the Broadway of Buenos Aires. Many great careers in acting, music, and film have begun in its many theaters. The Teatro General San Martín is one of the most prestigious, along Corrientes Avenue, and the Teatro Nacional Cervantes functions as the national stage theater of Argentina. The Teatro Argentino de La Plata, El Círculo in Rosario, Independencia in Mendoza, and Libertador in Córdoba are also prominent. Griselda Gambaro, Copi, Roberto Cossa, Marco Denevi, Carlos Gorostiza, and Alberto Vaccarezza are a few of the more prominent Argentine playwrights. Julio Bocca, Jorge Donn, José Neglia, and Norma Fontenla are some of the great ballet dancers of the modern era.
Cuisine
Besides many of the pasta, sausage, and dessert dishes common to continental Europe, Argentines enjoy a wide variety of Indigenous and Criollo creations, which include empanadas (a stuffed pastry), locro (a mixture of maize, beans, meat, bacon, onion, and gourd), humitas, and yerba mate, all originally indigenous Amerindian staples, the latter considered Argentina's national beverage. Other popular items include chorizo (a pork sausage), facturas (Viennese-style pastry), dulce de leche, a sort of milk caramel jam and the alfajor.
The Argentine barbecue asado, includes succulent types of meat, among them chorizo, sweetbread, chitterlings, and morcilla (blood sausage). Thin sandwiches, known as sandwiches de miga, are also popular. Argentines have the highest consumption of red meat in the world.
The Argentine wine industry, long among the largest outside Europe, has benefited from growing investment since 1992; in 2007, 60% of foreign investment worldwide in viticulture was destined to Argentina. The country is the fifth most important wine producer in the world, with the annual per capita consumption of wine among the highest. Malbec grape, a discardable varietal in France (country of origin), has found in the Province of Mendoza an ideal environment to successfully develop and turn itself into the world's best Malbec. Mendoza accounts for 70% of the country's total wine production. "Wine tourism" is important in Mendoza province, with the impressive landscape of the Cordillera de Los Andes, and the highest peak in the Americas, Aconcagua ( high) providing a very desirable destination for international tourism.
Sports
The official national sport of Argentina is pato, although it is not very popular. It is played with a six-handle ball on horseback.
Football is the most popular sport in Argentina. The national football team has won 25 major international titles, including three FIFA World Cups, two Olympic gold medals and 15 Copa América. Over one thousand Argentine players play abroad, the majority of them in European football leagues. There are 331,811 registered football players, with increasing numbers of girls and women, who have organized their own national championships since 1991, and were South American champions in 2006.
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) was formed in 1893, and is the eighth oldest national football association in the world. The AFA today counts 3,377 football clubs, including 20 in the Premier Division. Since the AFA went professional in 1931, fifteen teams have won national tournament titles, including River Plate with 33 and Boca Juniors with 24. Over the last twenty years, futsal and beach football have become increasingly popular. The Argentine national beach football team was one of four competitors in the first international championship for the sport, in Miami in 1993.
Basketball is the second most popular sport; a number of basketball players play in the NBA and European leagues including Emanuel Ginóbili, Andrés Nocioni, Carlos Delfino, Luis Scola, Pablo Prigioni, Juan Ignacio Sánchez and Fabricio Oberto. The national basketball team won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the bronze medal in 2008. Argentina is currently ranked third by the International Basketball Federation.
Argentina has an important rugby union team, "Los Pumas"'', with many of its players playing in Europe. Argentina beat host nation France twice in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, placing them third in the competition, and also finished 4th in the 2015 edition of the World Cup. The Pumas are currently ranked fifth in the official world rankings.
Historically, Argentina has had a strong showing within Auto racing. Juan Manuel Fangio was five times Formula One world champion under four different teams, winning 102 of his 184 international races, and is widely ranked as the greatest driver of all time. Other distinguished racers were Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Juan Gálvez, José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann.
Field hockey with the national team Las Leonas is one of the world's most successful, with four Olympic medals, two World Cups, a World League and seven Champions Trophy. Luciana Aymar is recognized as the best female player in the history of this sport.
Argentina reigns undisputed in Polo, having won more international championships than any other country and been seldom beaten since the 1930s. The Argentine Polo Championship is the sport's most important international team trophy. The country is home to most of the world's top players, among them Adolfo Cambiaso, the best in Polo history.
Other popular sports include tennis, handball, boxing, volleyball and golf.
The Vamos vamos Argentina chant is a trademark of Argentine fans during sporting events.
Values
Argentine values is a shared identity core that brings together actions and thoughts aimed at increasing social capital and fostering the common good among Argentines. As Rokeach state, "Values are the evaluative component of an individual's attitudes and beliefs. Values guide how we think about things in terms of what is right/wrong and correct/incorrect. Values trigger positive or negative emotions. Values also guide our actions "(Neuliep, 2009, p. 66). Argentine Values intends to create a community formed by all those who are convinced that Argentina is a great country. Argentina is a collective country where its values focus on diversity and solidarity.
In addition to being a collectivistic society. The Argentines are from traditional customs, but also kind and friendly. The greeting is a crucial element in the Argentine culture where we see that nobody leaves without being greeted; Men kiss women, Women kiss men, and other men kiss men on the cheek.
Another principal value for Argentines is the family. In Argentina, for example, it is prevalent for family members to visit traditionally on Sunday, meetings in which there are music, food, and games. But apart from these types of meetings, the family almost always meets for family events or gatherings such as births, weddings, and similar activities. For me that I had the experience of living three months in the country, it was very nice to see how generations come together, and "values are transmitted across generations" (Prioste, Narciso, Goncalves, & Pereira, 2017).
See also
Argentine tea culture
Colon Theater Ballet
Football in Argentina
Tango (dance)
References
External links
Sistema Nacional de Consumos Culturales ("National System of Cultural Consumption") – Official website. It contains a report of a comprehensive, nationwide statistical study of cultural mores, undertaken in August 2005.
Argentine Culture, Riches and Diversity
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic%20Alliance%20%28South%20Africa%29
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Democratic Alliance (South Africa)
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The Democratic Alliance (DA; ) is a South African political party and the official opposition to the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The party is broadly centrist, and has been attributed both centre-left and centre-right policies. It is a member of Liberal International and the Africa Liberal Network. The DA traces its roots to the founding of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party in 1959, with many mergers and name changes between that time and the present. The DA ideologically shows a variety of liberal tendencies, including social liberalism, classical liberalism, and conservative liberalism.
The current leader of the party is John Steenhuisen, who was announced as the new leader on 1 November 2020 after the party's Federal Congress. He had previously acted as the interim leader of the party from November 2019 to November 2020. Helen Zille is chairperson of both the Federal Council and the Federal Executive, the highest decision-making structures of the party. In addition to governing several major metropolitan municipalities, the DA has been governing the Western Cape, one of South Africa's nine provinces, since the 2009 general election, having won a bigger majority at the election in 2014, but slightly losing support in the 2019 election. As of 2014, the party draws its support predominantly from Afrikaans- and English-speaking people (>80% of its voters), people aged over 35 (>65%), and white people (>50%), as well as the Indian and Coloured communities.
History
Beginnings in the Democratic Party
Although the Democratic Alliance in its present form is fairly new, its roots can be traced far back in South African political history, through a complex sequence of splits and mergers. The modern day DA is in large part a product of the white parliamentary opposition to the ruling National Party. The origin of the party can be traced to the mid-1950s when some younger members of the United Party felt that they were not providing strong enough opposition to the National Party and its policy of Apartheid, causing them to break away and form the Progressive Party in 1959. In the 1970s, as it rose to become the official opposition, the party would merge with more splinters from the disintegrating United Party and become known first as the Progressive Reform Party and then as the Progressive Federal Party. The Progressives sought to change the system from within, but in doing so chose to comply with Apartheid legislation outlawing multi-racial membership. During this time, the party was led by liberal-minded opponents of apartheid, such as Jan Steytler, Helen Suzman, Zach de Beer, Colin Eglin, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and Harry Schwarz. In 1989, it would merge with two smaller reformist organisations to become the Democratic Party, a name that was retained into the 1990s when freedom was achieved. It was marginalised by the National Party's shift towards the center after 1990, and fared relatively poorly in the first democratic election in 1994, won by the African National Congress.
The DP would establish itself as a more effective party of opposition, however, and eventually rose from relative obscurity and ascended to the status of official opposition in 1999 under the leadership of Tony Leon, mainly by taking votes from the New National Party, the renamed version of the NP. The party also became kingmakers in the Western Cape province, where it formed a coalition government with the NNP. With a fractured national opposition standing against an increasingly dominant governing party, there was a perceived need to better challenge the ANC. To this end, the DP reached a merger agreement with the NNP and the much smaller Federal Alliance (FA) in 2000. Together, they formed the Democratic Alliance. The merger was ultimately aborted, with both the NNP and FA leaving the DA. Many former NNP members remained, and the new name was kept.
The DP was disbanded after the 2003 floor crossing period, establishing the DA at all levels of government.
Since becoming the Democratic Alliance in 2003
The party consolidated its status as the official opposition in the 2004 general election, while the NNP collapsed. Having gone into opposition in the Western Cape in 2001 when the NNP formed a new coalition with the ANC, the demise of the NNP made the province a natural target for the party. In the 2006 municipal elections, the DA narrowly gained control of its largest city, Cape Town, in a multi-party coalition. Helen Zille, the executive mayor of Cape Town, then succeeded Leon as DA Party Leader in May 2007. In 2008, she re-launched the party as one that no longer acts solely as an opposition but also as an alternative choice for government. The party also introduced a new logo and a new slogan. Zille said the new DA would be "more reflective of our rich racial, linguistic and cultural heritage", and emphasized that she wanted it to be a "party for all the people" and not decline into a "shrinking, irrelevant minority". The Western Cape was won by DA with an outright majority in the 2009 general election, and Zille became the new provincial premier. In her newsletter, she wrote that "winning power in the Western Cape will allow us to show what co-operative governance between local authorities and a province can achieve". In the 2011 local government elections, the party won control of most of the municipalities in the Western Cape.
In 2013, the DA launched the "Know Your DA" campaign, in an attempt to try to show that the DA (via its proxy predecessor organisations) was involved in the struggle against apartheid. This campaign focused mainly on the role played by a few key individuals in opposing apartheid — particularly Helen Suzman and Helen Zille. The campaign received a certain amount of media attention, much of it somewhat sceptical. The ANC issued a detailed critique of the campaign, focusing especially on Suzman's role in the apartheid parliament. Partially on the basis of this campaign the DA contested the 2014 general election, where it once again grew its support base but failed in its stated goal of winning Gauteng province.
In the municipal elections of 2016, the DA made significant gains along with other opposition parties in some of the country's most important metropolitan areas. The DA currently governs Tshwane (including Pretoria, the administrative capital), Cape Town (South Africa's second-largest city and legislative capital) and various other municipalities.
In the general elections of 2019, the DA's national support declined for the first time in its history. The party retained control of the Western Cape but with a reduced majority and failed to win Gauteng once again. The conservative Freedom Front Plus made significant gains on the DA in the Afrikaner community. Since the election, the FF Plus has continued to make inroads in former DA strongholds.
Formation and mergers
1959 – Progressive Party breaks away from United Party.
1975 – Progressive Party merges with Harry Schwarz's Reform Party, to form Progressive Reform Party.
1977 – Progressive Reform Party merges with the Committee for a United Opposition to form the Progressive Federal Party.
1989 – PFP merges with Denis Worrall's Independent Party and National Democratic Movement, to form Democratic Party.
2000 – Democratic Party merges with New National Party and the Federal Alliance, to form Democratic Alliance (NNP and FA later withdrew)
2010 – Democratic Alliance begins absorbing Patricia de Lille's Independent Democrats.
2011 – Democratic Alliance absorbs Ziba Jiyane's South African Democratic Convention.
Ideology and principles
The DA sums up its political philosophy as the belief in an "Open Opportunity Society for All". Former party leader Helen Zille has argued that this stands in direct contrast to the ruling ANC's approach to governance, which she maintains has led to a "closed, crony society for some". This formed the basis of the philosophy underlying the party's 2009 Election Manifesto, which seeks to build a society by linking outcomes to "opportunity, effort and ability".
The DA's historical roots are broadly liberal-democratic. During the 1990s, the party remained associated with liberal values, though party leader Tony Leon's support for the reintroduction of the death penalty, the party's controversial 1999 campaign slogan "Fight Back", and the short-lived alliance with the centre-right New National Party fuelled criticisms of the party from the left. After Helen Zille's election as party leader, the DA has attempted to reposition itself as a mainstream alternative to the ANC. The party's economic policy is also broadly centrist, and supports a mix of high spending on crucial social services such as education and health care, a basic income grant, and a strong regulatory framework, with more "moderate" policies such as a lower budget deficit and a deregulated labour market. At her 2009 State of the Province speech, party leader Zille described her party's economic policy as pragmatic: "We believe the state has a crucial role to play in socio-economic development. We are not free market fundamentalists. By the same token we do not believe that a state, with limited capacity, should over-reach itself."
Current policies
Crime
In the DA's crime plan, "Conquering Fear, Commanding Hope", the DA committed itself to increasing the number of police officers to 250,000. This is 60,000 more than the government's own target. The party also announced plans to employ 30,000 additional detectives and forensics experts and 500 more prosecutors, in order to reduce court backlogs, and establish a Directorate for Victims of Crime, which would provide funding and support for crime victims.
In addition, the party announced its support for a prison labour programme, which would put prisoners to work in various community upliftment programmes. The proposal was criticised by labour unions, who believed it was unethical and would result in labour job losses.
In late 2008–2009, the DA took a stand against the South African Police Service's VIP Protection Unit, after several officers in the unit were charged with serious criminal offences. The party later released documentation of the unit's poor disciplinary record, and claimed its divisional commander had himself dodged serious criminal charges.
The DA strongly opposed the disbandment of the Scorpions crime investigation unit, and similar efforts to centralise the police service such as the nationwide disbandment of specialised Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units.
The party adopted a resolution declaring farm attacks and murders as hate crimes at its 2020 Federal Congress.
Social development
Central to the DA's social development policy, "Breaking the Cycle of Poverty", is a Basic Income Grant, which would provide a monthly transfer of R110 to all adults earning less than R46,000 per year. The party also supports legislation that would require the legal guardians of children living in poverty to ensure that their child attends 85 per cent of school classes, and undergoes routine health check-ups.
In addition, to aid with youth development skills, the party proposed a R6000 opportunity voucher or twelve month community service programme to all high school matriculants. The party also supports a universal old age pension, and the abolishment of pension means tests.
Education
The DA's education programme, "Preparing for Success", focuses on providing adequate physical and human resources to underperforming schools. The DA supports guaranteed access to a core minimum of resources for each school, proper state school nutrition schemes for grade 1–12 learners, and measures to train 30,000 additional teachers per year. The DA continues to support the introduction of new performance targets for teachers and schools, and also advocates a per-child wage subsidy, and a national network of community-based early childhood education centres.
Health
The DA's "Quality Care for All" programme is focused on tackling the country's high HIV/AIDS infection rate. Included in these plans is an increase in the number of clinics offering HIV testing and measures to provide all HIV-positive women with Nevirapine. The party's health policy also plans to devote more resources to vaccinations against common childhood illnesses.
The party also advocates creating a transparent and competitive health sector, to boost service delivery and encourage health care practitioners to remain in the country.
Economy
The DA's economic policy aims to create a society in which all South Africans enjoy both the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, and the opportunities to take advantage of those freedoms. In its 2010 Federal Congress booklet, The Open Opportunity Society for All, the party describes this society in the following terms: "Opportunity is the vehicle with which people are empowered to live their lives, pursue their dreams and develop their full potential. And the DA believes that the role of the government is to provide every citizen with a minimum basic standard of quality services and resources with which to be able to do so – a framework for choice."
The DA therefore advocates a mixed-economy approach, where the state is involved in the economy only to the extent that it can expand opportunity and choice.
The manifesto includes various proposals detailing how a DA government would manage the economy and facilitate growth. The majority of the interventions suggested by the party are aimed at creating an atmosphere conducive to job creation and greater foreign direct investment.
The DA has suggested measures to make South Africa's labour market more amenable to job creation. The party has also suggested several targeted interventions to allow for higher employment, especially amongst the youth. These interventions include a wage subsidy programme to reduce the cost of hiring first-time workers.
The DA has committed itself to a counter-cyclical fiscal policy approach. This is evident in the party's previous alternative budget frameworks, with both alternative budgets posting deficits. The party defended this stance by arguing that increased spending was necessary to help the economy out of recession. Other fiscal interventions have included a proposed scrapping of value added tax (VAT) on books and tax rebates for crime prevention expenditure by businesses.
The DA supports an inflation-targeting monetary policy regime similar to that of the ANC government. It has also repeatedly reaffirmed its support and commitment for reserve bank instrument independence. The DA proposes to incentivise savings by reducing taxes on income earned from fixed deposits that are held for longer than twelve months. The party states that this would help South Africa to boost its domestic savings rate to enable the country to invest in projects that will provide additional job opportunities.
The party has rejected the ANC's approach to Black Economic Empowerment, with former party leader Helen Zille arguing that the current policies have only served to enrich a small elite of politically connected businessmen. The party proposed an alternative it calls broad-based economic empowerment, which would provide for targeted interventions focusing on skills training and socio-economic investment instead of ownership targets. The party believes that this approach will give a broader group of black South Africans an opportunity to compete and partake in the economy.
The party advocates an active industrial policy that allows the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to co-ordinate industrial policy. Additionally it would also set up a sovereign venture capital fund to help support innovation in key industries. The DA also supports the creation of Industrial Development Zones and Export Processing Zones. The party suggests that by relaxing certain regulations in these zones, manufacturers and exporters would be able to grow faster and employ more people. This fits into the party's broader vision of growing the economy by cutting red tape and regulations it claims is holding back South Africa's economic growth.
The DA has been against the introduction of a national minimum wage, arguing that workers should be allowed to accept a wage of less than R3500 on their own terms. In contrast, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the R3500 per month (R20 an hour) minimum wage was still not a living wage, and would only "advance the struggle for a living wage".
Land
The DA is resolutely against land expropriation without compensation. This is in response to the ANC and the EFF's recent attempts to change section 25 of the Constitution which deals with land reform. The DA says that changing the Constitution will open the floodgates and undermine property rights, allowing government to own all land and forcing all South Africans to be only permanent tenants of the land. The party says that it is committed to ensuring that those entitled to land receive it in the form of direct ownership, and not as lifelong tenants.
The DA's "Land of Opportunity" programme supports the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle, though it also allows for expropriation for reform purposes in certain limited circumstances. The party has been critical of the resources that government has allocated to land reform, claiming that government has not been sufficiently active in buying up land that comes onto the market. Though the DA believes this could speed up the pace of land reform, their policies have been vocally criticised by members of the Tripartite Alliance. Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza accused the DA of attempting to "stifle" land reform, while the South African Communist Party contended that the DA's policies overly favoured big business. In a speech at the DA's national congress in April 2018, DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane, praised DA Western Cape Provincial Leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela, for overseeing the delivery of 91 000 title deeds in the province and allowing residents to have full title deeds to their homes.
Environment and energy
In the build up to the 2009 elections, the DA announced it would create a new Ministry of Energy and Climate Change, to ensure improved integrated energy planning in order to deal with South Africa's growing carbon dioxide emissions. The DA's 2009 environment and energy plan, "In Trust for the Nation" proposed new measures to increase energy efficiency, and the introduction of sectoral carbon emission targets.
Electoral reform
The DA broadly supports reforms recommended by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert's electoral reform task-team, that would see the current party list voting system replaced by a 75% constituency-based/25% proportional representation-based electoral system that would apply at the national and provincial level. The DA's governance policy Promoting Open Opportunity Governance also makes provision for the direct election of the president, which would give voters a more direct link to the executive branch.
The DA believe voting rights should be extended to include all South African citizens who are living and working abroad, many of whom intend returning. Since 2013, South Africans living abroad can now register and vote in national elections.
Electoral performance
These charts show the electoral performance for the Democratic Alliance, and its predecessor the Democratic Party, since the advent of democracy in 1994:
National elections
National Assembly
|-
! Election
! Total votes
! Share of vote
! Seats
! +/–
! Government
|-
! 1994
| 338,426
| 1.73%
|
| –
|
|-
! 1999
| 1,527,337
| 9.56%
|
| 31
|
|-
! 2004
| 1,931,201
| 12.37%
|
| 12
|
|-
! 2009
| 2,945,829
| 16.66%
|
| 17
|
|-
! 2014
| 4,091,584
| 22.20%
|
| 22
|
|-
! 2019
| 3,621,188
| 20.77%
|
| 5
|
|}
National Council of Provinces
|-
! Election
! Total # ofseats won
! +/–
! Government
|-
! 1994
|
| –
|
|-
! 1999
|
| 5
|
|-
! 2004
|
| 4
|
|-
! 2009
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2014
|
| 7
|
|-
! 2019
|
| 0
|
|}
Provincial elections
! rowspan=2 | Election
! colspan=2 | Eastern Cape
! colspan=2 | Free State
! colspan=2 | Gauteng
! colspan=2 | Kwazulu-Natal
! colspan=2 | Limpopo
! colspan=2 | Mpumalanga
! colspan=2 | North-West
! colspan=2 | Northern Cape
! colspan=2 | Western Cape
|-
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
! % !! Seats
|-
! 1994
| 2.05% || 1/56
| 0.57% || 0/30
| 5.32% || 5/86
| 2.15% || 2/81
| 0.21% || 0/40
| 0.56% || 0/30
| 0.50% || 0/30
| 1.87% || 1/30
| 6.64% || 3/42
|-
! 1999
| 6.29% || 4/63
| 5.33% || 2/30
| 17.95% || 13/73
| 8.16% || 7/80
| 1.42% || 1/49
| 4.48% || 1/30
| 3.26% || 1/30
| 4.77% || 1/30
| 11.91% || 5/42
|-
! 2004
| 7.34% || 5/63
| 8.47% || 3/30
| 20.78% || 15/73
| 8.35% || 7/80
| 3.59% || 2/49
| 6.94% || 2/30
| 5.00% || 2/33
| 11.08% || 3/30
| 27.11% || 12/42
|-
! 2009
| 9.99% || 6/63
| 11.60% || 3/30
| 21.86% || 16/73
| 9.15% || 7/80
| 3.48% || 2/49
| 7.49% || 2/30
| 8.25% || 3/33
| 12.57% || 4/30
| 51.46% || 22/42
|-
! 2014
| 16.20% || 10/63
| 16.23% || 5/30
| 30.78% || 23/73
| 12.76% || 10/80
| 6.48% || 3/49
| 10.40% || 3/30
| 12.73% || 4/33
| 23.89% || 7/30
| 59.38% || 26/42
|-
! 2019
| 15.73% || 10/63
| 17.58% || 6/30
| 27.45% || 20/73
| 13.90% || 11/80
| 5.40% || 3/49
| 9.77% || 3/30
| 11.18% || 4/33
| 25.51% || 8/30
| 55.45% || 24/42
|}
Municipal election results
|-
! Election
! Ward + PR votes
! %
! +/–
|-
! 1995–96
| 302,006
| 3.48%
| –
|-
! 2000
| 3,816,909
| 22.1%
| 18.6
|-
! 2006
| 3,203,896
| 16.3%
| 5.8
|-
! 2011
| 6,393,886
| 23.9%
| 9.1
|-
! 2016
| 8,033,630
| 26.9%
| 3.0
|-
! 2021
| 5,082,664
| 21.66%
| 5.2
|}
Organisation and structure
Democratic Alliance Youth
The Democratic Alliance Youth (DA Youth), which came officially into being in late 2008, was first led by Makashule Gana until 2013, Mbali Ntuli led between 2013 and 2014, Yusuf Cassim led from 2014 to 2018 and Luyolo Mphithi led from 2018 to 2022. The current Interim Federal Leader, Nicholas Nyati, was elected at the Interim Democratic Alliance Youth Federal Congress in 2022. Robin Atson, Kamogelo Makola, Chadwin Petersen and Lindokuhle Sixabayi are the Interim DA Youth Federal Deputy Chaipersons in Administration, Recruitment, Training and Development, and Media and Publicity, respectively.
In the Gauteng Province, the first dually elected Democratic Alliance Youth Provincial Executive Committee took office in November 2017 after they were elected at the Gauteng Provincial Congress the same year. It consists of Pogiso Mthimunye (chairperson), Patrick Oberholster (deputy chairperson), Khathutshelo Rasilingwane (Recruitment and Campaigns) and Prudence Mollo (Training and Development).
In the North West Province of South Africa, Emi Koekemoer is the elected Provincial Chairperson while Henning Lubbe takes the role as Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Administration, Quinton Booysen fills the role of Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Recruitment and Campaigns, Percilla Mompe is the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Media and Publicity and Neo Mabote is the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Training and Development.
Democratic Alliance Women's Network
Until 28 April 2021, the Democratic Alliance Women's Network (DAWN) federal leader was Nomafrench Mbombo, who is also the current Western Cape Minister of Health. The deputy federal leader is Safiyia Stanfley.
According to the DAWN constitution:
DAWN will:
promote the empowerment and development of women and help build their self-confidence to stimulate and activate initiatives.
promote amongst women a consciousness of accountability, patriotism and unity.
promote women's participation in every sector of public life.
promote a healthy culture of the recognition of women's rights as human rights.
oppose violence against women wherever possible.
Each province has a provincial DAWN chairperson. The provincial chairpersons are as follows:
Eastern Cape: Georgina Faldtman
Free State: Deliwe Mvala-Majola
Gauteng: Stefanie Ueckermann
KwaZulu-Natal: Shehana Kajee
Limpopo: Désirée van der Walt
Mpumalanga: Annerie Weber
Northern Cape: Gizella Opperman
North-West: Obakeng Molefe
Western Cape: Wendy Philander
Democratic Alliance Abroad
The DA Abroad is the Democratic Alliance's supporters network for South Africans who live outside the South African border. The DA Abroad aims to grow the DA's overseas voter base, actively lobby for international awareness and influence for the furtherance of policies and action programmes of the DA and develop a global interconnected community that supports an open opportunity society for all.
The Democratic Alliance Abroad (DA Abroad) was officially launched in November 2009. Previously the DA Abroad was led by Ludre Stevens between 2009 and 2015 and then by Francine Higham between 2015 and 2019 with Morné Van der Waltsleben as Global Operations Chair from 2013 to 2017. Between 2019 and 2021 it was led by Rory Jubber with Nigel Bruce acting as chairperson. On 27 August 2021, Ludre Stevens was elected unopposed as DA Abroad Leader.
The DA Abroad has hubs in the UK, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia.
Democratic Alliance Young Leaders Programme
The DA's Young Leaders Programme (YLP) is a political leadership development programme for South Africans between the ages of 18 and 35.
See also
Liberalism
Contributions to liberal theory
Liberalism worldwide
List of liberal parties
Liberal democracy
Liberalism in South Africa
Anti-racism
Multi-Party Charter
Notes
References
Terreblanche, Christelle. "Zille says DA can win." IOL. 31 January 2009. (accessed 2 February 2009).
External links
List of articles & videos about the DA
Liberal International
Centrist parties in South Africa
Liberal parties in South Africa
Political parties in South Africa
Political parties supporting universal basic income
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social%20Democrats%20%28Denmark%29
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Social Democrats (Denmark)
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The Social Democrats (, ) is a social democratic political party in Denmark. A member of the Party of European Socialists (PES), the Social Democrats have 50 out of 179 members of the Danish parliament (following the latest Danish general election held in 2022), Folketing, and three out of fourteen MEPs elected from Denmark.
Founded by Louis Pio in 1871, the party first entered the Folketing in the 1884 Danish Folketing election. By the early 20th century, it had become the party with the largest representation in the Folketing, a distinction it would hold for 77 years. It first formed a government after the 1924 Danish Folketing election under Thorvald Stauning, the longest-serving Danish Prime Minister of the 20th century. During Stauning's government which lasted until the 1926 Danish Folketing election, the Social Democrats exerted a profound influence on Danish society, laying the foundation of the Danish welfare state. From 2002 to 2016, the party used the name Socialdemokraterne in some contexts. The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International from 1923 to 1940. A member of the Socialist International until 2017, the party withdrew to join the Progressive Alliance, founded in 2013.
The party was the major coalition partner in government from the 2011 Danish general election until the 2015 Danish general election, with then-party leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt as Prime Minister. After losing power in the 2015 election, Thorning-Schmidt was succeeded as party leader on 28 June 2015 by the former Vice Leader Mette Frederiksen, who shifted the party back to the political left on economics, while criticising mass immigration. Frederiksen led the party to win the 2019 and 2022 Danish general election, forming a single-party minority government from 2019–22 and a majority grand-coalition government with the centre-right Venstre and the centrist Moderates since 2022.
Overview
The party traces its own history back to the International Labour Association, founded in 1871 and banned in 1873, loosely re-organised in the Social Democratic Labour Party which in 1876 issued the Gimle program, but as a formal political party it was first founded from 11–12 February 1878 as the Social Democratic Federation. This name was formally carried by the party for almost a hundred years, although in practice it also used a number of other names until it changed its name to Social Democracy in 1965. At a congress in Aalborg in 2002, the party changed its name to the Social Democrats, but from 2016 again only Social Democracy is used.
The party has the letter A as a symbol, but the abbreviation S is often used in the media. The party's classic symbol is a red rose and in recent times an A in a red circle. Aside from the classical socialist red colour, the party has recently adopted a more light red colour called competition orange.
The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. It is now a member of the Progressive Alliance, an association of progressive social-democratic parties. The Social Democrats are also a member of the Party of European Socialists while the party's MEPs sit in the Socialists & Democrats group.
History
19th century
The party was founded as the International Labour Association of Denmark on 15 October 1871 by Louis Pio, Harald Brix and Paul Geleff. The goal was to organise the emerging working class on a democratic and socialist basis. The industrialisation of Denmark had begun in the mid-19th century and a period of rapid urbanisation had led to an emerging class of urban workers. The social-democratic movement emerged from the desire to give this group political rights and representation in the Folketing, the Danish parliament. In 1876, the party held an annual conference, adopting the first party manifesto.
The stated policy was as follows:
In 1884, the party had their first two members of parliament elected, namely Peter Thygesen Holm and Chresten Hørdum.
20th century
In 1906, the party created the Social Democratic Youth Association, lasting until 1920 when the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark and current party's youth wing was founded.
In the 1924 Danish Folketing election, the party won the majority with 36.6 percent of the vote and its first government was put in place with Thorvald Stauning as Prime Minister. That same year, he appointed Nina Bang as the world's first female minister, nine years after women's suffrage had been given in Denmark. Stauning stayed in power until his death in 1942, with his party laying the foundations for the Danish welfare state based on a close collaboration between labor unions and the government.
In January 1933, Stauning's government entered into what was then the most extensive settlement yet in Danish politics, namely the Kanslergade settlement () with the liberal party Venstre. The settlement was named after Stauning's apartment in Kanslergade in Copenhagen and included extensive agricultural subsidies and reforms of the legislation and administration in the social sector. In 1935, Stauning was reelected with the famous slogan "Stauning or Chaos".
Stauning's second cabinet lasted until the Nazi occupation of Denmark in 1940, when the cabinet was widened to include all political parties for a national unity government and the Danish government pursued a collaborative policy with the German occupiers. Through the 1940s and until 1972, most of Denmark's Prime Ministers were from the party.
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen government coalition: 1993–2001
The Social Democrats' social policy through the 1990s and continuing in the 21st century involved a significant redistribution of income and the maintenance of a large state apparatus with collectively financed core public services such as public healthcare, education and infrastructure.
Social Democrats-led coalition governments (the I, II, III and IV Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen) implemented the system known as flexicurity (flexibility and social security), mixing strong Scandinavian unemployment benefits with deregulated employment laws, making it easier for employers to fire and rehire people in order to encourage economic growth and reduce unemployment.
The Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen maintained a parliamentary majority during the period from 1993 to 2001 by virtue of their support from the Socialist People's Party and the Red–Green Alliance.
Towards the end of the 1990s, a trade surplus of 30 billion kroner (US$4.9 billion) turned into a deficit. To combat this, the government increased taxes, limiting private consumption. The 1998 initiative, dubbed the Whitsun Packet (Danish: Pinsepakken) from the season it was issued, was not universally popular with the electorate which may have been a factor in the Social Democrats' defeat in the 2001 Danish general election.
In opposition: 2001–2011
After being defeated by the Liberal Party in the 2001 Danish general election, the party chairmanship went to former finance and foreign minister Mogens Lykketoft. Following another defeat in the 2005 Danish general election, Lykketoft announced his resignation as party leader and at an extraordinary congress on 12 March it was decided that all members of the party would cast votes in an election of a new party leader. The two contenders for the leadership represented the two wings in the party, with Helle Thorning-Schmidt being viewed as centrist and Frank Jensen being viewed as slightly more left-leaning. On 12 April 2005, Thorning-Schmidt was elected as the new leader.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt government coalition: 2011–2015
In the 2011 Danish general election, the Social Democrats gained 44 seats in parliament, the lowest number since 1953. Nonetheless, the party succeeded in establishing a minority government with the Danish Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party. The incumbent centre-right coalition led by the Liberal Party lost power to a centre-left coalition led by the Social Democrats, making Thorning-Schmidt the country's first female Prime Minister. The Danish Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party became part of the three-party centre-left coalition government. The new parliament convened on 4 October. The government rolled back anti-immigration legislation enacted by the previous government and passed a tax-reform with support from the liberal-conservative opposition. The tax reform raised the top tax threshold, which had previously applied to over half the working population. The aim of the tax reform was to increase labour output to fend off a projected labour shortage within the next decades. The stated goal was to entice Danes to work more in order to compensate for the decreasing workforce by lowering tax on wages and gradually lowering welfare payments to those outside of the labour market to increase the economic benefit of working relative to receiving welfare.
On 3 February 2014, the Socialist People's Party left the government in protest over the sale of shares in the public energy company DONG Energy to the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Because of the government's minority status and of its dependency on the support of the Danish Social Liberal Party, the government had to jettison many of the policies that the Social Democrats–Socialist People's Party coalition had given during the campaign. Although critics have accused the government of breaking its promises, other studies argue that it accomplished half of its stated goals, blaming instead poor public relations strategies for its increasingly negative public image. The government pursued a centrist compromise agenda, building several reforms with support from both sides of the parliament. This caused friction with the supporting Red–Green Alliance, who were kept outside of influencing decisions.
In opposition: 2015–2019
In the 2015 Danish general election, the Social Democrats gained seats and became the biggest party in the parliament again since 2001, yet lost the government because the right-wing parties had a majority. The results of the 2015 election and the defeat of the left-bloc led Thorning-Schmidt to resign as Prime Minister on election night and making way for the next leader Mette Frederiksen. Under Frederiksen, the Social Democrats voted in favor of a law allowing Danish authorities to confiscate money, jewellery and other valuable items refugees crossing the border may have, despite harsh condemnation from the United Nations Human Right Council and widespread comparisons between the plan and the treatment of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Similarly, the Social Democrats voted for a law banning wearing of burqas and niqabs, while abstaining during a vote on a law on mandatory handshakes irrespective of religious sentiment at citizenship ceremonies and on a plan to house criminal asylum seekers on an island used for researching contagious animal diseases. Frederiksen has also backed the right-wing populist Danish People's Party in their paradigm shift push to make repatriation rather than social integration the goal of asylum policy. She has called for a cap on non-Western immigrants, expulsion of asylum seekers to a reception centre in North Africa and forced labour for immigrants in exchange for benefits. Labeling foreign policies of Europe as too economic liberal, Frederiksen has criticised other social democratic parties for losing their voters' trust by failing to prevent globalisation chipping away at labour rights, increasing inequality and exposing them to uncontrolled immigration.
2019–present: Frederiksen I and II
In the 2019 Danish general election, the Social Democrats gained one further seat and the opposition red bloc of left-wing and centre-left parties (the Social Democrats, the Danish Social Liberal Party, the Socialist People's Party and the Red–Green Alliance along with the Faroese Social Democratic Party and Greenland's Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut) won a majority of 93 out of 179 seats in the Folketing while support for the Danish People's Party and the Liberal Alliance collapsed, costing Lars Løkke Rasmussen his majority. With the result beyond doubt on election night, Rasmussen conceded defeat and Frederiksen has been commissioned by Queen Margrethe II to lead the negotiations to form a new government.
On 27 June 2019, Frederiksen was successful in forming the Frederiksen Cabinet, an exclusively Social Democrats minority government supported by the red bloc, becoming the second woman in the role after Thorning-Schmidt as well as the youngest Prime Minister in Danish history at the age of 41. Despite having run on an anti-immigration stance during the election, Frederiksen shifted her stance on immigration by allowing more foreign labour and reversing government plans to hold foreign criminals offshore after winning government.
Platform
Since its foundation, the lemma of the party has been "Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood" and these values are still described as central in the party program. In the political program, these values are described as being consistent with a focus on solidarity with the poorest and social welfare to those who need it, with individual responsibility in relation to other members in society and with an increased involvement in the European Union project.
As well as adopting more left-leaning economics, the party has become increasingly sceptical of mass immigration from a left-wing perspective in the late 2010s, as it believes it has had negative impacts for much of the population, a more pressing issue since at least 2001 after the 11 September attacks which intensified during the 2015 European migrant crisis. It also returned to a more sceptical view of economic liberalism, including the view that perception of adopting the Third Way and practicing centrist, neoliberal economics, and supporting unrestricted economic globalisation contributed to its poor electoral performance in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In a biography written before becoming the prime minister in 2019, Mette Frederiksen wrote: "For me, it is becoming increasingly clear that the price of unregulated globalisation, mass immigration and the free movement of labour is paid for by the lower classes."
Political leadership
The current Party Leader is Mette Frederiksen. She succeeded Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who stepped down after the left bloc's defeat in the 2015 Danish general election. Deputy Party Leaders are Lennart Damsbo-Andersen and Christian Rabjerg Madsen. The Secretary General is Annette Lind.
Prime ministers
Thorvald Stauning (1924–1926, 1929–1942)
Vilhelm Buhl (1942, 1945)
Hans Hedtoft (1947–1950, 1953–1955)
Hans Christian Hansen (1955–1960)
Viggo Kampmann (1960–1962)
Jens Otto Krag (1962–1968, 1971–1972)
Anker Jørgensen (1972–1973, 1975–1982)
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (1993–2001)
Helle Thorning-Schmidt (2011–2015)
Mette Frederiksen (2019–incumbent)
Leaders of the Social Democrats
Election results
The Social Democrats governed Denmark for most of the 20th century, with a few intermissions such as the Conservative People's Party-led government of Poul Schlüter in the 1980s. It continued to be Denmark's largest party until 2001 when Anders Fogh Rasmussen's liberal Venstre party gained a landslide victory, becoming the largest party and forming a centre-right government. The Social Democrats returned to government from 2011 to 2015 and since 2019.
Parliament
Local elections
European Parliament elections
Representation
Folketing
At the 2019 election the Social Democrats won 48 seats in parliament. Henrik Sass Larsen was originally elected, but resigned his seat on 30 September 2019, after which Tanja Larsson took over his seat. Ida Auken was originally elected as a member of the Socialist People's Party, but switched to the Social Democrats on 29 January 2021.
European Parliament
At the 2019 European Parliament election the Social Democrats won 3 seats. The Social Democrats are part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.
Niels Fuglsang
Christel Schaldemose
Marianne Vind
Nordic Council
4 of the 16 Danish members of the Nordic Council are members of the Social Democrats. The members of the Nordic Council are not elected by the public, but instead chosen by the parliamentary party groups. The Social Democrats are part of The Social Democratic Group in the Nordic Council.
Orla Hav
Anders Kronborg
Henrik Møller
Kasper Roug
Youth wings
The Social Democratic Youth of Denmark (Danish: Danmarks Socialdemokratiske Ungdom) is the Social Democrats' youth wing. It was founded on 8 February 1920 and is an independent organization from the Social Democrats. This allows them to formulate their own policies and make their own campaigns. Prominent Social Democrats beginning their political work in the Social Democratic Youth include prime ministers Hans Hedtoft, H. C. Hansen, Jens Otto Krag, Anker Jørgensen and Mette Frederiksen, as well as ministers Per Hækkerup and Morten Bødskov.
Frit Forum is the Social Democrats' student organization. It was founded in 1943 in Copenhagen. It has since 1973 been organizationally part of Social Democratic Youth. Prominent members previously leading Frit Forum include prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and other leaders of the Social Democrats Mogens Lykketoft and Svend Auken.
Notes
See also
Politics of Denmark
References
External links
Official website
1871 establishments in Denmark
Members of the Labour and Socialist International
Centre-left parties in Europe
Party of European Socialists member parties
Political parties established in 1871
Progressive Alliance
Second International
Social democratic parties in Europe
Socialist parties in Denmark
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403150
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish%20People%27s%20Party
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Danish People's Party
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The Danish People's Party (, DF or sometimes in English DPP) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Denmark. It was formed in 1995 by former members of the Progress Party (FrP).
The party saw a period of significant growth after its founding and lent its support to the –Conservative People's Party coalition government that ruled from the general election of 2001 until the 2011 election defeat. While not part of the cabinet, DF cooperated closely with the governing coalition on most issues and received support for key political stances in return, to the point that the government was commonly referred to as the "VKO-government" (O being DF's election symbol). It also provided parliamentary support to Lars Løkke Rasmussen's cabinets from 2016 to 2019, again without participating in it. In the 2014 European Parliament election in Denmark, DF secured 27% of the vote as part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. This was followed by receiving 21% of the vote in the 2015 general election, becoming the second largest party in Denmark for the first time.
However, since 2015 the party has since seen a decline in support, falling to 3rd place and 10.8% of the vote in the 2019 European Parliament election in Denmark, and to just 8.7% in the 2019 Danish general election, resulting in a loss of 21 seats and a return to opposition. The party would later lose over half of its seats in the 2021 Danish local elections, losing 130 of the 221 it held before the election, achieving just 4.1% of the vote. Some commentators attributed the losses to internal conditions within the party and conflicts with the leadership, its perceived indecisiveness in government and rival parties adopting many of its policy ideas. The DF would also suffer a number of defections during 2022 following the rise of the Denmark Democrats party which many former DF members and supporters joined. It would receive its worst general election result ever in 2022, when it only won five seats. , due to defections from Nye Borgerlige, DF now has seven of the seats in the Danish Folketing.
History
The party's popularity has grown since its inception, taking 25 seats in the 179-member Folketing in the 2007 parliamentary election (13.8% of the vote, remaining the third largest party in Denmark). In the 2011 parliamentary election, while maintaining its position as the third largest party, DF received 12.3% of the vote, marking its first electoral decline.
Kjærsgaard leadership (1995–2012)
Early years (1995–2001)
The Danish People's Party was founded on 6 October 1995, after Pia Kjærsgaard, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, broke out from the Progress Party. Its first national convention was held in Vissenbjerg on 1 June 1996, where Pia Kjærsgaard was unanimously elected as the party's chairman. The party was established in protest over the "anarchistic conditions" of the Progress Party, and its "all or nothing" policies. It was initially seen by many as a "clone" of the Progress Party, but this was soon proved false. In a struggle to be respected as a responsible party able to cooperate with others and distance it from the conditions in the Progress Party, the leadership of the party struck down criticism from its members by means of expulsions. The party saw a highly centralized party leadership as necessary, as it would not tolerate internal conflicts and disagreements with the official strategy.
The party was the first successful parliamentary party in the Nordic countries to relate philosophically more closely to the French Nouvelle Droite, than to the previous Nordic form of right-wing populism. DF represented a synthesis of several political currents: the Lutheran movement Tidehverv and its related journal, an intellectual nationalist right from the Danish Association (Den Danske Forening) and conservative populists from the Progress Party.
In 1997, the party won about 7% in the municipal elections, and did very well in traditional left-wing municipalities, potentially rivaling the Social Democrats. By 1998, the party had 2,500 registered members. The party made its electoral debut in the 1998 Danish parliamentary election, winning 13 seats and 7.4% of the vote. The party was, however, left with no influence in the formation of a government; it was shut out in large part due to the perception that it was not stuerent (i.e. not acceptable or "housebroken").
Venstre-Conservative coalitions (2001–2011)
In the 2001 election, the party won 12% of the vote and 22 seats in parliament. It became the third largest party in the parliament, giving them a key position, as they would have a parliamentary majority together with the Conservative People's Party and . DF was favoured by these parties, as it had supported the candidate for Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, during the election campaign. Eventually, it gave its parliamentary support for a -Conservative coalition government, headed by Prime Minister Rasmussen, in exchange for the implementation of some of their key demands, first and foremost stricter policies on immigration. The party had a key role in writing the rules and conditions for immigration in the immigration law that was established by the government in May 2002, which it called "Europe's strictest".
In the 2005 election the party further increased their vote, and won 13.2% of the vote and 24 seats. With young first-time voters the party was even more popular, receiving one fifth of their votes. The party continued to support the government, and developed a broader policy base, as it made welfare policies its core issue, together with immigration policies.
In 2006, the party's popularity rose dramatically in opinion polls following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, at the expense of the Social Democrats. The average of all monthly national polls showed DF gaining seven seats in parliament from January to February, with the Social Democrats losing an equal number. This effect, however, somewhat waned with the falling media attention to the cartoons controversy.
In the 2007 parliamentary election, DF won 13.9% and 25 seats, and again continued to support the Conservative-Liberal government. Thus, in every election since its founding the party has had a steady growth, although the growth rate has stagnated somewhat in recent years. Parties in the political centre, particularly the newly founded New Alliance had sought to become the kingmaker and be able to isolate the immigration policies of DF, but eventually failed. The party was a member of the Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy (MELD).
In the 2009 elections for the European Parliament the prime candidate for the party, Morten Messerschmidt, won his seat in a landslide with 284,500 personal votes (most votes for any single candidate by any party); thus giving the party a second seat (which went to Anna Rosbach Andersen). The party made a breakthrough from its previous results in European elections, more than doubling its vote to 15.3%, and receiving 2 MEPs.
On 15 September 2012, Kristian Thuesen Dahl succeeded Kjærsgaard as chairman.
Thulesen Dahl leadership (2012–2022)
During the 2015 election the DF won 21.08% of the national vote under the leadership of Kristian Thulesen Dahl, the highest since its founding and gained 37 seats putting the party in second place. In the aftermath, the party entered negotiations with to again provide parliamentary support in return for stricter policies on immigration and the EU. A minority government headed by Lars Løkke Rasmussen was subsequently formed with the DF, the Liberal Alliance and the Conservative People's Party providing support.
The party suffered a major defeat in the 2019 election, recording its worst result since 1998. It won just 8.7% of the vote and 16 seats, a net loss of 21 seats since 2015; it fell to third place, just narrowly outpolling the Social Liberals. Some journalists and political commentators opined that the DF's loss in support was as a result of the party's refusal and indecisiveness on taking direct part in government and the main parties including the Social Democrats adopting many of the DF's policies on immigration and integration.
In January 2022, Dahl stood down as leader and was replaced by Morten Messerschmidt in a leadership election where he won 499 out of the 828 delegators' votes against two other candidates. After Messerschmidt a total of 11 out of 16 MPs had in June left the party including Thuelsen Dahl who was the only one of them who passed on his seat to the next in line.
Messerschmidt leadership (2022–present)
At the 2022 election, the party suffered its worst election result ever with 2.6% of the vote, equal to 5 seats. In December 2022, Morten Messerschmidt was acquitted of all charges related to prior allegations of misuse of EU funds according to several political analysts and commentators, paving the way for a restoration of the party. During January and February 2023, Mikkel Bjørn and Mette Thiesen, who were both elected for Nye Borgerlige, joined the Danish People's Party, increasing its seat count to seven.
Policies
DF is a nationalist and right-wing populist party. It is positioned on the right wing of the political spectrum. The DF's stated goals are to protect the freedom and cultural heritage of the Danish people, including the family, the Monarchy and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark, to enforce a strict rule of law, to work against Denmark becoming a multi-cultural society by limiting immigration and promoting cultural assimilation of admitted immigrants, to maintain a strong welfare system for those in need, and to promote entrepreneurship and economic growth by strengthening education and encouraging people to work, to protect the environment and natural resources, and to protect Danish sovereignty against the European Union. In comparison to its predecessor, the Progress Party, the DF focuses more on immigration, while at the same time being more pragmatic on other topics. While overall considered part of the radical right, its policies on most economic issues would rather place the party in the centre to centre-left. The party's former leader, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, once declared DF an anti-Muslim party.
Immigration
DF is opposed to immigration. The party holds that Denmark is not naturally a country of immigration. The party also does not accept a multi-ethnic transformation of Denmark, and rejects multiculturalism. Former party leader Pia Kjærsgaard stated she did "not want Denmark as a multiethnic, multicultural society", and that a multiethnic Denmark would be a "national disaster". The party seeks to drastically reduce non-Western immigration, opposes and favors cultural assimilation of immigrants from all religions. In 2010, the party proposed to put a complete stop to all immigration from non-Western countries, a continuation of a proposal the month before to toughen the 24-year rule. They do, however, make the distinction between immigrants, those who intend to stay in Denmark permanently, and refugees, those that will only be in Denmark for the duration of the conflict, but ultimately intend to return home. The party has stated that it is more than happy to help those in need, but have a moral responsibility to the people of Denmark to keep Denmark Danish.
Cooperation with the Conservative-Liberal coalition government resulted in the implementation of some of their key demands, most importantly strong restrictions in immigration policies, which have resulted in what is often described as Europe's strictest immigration laws. The new government enacted rules that prevented Danish citizens and others from bringing a foreign spouse into the country unless both partners were aged 24 or above, passed a solvency test showing the Dane had not claimed social security for 12 months, and could lodge a bond of 60,011 kroner (about US$10,100). One declared aim of this was to fight arranged marriages. These new rules had the effect that while about 8,151 family reunification permits were granted in 2002, the number had fallen to 3,525 by 2005. Some social benefits for refugees were also cut by 30-40% during their first seven years in power. Ordinary unemployment benefits were replaced by a reduced "start-up aid". Whereas the government coalition's declared aim with this was to improve integration by inciting people to work, immigration spokesman Søren Krarup of DF has expressed his content in that the start-up aid has decreased the number of economic refugees greatly, showing them that "one does not find gold on the street, as has been told out in the third world". Nevertheless, total immigration increased post implementation of the migration reforms.
Other domestic
The party wants to improve conditions for the elderly and disabled, and advocates stricter punishments for crimes such as rape, violence, sexual abuse, reckless driving, and cruelty to animals. It supports grants for specific research into terrorism, Islamism, and Cold War history as well as increased defense spending. It also wants to maintain the Danish monarchy and the current Danish constitution, and to abolish the 'hate speech' clause in the Danish criminal code.
Foreign
The party opposes a cession of Denmark's sovereignty to the European Union and opposes further EU integration and Eurofederalism. It also opposes the Euro currency and wants to maintain the Danish krone. It is also against the potential accession of Turkey to the European Union. DF is Eurosceptic.
The party initially voted in favour of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but in 2014, the foreign affairs spokesman Søren Espersen said this support had been mistaken and that the rule of former dictator Saddam Hussein was "far preferable" to the events that followed. He claimed the party had "blindly followed" Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the time of the invasion.
The party supported Danish enforcement of a no-fly zone during the 2011 military intervention in Libya, but was initially sceptical of proposals for direct Danish military involvement. The party later supported the decision out of solidarity with NATO. The party leadership subsequently supported extending the Danish mission in Libya, despite the disagreement of its defense spokesman Ib Poulsen. Three years after the intervention, foreign affairs spokesman Espersen stated the party's support for the intervention was a "mistake" and predicated on a misunderstanding of the ideology of the Libyan rebels.
The party supported Danish participation in France's Operation Serval against Islamist fighters in Mali. However, it opposed proposals for Danish involvement in the Syrian Civil War.
The party seeks international recognition of Taiwan and supports Taiwan in its disputes with the People's Republic of China. In 2007, the party opposed the Danish government's plan to recognise the independence of Kosovo, and maintained the territorial integrity of Serbia. The DF is supportive of Israel and opposes the recognition of Palestine on the grounds that there is no effective Palestinian state, and wants to move the Danish embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The DF also supports Danish membership of NATO.
Analysis of vote
An analysis by the trade union SiD after the 2001 election stated that among unskilled workers aged under 40, 30% voted for DF and only 25% for the Social Democrats.
Decreased importance of "economic cleavage": Several authors believe that the political "cleavages" of European societies have changed over recent decades Contemporary Western European democracies are characterized by two major cleavage dimensions: the economic cleavage dimension, which pits workers against the capital, and which concerns the degree of state involvement in the economy, and the socio-cultural cleavage dimension.
Referendums brought the rejection of the Maastricht Treaty and the Euro. The DF has managed to harness this scepticism more effectively than others.
One feature, compared to other Danish parties, is that the Danish People's Party is usually underrepresented by about 1-1.5% in opinion polls. Election researchers have suggested that the party's voters may be less interested in politics, and therefore declining to talk to pollsters, or that voters are reluctant to reveal their support for the party to pollsters.
Leaders
The party has had the following leaders since its foundation:
Election results
Parliament
Local elections
European Parliament
Notes
See also
Politics of Denmark
References
Sources
External links
Dansk Folkeparti - Official site
The Party Program of the Danish People's Party Official website (page in English).
European Conservatives and Reformists member parties
Political parties established in 1995
1995 establishments in Denmark
Anti-Islam political parties in Europe
Nationalist parties in Denmark
Eurosceptic parties in Denmark
Far-right politics in Denmark
Anti-Islam sentiment in Denmark
Right-wing populism in Denmark
Right-wing populist parties
Anti-immigration politics in Europe
Social conservative parties
National conservative parties
Conservative parties in Denmark
Right-wing parties in Europe
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403165
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum%20flow%20problem
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Maximum flow problem
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In optimization theory, maximum flow problems involve finding a feasible flow through a flow network that obtains the maximum possible flow rate.
The maximum flow problem can be seen as a special case of more complex network flow problems, such as the circulation problem. The maximum value of an s-t flow (i.e., flow from source s to sink t) is equal to the minimum capacity of an s-t cut (i.e., cut severing s from t) in the network, as stated in the max-flow min-cut theorem.
History
The maximum flow problem was first formulated in 1954 by T. E. Harris and F. S. Ross as a simplified model of Soviet railway traffic flow.
In 1955, Lester R. Ford, Jr. and Delbert R. Fulkerson created the first known algorithm, the Ford–Fulkerson algorithm. In their 1955 paper, Ford and Fulkerson wrote that the problem of Harris and Ross is formulated as follows (see p. 5):Consider a rail network connecting two cities by way of a number of intermediate cities, where each link of the network has a number assigned to it representing its capacity. Assuming a steady state condition, find a maximal flow from one given city to the other.In their book Flows in Network, in 1962, Ford and Fulkerson wrote:It was posed to the authors in the spring of 1955 by T. E. Harris, who, in conjunction with General F. S. Ross (Ret.), had formulated a simplified model of railway traffic flow, and pinpointed this particular problem as the central one suggested by the model [11].where [11] refers to the 1955 secret report Fundamentals of a Method for Evaluating Rail net Capacities by Harris and Ross (see p. 5).
Over the years, various improved solutions to the maximum flow problem were discovered, notably the shortest augmenting path algorithm of Edmonds and Karp and independently Dinitz; the blocking flow algorithm of Dinitz; the push-relabel algorithm of Goldberg and Tarjan; and the binary blocking flow algorithm of Goldberg and Rao. The algorithms of Sherman and Kelner, Lee, Orecchia and Sidford, respectively, find an approximately optimal maximum flow but only work in undirected graphs.
In 2013 James B. Orlin published a paper describing an algorithm.
In 2022 Li Chen, Rasmus Kyng, Yang P. Liu, Richard Peng, Maximilian Probst Gutenberg, and Sushant Sachdeva published an almost-linear time algorithm running in for the minimum-cost flow problem of which for the maximum flow problem is a particular case. For the single-source shortest path (SSSP) problem with negative weights another particular case of minimum-cost flow problem an algorithm in almost-linear time has also been reported. Both algorithms were deemed best papers at the 2022 Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science.
Definition
First we establish some notation:
Let be a network with being the source and the sink of respectively.
If is a function on the edges of then its value on is denoted by or
Definition. The capacity of an edge is the maximum amount of flow that can pass through an edge. Formally it is a map
Definition. A flow is a map that satisfies the following:
Capacity constraint. The flow of an edge cannot exceed its capacity, in other words: for all
Conservation of flows. The sum of the flows entering a node must equal the sum of the flows exiting that node, except for the source and the sink. Or:
Remark. Flows are skew symmetric: for all
Definition. The value of flow is the amount of flow passing from the source to the sink. Formally for a flow it is given by:
Definition. The maximum flow problem is to route as much flow as possible from the source to the sink, in other words find the flow with maximum value.
Note that several maximum flows may exist, and if arbitrary real (or even arbitrary rational) values of flow are permitted (instead of just integers), there is either exactly one maximum flow, or infinitely many, since there are infinitely many linear combinations of the base maximum flows. In other words, if we send units of flow on edge in one maximum flow, and units of flow on in another maximum flow, then for each we can send units on and route the flow on remaining edges accordingly, to obtain another maximum flow. If flow values can be any real or rational numbers, then there are infinitely many such values for each pair .
Algorithms
The following table lists algorithms for solving the maximum flow problem.
Here, and denote the number of vertices and edges of the network.
The value refers to the largest edge capacity after rescaling all capacities to integer values
(if the network contains irrational capacities, may be infinite).
For additional algorithms, see .
Integral flow theorem
The integral flow theorem states that
If each edge in a flow network has integral capacity, then there exists an integral maximal flow.
The claim is not only that the value of the flow is an integer, which follows directly from the max-flow min-cut theorem, but that the flow on every edge is integral. This is crucial for many combinatorial applications (see below), where the flow across an edge may encode whether the item corresponding to that edge is to be included in the set sought or not.
Application
Multi-source multi-sink maximum flow problem
Given a network with a set of sources and a set of sinks instead of only one source and one sink, we are to find the maximum flow across . We can transform the multi-source multi-sink problem into a maximum flow problem by adding a consolidated source connecting to each vertex in and a consolidated sink connected by each vertex in (also known as supersource and supersink) with infinite capacity on each edge (See Fig. 4.1.1.).
Maximum cardinality bipartite matching
Given a bipartite graph , we are to find a maximum cardinality matching in , that is a matching that contains the largest possible number of edges. This problem can be transformed into a maximum flow problem by constructing a network , where
contains the edges in directed from to .
for each and for each .
for each (See Fig. 4.3.1).
Then the value of the maximum flow in is equal to the size of the maximum matching in , and a maximum cardinality matching can be found by taking those edges that have flow in an integral max-flow.
Minimum path cover in directed acyclic graph
Given a directed acyclic graph , we are to find the minimum number of vertex-disjoint paths to cover each vertex in . We can construct a bipartite graph from , where
.
Then it can be shown that has a matching of size if and only if has a vertex-disjoint path cover containing edges and paths, where is the number of vertices in . Therefore, the problem can be solved by finding the maximum cardinality matching in instead.
Assume we have found a matching of , and constructed the cover from it. Intuitively, if two vertices are matched in , then the edge is contained in . Clearly the number of edges in is . To see that is vertex-disjoint, consider the following:
Each vertex in can either be non-matched in , in which case there are no edges leaving in ; or it can be matched, in which case there is exactly one edge leaving in . In either case, no more than one edge leaves any vertex in .
Similarly for each vertex in – if it is matched, there is a single incoming edge into in ; otherwise has no incoming edges in .
Thus no vertex has two incoming or two outgoing edges in , which means all paths in are vertex-disjoint.
To show that the cover has size , we start with an empty cover and build it incrementally. To add a vertex to the cover, we can either add it to an existing path, or create a new path of length zero starting at that vertex. The former case is applicable whenever either and some path in the cover starts at , or and some path ends at . The latter case is always applicable. In the former case, the total number of edges in the cover is increased by 1 and the number of paths stays the same; in the latter case the number of paths is increased and the number of edges stays the same. It is now clear that after covering all vertices, the sum of the number of paths and edges in the cover is . Therefore, if the number of edges in the cover is , the number of paths is .
Maximum flow with vertex capacities
Let be a network. Suppose there is capacity at each node in addition to edge capacity, that is, a mapping such that the flow has to satisfy not only the capacity constraint and the conservation of flows, but also the vertex capacity constraint
In other words, the amount of flow passing through a vertex cannot exceed its capacity. To find the maximum flow across , we can transform the problem into the maximum flow problem in the original sense by expanding . First, each is replaced by and , where is connected by edges going into and is connected to edges coming out from , then assign capacity to the edge connecting and (see Fig. 4.4.1). In this expanded network, the vertex capacity constraint is removed and therefore the problem can be treated as the original maximum flow problem.
Maximum number of paths from s to t
Given a directed graph and two vertices and , we are to find the maximum number of paths from to . This problem has several variants:
1. The paths must be edge-disjoint. This problem can be transformed to a maximum flow problem by constructing a network from , with and being the source and the sink of respectively, and assigning each edge a capacity of . In this network, the maximum flow is iff there are edge-disjoint paths.
2. The paths must be independent, i.e., vertex-disjoint (except for and ). We can construct a network from with vertex capacities, where the capacities of all vertices and all edges are . Then the value of the maximum flow is equal to the maximum number of independent paths from to .
3. In addition to the paths being edge-disjoint and/or vertex disjoint, the paths also have a length constraint: we count only paths whose length is exactly , or at most . Most variants of this problem are NP-complete, except for small values of .
Closure problem
A closure of a directed graph is a set of vertices C, such that no edges leave C. The closure problem is the task of finding the maximum-weight or minimum-weight closure in a vertex-weighted directed graph. It may be solved in polynomial time using a reduction to the maximum flow problem.
Real world applications
Baseball elimination
In the baseball elimination problem there are n teams competing in a league. At a specific stage of the league season, wi is the number of wins and ri is the number of games left to play for team i and rij is the number of games left against team j. A team is eliminated if it has no chance to finish the season in the first place. The task of the baseball elimination problem is to determine which teams are eliminated at each point during the season. Schwartz proposed a method which reduces this problem to maximum network flow. In this method a network is created to determine whether team k is eliminated.
Let G = (V, E) be a network with being the source and the sink respectively. One adds a game nodeij – which represents the number of plays between these two teams. We also add a team node for each team and connect each game node with i < j to V, and connects each of them from s by an edge with capacity rij – which represents the number of plays between these two teams. We also add a team node for each team and connect each game node with two team nodes i and j to ensure one of them wins. One does not need to restrict the flow value on these edges. Finally, edges are made from team node i to the sink node t and the capacity of is set to prevent team i from winning more than .
Let S be the set of all teams participating in the league and let
.
In this method it is claimed team k is not eliminated if and only if a flow value of size r(S − {k}) exists in network G. In the mentioned article it is proved that this flow value is the maximum flow value from s to t.
Airline scheduling
In the airline industry a major problem is the scheduling of the flight crews. The airline scheduling problem can be considered as an application of extended maximum network flow. The input of this problem is a set of flights F which contains the information about where and when each flight departs and arrives. In one version of airline scheduling the goal is to produce a feasible schedule with at most k crews.
To solve this problem one uses a variation of the circulation problem called bounded circulation which is the generalization of network flow problems, with the added constraint of a lower bound on edge flows.
Let G = (V, E) be a network with as the source and the sink nodes. For the source and destination of every flight i, one adds two nodes to V, node si as the source and node di as the destination node of flight i. One also adds the following edges to E:
An edge with capacity [0, 1] between s and each si.
An edge with capacity [0, 1] between each di and t.
An edge with capacity [1, 1] between each pair of si and di.
An edge with capacity [0, 1] between each di and sj, if source sj is reachable with a reasonable amount of time and cost from the destination of flight i.
An edge with capacity [0, ∞] between s and t.
In the mentioned method, it is claimed and proved that finding a flow value of k in G between s and t is equal to finding a feasible schedule for flight set F with at most k crews.
Another version of airline scheduling is finding the minimum needed crews to perform all the flights. To find an answer to this problem, a bipartite graph is created where each flight has a copy in set A and set B. If the same plane can perform flight j after flight i, is connected to . A matching in induces a schedule for F and obviously maximum bipartite matching in this graph produces an airline schedule with minimum number of crews. As it is mentioned in the Application part of this article, the maximum cardinality bipartite matching is an application of maximum flow problem.
Circulation–demand problem
There are some factories that produce goods and some villages where the goods have to be delivered. They are connected by a networks of roads with each road having a capacity for maximum goods that can flow through it. The problem is to find if there is a circulation that satisfies the demand.
This problem can be transformed into a maximum-flow problem.
Add a source node and add edges from it to every factory node with capacity where is the production rate of factory .
Add a sink node and add edges from all villages to with capacity where is the demand rate of village .
Let G = (V, E) be this new network. There exists a circulation that satisfies the demand if and only if :
.
If there exists a circulation, looking at the max-flow solution would give the answer as to how much goods have to be sent on a particular road for satisfying the demands.
The problem can be extended by adding a lower bound on the flow on some edges.
Image segmentation
In their book, Kleinberg and Tardos present an algorithm for segmenting an image. They present an algorithm to find the background and the foreground in an image. More precisely, the algorithm takes a bitmap as an input modelled as follows: ai ≥ 0 is the likelihood that pixel i belongs to the foreground, bi ≥ 0 in the likelihood that pixel i belongs to the background, and pij is the penalty if two adjacent pixels i and j are placed one in the foreground and the other in the background. The goal is to find a partition (A, B) of the set of pixels that maximize the following quantity
,
Indeed, for pixels in A (considered as the foreground), we gain ai; for all pixels in B (considered as the background), we gain bi. On the border, between two adjacent pixels i and j, we loose pij. It is equivalent to minimize the quantity
because
We now construct the network whose nodes are the pixel, plus a source and a sink, see Figure on the right. We connect the source to pixel i by an edge of weight ai. We connect the pixel i to the sink by an edge of weight bi. We connect pixel i to pixel j with weight pij. Now, it remains to compute a minimum cut in that network (or equivalently a maximum flow). The last figure shows a minimum cut.
Extensions
1. In the minimum-cost flow problem, each edge (u,v) also has a cost-coefficient auv in addition to its capacity. If the flow through the edge is fuv, then the total cost is auvfuv. It is required to find a flow of a given size d, with the smallest cost. In most variants, the cost-coefficients may be either positive or negative. There are various polynomial-time algorithms for this problem.
2. The maximum-flow problem can be augmented by disjunctive constraints: a negative disjunctive constraint says that a certain pair of edges cannot simultaneously have a nonzero flow; a positive disjunctive constraints says that, in a certain pair of edges, at least one must have a nonzero flow. With negative constraints, the problem becomes strongly NP-hard even for simple networks. With positive constraints, the problem is polynomial if fractional flows are allowed, but may be strongly NP-hard when the flows must be integral.
References
Further reading
Network flow problem
Computational problems in graph theory
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403169
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington%20State%20Department%20of%20Corrections
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Washington State Department of Corrections
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The Washington State Department of Corrections (WADOC) is a department of the government of the state of Washington. WADOC is responsible for administering adult corrections programs operated by the State of Washington. This includes state correctional institutions and programs for people supervised in the community. Its headquarters are in Tumwater, Washington.
History
The modern Washington Department of Corrections is a relatively young state agency. Agency oversight of correctional institutions in Washington State went through several transitions during the 20th century before the WADOC's creation in 1981.
Prior to the 1970s, state correctional facilities were managed by the Washington Department of Institutions. governor Daniel J. Evans consolidated the Department of Institutions, Department of Public Assistance & Vocational Rehabilitation, and other related departments into the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in the 1970s.
On July 1, 1981, the Washington State Legislature transferred the administration of adult correctional institutions from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Adult Corrections (DSHS) to the newly created Washington State Department of Corrections as part of the 1981 Corrections Reform Act.
Organizational structure
The Washington Department of Corrections organizational structure includes six major divisions:
Women’s Prisons
Men’s Prisons
Community Corrections
Administrative Operations
Health Services
Reentry
Each division has an assistant secretary who oversees the division's operations.
The secretary of corrections is the executive head of the department. The secretary is appointed by the governor with the consent of the state Senate.
Department facilities
Prisons
The department currently operates 12 adult prisons, of which 10 are male institutions and two are female institutions. The department confines over 12,000 people in these facilities, with each varying in size and mission across the state.
Work releases
The department currently has 12 work release facilities. All but two of these facilities are operated by contractors, who manage the daily safety and security and have oversight of the facilities full-time (24 hours a day, 7 days per week). Department staff are located on site to assist in supervision, monitoring, and case management of those under supervision, as well as monitoring of the contracts.
Formerly incarcerated people housed in work release facilities have progressed from full confinement to partial confinement, and are required to seek, secure, and maintain employment in the community, as well as pay for their room and board. This model is designed to provide some foundation for employment and housing when the formerly incarcerated are released to communities. However, a 2015 Washington Supreme Court Minority and Justice Commission symposium revealed that reentry resources for formerly incarcerated people in Washington State are still severely underfunded and disconnected.
Field offices
Community Supervision occurs at 86 varied locations in the community to include: field offices, community justice centers, Community Oriented Policing (COP) Shops and outstations. Activities of supervised people in the community are monitored, which includes home visits, by a Community Corrections Officer to ensure compliance with court, or known as the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board, which was the Washington State Board of Prison Terms and Paroles (ISRB), only those individuals who have been deemed rehabilitated by the ISRB are placed on Parole and department conditions of supervision, such as Community Supervision and/or Community Custody.
Death row
In 2014, Governor Jay Inslee announced a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in Washington State. According to Inslee, "Equal justice under the law is the state's primary responsibility. And in death penalty cases, I'm not convinced equal justice is being served. The use of the death penalty in this state is unequally applied, sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred." The moratorium means that if a death penalty case comes to the governor's desk for action, he will issue a reprieve. However, this action does not commute the sentences of those on death row or issue any pardons. The majority of Washington's death penalty sentences are overturned and those convicted of capital offenses are rarely executed, indicating questionable sentencing in many cases. Since 1981, the year Washington State's current capital laws were put in place, 32 defendants have been sentenced to die. Of those, 18 have had their sentences converted to life in prison and one was set free.
Prior to Inslee's moratorium, Washington's capital punishment law required that capital punishment imposed by the state's courts be carried out at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Procedures for conducting executions are supervised by the Penitentiary Superintendent. Washington utilizes two methods of execution: lethal injection and hanging. Lethal injection is used unless the inmate under sentence of death chooses hanging as the preferred execution method.
Within 10 days of a trial court entering a judgment and sentence imposing the death penalty, male defendants under sentence of death are transferred to the Penitentiary, where they remain in a segregation unit [Intensive Management Unit North (IMU-N) at the prison] pending appeals and until a death warrant is issued setting the date for the execution. Female defendants under sentence of death are housed at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor before being transferred to the Penitentiary no later than 72 hours prior to a scheduled execution, also housed in IMU North, although the execution chamber is located in Unit 6.
78 persons have been executed in Washington since 1904, the most recent being Cal Coburn Brown, in 2010.
Correctional Industries
The Washington Department of Corrections revenue-generating, industry job training, and factory food production branch is Washington State Correctional Industries. It is a member of the National Correctional Industries Association.
Correctional Industries began centralizing food production at the Airway Heights Correctional Center in 1995. In the years since, freshly cooked food for incarcerated people in Washington prisons has gradually and in large part been replaced by factory processed, prepackaged food.
Private contracts
Private prisons
On May 21, 2015, The GEO Group announced the signing of a contract with the Washington Department of Corrections for the out-of-state housing of up to 1,000 prisoners at the company-owned North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, with a contract term of five years inclusive of renewal option periods.
Food vendors
Under the Washington state Food Umbrella Contract, WA DOC's Correctional Industries procures products from Food Services of America, Liberty Distributing, Medosweet Farms, Spokane Produce, Terry Dairy's, Triple "B" Corporations, and Unisource. WA DOC also contracts with Evergreen Vending, Coca-Cola, and other private food vendors for its facility vending machines.
Communications
WA DOC contracts with JPay, a private company that charges the incarcerated and their families for electronic mail, photo-sharing, money transfer, and video visiting services. Phone services for the incarcerated and their families are through WA DOC's contract with Global Tel Link.
Secretary of Corrections
The secretary of corrections in Washington State is a cabinet level position appointed by the state governor. This position differs from the historical director of the Washington Department of Institutions in its educational requirements. In the 1950s and 1960s, Washington law mandated that directors of the Department of Institutions were required to hold graduate degrees. The modern Washington Department of Corrections has no such requirements for its secretary of corrections.
Amos Reed
Amos Reed, appointed by Governor John Spellman, served as the first Washington state secretary of corrections from 1981 to 1986.
Prior to his position as secretary, Reed served as an administrator in the Oregon Department of Corrections from 1969 to 1975.
Chase Riveland
Chase Riveland was appointed Secretary of Corrections by Governor Booth Gardner in 1986. He retired in 1997. Riveland drew criticism from Republican lawmakers who felt he was not harsh enough on incarcerated people. However, his cautions against politically-driven policies have proven prescient in the mass incarceration decades that followed his time as secretary. By 2008, the number of people incarcerated in Washington had more than tripled since the time Riveland first came to WADOC.
Joseph D. Lehman
Joe Lehman was a graduate of St. Martin's College and Pacific Lutheran University. He spent 21 years as a probation and parole officer and deputy secretary in Washington's prison system. Lehman was appointed secretary of Corrections by Governor Gary Locke in 1997, and served until 2005. Prior to serving as WADOC secretary, Lehman oversaw Pennsylvania's largest prison expansion in state history and then worked for the Maine correctional system. In 1994, Lehman won the Association of State Correctional Administrators Francke Award. Lehman's starting salary as WADOC secretary was $93,659 He oversaw WADOC at a time when the department had a budget of $765 million, with 12,825 incarcerated people and 6,300 employees]
Harold Clarke
Harold Clarke, appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire, served as Secretary of Corrections from 2005 until his resignation in late 2007. Prior to his appointment, he directed the Nebraska Department of Corrections, where he had climbed through the ranks for over twenty years. He resigned as WADOC secretary amid controversy over probation supervision to take a position as commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections.
Eldon Vail
Eldon Vail returned from retirement after 31 years with WADOC to serve as Acting Secretary of Corrections until his formal appointment as Secretary by Governor Christine Gregoire in 2008. Vail resigned amid controversy over an affair with a subordinate in 2011.
Bernard Warner
Bernard Warner was appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire as Secretary of Corrections in 2011. Warner resigned in 2015 to take a position at a private Salt Lake City corrections industry.
Dan Pacholke
Governor Jay Inslee appointed Dan Pacholke Secretary of Corrections in 2015. Pacholke began his career in WADOC in 1982 as a correctional officer at McNeil Island Corrections Center. He worked his way through the ranks until he was appointed secretary. Pacholke resigned after a short tenure amid controversy over a WADOC computer glitch that caused the somewhat early release of approximately 3,000 incarcerated people over more than a decade. Some formerly incarcerated people who had established new lives upon early release were reincarcerated in response to public and political outcry over the early releases. The early release scandal became an expression of more complex political relationships in anticipation of the 2016 Washington State election season. In a resignation email to Senator Mike Padden—one of the most conservative members of the Washington State Senate's Law and Justice Committee—Pacholke wrote, "I notify you now of my resignation. I hope it helps meet your need for blood. I hope it gives you fodder for the press and fulfills your political needs so you can let this agency, our agency, heal." Former secretary of corrections Bernie Warner told the media he did not know about the computer glitch until notified by Governor Jay Inslee's general counsel. However, Pacholke told the media that Warner's assistant secretary knew of the mistaken early release of prisoners as early as 2012. At least two people were killed in homicides linked to prisoners who had mistakenly been released early, and families of the deceased in each of those cases went on to file wrongful death lawsuits against the agency. One of those lawsuits resulted in a $3.25 million settlement paid out by the DOC.
Since leaving WADOC, Pacholke has become the co-director at Segregation Solutions. He co-authored a report with Sandy Felkey Mullins on segregation practices for the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance titled "More Than Emptying Beds: A Systems Approach to Segregation Reform".
Richard Morgan
Richard "Dick" Morgan returned from retirement after more than three decades of employment with WA DOC to be appointed by Governor Jay Inslee as acting secretary, effective March 14, 2016. He served in the role of secretary until January 12, 2017. Morgan had previously served as a member of the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board and of the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Jody Becker-Green
Former Washington State Department of Social and Health Services employee Jody Becker-Green was appointed by Governor Jay Inslee as acting secretary from January 10, 2017 to April 25, 2017, becoming the first woman to serve in this role.
Stephen Sinclair
Stephen Sinclair was appointed WA DOC secretary by Governor Jay Inslee on April 25, 2017. He began his career at the agency as a correctional officer and gained progressively greater responsibilities as investigator, sergeant, associate superintendent, superintendent and assistant secretary.
As superintendent of the Washington State Penitentiary, Sinclair created the Sustainable Practices Lab. In addition to his role as secretary, he was the DOC co-director of the Sustainability in Prisons Project at The Evergreen State College.
Cheryl Strange
On April 29, 2021, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee appointed Cheryl Strange as the Washington DOC's first permanent female secretary. Prior to her appointment, Strange was Secretary of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. She had previously served as the CEO of Western State Hospital.
Staff
Paramilitary culture
WADOC is a paramilitary organization and values respect for chain of command and seniority. The department recruits much of its correctional staff from Joint Base Lewis–McChord career fairs.
Labor union
Non-management positions in the Washington Department of Corrections are negotiated by the Teamsters Local 117 labor union. and the Washington Federation of State Employees.
Honor guard
WADOC Honor Guard protocols are governed by WADOC Policy 870.440. Individual WADOC correctional facilities are not required to maintain an Honor Guard. As of 2013, only five of WADOC's 12 facilities maintained an active Honor Guard. Facility superintendents and Chiefs of Emergency Operation are responsible for selecting Honor Guard members and approving Honor Guard participation in local events.
Line of duty deaths
The most well-known line of duty death in recent WADOC history was that of Jayme Biendl in 2011. This incident has been called "the Washington Department of Corrections 9/11", as it resulted in dramatic changes to WADOC security protocols and programs for incarcerated people. An annual Behind the Badge memorial run is held in honor of Biendl's service.
Key issues
In 2012, WADOC correctional officers advocated for improved uniforms in keeping with the standards of uniforms of other Washington law enforcement agencies. Prior to 2012, correctional officer uniforms were made by incarcerated people in industry job positions. This provided 100 jobs for incarcerated people, as well as eight supervisory correctional officer positions. Officer Carl Beatty was a public spokesman for a shift to professional uniforms made by outside manufacturers with significant savings to the State of Washington in cost, with the result that House Bill 2346 passed during the 2012 Washington State Regular Legislative Session. This bill removed the requirement that correctional officer uniforms come from Correctional Industries. WA DOC Policy 870.400 lists detailed requirements for staff uniforms.
Ombudsman
In 2007, the Washington Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) spearheaded legislative efforts to create an independent ombudsman position that would provide an alternative avenue of mediation between WADOC, WADOC staff, incarcerated people, and family members of the incarcerated. The resulting bill, SB 5295—sponsored by state Senators Jim Kastama, Dan Swecker, Karen Fraser, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Chris Marr, Debbie Regala, Marilyn Rasmussen, and Rosemary McAuliffe—was not successful. In the years since, many other community groups have added their support for these legislative efforts. Annual attempts to pass an independent ombudsman bill began in 2013 with SB 5177, sponsored by Senators Mike Carrell and Steve Conway. In 2014, Senators Conway, Jeannie Darneille, Steve O'Ban, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and Annette Cleveland sponsored SB 6399. In 2015, Senators Jeannie Darneille, Rosemary McAuliffe, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Steve O'Ban, Maralyn Chase, Bob Hasegawa, Karen Keiser, Kirk Pearson, Steve Conway, and David Frockt sponsored SB 5505, with Representatives Luis Moscoso, Roger Goodman, Eric Pettigrew, Sherry Appleton, Tina Orwall, Timm Ormsby, and Laurie Jinkins sponsoring companion bill HB 2005.
In the 2016 legislative session, Senators Mark Miloscia, Christine Rolfes, Kirk Pearson, Steve O'Ban, Steve Conway, and Rosemary McAuliffe sponsored unsuccessful SB 6154, with Representatives Luis Moscoso, Eric Pettigrew, Sherry Appleton, Tina Orwall, David Sawyer, Cindy Ryu, Derek Stanford, Gerry Pollet, Teri Hickel, Steve Bergquist, and Sharon Tomiko Santos sponsoring companion HB 2817.
In the 2017-2018 legislative session an ombudsman bill, HB 1889, passed both chambers of the legislature.
WADOC opposed these legislative efforts. In 2016, WADOC created its own internal ombudsman position. Carlos Lugo, who had previously worked on a special WADOC project concerning visitation access for Latino incarcerated people, was hired as the first WADOC ombudsman.
Contraband
The WADOC Intelligence and Investigations Unit asked the FBI to become involved in the investigation of employee contraband smuggling at WADOC's Monroe Correctional Complex smuggling in December 2015. A correctional officer was arrested on September 29, 2016. FBI agents determined the officer was accepting bribes of up to $1,000 to smuggle contraband into the prison.
In August 2016 a 23-year-old incarcerated man at Monroe Correctional Complex died from a drug overdose, causing renewed concerns statewide about contraband entering WADOC prisons.
Sustainability in Prisons Project
At Cedar Creek Corrections Center in 2003, the Washington State Department of Corrections and The Evergreen State College founded the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP). Dan Pacholke was Cedar Creek Correctional Center's superintendent at the time, and started composting and water catchment programs to save money and create meaningful work for the men incarcerated at the minimum security facility. Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, a member of the faculty at Evergreen, asked for incarcerated people to join her in a study to grow native mosses, and Cedar Creek welcomed her proposal. From here, the partnership between Evergreen and WADOC strengthened and expanded. In the decade plus since, SPP has expanded to several other WADOC prisons. Incarcerated people raise endangered species and carry out impressive composting operations using recycled construction materials.
Timeline of key events
1981 - New Department of Corrections is created to oversee correctional institutions previously overseen by Department of Social and Health Services.
1984 - Sentencing Review Act (SRA) overhauls state's criminal code.
1995 - Correctional Industries centralized factory food production begins at Airway Heights Correctional Center.
2000s - Incarcerated people are required to order food packages from a few select contract vendors instead of local grocery stores.
2003 - DOC and Evergreen State College collaborate to found the Sustainability in Prisons Project
2009 - Incarcerated people are required to wear uniforms instead of personal clothing.
2011 - Line of duty death of Officer Jayme Biendl brings increased attention to security.
2015 - State Senate passes SB 5650, establishing a medical subaccount exempt from WADOC deductions to incarcerated people's personal accounts.
2016 - WADOC hires an internal ombudsman. Secretary Dick Morgan publicly states that the WADOC will phase out the use of the word "offender".
See also
List of law enforcement agencies in Washington (state)
List of U.S. state prisons
List of United States state correction agencies
References
External links
Washington State Correctional Industries
doc.wa.gov
State law enforcement agencies of Washington (state)
Corrections
Lists of United States state prisons
State corrections departments of the United States
1981 establishments in Washington (state)
Government agencies established in 1981
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Nightmare%20Before%20Christmas
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The Nightmare Before Christmas
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The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Henry Selick in his feature directorial debut and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of "Halloween Town", who stumbles upon "Christmas Town" and schemes to take over the holiday. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.
The Nightmare Before Christmas originated from a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Productions. With the critical success of Vincent that same year, Burton began to consider developing the film as either a short film or a half-hour television special, to no avail. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and, in 1990, he made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco; Disney initially released the film through Touchstone Pictures because the studio believed the film would be "too dark and scary for kids".
The Nightmare Before Christmas premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 9, 1993, and was given a limited release on October 13, before its wide theatrical release on October 29. The film was met with critical success upon release, earning praise for its animation, particularly the innovation of stop-motion as an art form, as well as its characters, songs, and score. While initially a modest box office hit, it has since garnered a large cult following and is widely regarded as one of the greatest animated films of all time. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, a first for an animated film, but lost to Jurassic Park. The film has been reissued by Walt Disney Pictures and was re-released annually in Disney Digital 3-D from 2006 until 2010.
Plot
Halloween Town is a fantasy world populated by various monsters and beings associated with the holiday ("This is Halloween"). Jack Skellington, who is respected by the citizens as the "Pumpkin King", leads them in organizing the annual Halloween celebrations, but he has grown tired of the same annual routine and wants something new ("Jack's Lament"). While wandering in the woods the next morning, he encounters several trees containing doors leading to other holiday-themed worlds (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day) and stumbles into a door leading to Christmas Town ("What's This?"). Awed by the unfamiliar holiday, Jack returns home to show his friends and neighbors his findings, but unaware of the idea of Christmas, they compare everything to their ideas of Halloween ("Town Meeting Song"). However, they do relate to one Christmas Town character: its ruler, Santa Claus, or "Sandy Claws" as Jack mistakenly calls him. Jack sequesters himself in his house to study Christmas further and find a way to rationally explain it ("Jack's Obsession"). After his studying and experimentation accomplish nothing, Jack ultimately decides that Christmas should be "improved" rather than understood and announces that Halloween Town will take over Christmas this year.
Jack assigns the residents many Christmas-themed jobs, including singing carols, making presents ("Making Christmas"), and building a sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer. Sally, a feminine creation of local mad scientist Doctor Finkelstein, experiences a vision of a burning Christmas tree and warns that their efforts will end disastrously. Jack, whom she secretly loves, dismisses her forewarnings and assigns her with making him a Santa Claus suit. He also tasks mischievous trick-or-treating trio Lock, Shock and Barrel with abducting Santa and bringing him to Halloween Town ("Kidnap the Sandy Claws"). Jack tells Santa he will be handling Christmas in his place this year and orders the trio to keep Santa safe. However, against his wishes, they deliver Santa to Jack's long-time rival Oogie Boogie: a bogeyman with a passion for gambling, who plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake ("Oogie Boogie's Song"). After failing to stop Jack from carrying out his plan ("Sally's Song"), Sally attempts to rescue Santa, but is captured.
Jack departs to deliver presents in the real world, but they frighten the populace, who contact the authorities and are instructed to lock down their homes and residences for protection. When word spreads about Jack's actions, he is shot down by military forces and crashes in a cemetery. While the residents of Halloween Town believe him to be dead, Jack survives. As he bemoans the disaster he has caused ("Poor Jack"), he finds that he enjoyed using his new methods of scaring people, reigniting his love of Halloween, but realizes he must act to fix his mess. Jack returns home and infiltrates Oogie's lair, rescuing Santa and Sally before confronting Oogie. He defeats him by unraveling a thread holding his cloth form together, causing the bugs inside him to spill out and reduce him to nothing. Jack apologizes for his actions to Santa, who, despite being furious with Jack for the chaos he caused and not listening to Sally, assures him he can still save Christmas. As Santa replaces Jack's presents with genuine ones, all of Halloween Town celebrates Jack's survival and return ("Finale / Reprise"). Santa then shows Jack that there are no hard feelings between them by bringing snowfall to the town, fulfilling Jack's original dream of bringing the Christmas spirit to his domain, and the residents realize the true meaning of Christmas. Afterwards, Jack and Sally declare their love for each other and share a kiss.
Voice cast
Chris Sarandon (speaking voice) and Danny Elfman (singing voice) as Jack Skellington, a skeleton known as the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town. Elfman was initially cast as Jack's singing voice and, after the songs were recorded, Sarandon was cast to match Elfman's voice style.
Elfman also voices:
Barrel, one of the trick-or-treaters working for Oogie Boogie.
The Clown with the Tear-Away Face, a self-described clown who rides a unicycle.
Catherine O'Hara as Sally, a rag doll/Frankenstein's monster-like creation of Finkelstein and Jack's love interest. She is a toxicologist who uses various types of poison to liberate herself from the captivity of her "father". She is also psychic and has premonitions when anything bad is about to happen. O'Hara had previously co-starred in Burton's Beetlejuice.
O'Hara also voices Shock, one of the trick-or-treaters working for Oogie Boogie.
William Hickey as Doctor Finkelstein, a mad scientist and the loving but overbearing "father" of Sally. He is listed in the credits only as "Evil Scientist" and is only mentioned by name twice in the film.
Glenn Shadix as the Mayor of Halloween Town, an enthusiastic leader who conducts town meetings. His wild mood swings from happy to distraught because his head spins between a "happy" and "sad" face; where some career politicians are described as figuratively two-faced, the mayor is literally so. Shadix and Burton had previously worked on Beetlejuice.
Ken Page as Oogie Boogie, a villainous bogeyman in Halloween Town, who has a passion for gambling and rivalry with Jack.
Ed Ivory as Santa Claus, the ruler of Christmas Town. Santa is responsible for the annual celebration of Christmas, in which he delivers presents to children in the real world. He is also referred to by Jack and Halloween Town's residents as "Sandy Claws". Ivory also provides the brief narration at the start of the film.
Joe Ranft as Igor, one of Dr Finkelstein’s creations and his lab assistant.
Paul Reubens as Lock, one of the trick-or-treaters working for Oogie Boogie. Reubens and Burton had previously worked on Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Batman Returns.
The cast also features Kerry Katz, Carmen Twillie, Randy Crenshaw, Lisa Donovan Lukas, Debi Durst, Glenn Walters, Sherwood Ball, John Morris and Greg Proops voicing various characters. Patrick Stewart recorded narration for a prologue and epilogue. While not used in the final film, the narration is included on the soundtrack album.
Production
Development
As writer Burton's upbringing in Burbank, California, was associated with the feeling of solitude, the filmmaker was largely fascinated by holidays during his childhood. "Anytime there was Christmas or Halloween, […] it was great. It gave you some sort of texture all of a sudden that wasn't there before," Burton would later recall. After completing his short film Vincent in 1982, Burton, who was then employed at Walt Disney Feature Animation, wrote a three-page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas, drawing inspiration from television specials of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. Burton intended to adapt the poem into a television special with the narration spoken by his favorite actor, Vincent Price, but also considered other options such as a children's book. He created concept art and storyboards for the project in collaboration with Rick Heinrichs, who also sculpted character models; Burton later showed his and Heinrichs' works-in-progress to Henry Selick, also a Disney animator at the time. After the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute holiday television special. However, the project's development eventually stalled, as its tone seemed "too weird" to the company. As Disney was unable to "offer his nocturnal loners enough scope", Burton was fired from the studio in 1984 and went on to direct the commercially successful films Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman (1989) for Warner Bros. Pictures.
Over the years, Burton regularly thought about the project. In 1990, Burton found out that Disney still owned the film rights. He and Selick committed to produce a full-length film with the latter as director. Burton's own success with live-action films piqued the interest of Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who saw the film as an opportunity to continue the studio's streak of recent successes in feature animation. Disney was looking forward to Nightmare "to show capabilities of technical and storytelling achievements that were present in Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Walt Disney Pictures president David Hoberman believed the film would prove to be a creative achievement for Disney's image, elaborating "we can think outside the envelope. We can do different and unusual things."
Nightmare marked Burton's third consecutive film with a Christmas setting. Burton could not direct because of his commitment to Batman Returns, and he did not want to be involved with "the painstakingly slow process of stop motion". To adapt his poem into a screenplay, Burton approached Michael McDowell, his collaborator on Beetlejuice. McDowell and Burton experienced creative differences, which convinced Burton to make the film as a musical with lyrics and compositions by frequent collaborator Danny Elfman. Elfman and Burton created a rough storyline and two-thirds of the film's songs. Elfman found writing Nightmares eleven songs to be "one of the easiest jobs I've ever had. I had a lot in common with Jack Skellington." Caroline Thompson had yet to be hired to write the screenplay. With Thompson's screenplay, Selick stated, "there are very few lines of dialogue that are Caroline's. She became busy on other films and we were constantly rewriting, re-configuring and developing the film visually."
Filming
Selick and his team of animators began production in July 1991 in San Francisco, California, with a crew of over 120 workers, utilizing 20 sound stages for filming. Joe Ranft was hired from Disney as a storyboard supervisor, while Eric Leighton was hired to supervise animation. At the peak of production, 20 individual stages were simultaneously being used for filming. In total, there were 109,440 frames taken for the film. The work of Ray Harryhausen, Ladislas Starevich, Edward Gorey, Étienne Delessert, Gahan Wilson, Charles Addams, Jan Lenica, Francis Bacon, and Wassily Kandinsky influenced the filmmakers. Selick described the production design as akin to a pop-up book. In addition, Selick stated, "When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German Expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr. Seuss-esque setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the 'Real World', everything is plain, simple and perfectly aligned." Vincent Price, Don Ameche, and James Earl Jones were considered to provide the narration for the film's prologue; however, all proved difficult to cast, and the producers instead hired local voice artist Ed Ivory. Patrick Stewart provided the prologue narration for the film's soundtrack.
On the direction of the film, Selick reflected, "It's as though he [Burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn't involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like 'a Tim Burton film', which is not so different from my own films." When asked about Burton's involvement, Selick claimed, "I don't want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total." Walt Disney Feature Animation contributed with digital effects and some second-layering traditional animation. Burton found production somewhat difficult, because he was simultaneously filming Batman Returns and pre-production of Ed Wood.
The filmmakers constructed 227 puppets to represent the characters in the movie, with Jack Skellington having "around four hundred heads", allowing the expression of every possible emotion. Sally's mouth movements "were animated through the replacement method. During the animation process, […] only Sally's face 'mask' was removed in order to preserve the order of her long, red hair. Sally had ten types of faces, each made with a series of eleven expressions (e.g. eyes open and closed, and various facial poses) and synchronized mouth movements." The stop-motion figurine of Jack was reused in James and the Giant Peach (also directed by Selick) as Captain Jack.
Soundtracks
The film's soundtrack album was released in 1993 on Walt Disney Records. The film's soundtrack contains bonus tracks, including a longer prologue and an extra epilogue, both narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart. For the film's 2006 re-release in Disney Digital 3-D, a special edition of the soundtrack was released, featuring a bonus disc that contained covers of five of the film's songs by Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, and She Wants Revenge. Four original demo tracks by Elfman were also included. On September 30, 2008, Disney released the cover album Nightmare Revisited, featuring artists such as Amy Lee, Flyleaf, Korn, Rise Against, Plain White T's, The All-American Rejects, and many more.
American gothic rock band London After Midnight featured a cover of "Sally's Song" on their 1998 album Oddities.
LiLi Roquelin performed a French cover of "Sally's Song" on her album Will you hate the rest of the world or will you renew your life? in 2010.
Pentatonix released a cover of "Making Christmas" for their 2018 Christmas album Christmas Is Here!.
In 2003, the Disneyland Haunted Mansion Holiday soundtrack CD was released. Although most of the album's songs are not original ones from the film, one song is a medley of "Making Christmas", "What's This?", and "Kidnap the Sandy Claws". Other songs included are original holiday songs changed to incorporate the theme of the film. However, the last song is the soundtrack for the Disneyland Haunted Mansion Holiday ride.
Release
The Nightmare Before Christmas was originally going to be released under Walt Disney Pictures as part of the Walt Disney Feature Animation lineup, but Disney decided to release the film under the studio's adult-oriented Touchstone Pictures banner, because the studio thought the film would be "too dark and scary for kids," Selick remembered. "Their biggest fear, and why it was kind of a stepchild project, [was] they were afraid of their core audience hating the film and not coming." To convey Burton's involvement and attract a wider audience, Disney marketed the film as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton explained that, "…it turned more into more of a brand-name thing, it turned into something else, which I'm not quite sure about." The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 9, 1993, and was given a limited release on October 13, 1993, before its wide theatrical release on October 29, 1993.
The Nightmare Before Christmas was reissued under the Walt Disney Pictures label and re-released on October 20, 2006, with conversion to Disney Digital 3-D, and was accompanied by Pixar's short film Knick Knack. Industrial Light & Magic assisted in the process. The film subsequently received three re-releases on October 19, 2007, October 24, 2008, and October 23, 2009. The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, has been showing the film in 4-D screenings annually in October, ending on Halloween, since 2010. The reissues have led to a reemergence of 3-D films and advances in RealD Cinema.
In October 2020, The Nightmare Before Christmas was re-released in 2,194 theaters. It made $1.323 million over the weekend, finishing fourth behind Tenet. For the film's 30th anniversary and in commemoration of The Walt Disney Company's centennial, it was re-released in theaters across the United States and Canada on October 20, 2023, including engagements in 4DX.
Home media
With years of successful home video sales, The Nightmare Before Christmas later achieved the ranks of a cult film. Touchstone Home Video first released the film on VHS on September 30, 1994, and on DVD on December 2, 1997. The Nightmare Before Christmas was released on DVD a second time on October 3, 2000, as a special edition. The release included an audio commentary by Selick and cinematographer Pete Kozachik, a 28-minute making-of documentary, a gallery of concept art, storyboards, test footage and deleted scenes. Burton's Vincent and Frankenweenie were also included. Both DVDs were non-anamorphic widescreen releases. This film was released on UMD for PlayStation Portable on October 25, 2005 .
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on DVD again (this time with an anamorphic transfer) and on Blu-ray Disc (for the first time) on August 26, 2008, as a two-disc digitally remastered "collector's edition", but still containing the same special features.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released The Nightmare Before Christmas on Blu-ray 3D on August 30, 2011. The release included a Blu-ray 3D disc, Blu-ray disc and a DVD that includes both a DVD and digital copy of the film.
In 2018, Disney issued a singalong version of the film, accompanied by the theatrical cut and a Movies Anywhere copy, as a single-disc version for the film's 25th anniversary. The singalong version was also released on Disney+ on September 30, 2022.
In celebration of 30th anniversary, the film was remastered in 4K and was released on 4K Blu-ray, including extra content, on August 22, 2023.
Marketing
Disney has extensively marketed the film and its characters across many forms of media and memorabilia, including action figures, books, games, art crafts, and fashion products. Jack Skellington, Sally, Pajama Jack, and the Mayor have been made into bendable figures, while Jack and Sally even appear in fine art. Sally has been made into an action figure and a Halloween costume.
Various Disneyland and the branching theme parks host attractions featuring Nightmare characters, particularly during Halloween and Christmas seasons. Since 2001, Disneyland has given its Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction a Nightmare Before Christmas theme for the holiday season. It features characters, decorations and music from the film, in addition to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey's Halloween Party featuring the film's characters. Additionally, Jack hosts the Halloween Screams, HalloWishes, and Not So Spooky Spectacular! fireworks shows at Magic Kingdom (where the host is Ghost Host) and Disneyland (where the host is Jack himself), as well as the Frightfully Fun Parade.
Reception
Box office
Around the release of the film, Hoberman was quoted, "I hope Nightmare goes out and makes a fortune. If it does, great. If it doesn't, that doesn't negate the validity of the process. The budget was less than any Disney blockbuster so it doesn't have to earn Aladdin-sized grosses to satisfy us." The film earned $50 million in the United States in its initial theatrical run and was regarded as a moderate sleeper hit.
The Nightmare Before Christmas made an additional $11.1 million in box office gross in its 2006 reissue. The 2007, 2008, 2009, 2020, and 2023 reissues earned $15.8 million, $2.5 million, $2.3 million, and $4.6 million, respectively, increasing the film's total box office gross to $95.8 million.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 95% based on 106 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert gave a highly positive review for Nightmare. Ebert believed the film's visual effects were as revolutionary as Star Wars, taking into account that Nightmare was "filled with imagination that carries us into a new world".
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it a restoration of "originality and daring to the Halloween genre. This dazzling mix of fun and fright also explodes the notion that animation is kid stuff. … It's 74 minutes of timeless movie magic." James Berardinelli stated "The Nightmare Before Christmas has something to offer just about everyone. For the kids, it's a fantasy celebrating two holidays. For the adults, it's an opportunity to experience some light entertainment while marveling at how adept Hollywood has become at these techniques. There are songs, laughs, and a little romance. In short, The Nightmare Before Christmas does what it intends to: entertain." Desson Thomson of The Washington Post enjoyed the film's similarities to the writings of Oscar Wilde and the Brothers Grimm, as well as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and other German Expressionist films.
Michael A. Morrison discusses the influence of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! on the film, writing that Jack parallels the Grinch and Zero parallels Max, the Grinch's dog. Philip Nel writes that the film "challenges the wisdom of adults through its trickster characters", contrasting Jack as a "good trickster" with Oogie Boogie, whom he also compares with Seuss' Dr. Terwilliker as a bad trickster. Entertainment Weekly reports that fan reception of these characters borders on obsession, profiling Laurie and Myk Rudnick, a couple whose "degree of obsession with [the] film is so great that … they named their son after the real-life person that a character in the film is based on." This enthusiasm for the characters has also been profiled as having spread beyond North America to Japan. Yvonne Tasker notes "the complex characterization seen in The Nightmare Before Christmas".
Accusations of racism
Danny Elfman feared that the characterization of Oogie Boogie would be considered racist by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Screenwriter Caroline Thompson raised similar concerns about the character, only to be told by Burton that she was "being oversensitve". Elfman's predictions came true; however, director Henry Selick stated the character was inspired by the Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain. "Cab Calloway would dance his inimitable jazz dance and sing 'Minnie the Moocher' or 'Old Man of the Mountain', and they would rotoscope him, trace him, turn him into a cartoon character, often transforming him into an animal, like a walrus," Selick continued. "I think those are some of the most inventive moments in cartoon history, in no way racist, even though he was sometimes a villain. We went with Ken Page, who is a black singer, and he had no problem with it."
Accolades
The film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Nightmare won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Elfman won Best Music. Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Most recently, the film ranked #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' "Top 25 Best Christmas Movies" list.
Possible sequel
In 2002, Disney began to consider producing a sequel, but rather than using stop motion, Disney wanted to use computer animation. Burton convinced Disney to drop the idea. "I was always very protective of [The Nightmare Before Christmas], not to do sequels or things of that kind," Burton explained. "You know, Jack visits Thanksgiving world or other kinds of things just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it, because it's a mass-market kind of thing, it was important to kind of keep that purity of it." The 2004 video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge did serve as a sequel of the film, with Capcom's crew of developers going after Burton for advice and having the collaboration of the film's art director, Deane Taylor. In 2009, Selick said he would do a film sequel if he and Burton could create a good story for it.
In February 2019, it was reported that a new Nightmare Before Christmas film was in the works with Disney considering either a stop-motion sequel or live-action remake. In October 2019, Chris Sarandon expressed interest on reprising his role as Jack Skellington if a sequel film ever materializes.
On February 22, 2021, it was announced by Disney Publishing that a sequel was given to the 1993 film in the form of a young adult novel, released as Long Live the Pumpkin Queen. It was written by Shea Ernshaw and features Sally as the main character, told through her point-of-view, with events taking place after the film. The book was released on August 2, 2022.
On October 14, 2023, Selick stated that he was inclined to do a prequel film about how Jack became king of Halloween Town.
Related media
Toys and games
A collectible card game based on the film called The Nightmare Before Christmas TCG was released in 2005 by NECA. The game was designed by Quixotic Games founder Andrew Parks and Zev Shlasinger. It consists of a Premiere set and 4 Starter Decks based on four characters, Jack Skellington, the Mayor, Oogie Boogie, and Doctor Finkelstein. Each Starter Deck contains a rule book, a Pumpkin King card, a Pumpkin Points card, and a 48-card deck. The game has four card types: Characters, Locales, Creations, and Surprises. The Cards' rarities are separated into four categories: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare.
Quixotic Games also developed The Nightmare Before Christmas Party Game that was released in 2007 by NECA.
A collector's edition The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed Jenga game was issued with orange, purple and black blocks with Jack Skellington heads on them. The set comes in a coffin-shaped box instead of the normal rectangular box.
A 168-card Munchkin Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed Munchkin was developed by USAopoly featuring the citizens of Halloween Town such as Jack Skellington, Oogie Boogie, Doctor Finkelstein, and Lock, Shock and Barrel. The game comes with a custom die similar to the ones used by Oogie Boogie in the film.
On September 15, 2020, a The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed tarot card deck and guidebook was released and the illustration was done by Abigail Larson. On October 27, 2023, Disney partnered with Mattel to produced a Jack and Sally doll under their Monster High toyline and was quickly sold out. For the 30th anniversary, NECA produced a Jack Skellington figurine.
Books, comics, and manga
In 1993, a pop-up book based on the film was released on October 1. Another pop-up book calendar titled Nightmare Before Christmas Pop-Up Book and Advent Calendar was released September 29, 2020. Jack is the titular character in the short story "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack's Story". Disney Press released a Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Party Cookbook: Recipes and Crafts for the Perfect Spooky Party on August 21, 2017. A behind-the-scenes art book titled Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas: The Film, the Art, the Vision was released on October 14, 1993, and a Disney Editions Deluxe edition was published July 28, 2009.
In 2006, a picture book containing the poem Tim Burton wrote that originated the film was released on August 15. In celebration of the film's 20th anniversary, the poem was re-released with a hardcover edition in 2013. On July 20, 2009, an illustrated book covering a rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song titled Nightmare Before Christmas: The 13 Days of Christmas was published. In celebration of the film's 25th anniversary, a book and CD, featuring narration and sound effects, was released on July 3, 2018.
In honor of the film's 25th anniversary, a Cinestory Comic made by Disney and published by Joe Books LTD was released on September 26, 2017. A graphic novel retelling of the film by Joe Books LTD was released on July 31, 2018, and digital and hardcover versions were released August 25, 2020. On November 26, 2020, a novel retelling of the film version was released as part of the Disney Animated Classics series. In 2021, another version of Nightmare Before Christmas 13 Days of Christmas came out on July 6 and was soon followed by Little Golden Books's release of their adaptation of Nightmare Before Christmas on July 13, 2021.
In 2017, Tokyopop secured exclusive licensing for two manga adaptions for Nightmare Before Christmas, with the first manga being an adaptation of the film's plot line, with art by Jun Asuka, released October 17. The second manga, a fully colored series illustrated by Kei Ishiyama and titled Zero's Journey, chronicles the adventures of Jack's dog, Zero, in his experiences beginning in Christmas Town after accidentally getting separated from Jack, who tries to find him, and acts as a sequel to the film, with Tim Burton's story approval. The 20 issues were first published monthly, starting on October 2, and then collected into four full-color graphic novels, with a black-and-white collector's edition manga edition as well. Starting on July 21, 2021, Tokyopop released another sequel manga centered around Sally, titled The Nightmare Before Christmas: Mirror Moon, written by Mallory Reaves and fully-colored series illustrated by Gabriella Chianello, and Nataliya Torretta. The first two issues will be collected into a graphic novel that is slated to be released on October 26.
A novelization of the film written by Daphne Skinner was published on January 1, 1994. On August 2, 2022, a young adult novel titled Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw was released. With Sally as the protagonist, with the premised described as "...takes place shortly after the movie ends. It's the yet-to-be-told love story of Sally and Jack. But it's also a coming-of-age story for Sally, as we see her navigate her new royal title as the Pumpkin Queen of Halloween Town". The novel introduced new characters and explored Sally's past, as well as exploring other holiday worlds as Sally and Jack tackle a mysterious villain Sally has accidentally unleashed.
On November 1, 2022, Tokyopop announced a full-colored graphic novel series titled Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King, which centers around the friendship and rivalry between a young Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie. The graphic novel consisted of five issues, starting with the first release in May 2023, and the full graphic novel edition is available in September 2023.
A novelization for The Nightmare Before Christmas, written by Megan Shepherd was released on July 4, 2023, to celebrate the 30th anniversary. On July 20, 2023, Shepherd also revealed that she will be writing a sequel to Ernshaw's "Pumpkin Queen" book and is expected to be release in 2024.
On July 19, 2023, Disney announced that its partnering with Dynamite Entertainment to publish new comics based on the film, with the first project being written by Torunn Grønbekk.
On August 22, 2023, Epic Ink published a cultural book titled "Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Beyond Halloween Town: The Story, the Characters, and the Legacy" by writer Emily Zemler.
Video games
The Nightmare Before Christmas has inspired video game spin-offs, including Oogie's Revenge and The Pumpkin King.
The Kingdom Hearts series includes Halloween Town as a world, appearing in the titles Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, and 358/2 Days, with Christmas Town also as a major area in Kingdom Hearts II. Jack Skellington appears as a party member of the protagonist, Sora, while other important characters from the film appear as supporting characters in the world. The games adapt parts of the plot of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
A Jack Skellington figurine is available for the Disney Infinity video game, allowing the character to be playable in the game's "Toy Box Mode". The main characters of the film (except Santa Claus) appear as playable characters in the video game Disney Magic Kingdoms, as well as in some attractions based on locations of the film, in new storylines in which the characters are involved. Jack and Oogie Boogie are feature as playable units in many Disney-related mobile games, such as Disney Heroes: Battle Mode, Disney Sorcerer's Arena, and Disney Mirrorverse.
In December 2021, a collaboration between Disney and Fall Guys released a seasonal challenge themed after The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was available from December 16 through December 27.
In September 2023, Disney Dreamlight Valley released a patch update featuring furniture, clothing and motifs inspired by the film.
In October 2023, Fortnite collaborated with Disney to make the Jack Skellington costume and other The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed cosmetics for the Fortnitemares 2023 event. Rocket League released The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed cosmetics and items for their Haunted Hallows Event from October 18 to November 1, 2023.https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-nightmare-before-christmas-comes-to-rocket-league-as-part-of-haunted-hallows-event/1100-6518491/
Concerts
A live concert, produced by Disney Concerts, was held at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2015 and was followed by subsequent performances in 2016 and 2018. The shows featured Elfman, O'Hara, and Page reprising their roles from the film. In December 2019, this show came to Europe, with dates in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Dublin.
A one-night-only virtual benefit concert presentation of the film, presented by The Actors Fund and produced by James Monroe Iglehart with the cooperation of Burton, Elfman, Disney and Actors' Equity Association, streamed on October 31, 2020. 100% of the proceeds will benefit the Lymphoma Research Foundation, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the performing arts. The cast included Iglehart as Oogie Boogie, along with Rafael Casal as Jack Skellington, Adrienne Warren as Sally, Danny Burstein as Santa Claus and the Narrator, Nik Walker as Lock, Lesli Margherita as Shock and Rob McClure as Barrel. Rounding out the cast were Kathryn Allison, Jenni Barber, Erin Elizabeth Clemons, Fergie L. Phillipe, Jawan M. Jackson and Brian Gonzalez.
In October 2021, Disney hosted a live-to-film concert of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas for two nights at LA's Banc of California Stadium on October 29 and 31. The show featured Billie Eilish singing as Sally and Danny Elfman reprising his role as Jack. Ken Page reprised the role of Oogie Boogie, while "Weird Al" Yankovic sang as Shock. The concert included a full orchestra led by acclaimed conductor John Mauceri to perform the film's score and songs live.
In October 2021, Disney announced that they were hosting another live-to-film concert at the OVO Arena Wembley in London on December 9 and 10, 2022. The show featured Elfman and Page reprising respective their roles, while John Mauceri returned as conductor alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra. Acclaimed singer and songwriter Phoebe Bridgers took on the role of Sally. In October 2023, Disney hosted another concert from October 27–29 at the Hollywood Bowl. Elfman, Page, Catherine O’Hara, and other guest stars are set to appear, including Halsey, who is sharing the role of Sally with O'Hara.https://variety.com/2023/music/news/halsey-nightmare-before-christmas-catherine-ohara-sally-hollywood-bowl-1235749108/ However, days before the concert, Halsey dropped out from her role due due to “scheduling conflict".https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/halsey-drops-out-nightmare-before-christmas-concerts-1234865117/
Other media
Disney Interactive Studios released an As Told by Emoji''' animated adaptation of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2016, which can be found on their official YouTube channel. In 2019, a behind-the-scenes podcast series about The Nightmare Before Christmas was made, featuring the animators, producers and other crew discussing the making of the movie, totaling 38 episodes.
In celebration for 30th anniversary, McNay Art Museum will presents an exhibition dedicated the film and will be on display until January 14, 2024.https://news.artnet.com/art-world/tim-burton-nightmare-before-christmas-dreamland-exhibition-mcnay-2348819
See also
List of ghost films
List of Christmas films
Santa Claus in film
References
Notes
Footnotes
Further reading
Manga adaptation of the film.
External linksThe Nightmare Before Christmas'' at the TCM Movie Database
The Nightmare Before Christmas at The Tim Burton Collective
Nightmare Before Christmas Behind The Scenes A time lapse of the stop-motion animation process.
1990s stop-motion animated films
1993 films
1993 animated films
1993 children's films
1990s American animated films
1990s Christmas horror films
1990s English-language films
1993 horror films
1990s monster movies
1990s dark fantasy films
1990s musical fantasy films
American 3D films
American children's animated fantasy films
American animated horror films
American children's animated musical films
American Christmas films
American monster movies
American musical fantasy films
American Christmas horror films
American dark fantasy films
American ghost films
American supernatural films
Children's horror films
Animated films about demons
American films about Halloween
Animated films based on poems
Films directed by Henry Selick
Films scored by Danny Elfman
Films about parallel universes
Santa Claus in film
Films with screenplays by Caroline Thompson
Animated films about witchcraft
1990s musical films
Stop-motion animated films
Touchstone Pictures animated films
Walt Disney Pictures animated films
Films produced by Tim Burton
Films produced by Denise Di Novi
4DX films
3D re-releases
1993 directorial debut films
Films about Bogeymen
Animated films about Halloween
Animated films based on works by American writers
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan%20bin%20Abdulaziz
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Sultan bin Abdulaziz
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Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (c. 5 January 1928 – 22 October 2011) (Arabic: سلطان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود Sulṭān ibn ʿAbdulʿazīz Āl Suʿūd), called Sultan the Good (Arabic: سلطان الخير Sulṭan al Khair) in Saudi Arabia, was the Saudi defense minister from 1963 to 2011 and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 2005 to 2011.
Early life and education
Sultan was born in Riyadh sometime between the mid to late 1920s to early 1930s, with the year being given as 1925, 1928, 1930, and 1931. He was the 15th son of Ibn Saud and his mother was Hussa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi. He was the second of the Sudairi Seven, who also included Fahd, Nayef and Salman. Prince Sultan, along with many of his brothers, received his early education in religion, modern culture, and diplomacy at the royal court.
Early experience
His career in public service began in 1940 when he was made a deputy to Riyadh governor or emir, Prince Nasser. In 1947, Prince Sultan replaced Prince Nasser as governor of Riyadh. Prince Sultan also assisted King Abdulaziz's attempts to establish a national administrative system based on the Islamic Sharia law during this period. In 1947, Prince Sultan oversaw ARAMCO's construction of the Kingdom's rail link between Dammam and Riyadh. He was appointed as the kingdom's first minister of agriculture in 1953 and minister of transport in 1955.
Following the assassination of Lebanese prime minister, Riad Al Solh, in 1951 King Abdulaziz sent Prince Sultan to Beirut to offer condolences to late prime minister's family.
Although the direct military experience of Prince Sultan was brief, heading the Royal Guard in Riyadh in the early 1950s, he felt a lifelong connection to the military and the cause of Saudi independence from an early age. Major General Carl von Horn, Swedish commander of the UN observer mission during the Yemeni civil war, described the Prince Sultan as "a volatile and emotional young man" in the early days.
Minister of defense and aviation
In 1963, Crown Prince Faisal appointed Prince Sultan as minister of defense and aviation. He presided over the development of the Saudi armed forces. During the reign of King Faisal, Prince Sultan was particularly interested in Yemen.
At the beginning of King Faisal's reign in 1964 Prince Sultan became a member of the council which had been established by the king to guide the succession issues. In the late 1966 Prince Sultan survived an assassination attempt by the revolutionary Yemenites who were assisted by Egyptian intelligence. His influence declined under the reign of King Khalid due to the fact that in 1977 Prince Sultan unsuccessfully tried to prevent Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz from becoming heir apparent when the king died.
Sultan purchased U.S. tanks, fighter planes, missiles, and AWACS (airborne warning and control systems). However, as a result of problems assimilating technology within its armed forces, a relatively high proportion of the military equipment is stored or under maintenance, despite a large portion of Saudi's $34 billion defense budget being spent on maintaining military equipment. Sultan allegedly became extraordinarily wealthy from kickbacks by Western businesses that handled multibillion-dollar defense contracts. He was involved in many scandals, including the Al Yamamah deal. However, his influence remained unhindered until his health began to deteriorate. During his tenure, Saudi Arabia became the largest importer of U.S. arms, and he was a strong proponent of the U.S.-Saudi partnership.
As well, Sultan authorized a deal with the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1965. His program, called Operation Magic Carpet, traded £16 million for six second-hand Lightnings, six Hawker Hunters, and a set of missile launchers going to Royal Saudi Air Force. Geoffrey Edwards served as the official intermediary. British pilots also came over, privately contracted. Prince Sultan was an expert on the Yemen civil war and Soviet involvement in the Horn of Africa in 1985.
In 1996, Prince Sultan opposed Pentagon plans to relocate U.S. troops to safer locations after the Dhahran complex bombings. He visited Iran in May 1999 - his visit was the first official visit of a Saudi minister since 1979.
Second deputy prime minister
On 13 June 1982, after the death of King Khalid and Crown Prince Fahd became the King, Prince Sultan was appointed second deputy prime minister. Opposition to his appointment as second deputy prime minister came in particular from his elder half-brothers Musaid and Bandar. The objection of Prince Musaid was easily ignored since his son, Faisal bin Musaid, had assassinated King Faisal. However, the interests of Bandar bin Abdulaziz were much harder to ignore. Thus, he was compensated and the dispute was resolved.
Prince Sultan, in December 1995, attempted to seize power through the support of the Ulema when Crown Prince Abdullah was in Oman for a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council. However, his attempted coup failed.
Prince Sultan was one of the members of the Al Saud Family Council established by Crown Prince Abdullah in June 2000 to discuss private issues such as business activities of princes and marriages of princess to individuals who were not members of the House of Saud.
Crown prince
On 1 August 2005, Sultan bin Abdulaziz was designated heir apparent despite having a discord with King Abdullah. During the same period he led the group called Sudairi Seven, being the eldest of the group after King Fahd's demise.
Various positions
During the 1970s Prince Sultan was one of the members of the inner family council which was led by King Khalid and included Sultan's brothers Prince Mohammed, Crown Prince Fahd, Prince Abdullah, and Prince Abdul Muhsin and his uncles Prince Ahmed and Prince Musaid.
Prince Sultan was Saudi Arabia's inspector general. He was chairman of the board of Saudi Arabia's national airline, Saudi Arabian Airlines. As chairman, he approved a ban on smoking inside all Saudi airports. In 1986, he founded the Saudi National Commission for Wildlife Conservation. He was chairman of the Higher Council for Islamic Affairs, which financially supports Muslim communities around the world.
Scientific prizes sponsored by Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz
Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz prize for water. He was the founder and patron of the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, a bi-annual international scientific award for water research created in 2002.
Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Chair for environmental engineering, department of civil engineering, King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals. It is the first chair in the university.
The scientific agreement between Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz and Oxford University for academic and cultural co-operation, which enables Saudi students for bachelor's, master and PhD degrees in the field of human sciences.
Charity works
Prince Sultan was known as "Sultan the Good" (Arabic:سلطان الخير Sulṭan al-Khair) in Saudi Arabia for his generosity. He played a role in many charitable works, including providing for the poor and people with special needs. He set up and funded the Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Foundation on 21 January 1995, with the aim of providing humanitarian services and medical services to people unable to afford the expenses. With the exception of his private residence and important necessities, he donated his possessions to the foundation.
The foundation includes the following centers in different countries:
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Humanitarian City
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Science and Technology Center
Charity housing projects
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Special Education Program at the Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain
Prince Sultan Center for Speech and Hearing in Bahrain
King Abdulaziz Center for Islamic Studies at Bologna University
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Arab and Islamic Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley
Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Private: Committee for Relief.
This private committee organizes relief and medical convoys and sets up camps to combat diseases like Malaria and blindness. It has carried out several developmental, social and medical projects, like, digging wells, building schools, public libraries, mosques, hospitals, establishing dialysis centers. It also sponsors Muslim preachers in Ethiopia, Chad, Niger, Malawi, Mali, Comoro Islands, Djibouti and Indonesia.
He inaugurated and served as the patron of Prince Sultan University in Riyadh. It was named in his honor by the university's parent institution, Al-Riyadh Philanthropic Society, which was founded by the prince's brother, Salman of Saudi Arabia, who would later become king. This is the first private/non-profit university established in the kingdom. In 2007, Prince Sultan was awarded the Medal of Human Honor for his charitable works.
In April 2005, Sultan donated £2 million to the Ashmolean Museum. A year after his donations to establish an art museum, Oxford University agreed to 'expedite' the scholarship application process for Saudi students, and identify colleges for ten Saudi students from Prince Sultan University. When this arrangement became public, it led to criticism due to the donations bypassing Oxford's governing council, and breaching the admissions process for prospective students.
A press release issued by Oxford University on 20 April 2005 said that:
HRH Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has given the Ashmolean Museum a substantial donation to provide a fitting home for the Museum's internationally renowned collection of Islamic art. The total value of the gift is £2 million, which will also provide for ten scholarships at the University of Oxford for Saudi Arabian students.
The press release added further that ‘the new gallery, part of the ambitious redevelopment of one of the world’s oldest museums, will be named the “Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz al Saud Gallery”’. Arab News on 21 April 2005 reported that Sultan’s donation was a ‘move to promote understanding between Islam and the West’, adding that ‘Saudi and British officials’ had said that the new gallery ‘will help to portray Islamic culture and civilization in right perspectives.’
Controversy
In 2002, families of the victims of the September 11 attacks in the United States sued Prince Sultan and other senior Saudi officials for their alleged contributions to al-Qaeda linked charities. The lawsuits were thrown out by a US federal judge due to insufficient evidence submitted.
Personal life
Prince Sultan mostly married women who had a tribal background. He had thirty-two children by his multiple wives. His son Khalid bin Sultan, after Prince Sultan's death, was appointed deputy minister of defense and served in the post until 20 April 2013. Bandar bin Sultan was the former ambassador to the United States, the former secretary general of the national security council and the former head of the general intelligence directorate. Fahd bin Sultan is the governor of the Tabuk province. Salman bin Sultan, another son, is the former deputy defense minister. Faisal bin Sultan (born 1951) is the secretary general of Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Foundation.
His other sons are Turki (1959–2012), Nayef (born 1979), Badr (born 1980), Saud, Ahmad (born 1983), Nawwaf, Abdullah, Mishaal (born 1988), Mansour, Fawwaz, Abdulmajid and Abdul Ilah.
Prince Sultan had fifteen daughters, the oldest of whom is Nawf bint Sultan. One of his daughters, Reema, is the spouse of Muhammad bin Nayef, former Crown Prince. His other daughter, Noura bint Sultan, married Turki bin Nasser. Another daughter, Munira bint Sultan, who was Faisal bin Fahd's spouse, died in June 2011 at age 59.
Wives
Khiziran, a concubine from Ethiopia, was the mother of his eldest son Bandar
Munira bint Abdulaziz bin Musaed bin Jalawi (deceased), mother of Khalid, Fahd, Faisal and Turki
Huda bint Abdullah Al Sheikh, mother of Saud, Nayef, Nawwaf, Badr, Abdullah and Mansour
Areej bint Salem Al Maree, mother of his youngest two sons, Abdulmajid and Abdul Ilah
Hussa bint Muhammed bin Abdulaziz bin Turki (divorced), mother of Princess Daad
Tarfah bint Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Aldakhil
Jowaher bint Mohammed bin Saud bin Nasser Al Farhan Al Saud (divorced)
Mouda bint Saud Al Kabeer Al Saud (divorced)
Mounira bint Mishaal bin Saud Al Rashid (deceased)
Leila Al Thunayan (divorced)
Mouda bint Salman Al Mandeel Al Khaldi (divorced)
Dina bint Abdulhamid Alsahhaf (divorced)
Maha bint Abdullah Albanyan (divorced)
Abir bint Fahd Al Farhan Al Saud (divorced), mother of Fawwaz
Ghadir bint Shawaan Al Shibani (divorced)
Mashail bint Mamdouh Al Ali
Characteristics
Prince Sultan was regarded by the House of Saud as a workaholic. He doled out money at banquets in keeping with tribal customs. A conservative, it was expected that he would have put a brake on King Abdullah's timid reforms. Sultan was considered to be pro-American.
Views
Sultan took a lifetime anti-communist and anti-Soviet view, based on his dislike of Soviet state atheism as well as Soviet interest in Gulf oil and access to ports that he felt risked Saudi independence. He rebuked U.S. President Jimmy Carter for what he saw as "pusillanimity" in the face of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In a 23 October 2001 interview in Kuwaiti newspaper As Seyassa, concerning 9/11 attacks, Sultan stated “Who stands behind this terrorism and who carried out this complicated and carefully planned terrorist operation? Osama bin Laden and those with him have said what indicates that they stand behind this carefully planned act. We, in turn, ask: Are bin Laden and his supporters the only ones behind what happened or is there another power with advanced technical expertise that acted with them?”.
Wealth and property
Prince Sultan's wealth in 1990 was reported to be $1.2 billion. In 1993 Fortune magazine cited him as the 34th rich person in the world with $4.0 billion wealth. Later, his fortune was estimated at $270 billion, which he distributed between his sons prior to his death in October 2011 in order to support their political position in the competitive princely arena. Prince Sultan owned 2–8a Rutland Gate, the former London residence of the Lebanese politician and businessman Rafic Hariri. Prince Sultan had been given the property after Hariri's assassination in 2005.
Documents in the Paradise Papers release show Prince Sultan used the law firm Appleby at the center of the use of offshore businesses and trusts by world leaders.
Health issues
Prince Sultan was rumored to have had colon cancer in 2003. A foreign correspondent was forced to leave the country after reporting his health problems.
In 2004, Prince Sultan was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent several corrective surgeries. He underwent an operation to remove an intestinal polyp in Jeddah in 2005. Prince Sultan visited a Swiss clinic in late April 2008. In April 2009, he began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
A leaked March 2009 diplomatic cable from WikiLeaks stated that U.S. diplomats viewed Prince Sultan as "for all intents and purposes incapacitated". He was possibly suffering dementia, specifically Alzheimer's disease.
Morocco vacation
In February 2009, Sultan spent several months in New York City at New York–Presbyterian Hospital and underwent surgery in New York. He then convalesced at Agadir, Morocco. He went back to Saudi Arabia, but soon returned to Morocco in August 2009. During his vacation, the Saudi cabinet increased officer salaries, a traditional domain of Sultan.
In 2009, King Abdullah took charge of all defense purchases and reduced the power of the Defense Ministry. In October 2010, Abdullah personally conducted much of the negotiations for the U.S. arms package worth over $60 billion.
In November 2010, Sultan received in Agadir Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri to discuss the future of Lebanon's government. He had been receiving treatment since 2009 for what analysts and diplomats believed to be cancer. At the end of November 2010, he returned to Saudi Arabia because King Abdullah had left for the United States for surgery. His return was seen as a legal formality necessary under Saudi law, which stipulates that only one of the kingdom's top two officials can be abroad at a given time.
Death and funeral
The Saudi Royal court announced on 22 October 2011 that Prince Sultan died at dawn of an unspecified illness. According to media reports, Prince Sultan had been battling cancer and had been seeking medical treatment in the United States since mid-June 2011. He had a surgical operation in New York in July 2011. Unnamed U.S. officials cited by The New York Times stated that he died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, New York City.
His body was taken from New York City to Riyadh on 24 October 2011. His funeral was held at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque in Riyadh on 25 October 2011 in the presence of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. He was buried in Al Oud cemetery in Riyadh.
Various leaders, including the president of Afghanistan, Farouk Al Sharaa, the vice-president of Syria, the Iranian foreign minister and the head of Egypt's ruling military council, participated in the funeral. Additionally, other statesmen went to Riyadh to offer their condolences, such as the US Vice President Joe Biden, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Honours
Among others, Prince Sultan was the recipient of the following honours and medals:
Order of St Michael and St George (May 1967)
National Order of Chad, First Class (1972)
Order of the Lion of Senegal (1972)
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, First Class (19 July 1997)
Order of King Abdulaziz (1973; First Class).
National Order of Merit (1973; Grand Class)
Order of the Liberator, First Class (Venezuela, 1975)
Honorary Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (P.M.N.) (Malaysia; 1982)
Honorary Grand Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (Malaysia; 2000)
He was also posthumously given the King Khalid award in 2011.
Ancestry
References
External links
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Sultan
Sultan
1928 births
2011 deaths
Burials at Al Oud cemetery
Sultan
Governors of Riyadh Province
Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia
Aviation ministers of Saudi Arabia
Defense ministers of Saudi Arabia
Grand Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite
Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit
Heirs apparent who never acceded
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
People named in the Panama Papers
Recipients of the Order of the Defender of the Realm
Saudi Arabian anti-communists
Saudi Arabian Sunni Muslims
Sultan
Survivors of terrorist attacks
Recipients of orders, decorations, and medals of Sudan
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englischer%20Garten
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Englischer Garten
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The Englischer Garten (, English Garden) is a large public park in the centre of Munich, Bavaria, stretching from the city centre to the northeastern city limits. It was created in 1789 by Sir Benjamin Thompson (1753–1814), later Count Rumford (Reichsgraf von Rumford), for Prince Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria. Thompson's successors, Reinhard von Werneck (1757–1842) and Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (1750–1823), advisers on the project from its beginning, both extended and improved the park.
With an area of (370 ha or 910 acres), the Englischer Garten is one of the world's largest urban public parks. The name refers to its English garden form of informal landscape, a style popular in England from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century and particularly associated with Capability Brown.
History
Creation
When the Elector of Bavaria Maximilian III Joseph, the last ruler from the Bavarian branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty, died childless in 1777, his throne passed to Charles Theodore, count and elector of the Palatinate. The new ruler preferred his existing home in Mannheim on the Rhine to living in Bavaria and tried unsuccessfully to trade his unloved inheritance for the Austrian Netherlands. Understandably, the people of Munich returned his disdain. To offset this unhappy atmosphere, Charles Theodore devoted much attention to improvements in the city. Among others, he created an art gallery in the northern arcades of the Residence's Hofgarten ("Court Garden") and made both the garden and the new gallery open to the public (the former in 1780, the latter in 1781).
While the Hofgarten was then the only public park in Munich, that was not the primary motivation for the creation of the English Garden. Rather, it was part of a series of military reforms being pursued under the guidance of Sir Benjamin Thompson, the new Elector's chief military aide, later created Count Rumford and appointed as Bavarian war minister. Born in Massachusetts, Thompson had served on the Loyalist side in the American Revolutionary War, and after the British defeat had returned to England before moving to continental Europe and entering Charles Theodore's service in 1784. In 1788 Thompson proposed that in peacetime the majority of the soldiers of the Elector's army should be given leave to do civilian work, such as farming and gardening. In February 1789, Charles Theodore decreed that military gardens should be laid out in each garrison city, to provide soldiers with good agricultural knowledge and also to serve as recreation areas, accessible also to the public.
The planned location of the Munich gardens was the area north of the Schwabinger city gate, a hunting ground of the Wittelsbach rulers since the Middle Ages. Known as the Hirschanger (or "deer park"), the higher part of the hunting ground closer to the city was included in the scheme, while the Hirschau (also meaning "deer park"), lower and further north, and a more densely wooded part to the south known as the Hirschangerwald ("Deer Park Wood") were originally not included. The whole area had been subject to flooding from the Isar, the river on which Munich stands, a little to the east. This problem was soon removed by the construction of a river wall in 1790, which became known as the "Riedl-Damm" after the engineer Anton von Riedl, who had supervised its construction.
The laying out of the military garden was begun in July 1789, and an area of 800 by slightly less than 200 metres was quickly made ready for cultivation, but soon the idea was extended to the creation of a public park, of which the military garden should be only a small part. On August 13, 1789, Charles Theodore published a decree, devoting the Hirschanger to the amusement of the people of Munich. To advise on the project, the Royal Gardener Friedrich Ludwig Sckell (ennobled in 1808) who had studied landscape gardening in England and had previously worked for Charles Theodore at Schwetzingen, had been summoned to Munich earlier in August. Various associated projects were made part of the park development, among them the Elevengarten ("Pupils' Garden", a garden for the students at the recently formed military academy), a "Schweizerey" (cattle farm), "Schäfery" (sheep farm) and "Ackerbauschule" (arable farming school) to improve farming techniques, and a "Vihearzneyschule" (veterinary school) for the treatment of cattle diseases. Most of these projects did not long survive the creation of the park, but the veterinary school went on to become what is now the Tierärztliche Fakultät (Veterinary Faculty) of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The gateway from 1790 can be seen at the Veterinärstraße entrance to the garden. The park was initially named "Theodors Park", but it very quickly became known by the descriptive name of "the English Garden". By May, 1790 sufficient progress had been made to allow Charles Theodore to make an inspection tour; but it was first in the spring of 1792 that the park was officially opened to the approximately 40,000 citizens of Munich.
Further development
Thompson left Munich in 1798. His successor, Baron von Werneck, attempted to make the garden itself through its agricultural use. To that end he expanded the park in December 1799 to encompass the Hirschau, which was improved to provide pasture. The fields of the military gardens were added to the Englischer Garten in January 1800. Werneck's improvements had been costly, and in 1804 he was replaced by Sckell, who was given the post of Bayerischer Hofgärtenintendant ("Bavarian Court Garden Supervisor"). Although Sckell had had a guiding role from the beginning, many aspects of the execution differed from his ideas, which he set out in a memorandum of 1807. His long supervision of the garden (1804–1823) was marked by a movement away from agricultural uses and by concentration on the landscape garden. For instance, two mills at the point where the Schwabingerbach (Schwabing stream) leaves the Eisbach (Ice stream) were removed and an artificial waterfall was created in 1814–1815.
Under Sckell, the park took on its present form. The only significant addition since his time is the creation of the hill for the Monopteros by his nephew Carl August Sckell, who succeeded him as director of the park. In the 20th century, there were some minor additions to the park, most notably the addition in 1952 of some thirty hectares of land where the locomotive factory of Joseph Anton von Maffei had stood, and in 1958-62 of a further 67 hectares from the Hirschauer Forst (Hirschau Wood). The century almost brought less welcome changes to the park. In the Second World War, Allied bombing damaged the Monopteros and destroyed the Chinese Tower, and 93,000 cubic metres of rubble were dumped in the Hirschanger. The area was only cleared in 1953, when a sports ground for schools was created there. (The park briefly had another sports ground, with the archery range that hosted the archery competitions for the 1972 Summer Olympics on the Werneckwiese by the Kleinhesseloher See.) Transport too has harmed the character of the garden, most notably with the construction in 1963 of the Isarring, part of Munich's central ring road, which divides the park just north of the Kleinhesseloher See. Towards the end of the 20th century the city of Munich wished to construct a tram route through the garden north of the Chinese Tower, currently a road used only by buses; but it was opposed by the Bavarian government, which owns the land, and the Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof rejected the plan. There were also natural disasters: many trees were destroyed by severe storms in 1964, 1988, and 1990 (the "Wiebke" storm); and Dutch elm disease has almost destroyed the elm trees of the park. Both kinds of loss were compensated by a "tree donation" campaign organised by Munich's Abendzeitung ("Evening Paper") in 1989 to 1990 on the occasion of the park's 200th anniversary; among the 1500 new trees that were planted were a thousand elms, using only varieties resistant to Dutch elm disease.
Sights and attractions
Japanese teahouse
In April 1972, to celebrate the Summer Olympics of that year, held in Munich, a Japanese teahouse and a Japanese garden were created on a small island at the south end of the Englischer Garten, behind the Haus der Kunst. The island lies in a lake which had been created only a few years earlier, in 1969. The teahouse was a gift to Bavaria from Soshitsu Sen, head of the Urasenke tea school in Kyoto, and it was designed by Soshitsu Sen and Mitsuo Nomura. A traditional Japanese tea ceremony takes place here regularly.
Schönfeldwiese and surroundings
Between the Monopteros and the Japanisches Teehaus lies the Schönfeldwiese ("Beautiful field meadow"). In this part of the Gardens nude sunbathing has been permitted since the 1960s, something which many Germans practise. It caused quite a sensation at the time and also made the English Gardens well-known, even outside Munich. The Schönfeldwiese proper lies to the south of the Schwabingerbach, which crosses the English Garden at this point before flowing northwards along its west side; but the name is sometimes used of the whole larger open space. The expanse to the north of the Schwabingerbach, the Carl Theodorswiese ("Carl Theodors meadow") has the oldest construction in the park: the "Burgfriedsäule", a boundary marker from 1724, topped with the Münchner Kindl stands in a grove of trees below the Monopteros.
Surfing
In one of the artificial streams flowing through the Englischer Garten, there is a standing wave (a stationary hydraulic jump) in which there is a transition from laminar to turbulent flow. Surfers line up along the bank taking turns entering the water with their boards. After a minute or so, successful surfers will voluntarily drop out returning to the end of the line allowing the next person in line an opportunity. The signage states that surfing should only be done by expert or skilled surfers.
Monopteros
When the nearby wooden Apollo temple had fallen into disrepair, an early idea of Sckell's for a hilltop temple was taken up and a new stone building of similar design was commissioned (an early plan even calls the Monopteros "Apollo Tempel", a name it never actually bore). This small (16 m high), round, Greek-style temple was designed by Leo von Klenze. It was built on a 15 m high foundation, around which a small hill was created in 1832, using leftover building material from recent work on the Munich Residenz (Royal Residence). Hill and temple were completed in 1836. Ten Ionic columns support a shallow copper-covered dome; palmettes adorn the sima. A particular feature of the Monopteros is the use of polychrome stone painting, an interest of Klenze at the time, who intended the building to serve as a model for its use.
Steinerne Bank
Before the Monopteros was built, a small circular temple had stood by the Eisbach a little to the south of the Chinesischer Turm. Designed by Johann Baptist Lechner (1758–1809) and erected in 1789, it became known as the Apollo temple after an Apollo statue by Josef Nepomuk Muxel was added to it in 1791. While the basis of the temple was tuff, the temple itself was wooden; and by the early nineteenth century, this had fallen into disrepair. In 1838, Leo von Klenze built an exedra or stone bench (Steinerne Bank) in place of the temple, with the inscription "Hier wo Ihr wallet, da war sonst Wald nur und Sumpf" ("Here where you meander was once only wood and marsh"). The temple's circular basis served as the basis for the curved bench.
Chinese Tower
Tower
The Chinesischer Turm ("Chinese Tower") is a 25-metre-high wooden structure, first constructed in 1789 to 1790, from a design by the Mannheimer military architect Joseph Frey (1758–1819). It was modelled on the "Great Pagoda" in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. The Pagoda, twice as high as the tower, was supposed to resemble a porcelain pagoda in the gardens of a Chinese emperor. The Munich tower has five storeys: the ground storey roof has a diameter of 19 m, the topmost storey of 6 m.
On July 13, 1944, the original tower burned down after heavy bombing; but a society aiming to rebuild it was formed in 1951 and the new tower, copied accurately from the original by consulting photographs and old drawings, was completed in September 1952.
Surroundings
A wooden Chinesische Wirtschaft (restaurant in Chinese style), designed by Lechner, was added in 1790. In 1912, this was replaced by the present-day stone building, which reflected the original design. With 7,000 seats, the beer garden at the Chinesischer Turm is the second largest in Munich.
In the late 19th century up to 5000 servants, manual workers, soldiers, and students would come to the tower early on a Sunday morning to dance to the music of a brass band. The dance began around five in the morning and ended around eight o'clock, so that servants could return to serve their employers' breakfast or go to church. As a dance for servants it was known as the "Kocherlball" (cooks' ball). In 1904 the custom was forbidden by the police on moral grounds. But in 1989, to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the park, a revival was made, with around 4000 attending, and the dance has since been celebrated each year in July.
A children's carousel was put up near the tower in 1823, similar in design to the current one. By 1912 a replacement was needed, which is still in use. It was designed by the Schwabinger sculptor Joseph Erlacher and the decoration painter August Julier. Alongside the usual horses, the carousel has less expected creatures to ride, such as an ibex, stork and flamingo. Its wooden roof and pillars were restored from 1979 to 1980.
South of the tower are the Ökonomiegebäude ("Economy buildings"), which were designed by Lechner towards the end of the 18th century as a model farm. Today, the Ökonomiegebäude are occupied by the management of the Englischer Garten.
Rumford-Saal
A little to the north of the Chinesischer Turm, the Rumford-Saal (Rumford Hall) or Rumfordhaus (Rumford House) is a small building in Palladian style. During its construction it was known as the "großer Saal" (great hall) or "Militairsaal" (military hall); but it was later renamed to honour the garden's founder, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. It was built in 1791 by Lechner as an officers' mess (Offiziers-kasino) and was used first by the army, later by the court. The building, 30 m long and 10 m wide, has one and a half storeys; front and back have a portico with six wooden Ionic pillars. Its dining hall, adorned with many mirrors which give it its name, the "Spiegelsaal" (mirror room), has room for 150 people. The building is currently used by the city of Munich as a children's centre ("Kinderfreizeitstätte").
Kleinhesseloher See
The Kleinhesseloher See ("Kleinhesseloher Lake") was created under Werneck's direction around 1800 between the districts of Schwabing, at that time a village north of Munich, and Kleinhesselohe. Kleinhesselohe had been the original northern limit of the park, with a watchhouse and a gate to the northern Hirschau. The park warden there had set up an improvised beer shop for workers in the park. This soon expanded to offer milk and cold meals and came to be a favoured stop for walkers in the park, especially after a wooden dance place had been added. Werneck's successor Sckell increased the size of the lake by one and a half times in 1807 to 1812, giving it its present form. It is constantly fed by water from the Eisbach. Three islands can be found within the lake's 86,410 square meters: Königsinsel ("King's Island", 2,720 m2), Kurfürsteninsel ("Elector's Island", 1,260 m2) and Regenteninsel ("Regent's Island", 640 m2).
Sckell's enlargement of the lake brought it close to Kleinhesselohe; and the little beer garden there was to be a forerunner of the modern Seehaus ("lake house"), with 2,500 seats. In 1882 to 1883 Gabriel von Seidel built a boathouse with food service. This was replaced with a new building by Rudolf Esterer in 1935; with a terrace overlooking the lake, this was very popular until 1970, when it was demolished. A competition for a new design was won by Alexander von Branca, with a design modelled on a Japanese village; but the work was found too costly and never executed. For fifteen years service was from temporary buildings, until in 1985 the current Seehaus was built to a design by Ernst Hürlimann and Ludwig Wiedemann. Today, the lake and the Seehaus are well-loved leisure destinations; pedal boats are also leased here to those who want to splash around.
Two monuments near the lake honour its creators. The Werneck-Denkmal, a monument to Werneck, stands on a rise near the east side. It was erected in 1838 on Ludwig I's suggestion to a design by von Klenze. A little south of it, on the bank of the lake, the Sckell-Säule ("Sckell pillar") honours Ludwig von Sckell. This, also designed by von Klenze, was erected in 1824, a year after Sckell's death; the design was executed by Ernst von Bandel, who would later be known as the creator of the Hermannsdenkmal.
Hirschau
The English Garden is divided into two portions by the busy Isarring road. The southern part is around 2 km long, while the northern part, called the Hirschau, is around 3 km long. In contrast to the southern part, which on sunny days contains as many people as one would find in a medium-sized town, the Hirschau has a peaceful character. In the southern part the grass in the open expanses (heavily used for sport and sunbathing) must be kept short; but in the Hirschau some meadows are allowed to grow and are mown for hay in June and August, while others are used as pasture for sheep. Two beer gardens, the "Aumeister", built in 1810–11 by the court mason (Hofmaurermeister) Joseph Deiglmayr (1760–1814) and the "Hirschau", built in 1840, are located at the north and south end of the Hirschau respectively.
The northern part of the garden also contains a small amphitheatre, built in 1985 and called the new amphitheatre. (An amphitheatre built in 1793 to a similar plan, but in a different position, a little north of the Rumford-Saal, has not survived; this had been used primarily for fireworks exhibitions). The new amphitheatre is used for open-air performances in summer. To the east the Hirschau's border is formed by the Isar, which can be crossed at the Oberföhring dam (Stauwehr Oberföhring), built between 1920 and 1924, and at the Emmeram Bridge, a wooden pedestrian bridge first built in 1978. The bridge was destroyed by arson in 2002, and replaced by a new design in 2004.
Statistics
Area: 3.73 km2
Total length of paths and walkways: roughly 75 km (26 km roads, 36 km footpaths, 13 km bridlepaths)
Length of streams: 15 km
Bridges: over 100
Number of bird species that breed in the Garden: 50–60
Literature
C. Bauer, Der Englische Garten in München. Munich: Harbeke, 1964
J. H. Biller and H.-P. Rasp, München, Kunst und Kultur. Munich: Südwest, ed. 18, 2006.
T. Dombart, Der Englische Garten zu München. Munich: Hornung, 1972.
P. Freiherr von Freyberg (ed.), Der Englische Garten in München. Munich: Knürr, 2000.
E. D. Schmid (ed.), Englischer Garten München. Munich: Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, ed. 2, 1989
Footnotes
External links
Die Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen on the English Garten
W. Haller, Der Englische Garten (German)
Englischer Garten - video
Photos of the English Garden, Monopteros, Chinesischer Turm, Seehaus Beergarden, River Surfers in the Eisbach
Englischer Garten at Google Maps
Englischer Garten, Munich - a Gardens Guide review
360° View of Chinese Tower
Venues of the 1972 Summer Olympics
Olympic archery venues
Urban public parks
Gardens in Bavaria
Gardens in Germany
Tourist attractions in Munich
Parks and open spaces in Munich
Culture in Munich
Continental gardens in the English Landscape Garden style
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice%20and%20Development%20Party%20%28Turkey%29
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Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
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The Justice and Development Party (, ; ), abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. Third-party sources often refer to the party as national conservative, social conservative and espousing neo-Ottomanism. The party is generally regarded as being right-wing on the political spectrum, although some sources have described it as far-right since 2011. It is one of the two major parties of contemporary Turkey along with the Republican People's Party (CHP).
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been chairman of AKP since the 2017 Party Congress. The AKP is the largest party in the Grand National Assembly, the Turkish national legislature, with 263 out of 600 seats, having won 35.6% of votes in the 2023 Turkish parliamentary election. It forms the People's Alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The current AKP parliamentary leader is Abdullah Güler.
Founded in 2001 by members of a number of parties such as FP, ANAP and DYP, the party has a strong base of support among people from the conservative tradition of Turkey, though the party strongly denies it is Islamist. The party positioned itself as pro-liberal market economy, supporting Turkish membership in the European Union. Orange is the party's main colour. Other colours include white for the logo, blue for the flag, and orange-white-blue-red for the corporate design.
The AKP is the only party in Turkey with a significant presence in all provinces of Turkey. Since the beginning of Turkey's multiparty democracy in 1946, AKP is the only party to win seven consecutive parliamentary elections. The AKP has headed the national government since 2002 under Abdullah Gül (2002–2003), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2003–2014), Ahmet Davutoğlu (2014–2016), Binali Yıldırım (2016–2018) and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (2018–present). The AKP's rule has been marked with increasing authoritarianism, expansionism, censorship and banning of other political parties and dissent.
The party was an observer in the European People's Party between 2005 and 2013. After not being granted full membership in the EPP, the party became a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) from 2013 to 2018.
AK Party has dominated Turkish politics since 2002. It is the 6th largest political party in the world by membership and the biggest in the world outside India, China and the U.S.
History
Formation
The AKP was established by a wide range of politicians of various political parties and a number of new politicians in 2001. The core of the party was formed from the reformist faction of the Islamist Virtue Party, including people such as Abdullah Gül and Bülent Arınç, while a second founding group consisted of members of the social conservative Motherland Party who had been close to Turgut Özal, such as Cemil Çiçek and Abdülkadir Aksu. Historically the party was described as liberal conservative, conservative liberal, economically liberal, pro-European, and centre-right.
Some members of the True Path Party, such as Hüseyin Çelik and Köksal Toptan, joined the AKP. Some members, such as Kürşad Tüzmen or Ertuğrul Günay, had nationalist or center-left backgrounds respectively, while representatives of the nascent, more clearly anti-capitalist 'Muslim left' current were largely excluded. In addition, a large number of people joined a political party for the first time, such as Ali Babacan, Nimet Baş, Egemen Bağış and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
Closure cases
Controversies over whether the party remains committed to secular principles enshrined in the Turkish constitution have dominated Turkish politics since 2002. Turkey's constitution established the country as a secular state and prohibits any political parties that promote Islamism or shariah law.
Since coming to power, the party has brought about tighter regulations on abortion and higher taxes on alcohol consumption, leading to allegations that it is covertly undermining Turkish secularism. Some activists, commentators, opponents and government officials have accused the party of Islamism. The Justice and Development Party has faced two "closure cases" (attempts to officially ban the party, usually for Islamist practices) in 2002 and 2008.
Just 10 days before the national elections of 2002, Turkey's chief prosecutor, Sabih Kanadoğlu, asked the Turkish constitutional court to close the Justice and Development Party, which was leading in the polls at that time. The chief prosecutor charged the Justice and Development Party with abusing the law and justice. He based his case on the fact that the party's leader had been banned from political life for reading an Islamist poem, and thus the party had no standing in elections. The European Commission had previously criticized Turkey for banning the party's leader from participating in elections.
The party again faced a closure trial in 2008 brought about by the lifting of a long-standing university ban on headscarves. At an international press conference in Spain, Erdoğan answered a question of a journalist by saying, "What if the headscarf is a symbol? Even if it were a political symbol, does that give [one the] right to ban it? Could you bring prohibitions to symbols?" These statements led to a joint proposal of the Justice and Development Party and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party for changing the constitution and the law to lift a ban on women wearing headscarves at state universities.
Soon afterwards, Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, asked the Constitutional Court of Turkey to close down the party on charges of violating the separation of religion and state in Turkey. The closure request failed by only one vote, as only 6 of the 11 judges ruled in favor, with 7 required; however, 10 out of 11 judges agreed that the Justice and Development Party had become "a center for anti-secular activities", leading to a loss of 50% of the state funding for the party.
Merger with People's Voice Party
In September 2012, two-year-old conservative-oriented People's Voice Party (HAS Parti) dissolved itself and joined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with a majority of its delegates' votes. In July 2012, following long-held speculation that former HSP leader Numan Kurtulmuş was on Prime Minister Erdoğan's mind as his possible successor as party head, Erdoğan personally proposed to Kurtulmuş the idea of merging the parties under the umbrella of the AKP.
Elections
The party has won pluralities in the six most recent legislative elections, those of 2002, 2007, 2011, June 2015, November 2015, and 2018. The party held a majority of seats for 13 years, but lost it in June 2015, only to regain it in the snap election of November 2015 but then lose it again in 2018. Its past electoral success has been mirrored in the three local elections held since the party's establishment, coming first in 2004, 2009 and 2014 respectively. However, the party lost most of Turkey's biggest cities including Istanbul and Ankara in 2019 local elections, which has been attributed to the Turkish economic crisis, accusations of authoritarianism, as well as alleged government inaction on the Syrian refugee crisis.
2002 general elections
The AKP won a sweeping victory in the 2002 elections, which saw every party previously represented in the Grand National Assembly ejected from the chamber. In the process, it won a two-thirds majority of seats, becoming the first Turkish party in 11 years to win an outright majority. Erdoğan, as the leader of the biggest party in parliament, would have been normally given the task to form a cabinet.
However, according to the Turkish Constitution Article 109 the Prime Ministers had to be also a representative of the Turkish Parliament. Erdoğan, who was banned from holding any political office after a 1994 incident in which he read a poem deemed pro-Islamist by judges, was therefore not. As a result, Gül became prime minister.
It survived the crisis over the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite a massive back bench rebellion where over a hundred AKP MPs joined those of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in parliament to prevent the government from allowing the United States to launch a Northern offensive in Iraq from Turkish territory. Later, Erdoğan's ban was lifted with the help of the CHP and Erdoğan became prime minister by being elected to the parliament after a by-election in Siirt.
The AKP has undertaken structural reforms, and during its rule Turkey has seen rapid growth and an end to its three decade long period of high inflation rates. Inflation had fallen to 8.8% by 2004.
Influential business publications such as The Economist consider the AKP's government the most successful in Turkey in decades.
2004 local elections
In the local elections of 2004, the AKP won 42% of the votes, making inroads against the secular Republican People's Party (CHP) on the South and West Coasts, and against the Social Democratic People's Party, which is supported by some Kurds in the South-East of Turkey.
In January 2005, the AKP was admitted as an observer member in the European People's Party (EPP). However, it left the EPP to join the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) in 2013.
2007 elections
On 14 April 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest the possible candidacy of Erdoğan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as president, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state. Erdoğan announced on 24 April 2007 that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AKP candidate in the presidential election. The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at an 29 April rally in Istanbul, tens of thousands reported at separate protests on 4 May in Manisa and Çanakkale, and one million in İzmir on 13 May.
Early parliamentary elections were called after the failure of the parties in parliament to agree on the next Turkish president. The opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary vote and deadlocked the election process. At the same time, Erdoğan claimed the failure to elect a president was a failure of the Turkish political system and proposed to modify the constitution.
The AKP achieved a significant victory in the rescheduled 22 July 2007 elections with 46.6% of the vote, translating into control of 341 of the 550 available parliamentary seats. Although the AKP received significantly more votes in 2007 than in 2002, the number of parliamentary seats they controlled decreased due to the rules of the Turkish electoral system. However, they retained a comfortable ruling majority.
Nationally, the elections of 2007 saw a major advance for the AKP, with the party outpolling the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party in traditional Kurdish strongholds such as Van and Mardin, as well as outpolling the secular-left CHP in traditionally secular areas such as Antalya and Artvin. Overall, the AKP secured a plurality of votes in 68 of Turkey's 81 provinces, with its strongest vote of 71% coming from Bingöl. Its weakest vote, a mere 12%, came from Tunceli, the only Turkish province where the Alevi form a majority. Abdullah Gül was elected as the President in late August with 339 votes in the third round – the first at which a simple majority is required – after deadlock in the first two rounds, in which a two-thirds majority was needed.
2007 constitutional referendum
After the opposition parties deadlocked the 2007 presidential election by boycotting the parliament, the ruling AKP proposed a constitutional reform package. The reform package was first vetoed by President Sezer. Then he applied to the Turkish constitutional court about the reform package, because the president is unable to veto amendments for the second time. The court did not find any problems in the package and 69% of the voters supported the constitutional changes.
The reforms consisted of:
electing the president by popular vote instead of by parliament;
reducing the presidential term from seven years to five;
allowing the president to stand for re-election for a second term;
holding general elections every four years instead of five;
reducing the quorum of lawmakers needed for parliamentary decisions from 367 to 184.
2009 local elections
The Turkish local elections of 2009 took place during the financial crisis of 2007–2010. After the success of the AKP in the 2007 general elections, the party saw a decline in the local elections of 2009. In these elections the AKP received 39% of the vote, 3% less than in the local elections of 2004. Still, the AKP remained the dominating party in Turkey. The second party CHP received 23% of the vote and the third party MHP received 16% of the vote. The AKP won in Turkey's largest cities: Ankara and Istanbul.
2010 constitutional referendum
Reforming the Constitution was one of the main pledges of the AKP during the 2007 election campaign. The main opposition party CHP was not interested in altering the Constitution on a big scale, making it impossible to form a Constitutional Commission (Anayasa Uzlaşma Komisyonu). The amendments lacked the two-thirds majority needed to instantly become law, but secured 336 votes in the 550 seat parliament – enough to put the proposals to a referendum.
The reform package included a number of issues: such as the right of individuals to appeal to the highest court, the creation of the ombudsman's office, the possibility to negotiate a nationwide labour contract, positive exceptions for female citizens, the ability of civilian courts to convict members of the military, the right of civil servants to go on strike, a privacy law, and the structure of the Constitutional Court. The referendum was agreed by a majority of 58%.
2014 elections
In the presidential election of 2014, the AKP's long time leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected president. In the party's first extraordinary congress, former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was unanimously elected unopposed as party leader and took over as Prime Minister on 28 August 2014. Davutoğlu stepped down as Prime Minister on 4 May 2016 following policy disagreements with President Erdoğan. Presidential aide Cemil Ertem said to Turkish TV that the country and its economy would stabilize further "when a prime minister more closely aligned with President Erdoğan takes office".
2015 general election
In the general election held on 7 June, the AKP gained 40.87% of the vote and 258 seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi, TBMM). Though it still remains the biggest party in Turkey, the AKP lost its status as the majority party and the power to form a single-party government. Until then it had held this majority without interruption for 13 years since it had come to power in 2002. In this election, the AKP was pushing to gain 330 seats in the Grand National Assembly so that it could put a series of constitutional changes to a referendum, one of them was to switch Turkey from the current parliamentary government to an American-style executive presidency government.
This pursuit met with a series of oppositions and criticism from the opposition parties and their supporters, fearing the measure would give more unchecked power to the current President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has drawn fierce criticisms both from home and abroad for his active role in the election, abandoning the traditional presidential role of maintaining a more neutral and impartial position in elections by his predecessors in the office. The result of the Kurdish issues-centered Peoples' Democratic Party, HDP, breaking through the 10% threshold to achieve 13.12% out of the total votes cast and gaining 80 seats in the Grand National Assembly in the election, which caused the AKP to lose its parliamentary majority.
2019 local elections
In the 2019 local elections, the ruling party AKP lost control of Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 15 years, as well as 5 of Turkey's 6 largest cities. The loss has been widely attributed to AKP's mismanagement of the Turkish economic crisis, rising authoritarianism as well as alleged government inaction on the Syrian refugee crisis. Soon after the elections, the Turkish government ordered a re-election in Istanbul. The decision led to a downfall on AKP's popularity and it lost the elections again in June with an even greater margin.
The result was seen as a huge blow to Erdoğan, who had once said that if his party 'lost Istanbul, we would lose Turkey.' The opposition's landslide was characterized as the 'beginning of the end' for Erdoğan, with international commentators calling the re-run a huge government miscalculation that can lead to a potential İmamoğlu candidacy in the next scheduled presidential election. It is suspected that the scale of the government's defeat could provoke a cabinet reshuffle and early general elections, currently scheduled for June 2023.
Ideology and policies
Although the party is described as an Islamist party in some media, party officials reject those claims. According to former minister Hüseyin Çelik, "In the Western press, when the AKP administration – the ruling party of the Turkish Republic – is being named, most of the time 'Islamic,' 'Islamist,' 'mildly Islamist,' 'Islamic-oriented,' 'Islamic-based' or 'with an Islamic agenda,' and similar language is being used. These characterizations do not reflect the truth, and they sadden us." Çelik added, "The AKP is a conservative democratic party. The AKP's conservatism is limited to moral and social issues." Also in a separate speech made in 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated, "We are not an Islamic party, and we also refuse labels such as Muslim-democrat." Erdoğan went on to say that the AKP's agenda is limited to "conservative democracy".
On the other hand, according to at least one observer (Mustafa Akyol), under the AKP government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, starting in 2007, "hundreds of secularist officers and their civilian allies" were jailed, and by 2012 the "old secularist guard" in positions of authority was replaced by members/supporters of the AKP and the Islamic Gülen movement. On 25 April 2016, the Turkish Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman told a conference of Islamic scholars and writers in Istanbul that "secularism would not have a place in a new constitution”, as Turkey is “a Muslim country and so we should have a religious constitution". (One of the duties of Parliament Speaker is to pen a new draft constitution for Turkey). As of 2023, some sources define the party as being "rooted in political Islam" and an "Islamist-rooted party".
In recent years, the ideology of the party has shifted more towards Turkish nationalism, causing liberals such as Ali Babacan and some conservatives such as Ahmet Davutoğlu and Abdullah Gül to leave the party. Several writers have also labelled the party as being right-wing populist since 2007.
The party's foreign policy has also been widely described as Neo-Ottomanist, an ideology that promotes renewed Turkish political engagement in the former territories of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire. However, the party's leadership has also rejected this label. The party's relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood has drawn allegations of Islamism.
The AKP favors a strong centralized leadership, having long advocated for a presidential system of government and significantly reduced the number of elected local government positions in 2013.
The party was an observer in the centre-right European People's Party between 2005 and 2013 and a member of the Eurosceptic Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) from 2013 to 2018.
European affiliation
In 2005, the party was granted observer membership in the European People's Party (EPP).
In November 2013, the party left the EPP to join the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (now European Conservatives and Reformists Party) instead. This move was attributed to the AKP's disappointment to not to be granted full membership in the EPP, while it was admitted as a full member of the AECR. It drew criticism in both national and European discourses, as the driving force of Turkey's aspirations to become a member of the European Union decided to join a largely eurosceptic alliance, abandoning the more influential pro-European EPP, feeding suspicions that AKP wants to join a watered down, not a closely integrated EU. The AKP withdrew from AECR in 2018.
Legislation and positions
From 2002 to 2011 the party passed series of reforms to increase accessibility to healthcare and housing, distribute food subsidies, increased funding for students, improved infrastructure in poorer districts, and improved rights for religious and ethnic minorities. AKP is also widely accredited for overcoming the 2001 economic crisis in Turkey by following International Monetary Fund guidelines, as well as successfully weathering the 2008 financial crisis. From 2002 to 2011 the Turkish economy grew on average by 7.5 percent annually, thanks to lower inflation and interest rates. The government under AKP also backed extensive privatization programs. The average income in Turkey rose from $2,800 U.S. in 2001 to around $10,000 U.S. in 2011, higher than income in some of the new EU member states. Other reforms included increasing civilian representation over military in areas of national security, education and media, and grant broadcasting and increased cultural rights to Kurds. On Cyprus, AKP supported unification of Cyprus, something deeply opposed by the Turkish military. Other AKP reforms included lifting bans on religious and conservative dress, such as headscarves, in universities and public institutions. AKP also ended discrimination against students from religious high schools, who previously had to meet additional criteria in areas of education and upon entry to universities. AKP is also accredited for bringing the Turkish military under civilian rule, a paradigm shift for a country that had experienced constant military meddling for almost a century.
More recently, nationwide protests broke out against the alleged authoritarianism of the AKP in 2013, with the party's perceived heavy-handed response receiving western condemnation and stalling the party's once championed EU accession negotiations. In addition to its alleged attempts to promote Islamism, the party is accused by some of restricting some civil liberties and internet use in Turkey, having temporarily blocked access to Twitter and YouTube in March 2014. Especially after the government corruption scandal involving several AKP ministers in 2013, the party has been increasingly accused of crony capitalism. The AKP favors a strong centralized leadership, having long advocated for a presidential system of government and significantly reduced the number of elected local government positions in 2013.
Criticism
Critics have accused the AKP of having a 'hidden agenda' despite their public endorsement of secularism and the party maintains informal relations and support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Both the party's domestic and foreign policy has been perceived to be Pan-Islamist or Neo-Ottoman, advocating a revival of Ottoman culture often at the expense of secular republican principles, while increasing regional presence in former Ottoman territories.
The AKP has been criticized for supporting a wide-scale purge of thousands of academics after the failed coup attempt in 2016. Primary, lower secondary and secondary school students were forced to spend the first day of school after the failed coup d'état watching videos about the ‘triumph of democracy’ over the plotters, and listening to speeches equating the civilian counter-coup that aborted the takeover with historic Ottoman victories going back 1000 years. Campaigns have been organised to release higher education personnel and to drop charges against them for peaceful exercise of academic freedom.
Imprisonment of political activists continues, while the chair of Amnesty Turkey has been jailed for standing up to the AKP on trumped up "terrorism charges". These charges have drawn condemnation from many western countries, including from the US State Department, the EU, as well as from international and domestic human rights organisations.
The party has also been criticized by Turkish and international LGBT rights groups including KAOS GL for homophobic statements made by some AKP politicians and for what they argue has become a repressive climate for LGBT rights in Turkey under the AKP. In 2002 before his election, Erdoğan said that "homosexuals must be legally protected within the framework of their rights and freedoms." In 2011, AKP Minister for Families and Social Policy Fatma Şahin said the AKP government would be willing to work with LGBT rights groups to advance laws protecting Turkey's gay community. However, commentators have argued the AKP has taken an increasingly hardline stance on LGBT issues since coming to power, which has been characterized variously as part of a general trend towards authoritarianism under the AKP or as motivated by Islamic and militant nationalist sentiments within the party. In 2012, the AKP voted against a proposal by the BDP to include legalization of same-sex marriage in the redrafted Turkish constitution and in 2013 blocked a research motion in the parliament of Turkey on having a parliamentary debate regarding LGBT rights. During the latter debate, AKP MP Türkan Dağoğlu stated "Homosexuality is an abnormality. Same-sex marriages may not be allowed. It would cause social deterioration" which prompted criticism from some opposition politicians. In 2017, Erdoğan stated that the principle of LGBT rights was "against the values of our nation" and in 2020 endorsed controversial anti-gay statements made by Muslim scholar Ali Erbaş which had received condemnation from some Turkish lawyers and human rights groups. In 2021, AKP deputy chairman and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu declared LGBT people to be "perverts." Turkish constitutional law experts Sule Ozsoy Boyunsuz and Serkan Koybasi have described public statements on gay people made by AKP politicians as both constituting as hate speech and contradicting the principle of Turkey's policy of secularism. Political scientist Mine Eder has argued that Turkey has experienced a backslide on acceptance and government anti-discrimination support for homosexuals under Erdoğan.
2013 corruption scandal
The 2013 corruption scandal was a criminal investigation that involved several key people in the Turkish government. All of the 52 people detained on 17 December were connected in various ways with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Prosecutors accused 14 people including Suleyman Aslan, the director of state-owned Halkbank, Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, and several family members of cabinet ministers of bribery, corruption, fraud, money laundering and gold smuggling.
At the heart of the scandal was an alleged "gas for gold" scheme with Iran involving Aslan, who had US$4.5 million in cash stored in shoeboxes in his home, and Zarrab, who was involved in about US$9.6 billion of gold trading in 2012. Both men were arrested. The scheme started after Turkish government officials found a loophole in the U.S. sanctions against Iran that allowed them to access Iranian oil and gas. The Turks exported some US$13 billion of gold to Iran directly, or through the UAE, between March 2012 and July 2013. In return, the Turks received Iranian natural gas and oil. The transactions were carried out through the Turkish state-owned bank, Halkbank. In January 2013, the Obama administration decided to close this loophole but instead of immediately charging Halkbank, the U.S. government allowed its gold trading activities to continue until July 2013, because Turkey was an important ally regarding the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War, and the U.S. had been working on a nuclear deal with Iran.
Then-Prime Minister Erdoğan (now President of Turkey) was on a tour of Pakistan when the scandal broke, which analysts believe changed the response of the AKP, or influenced those with the tapes to leak them at a time when Erdoğan was visiting an ally (Pakistan).
Use of Internet trolls
Party leaders
Election results
Presidential elections
General elections
By-elections
Local elections
Re-runs
Referendums
Footnotes
Further reading
Literature
Media
See also
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
List of political parties in Turkey
Politics of Turkey
Parliamentary terms of Turkey
References
External links
2001 establishments in Turkey
Political parties established in 2001
Political parties in Turkey
Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe member parties
Conservative parties in Turkey
Eurosceptic parties in Turkey
Islamic democratic political parties
Islamic political parties in Turkey
National conservative parties
Social conservative parties
Right-wing populist parties
Right-wing populism in Asia
Right-wing populism in Turkey
Right-wing politics in Turkey
Organizations based in Ankara
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilaire%20Belloc
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Hilaire Belloc
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Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early 20th century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic faith had a strong effect on his works.
Belloc became a naturalised British subject in 1902 while retaining his French citizenship. While attending Oxford University, he served as President of the Oxford Union. From 1906 to 1910, he served as one of the few openly Catholic members of the British Parliament.
Belloc was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds. He was also a close friend and collaborator of G. K. Chesterton. George Bernard Shaw, a friend and frequent debate opponent of both Belloc and Chesterton, dubbed the pair the "Chesterbelloc".
Belloc's writings encompassed religious poetry and comic verse for children. His widely sold Cautionary Tales for Children included "Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion" and "Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death". He wrote historical biographies and numerous travel works, including The Path to Rome (1902).
Family and career
Family
Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France to a French father, Louis Belloc (1830–1872) and an English mother. His sister Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes also became a writer.
Belloc's mother Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829–1925) was a writer, activist and an advocate for women's equality, a co-founder of the English Woman's Journal and the Langham Place Group. As an adult, Belloc campaigned against women's suffrage as a member of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League.
Belloc's maternal grandfather was Joseph Parkes (1796–1865). Belloc's grandmother, Elizabeth Rayner Priestley (1797–1877), was born in the United States, a granddaughter of Joseph Priestley.
In 1867, Bessie Rayner Parkes married attorney Louis Belloc, son of Jean-Hilaire Belloc. In 1872, five years after they wed, Louis died but not before being wiped out financially in a stock market crash. The young widow then brought her children back to England.
Early life
Belloc grew up in England; his boyhood was spent in Slindon, Sussex. He wrote about his home in poems such as "West Sussex Drinking Song", "The South Country", and "Ha'nacker Mill"; after graduating from John Henry Newman's Oratory School in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Courtship, marriage, and premature death of his wife
In September 1889, Belloc's sister Marie made the accidental acquaintance of a Catholic widow, Mrs. Ellen Hogan, who was travelling from California on a European tour, with two of her children, her daughters, Elizabeth and Elodie. The travellers were both devoutly Catholic and keenly interested in literature, and Marie arranged a visit with her mother, Bessie, who in turn arranged an audience with Henry Cardinal Manning. These acts of generosity cemented a strong friendship, further deepened when Marie and Bessie accompanied the Hogans on their tour of France, visiting Paris with them. Hilaire was absent touring the French provinces as a correspondent for The Pall Mall Gazette, but when the Hogans stopped back in London on their return from another European trip the following year, Belloc met Elodie for the first time, and was smitten.
Shortly after this meeting, Ellen Hogan was called back to California prematurely to take care of another of her children who was stricken with illness. She left her two daughters, who wished to remain in London, under the care of the Belloc family, and, Bessie asked her own son to squire the Hogan daughters around London. Belloc's interest in Elodie grew more fervid by the day. This was the beginning of a long, intercontinental, and star-crossed courtship, made all the more difficult by the opposition of Elodie's mother, who wished Elodie to enter the convent, and Hilaire's mother, who thought her son was too young to marry. Belloc pursued Elodie with letters, and, after her return to the United States, in 1891, he pursued her in person.
The impoverished Belloc, still only twenty years old, sold nearly everything he had to purchase a steamship ticket to New York, ostensibly to visit relatives in Philadelphia. Belloc's true reason for the trek to America became apparent when, after spending a few days in Philadelphia, he began to make his way across the American continent. Part of his journey was by train, but when the money ran out, Belloc just walked. An athletic man who hiked extensively in Britain and Europe, Belloc made his way on foot for a significant part of the 2870 miles from Philadelphia to San Francisco. While walking, he paid for lodging at remote farm houses and ranches by sketching the owners and reciting poetry.
Hilaire's first letter on his arrival in San Francisco is effervescent, happy to see Elodie and full of hopes for their future, but his manifestly zealous courtship was to go unrewarded. The joy he felt at seeing Elodie soon gave way to disappointment when the apparently insurmountable opposition of her mother to the marriage manifested itself. After a stay of only a few weeks, far shorter than the time he had spent in his journey to California, the crestfallen Belloc made his way back across the United States, after a fruitless journey of thousands of miles. His biographer Joseph Pearce compares the return to Napoleon's long, winter retreat from Moscow. When Belloc finally reached the East Coast at Montclair, New Jersey, he received a letter from Elodie on April 30, 1891, definitively rejecting him in favour of a religious vocation; the steamship trip home was tainted with despair.
The gloomy Belloc threw himself into restless activity. Determined to fulfill the obligation of military service necessary to retain his French citizenship, Belloc served his term with an artillery regiment near Toul in 1891. While he was serving in France, Elodie's mother Ellen died, removing a significant obstacle to Belloc's hopes, but, Elodie, although torn between her affection for Hilaire and her desire to serve God in the religious life, was unwilling to cross her mother's wishes so soon after her mother's untimely death and persisted in refusing Belloc's advances.
After his year of service was concluded, still pining for and writing to Elodie, he took the entrance exam to Oxford University, and matriculated to Balliol College, Oxford in January 1893. Belloc later wrote in a poem:
While at Oxford he was bestowed by his fellow students with a great honour: he was elected and served as President of the Oxford Union, the University debating society. He and another undergraduate, Anthony Henley, also achieved the record-breaking and amazing athletic feat of walking from Carfax Tower in Oxford, to Marble Arch in London, a distance of some 55 miles, more than double that of a marathon, in only 11 hours. He was awarded a first-class honours degree in history in June 1895.
That autumn, Elodie finally took the plunge into religious life and joined the Sisters of Charity at Emmitsburg, Maryland, as a postulant. She left a month later, writing to Belloc that she had failed in her religious vocation. In March of 1896, having secured financing as an Oxford Extension lecturer in Philadelphia, Germantown, Baltimore and New Orleans, Belloc took a steamship to New York, and started making his way to Elodie in California. He expected to receive letters from her on his journey, but received none. To his shock and dismay, when he finally arrived in California in May, he discovered Elodie was deathly ill, worn out by the stress of the previous year. Belloc, thinking that after all their suffering, he and his beloved would be denied one another by her death, also collapsed. Over the next few weeks, however, Elodie recovered and after a tumultuous, six-year courtship, Belloc and Elodie were married at St. John the Baptist Catholic church in Napa, California on June 15, 1896. They settled initially in Oxford.
In 1906, Belloc purchased land and a house called King's Land at Shipley, West Sussex in the United Kingdom. The couple had five children before Elodie's untimely death on the Feast of the Purification, February 2, 1914, likely from cancer. She was age 45, and Belloc, at age 43, had more than 40 years of life ahead of him. He wore mourning garb for the rest of his life and kept her room as she had left it.
Nearly five years later, his son Louis was killed in 1918 while serving in the Royal Flying Corps in northern France. Belloc placed a memorial tablet at the nearby Cambrai Cathedral. It is in the same side chapel as the icon of Our Lady of Cambrai.
Later years
On 2 April 1941, Belloc's son Peter Gilbert Marie Sebastian Belloc died at the age of 36 of pneumonia. He fell ill while on active service with the 5th Battalion, Royal Marines in Scotland. He is buried in West Grinstead at Our Lady of Consolation and St. Francis churchyard.
In 1937, Belloc was invited to be a visiting professor at Fordham University in New York City by university president Robert Gannon. Belloc delivered a series of lectures at Fordham which he completed in May of that year. The experience ended up leaving him physically exhausted, and he considered stopping the lectures early.
Death and legacy
In 1941, Belloc suffered a stroke and never recovered from its effects. In the same year, he also suffered burns and shock after falling on his fireplace. He died on 16 July 1953 at Mount Alvernia Nursing Home in Guildford, Surrey.
Belloc was buried at the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Consolation and St Francis at West Grinstead, where he had regularly attended Mass as a parishioner. His estate was probated at £7,451. At his funeral Mass, homilist Monsignor Ronald Knox said "No man of his time fought so hard for the good things". Boys from the Choir and Sacristy of Worth Preparatory School sang and served at the Mass.
Recent biographies of Belloc have been written by A. N. Wilson and Joseph Pearce. Jesuit political philosopher James Schall's Remembering Belloc was published by St. Augustine Press in September 2013. A memoir of Belloc was written by Henry Edward George Rope.
Political career
At Oxford University, Belloc served as president of the Oxford Union. He went into politics after he became a naturalised British subject. A great disappointment in his life was his failure to gain a fellowship of All Souls College, Oxford in 1895. This failure may have been caused in part by his producing a small statue of the Virgin Mary and placing it before him on the table during the interview for the fellowship.
From 1906 to 1910, Belloc was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Salford South. During one campaign speech, he was asked by a heckler if he was a "papist". He responded:
Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This [taking a rosary out of his pocket] is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative. The crowd cheered and Belloc won the election, despite his Catholic faith. He retained his seat in the first 1910 election but did not stand in December 1910.
Belloc's only period of steady employment after that was from 1914 to 1920 as editor of Land and Water. Otherwise he lived by his writing and was often financially insecure.
In controversy and debate
Belloc first came to public attention shortly after arriving at Balliol College, Oxford as a recent French army veteran. Attending his first debate of the Oxford Union Debating Society, he saw that the affirmative position was wretchedly and half-heartedly defended. As the debate drew to its conclusion and the division of the house was called, he rose from his seat in the audience, and delivered a vigorous, impromptu defence of the proposition. Belloc won that debate from the audience, as the division of the house then showed, and his reputation as a debater was established. He was later elected president of the Union. He held his own in debates there with F. E. Smith and John Buchan, the latter a friend.
In the 1920s, Belloc attacked H. G. Wells's The Outline of History. Belloc criticised what he termed Wells‘s secular bias and his belief in evolution by means of natural selection, a theory that Belloc asserted had been completely discredited. Wells remarked that "Debating Mr. Belloc is like arguing with a hailstorm". Belloc's review of Outline of History observed that Wells's book was a powerful and well-written volume "up until the appearance of Man, that is, somewhere around page seven". Wells responded with the small book Mr. Belloc Objects. Not to be outdone, Belloc followed with, "Mr. Belloc Still Objects".
G. G. Coulton wrote Mr. Belloc on Medieval History in a 1920 article. After a long simmering feud, Belloc replied with a booklet, The Case of Dr. Coulton, in 1938.
Belloc's style during later life fulfilled the nickname he received in childhood, Old Thunder. Belloc's friend Lord Sheffield described his provocative personality in a preface to The Cruise of the Nona.
Hobbies
During his later years, Belloc sailed when he could afford to do so and became a well-known yachtsman. He won many races and was on the French sailing team.
In the early 1930s, he was given an old pilot cutter named Jersey. He sailed this for some years around the coasts of England, with the help of younger men. One sailor, Dermod MacCarthy, wrote a book about it, called Sailing with Mr Belloc.
Writing
Belloc wrote over 150 books, the subjects ranging from warfare to poetry to the many current topics of his day. He has been called one of the Big Four of Edwardian Letters, along with H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and G. K. Chesterton, all of whom debated with each other into the 1930s. Belloc was closely associated with Chesterton, and Shaw coined the term "Chesterbelloc" for their partnership. Belloc was co-editor with Cecil Chesterton of the literary periodical the Eye-Witness.
Asked once why he wrote so much, Belloc responded, "Because my children are howling for pearls and caviar." Belloc observed that "The first job of letters is to get a canon", that is, to identify those works a writer sees as exemplary of the best of prose and verse. For his own prose style, he said he aspired to be as clear and concise as "Mary had a little lamb."
Essays and travel writing
In 1902, Belloc published The Path to Rome, an account of a walking pilgrimage from Central France across the Alps to Rome. The Path to Rome contains descriptions of the people and places he encountered, his drawings in pencil and in ink of the route, humour, poesy. In 1909, Belloc published The Pyrenees, providing many details of that region. As an essayist he was one of a small group (with Chesterton, E. V. Lucas and Robert Lynd) of popular writers.
During World War I, Belloc was perceived by soldiers as a "kept correspondent" for the Entente leadership. The Wipers Times mocked him as "Belary Helloc," a satirical persona who advanced foolish suggestions for winning the war.
Poetry
His Cautionary Tales for Children, humorous poems with an implausible moral, illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood (signing as "B.T.B.") and later by Edward Gorey, are the most widely known of his writings. Supposedly for children, they, like Lewis Carroll's works, are more to adult and satirical tastes: "Henry King, Who chewed bits of string and was early cut off in dreadful agonies". A similar poem tells the story of "Rebecca, who slammed doors for fun and perished miserably".
The tale of "Matilda who told lies and was burned to death" was adapted into the play Matilda Liar! by Debbie Isitt. Quentin Blake, the illustrator, described Belloc as at one and the same time the overbearing adult and mischievous child. Roald Dahl was a follower. But Belloc has broader if sourer scope. For example, with Lord Lundy (who was "far too freely moved to Tears"):
leading up to
instead, Lundy is condemned to the ultimate political wilderness:
Of more weight is Belloc's Sonnets and Verse, a volume that deploys the same singing and rhyming techniques of his children's verses. Belloc's poetry is often religious, often romantic; throughout The Path to Rome he writes in spontaneous song.
History, politics, and economics
Three of his best-known non-fiction works are The Servile State (1912), Europe and Faith (1920) and The Jews (1922).
From an early age Belloc knew Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, who was responsible for the conversion of his mother to Catholicism. In The Cruise of the "Nona" (1925), he mentions a "profound thing" that Manning said to him when he was just twenty years old: "All human conflict is ultimately theological." What Manning meant, Belloc said, is "that all wars and revolutions, and all decisive struggles between parties of men arise from a difference in moral and transcendental doctrine." Belloc adds that he never met any man, "arguing for what should be among men, but took for granted as he argued that the doctrine he consciously or unconsciously accepted was or should be a similar foundation for all mankind. Hence battle." Manning's involvement in the London Dock Strike of 1889 made a major impression on Belloc and his view of politics, according to biographer Robert Speaight. He became a trenchant critic both of capitalism and of many aspects of socialism.
With others (G. K. Chesterton, Cecil Chesterton, Arthur Penty) Belloc had envisioned the socioeconomic system of distributism. In The Servile State, written after his party-political career had come to an end, and other works, he criticised the modern economic order and parliamentary system, advocating distributism in opposition to both capitalism and socialism. Belloc made the historical argument that distributism was not a fresh perspective or program of economics but rather a proposed return to the economics that prevailed in Europe for the thousand years when it was Catholic. He called for the dissolution of Parliament and its replacement with committees of representatives for the various sectors of society, an idea that was also popular among fascists, under the name of corporatism.
He contributed an article on "Land-Tenure in the Christian Era" to the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Belloc held republican views, but became increasingly sympathetic to monarchism as he grew older. In his youth, Belloc had initially been loyal to the nature of French republicanism, seeing it as a patriotic duty. Michael Hennessy, Chairman of the Hilaire Belloc Society, wrote that "In some respects, Belloc remained a republican until his death, but increasingly realized that there were not enough republicans to make a republic function effectively. Belloc thus felt that monarchy was the most practicable, superior form of government." Belloc explores some of these ideas in his work Monarchy: A Study of Louis XIV. Within it, Belloc also wrote that democracy "is possible only in small states, and even these must enjoy exceptional defences, moral or material, if they are to survive."
With these linked themes in the background, he wrote a long series of contentious biographies of historical figures, including Oliver Cromwell, James II, and Napoleon. They show him as an ardent proponent of orthodox Catholicism and a critic of many elements of the modern world.
Outside academe, Belloc was impatient with what he considered axe-grinding histories, especially what he called "official history." Joseph Pearce notes also Belloc's attack on the secularism of H. G. Wells's popular Outline of History:
Belloc objected to his adversary's tacitly anti-Christian stance, epitomized by the fact that Wells had devoted more space in his "history" to the Persian campaign against the Greeks than he had given to the figure of Christ.
He wrote also substantial amounts of military history. In alternative history, he contributed to the 1931 collection If It Had Happened Otherwise edited by Sir John Squire.
Reprints
Ignatius Press of California and IHS Press of Virginia have reissued Belloc. TAN Books of Charlotte, North Carolina, publishes a number of Belloc's works, particularly his historical writings. in 2023, Os Justi Press republished The Cruise of the Nona, in an entirely new edition which included a preface by Joseph Pearce, author of the biography Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc.
Religion
One of Belloc's more famous statements was "the faith is Europe and Europe is the faith"; those views were expressed in many of his works from the period 1920 to 1940. These are still cited as exemplary of Catholic apologetics. They have also been criticised, for instance by comparison with the work of Christopher Dawson during the same period.
As a young man, Belloc moved away from Catholicism. However, he later stated that a spiritual event, which he never discussed publicly, prompted his return to it. Belloc alludes to this return to Catholicism in a passage in The Cruise of the Nona.
According to his biographer A. N. Wilson (Hilaire Belloc, Hamish Hamilton), Belloc never wholly apostatised from the faith (ibid p. 105). The momentous event is fully described by Belloc in The Path to Rome (pp. 158–61). It took place in the French village of Undervelier at the time of Vespers. Belloc said of it, "not without tears", "I considered the nature of Belief" and "it is a good thing not to have to return to the Faith". (See Hilaire Belloc by Wilson at pp. 105–06.) Belloc believed that the Catholic Church provided hearth and home for the human spirit. More humorously, his tribute to Catholic culture can be understood from his well-known saying, "Wherever the Catholic sun does shine, there's always laughter and good red wine."
Belloc had a disparaging view of the Church of England, and used sharp words to describe heretics, such as, "Heretics all, whoever you may be/ In Tarbes or Nimes or over the sea/ You never shall have good words from me/ Caritas non-conturbat me". Indeed, in his "Song of the Pelagian Heresy" he described how the Bishop of Auxerre, "with his stout Episcopal staff/ So thoroughly thwacked and banged/ The heretics all, both short and tall/ They rather had been hanged".
Belloc sent his son Louis to Downside School (1911–1915). Louis's biography and death in August 1918 is recorded in "Downside and the War".
On Islam
Belloc's 1937 book The Crusades: the World's Debate, he wrote
In The Great Heresies (1938), Belloc argued that although "Muslim culture happens to have fallen back in material applications; there is no reason whatever why it should not learn its new lesson and become our equal in all those temporal things which now alone give us our superiority over it—whereas in Faith we have fallen inferior to it."
Belloc continued:
There is no reason why its recent inferiority in mechanical construction, whether military or civilian, should continue indefinitely. Even a slight accession of material power would make the further control of Islam by an alien culture difficult. A little more and there will cease that which our time has taken for granted, the physical domination of Islam by the disintegrated Christendom we know. Belloc considered that Islam was permanently intent on destroying the Christian faith, as well as the West, which Christendom had built. In The Great Heresies, Belloc grouped the Protestant Reformation together with Islam as one of the major heresies threatening the "Universal Church".
Accusations of antisemitism
Belloc's writings were at times supportive of anti-Semitism and other times condemnatory of it.
Belloc took a leading role in denouncing the Marconi scandal of 1912. Belloc emphasized that key players in both the government and the Marconi corporation had been Jewish. American historian Todd Endelman identifies Catholic writers as central critics. In his opinion:The most virulent attacks in the Marconi affair were launched by Hilaire Belloc and the brothers Cecil and G. K. Chesterton, whose hostility to Jews was linked to their opposition to liberalism, their backward-looking Catholicism, and the nostalgia for a medieval Catholic Europe that they imagined was ordered, harmonious, and homogeneous. The Jew baiting at the time of the Boer War and the Marconi scandal was linked to a broader protest, mounted in the main by the Radical wing of the Liberal Party, against the growing visibility of successful businessmen in national life and their challenges to what were seen as traditional English values.A. N. Wilson's biography expresses the belief that Belloc tended to allude to Jews negatively in conversation, sometimes obsessively. Anthony Powell mentions in his review of that biography that in his view Belloc was thoroughly anti-Semitic, at all but a personal level.
In The Cruise of the Nona, Belloc reflected equivocally on the Dreyfus Affair after thirty years. Norman Rose's book The Cliveden Set (2000) asserts that Belloc 'was moved by a deep vein of hysterical anti-semitism'.In his 1922 book, The Jews, Belloc argued that "the continued presence of the Jewish nation intermixed with other nations alien to it presents a permanent problem of the gravest character", and that the "Catholic Church is the conservator of an age-long European tradition, and that tradition will never compromise with the fiction that a Jew can be other than a Jew. Wherever the Catholic Church has power, and in proportion to its power, the Jewish problem will be recognized to the full."Robert Speaight cited a letter by Belloc in which he condemned Nesta Webster because of her accusations against "the Jews". In February 1924, Belloc wrote to an American Jewish friend regarding an anti-Semitic book by Webster. Webster had rejected Christianity, studied Eastern religions, accepted the supposed Hindu concept of the equality of all religions and was fascinated by theories of reincarnation and ancestral memory. Speaight also points out that when faced with anti-Semitism in practice—as at elitist country clubs in the United States before World War II—he voiced his disapproval. Belloc also condemned Nazi anti-Semitism in The Catholic and the War (1940).
Sussex
Belloc grew up in Slindon and spent most of his life in West Sussex. He always wrote of Sussex as if it were the crown of England and the western Sussex Downs the jewel in that crown. He loved Sussex as the place where he was brought up, considering it his earthly "spiritual home".
Belloc wrote several works about Sussex including Ha'nacker Mill, The South Country, the travel guide Sussex (1906) and The County of Sussex (1936). One of his best-known works relating to Sussex is The Four Men: a Farrago (1911), in which the four characters, each aspects of Belloc's personality, travel on a pilgrimage across the county from Robertsbridge to Harting. The work has influenced others including musician Bob Copper, who retraced Belloc's steps in the 1980s.
Belloc was also a lover of Sussex songs and wrote lyrics for some songs which have since been put to music. Belloc is remembered in an annual celebration in Sussex, known as Belloc Night, that takes place on the writer's birthday, 27 July, in the manner of Burns Night in Scotland. The celebration includes reading from Belloc's work and partaking of a bread and cheese supper with pickles.
In the media
Stephen Fry has recorded an audio collection of Belloc's children's poetry.
The composer Peter Warlock set many of Belloc's poems to music.
Peter Ustinov recorded Belloc's The Cautionary Tales in 1968 for the Musical Heritage Society (MHC 9249M).
A well-known parody of Belloc by Sir John Squire, intended as a tribute, is Mr. Belloc's Fancy.
Syd Barrett used Cautionary Tales as the basis for the song "Matilda Mother" from the 1967 album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
King's Mill, Shipley, once owned by Belloc, was used in the British TV drama Jonathan Creek.
On the second episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, in the sketch "The Mouse Problem", a list of famous people who secretly were mice is concluded with "and, of course, Hilaire Belloc".
See also
Hilaire Belloc bibliography
Mr. Belloc Objects to "The Outline of History" – H. G. Wells' dispute with Belloc
Hilaire Belloc – Wikiquote
Notes
References
Belloc, Hilaire. "Europe and the faith" "archive.org"
Boyd, Ian. "Hilaire Belloc: the Myth and the Man," The Tablet, 12 July 2003.
Boyle, David. "Hilaire Belloc and the Liberal Revival: Distributism: An Alternative Liberal Tradition?" , Journal of Liberal History, Issue 40, Autumn 2003.
Braybrooke, Patrick. Some Thoughts on Hilaire Belloc, Drane's, 1924.
Cooney, Anthony. Hilaire Belloc: 1870–1953, Third Way Movement Ltd., 1998.
Corrin, Jay P. G. K. Chesterton & Hilaire Belloc: The Battle Against Modernity, Ohio University Press, 1991.
Coyne, Edward J. "Mr. Belloc on Usury," Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 21, No. 82, Jun. 1932.
Feske, Victor. From Belloc to Churchill: Private Scholars, Public Culture and the Crisis of British Liberalism 1900–1939, University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Fytton, Francis. "After Belloc: Who?," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 83, No. 967, Mar. 1954.
Fytton, Francis. "In Defence of Belloc," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 83, No. 973, Sep. 1954.
Gardner, A. G. "Mr. Hilaire Belloc." In Pillars of Society, James Nisbet, 1913.
Hamilton, Robert. Hilaire Belloc; An Introduction to his Spirit and Work, Douglas Organ, 1945.
Haynes, Renée. Hilaire Belloc, British Council and the National Book League, 1953.
Kelly, Hugh. "Hilaire Belloc: Catholic Champion: In Commemoration of His Seventieth Birthday," Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 30, No. 117, Mar. 1941.
Kelly, Hugh. "Centenary of Hilaire Belloc," Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 59, No. 236, Winter, 1970.
Kilmer, Joyce. "The Poetry of Hilaire Belloc," Prose Works, Vol. 2, George H. Doran Company, 1918.
Leo, Brother. "Hilaire Belloc, Initiator," The Catholic World, Vol. CXII, March 1921.
Longaker, Mark. "Bias and Brilliance: Mr. Hilaire Belloc," Contemporary Biography, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Young Hilaire Belloc, Some Records of Youth and Middle Age, P. J. Kennedy & Sons, 1956.
McCarthy, John P. "Hilaire Belloc and the French Revolution," Modern Age, Spring 1993.
MacManus, Francis. "Mr. Belloc's England," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 64, No. 757, Jul. 1936.
Mandell, C. Creighton and Shanks, Edward. Hilaire Belloc, the Man and his Work, Methuen & Co., 1916.
Maynard, Theodore. "The Chesterbelloc," Part II, Part III, Part IV, The Catholic World, Vol. CX, October 1919/March 1920.
McCarthy, John P. Hilaire Belloc: Edwardian Radical, Liberty Press, 1978.
Morton, J. B. Hilaire Belloc: A Memoir, Hollis & Carter, 1955.
Pearce, Joseph. Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc, HarperCollins, 2002.
Rich, Tim. "On a Monkey's Birthday: Belloc and Sussex." In Common Ground: Around Britain in Thirty Writers, Cyan Books, 2006 .
Rope, H. E. G. "My Memory of Hilaire Belloc," The Irish Monthly, Vol. 81, No. 962, Oct. 1953.
Schall, James V. "Belloc’s Infamous Phrase," The Catholic Thing, 18 October 2011.
Semper, I. J. A Study of Four Outstanding Books of Christian Apologetics, Columbia College Library, 1928.
Sherbo, Arthur. "Belated Justice to Hilaire Belloc, Versifier (1870–1953)," Studies in Bibliography, Vol. 45, 1992.
Shuster, George Nauman. "The Adventures of a Historian: Hilaire Belloc." In The Catholic Spirit in Modern English Literature, The Macmillan Company, 1922.
Speaight, Robert. The Life of Hilaire Belloc, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1957.
Stove, R. J. "Why Belloc Still Matters," The American Conservative, 13 January 2003.
Wilhelmsen, Frederick. Hilaire Belloc: No Alienated Man. A Study in Christian Integration, Sheed and Ward, 1953.
Wilhelmsen, Frederick. "The World of Hilaire Belloc," Modern Age, Spring 1979.
Wilhelmsen, Frederick. "Hilaire Belloc: Old Thunder," Modern Age, Fall 1984.
Wilhelmsen, Frederick. "Hilaire Belloc: Defender of the Faith," The Catholic Writer: The Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute, Vol. II, 1989 [Rep. by CERC: Catholic Education Resource Center.
Wilson, A. N. Hilaire Belloc, Atheneum, 1984 [Rep. by Gibson Square Books, 2003].
Woodruff, Douglas, ed., For Hilaire Belloc, Sheed & Ward, 1942 [with contributions by Douglas Jerrold, Ronald Knox, Arnold Lunn, C. A. J. Armstrong, Christopher Hollis, Gervase Matthew, David Mathew, J. B. Morton, W. A. Pantin, David Jones].
External links
Works by Hilaire Belloc at Hathi Trust
Catholic Authors: Hilaire Belloc
Quotidiana: Hilaire Belloc
Hilaire Belloc, The rise of the capitalist state (1912)
Hilaire Belloc Papers at Boston College
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris%20Benoit
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Chris Benoit
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Christopher Michael Benoit ( ; May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian professional wrestler. He worked for various pro-wrestling promotions during his 22-year career including most notably the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the United States, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in Japan and Stampede Wrestling in Canada.
Bearing the nicknames The (Canadian) Crippler alongside The Rabid Wolverine throughout his career, Benoit held 30 championships between WWF/WWE, WCW, NJPW, ECW and Stampede. He was a two-time world champion, having reigned as a one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and a one-time World Heavyweight Champion in WWE; he was booked to win a third world championship at a WWE event on the night of his death. Benoit was the twelfth WWE Triple Crown Champion and the seventh WCW Triple Crown Champion, and the second of four men in history to achieve both the WWE and WCW Triple Crown Championships. He was also the 2004 Royal Rumble winner, joining Shawn Michaels and preceding Edge as one of the three men to win a Royal Rumble as the number one entrant. Benoit headlined multiple pay-per-views for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) including a victory in the World Heavyweight Championship main event match of WrestleMania XX in March 2004.
In a three-day double-murder and suicide, Benoit murdered his wife in their residence on June 22, 2007, killed his 7-year-old son on June 23, and committed suicide on June 24. Subsequent research undertaken by the Sports Legacy Institute (now the Concussion Legacy Foundation) suggested that depression and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition of brain damage, from numerous concussions that Benoit had sustained during his professional wrestling career were both likely contributing factors of the crimes.
Due to his murders, Benoit's legacy in the professional wrestling industry has remained controversial and heavily debated. Benoit has been renowned by many for his exceptional technical wrestling ability. Prominent combat sports journalist Dave Meltzer considers Benoit "one of the top 10, maybe even [in] the top five, all-time greats" in pro-wrestling history. Benoit was inducted into the Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2003. His WON induction was put to a referendum-style re-vote for WON readers in 2008 to determine if Benoit should remain a member of the WON Hall of Fame. Ultimately, the threshold percentage of votes required to remove Benoit was not met and he still remains in that Hall of Fame.
Early life
Benoit was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Michael and Margaret Benoit. He grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, from where he was billed throughout the bulk of his career. He had a sister living near Edmonton.
During his childhood and early adolescence in Edmonton, Benoit idolized Tom "Dynamite Kid" Billington and Bret Hart; at twelve years old, he attended a local wrestling event at which the two performers "stood out above everyone else". Benoit trained to become a professional wrestler in the Hart family "Dungeon", receiving education from family patriarch Stu Hart. In-ring, Benoit emulated both Billington and Bret Hart, cultivating a high-risk style and physical appearance more reminiscent of the former (years later, he adopted Hart's trademark "Sharpshooter" hold as a finishing move).
Professional wrestling career
Stampede Wrestling (1985–1989)
Benoit began his career in 1985, in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion. From the beginning, similarities between Benoit and Billington were apparent, as Benoit adopted many of his moves such as the diving headbutt and the snap suplex; the homage was complete with his initial billing as "Dynamite" Chris Benoit. According to Benoit, in his first match, he attempted the diving headbutt before learning how to land correctly, and had the wind knocked out of him; he said he would never do the move again at that point. His debut match was a tag team match on November 22, 1985, in Calgary, Alberta, where he teamed with "The Remarkable" Rick Patterson against Butch Moffat and Mike Hammer, which Benoit's team won the match after Benoit pinned Moffat with a sunset flip. The first title Benoit ever won was the Stampede British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship on March 18, 1988, against Gama Singh. During his tenure in Stampede, he won four International Tag Team and three more British Commonwealth titles, and had a lengthy feud with Johnny Smith that lasted for over a year, which both men traded back-and-forth the British Commonwealth title. In 1989, Stampede closed its doors, and with a recommendation from Bad News Allen, Benoit departed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1986–1999)
Upon arriving in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Benoit spent about a year training in their "New Japan Dojo" with the younger wrestlers to improve his abilities. While in the dojo, he spent months doing strenuous activities like push-ups and floor sweeping before stepping into the ring. He made his Japanese debut in 1986 under his real name. In 1989, he started wearing a mask and assuming the name The Pegasus Kid. Benoit said numerous times that he originally hated the mask, but it eventually became a part of him. While with NJPW, he came into his own as a performer in critically acclaimed matches with luminaries like Jushin Thunder Liger, Shinjiro Otani, Black Tiger, and El Samurai in their junior heavyweight division.
In August 1990, he won his first major championship, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, from Jushin Thunder Liger. He eventually lost the title in November 1990 (and in July 1991 in Japan and in November 1991 in Mexico, his mask) back to Liger, forcing him to reinvent himself as Wild Pegasus. Benoit spent the next couple years in Japan, winning the Best of the Super Juniors tournament twice in 1993 and 1995. He went on to win the inaugural Super J-Cup tournament in 1994, defeating Black Tiger, Gedo, and The Great Sasuke in the finals. He wrestled outside New Japan occasionally to compete in Mexico and Europe, where he won a few regional championships, including the UWA Light Heavyweight Championship. He held that title for over a year, having many forty-plus minute matches with Villano III.
World Championship Wrestling (1992–1993)
Benoit first came to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in June 1992, teaming up with fellow Canadian wrestler Biff Wellington for the NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament; they were defeated by Brian Pillman and Jushin Thunder Liger in the first round at Clash of the Champions XIX.
He did not return to WCW until January 1993 at Clash of the Champions XXII, defeating Brad Armstrong. A month later, at SuperBrawl III, he lost to 2 Cold Scorpio, getting pinned with only three seconds left in the 20-minute time limit. At the same time, he formed a tag team with Bobby Eaton. After he and Eaton lost to Scorpio and Marcus Bagwell at Slamboree, Benoit headed back to Japan.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994–1995)
In August 1994, Benoit began working with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in between tours of Japan. He was booked as a dominant wrestler there, gaining notoriety as the "Crippler" after he put Rocco Rock out. In his first appearance, Benoit competed in a one-night eight-man tournament for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship, losing to 2 Cold Scorpio in the quarter-finals match.
At November to Remember, Benoit accidentally broke Sabu's neck within the opening seconds of the match. The injury came when Benoit threw Sabu with the intention that he take a face-first "pancake" bump, but Sabu attempted to turn mid-air and take a backdrop bump instead. He did not achieve full rotation and landed almost directly on his neck.
After this match Benoit returned to the locker room and broke down over the possibility that he might have paralysed someone. Paul Heyman, the head booker of ECW at the time, came up with the idea of continuing the "Crippler" moniker for Benoit. From that point until his departure from ECW, he was known as "Crippler Benoit". When he returned to WCW in October 1995, WCW modified his ring name to "Canadian Crippler Chris Benoit". In The Rise and Fall of ECW book, Heyman commented that he planned on using Benoit as a dominant heel for quite some time, before putting the company's main title, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, on him to be the long-term champion of the company.
Benoit and Dean Malenko won the ECW World Tag Team Championship - Benoit's first American title - from Sabu and The Tazmaniac in February 1995 at Return of the Funker. After winning, they were initiated into the Triple Threat stable, led by ECW World Heavyweight Champion, Shane Douglas, as Douglas's attempt to recreate the Four Horsemen, as the three-man contingency held all three of the ECW championships at the time (Malenko also held the ECW World Television Championship at the time). The team lost the championship to The Public Enemy that April at Three Way Dance. Benoit spent some time in ECW feuding with The Steiner Brothers and rekindling the feud with 2 Cold Scorpio. He was forced to leave ECW after his work visa expired; Heyman was supposed to renew it, but he failed to make it on time, so Benoit left ECW in August 1995 as a matter of job security and the ability to enter the United States. He toured Japan until WCW called.
Return to WCW (1995–2000)
The Four Horsemen (1995–1999)
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) had a working relationship, and because of their "talent exchange" program, Benoit signed with WCW in late 1995 along with a number of talent working in New Japan to be a part of the angle. Like the majority of those who came to WCW in the exchange, he started out in as a member of the cruiserweight division, having lengthy matches against many of his former rivals in Japan on almost every single broadcast. At the end of 1995, Benoit went back to Japan as a part of the "talent exchange" to wrestle as a representative for New Japan in the Super J-Cup: 2nd Stage, defeating Lionheart in the quarterfinals (he received a bye to the quarterfinals for his work in 1995, similar to the way he advanced in the 1994 edition) and losing to Gedo in the semifinals.
After impressing higher-ups with his work, he was approached by Ric Flair and the WCW booking staff to become a member of the reformed Four Horsemen in 1995, alongside Flair, Arn Anderson, and Brian Pillman; he was introduced by Pillman as a gruff, no-nonsense heel similar to his ECW persona, "The Crippler". He was brought in to add a new dynamic for Anderson and Flair's tormenting of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in their "Alliance to End Hulkamania", which saw the Horsemen team up with The Dungeon of Doom, but that alliance ended with Dungeon leader and WCW booker, Kevin Sullivan feuding with Pillman. When Pillman abruptly left the company for the WWF, Benoit was placed into his ongoing feud with Sullivan. This came to fruition through a dissension between the two in a tag team match with the two reluctantly teaming with each other against The Public Enemy, and Benoit being attacked by Sullivan at Slamboree. This led to the two having violent confrontations at pay-per-views, which led to Sullivan booking a feud in which Benoit was having an affair with Sullivan's real-life wife and onscreen valet, Nancy (also known as Woman). Benoit and Nancy were forced to spend time together to make the affair look real, (hold hands in public, share hotel rooms, etc.).
This onscreen relationship developed into a real-life affair offscreen. As a result, Sullivan and Benoit had a contentious backstage relationship at best, and an undying hatred for each other at worst. Benoit did, however, admit having a certain amount of respect for Sullivan, saying on the DVD Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story that Sullivan never took undue liberties in the ring during their feud, even though he blamed Benoit for breaking up his marriage. This continued for over the course of a year with Sullivan having his enforcers apprehend Benoit in a multitude of matches. This culminated in a retirement match at the Bash at the Beach, where Benoit defeated Sullivan; this was used to explain Sullivan going to a behind-the-scenes role, where he could focus on his initial job of booking.
In 1998, Benoit had a long feud with Booker T. They fought over the WCW World Television Championship until Booker lost the title to Fit Finlay. Booker won a "Best-of-Seven" series which was held between the two to determine a number one contender. Benoit went up 3 to 1 before Booker caught up, forcing the 7th and final match on Monday Nitro. During the match, Bret Hart interjected himself, interfering on behalf of Benoit in an attempt to get him to join the New World Order. Benoit refused to win that way and told the referee what happened, getting himself disqualified. Booker refused that victory, instead opting for an eighth match at the Great American Bash to see who would fight Finlay later that night. Booker won the final match and went on to beat Finlay for the title. This feud significantly elevated both men's careers as singles competitors, and both remained at the top of the midcard afterward.
In 1999, Benoit teamed with Dean Malenko once again and defeated Curt Hennig and Barry Windham to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship. This led to a reformation of the Four Horsemen with the tag team champions, Anderson, and Steve "Mongo" McMichael. The two hunted after the tag team championship for several months, feuding with teams like Raven and Perry Saturn or Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio Jr.
The Revolution and World Heavyweight Champion (1999–2000)
After a falling out with Anderson and McMichael, Benoit and Malenko left the Horsemen; he won the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship before bringing together Malenko, Perry Saturn, and Shane Douglas to form "the Revolution".
The Revolution was a heel stable of younger wrestlers who felt slighted (both kayfabe and legitimate) by WCW management, believing they never gave them the chance to be stars, pushing older, more established wrestlers instead, despite their then-current questionable worthiness of their pushes. This led to the Revolution seceding from WCW, and forming their own nation, complete with a flag. This led to some friction being created between Benoit and leader, Douglas, who called into question Benoit's heart in the group, causing Benoit to quit the group, thus turning face, and having his own crusade against the top stars, winning the Television title one more time and the United States title from Jeff Jarrett in a ladder match. In October 1999 on Nitro in Kansas City, Missouri, Benoit wrestled Bret Hart as a tribute to Bret's brother Owen Hart, who had recently died due to an equipment malfunction. Hart defeated Benoit by submission, and the two received a standing ovation, and an embrace from guest ring announcer, Harley Race.
Benoit was unhappy working for WCW. One last attempt in January 2000 was made to try to keep him with WCW, by putting the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship on him by defeating Sid Vicious at Souled Out. However, due to disagreements with management and to protest the promotion of Kevin Sullivan to head booker, Benoit left the company the next day alongside his friends Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn, forfeiting his title in the process. WCW then refused to acknowledge Benoit's victory as an official title reign, and Benoit's title reign was not listed in the title lineage at WCW.com. However, the WWF recognized Benoit's title win, and Benoit's title reign is still listed in the title lineage at WWE.com. Benoit spent the next few weeks in Japan before heading to the WWF, who acknowledged his WCW World Heavyweight Championship win and presented him as a former world champion.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (2000–2007)
The Radicalz and teaming with Chris Jericho (2000–2001)
Benoit joined the World Wrestling Federation near the end of its Attitude Era. Along with Guerrero, Saturn and Malenko, he debuted in the WWF as a stable that became known as the Radicalz. After losing their "tryout matches" upon entry, The Radicalz aligned themselves with WWF Champion Triple H and became a heel faction. Benoit quickly won his first title in the WWF just over a month later at WrestleMania 2000, pinning Chris Jericho in a triple threat match to win Kurt Angle's Intercontinental Championship. It was also in this time period that Benoit wrestled in his first WWF pay-per-view main events, challenging The Rock for the WWF Championship at Fully Loaded in July and as part of a fatal four-way title match at Unforgiven in September. On both occasions Benoit appeared to have won the title, only to have the decision reversed by then-WWF commissioner Mick Foley due to cheating on Benoit's part. Benoit simultaneously entered into a long-running feud with Jericho for the Intercontinental title, with the two meeting at Backlash, Judgment Day and SummerSlam; Benoit winning all three matches. The feud finally culminated in Jericho defeating Benoit in a ladder match at the Royal Rumble in January 2001. Benoit won the Intercontinental title three times between April 2000 and January 2001.
In early 2001, Benoit broke away from The Radicalz (who had recently reformed three months earlier) and turned face, feuding first with his former stablemates and then with Kurt Angle, whom he wrestled and lost to at WrestleMania X-Seven. He gained some amount of revenge after beating Angle in an "Ultimate Submission" match at Backlash. The feud continued after Benoit stole Angle's cherished Olympic Gold Medal. This culminated in a match at Judgment Day where Angle won a two out of three falls match with the help of Edge and Christian. In response, Benoit teamed up with his former rival Jericho to defeat Edge and Christian in that night's Tag Team Turmoil match.
The next night on Raw Is War, Benoit and Jericho defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H for their title. The pair used the win as a springboard to challenge Austin for his WWF Championship. Benoit got two title matches the following week, first losing in a manner similar to the Montreal Screwjob in Calgary and then losing in a close match in Benoit's hometown of Edmonton. However, Benoit injured his neck in a four-way TLC match that required surgery with Dr. Lloyd Youngblood. Despite this, he continued to wrestle until the King of the Ring, where he was pinned in a triple threat match versus Austin and Jericho. Benoit missed the next year due to his neck injury, missing the entire Invasion storyline.
Championship pursuits and reigns (2002–2003)
During the first WWF draft, he was the third wrestler picked by Vince McMahon to be part of the new SmackDown! roster, although still on the injured list. However, when he returned, he did so as a member of the Raw roster. On his first night back, he turned heel again and aligned himself with Eddie Guerrero, and he feuded with Stone Cold Steve Austin briefly. Benoit defeated Rob Van Dam on the July 29, 2002 edition of Raw to become Intercontinental Champion for the fourth time. He and Guerrero were then moved to SmackDown! during a storyline "open season" on wrestler contracts, with Benoit taking his newly won belt with him. Van Dam defeated Benoit at SummerSlam and returned the title to Raw.
After returning to SmackDown!, he embarked on a feud with Kurt Angle in which he defeated him at Unforgiven. On October 20, 2002, at No Mercy, he teamed with Angle to win a tournament to crown the first-ever WWE Tag Team Champions. They became tweeners after betraying Los Guerreros. At Rebellion, Benoit and Angle made their successful title defence, defeating Los Guerreros. They lost the championships to Edge and Rey Mysterio Jr. on the November 7 episode of SmackDown! in a two-out-of-three falls match. They received a rematch at Survivor Series in a triple threat elimination match against Edge and Mysterio and Los Guerreros, but failed to win the titles after being the first team eliminated. The team split up shortly afterward and Benoit became a face.
Angle won his third WWE Championship from Big Show at Armageddon, and Benoit faced him for the title at the 2003 Royal Rumble. The match was highly praised from fans and critics. Although Benoit lost the match, he received a standing ovation for his efforts. Benoit returned to the tag team ranks, teaming with the returning Rhyno.
At WrestleMania XIX, the WWE Tag Team Champions, Team Angle (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin), put their titles on the line against Benoit and his partner Rhyno and Los Guerreros in a triple threat tag team match. Team Angle retained when Benjamin pinned Chavo.
In April 2003, following WrestleMania XIX, Benoit then feuded with John Cena (wearing a shirt saying "Toothless Aggression") and The Full Blooded Italians, teaming with Rhyno occasionally.
In June 2003, the WCW United States Championship was reactivated and renamed the WWE United States Championship, and Benoit participated in the tournament for the title. He lost in the final match to Eddie Guerrero at Vengeance. The two feuded over the title for the next month, and Benoit went on to defeat the likes of A-Train at No Mercy, Big Show, and eliminating Brock Lesnar by submission at Survivor Series as part of a Survivor Series elimination tag team match between Team Angle against Team Lesnar. As a result, Benoit challenged Lesnar for the WWE Championship on the December 4 episode of SmackDown!, but lost after passing out to Lesnar's debuting Brock Lock submission hold. General Manager Paul Heyman had a vendetta against Benoit along with Lesnar, preventing him from gaining a shot at Lesnar's WWE title.
World Heavyweight Champion (2004–2005)
When Benoit won a qualifying match for the 2004 Royal Rumble against the Full Blooded Italians in a handicap match with John Cena, Heyman named him as the number one entry. On January 25, 2004, he won the Royal Rumble by last eliminating Big Show, and thus earned a world title shot at WrestleMania XX. He became only the second WWE performer to win the Royal Rumble as the number one entrant along with Shawn Michaels. With Benoit being on the SmackDown! brand at the time, it was assumed that he was going to compete for his brand's championship, the WWE Championship. However, Benoit exploited a "loophole" in the rules and moved to the Raw brand the following night to announce he would instead challenge World Heavyweight Champion Triple H at WrestleMania. Though the match was originally intended to be a one-on-one match, Shawn Michaels, whose Last Man Standing match against Triple H at the Royal Rumble for the World Heavyweight Championship ended in a draw, thought that he deserved to be in the main event. When it was time for Benoit to sign the contract putting himself in the main event, Michaels superkicked him and signed his name on the contract, which eventually resulted in a Triple Threat match between Michaels, Benoit, and the champion, Triple H.
On March 14, 2004, at WrestleMania XX, Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship by forcing Triple H to tap out to his signature submission move, the Crippler Crossface, in a highly acclaimed match. The match marked the first time the main event of a WrestleMania ended in submission. After the match, Benoit celebrated his win with then-reigning WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero. The rematch was held at Backlash in Benoit's hometown of Edmonton. It was Michaels who ended up submitting to Benoit's Sharpshooter, allowing Benoit to retain his title. The next night in Calgary, he and Edge won the World Tag Team Championship from Batista and Ric Flair, making Benoit a double champion.
Following his victories, Benoit and Edge engaged in a rivalry with La Résistance for the World Tag Team Championship, which saw a series of matches (including losing the titles to La Résistance on the May 31 episode of Raw), while simultaneously having confrontations with Kane over the World Heavyweight Championship. Benoit wrestled in two matches at Bad Blood in his respective rivalries; he and Edge failed to regain the World Tag Team Championship (winning by disqualification when Kane interfered) while he successfully defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Kane. A month later at Vengeance, Benoit retained the title against Triple H.
On August 15, 2004, Benoit was defeated by Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. Benoit then teamed with William Regal at Unforgiven against Ric Flair and Batista in a winning effort. Benoit then feuded with Edge (who had turned into an arrogant and conceited heel), leading to Taboo Tuesday where Benoit, Edge, and Shawn Michaels were all put into a poll to see who would face Triple H for the World Heavyweight title that night. Michaels received the most votes and as a result, Edge and Benoit were forced to team up to face the World Tag Team Champions, La Résistance, in the same night. However, Edge deserted Benoit during the match and Benoit was forced to take on both members of La Résistance by himself. He and Edge still managed to regain the World Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles back to La Résistance on the November 1 episode of Raw. At Survivor Series, Benoit sided with Randy Orton's team while Edge teamed with Triple H's team, and while Edge was able to pin Benoit after a Pedigree, Orton's team won.
The Benoit-Edge feud ended at New Year's Revolution in an Elimination Chamber match, which both men lost. The feud stopped abruptly, as Edge feuded with Shawn Michaels, and Benoit entered the Royal Rumble, lasting longer than any competitor before being eliminated by Ric Flair. The two then continued to have matches in the following weeks until the two of them, Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, Kane, and Christian were placed in the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 21. Edge won the match by knocking Benoit off of the ladder by smashing his arm with a chair. The feud finally culminated in a Last Man Standing match at Backlash, which Edge won with a brick shot to the back of Benoit's head.
United States Champion (2005–2007)
On June 9, Benoit was drafted to the SmackDown! brand after being the first man selected by SmackDown! in the 2005 Draft Lottery and participated in an ECW-style revolution against the SmackDown! heels. Benoit appeared at ECW One Night Stand, defeating Eddie Guerrero.
On July 24 at The Great American Bash, Benoit failed to win the WWE United States Championship from Orlando Jordan, but won a rematch at SummerSlam in 25 seconds. Benoit then won three consecutive matches against Jordan in less than a minute. Benoit later wrestled Booker T in friendly competitions, until Booker and his wife, Sharmell, cheated Benoit out of the United States title on the October 21 episode of SmackDown!.
On November 13, 2005, Eddie Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room. The following night, Raw held a Guerrero tribute show hosted by both Raw and SmackDown! wrestlers. Benoit was devastated at the loss of his best friend and was very emotional during a series of video testimonials, eventually breaking down on camera. The same week on SmackDown! (taped on the same night as Raw), Benoit defeated Triple H in a tribute match to Guerrero. Following the contest, Benoit, Triple H, and Dean Malenko all assembled in the ring and pointed to the sky in salute of Guerrero.
After controversy surrounding a United States Championship match against Booker T, Theodore Long set up a "Best of Seven" series between the two. Booker T won three times in a row (at Survivor Series, the November 29 SmackDown! Special, and the December 9 episode of SmackDown!), due largely to Sharmell's interference, and Benoit faced elimination in the series. Benoit won the fourth match to stay alive at Armageddon, but after the match, Booker suffered a legitimate groin injury, and Randy Orton was chosen as a stand-in. Benoit defeated Orton twice by disqualification on the December 30 and January 6, 2006 episodes of SmackDown!. However, in the seventh and final match, Orton defeated Benoit with the help of Booker T, Sharmell, and Orlando Jordan, and Booker captured the United States Championship. Benoit feuded with Orton for a short time, before defeating Orton in a No Holds Barred match on the January 27 episode of SmackDown! via the Crippler Crossface. Benoit was given one last chance at the United States Championship at No Way Out and won it by making Booker submit to the Crippler Crossface, ending the feud.
The next week on SmackDown!, Benoit (kayfabe) broke John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL)'s hand (JBL actually needed surgery to remove a cyst). A match was set up for the two at WrestleMania 22 for Benoit's title, and for the next several weeks, they attacked each other. At WrestleMania, JBL won the match with an illegal cradle to win the title. Benoit used his rematch clause two weeks later in a steel cage match on SmackDown!, but JBL again won with illegal tactics. Benoit entered the King of the Ring tournament, only to be defeated by Finlay in the opening round on the May 5 episode of SmackDown!, after Finlay struck Benoit's neck with a chair and delivered a Celtic Cross. At Judgment Day, Benoit gained some revenge by defeating Finlay with the Crippler Crossface in a grudge match. On the following episode of SmackDown!, Mark Henry brutalized Benoit during their match, giving him (kayfabe) back and rib injuries and causing him to bleed from his mouth. Benoit then took a sabbatical to heal nagging shoulder injuries.
On October 8, Benoit made his return at No Mercy, defeating William Regal in a surprise match. Later that week, he won his fifth United States Championship from Mr. Kennedy. Benoit then engaged in a feud with Chavo and Vickie Guerrero. He wanted answers from the Guerreros for their rash behaviour towards Rey Mysterio, but was avoided by the two and was eventually assaulted. This led to the two embarking on a feud with title matches at Survivor Series and Armageddon, matches that Benoit won. The feud culminated with one last title match as a No disqualification match, which was also won by Benoit. Later, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), who claimed that he was the best man to hold the United States title, challenged Benoit for the title at WrestleMania 23, where Benoit retained. Their rivalry continued with similar results again at Backlash. At Judgment Day, however, MVP gained the upper hand and won the title in a two out of three falls match, thus ending the feud. Benoit would wrestle MVP one last time at Saturday Night's Main Event XXXIV on May 28, (aired June 2), in a winning effort in a tag-team match where Benoit partnered with Batista and MVP partnered with then-World Heavyweight Champion Edge.
ECW (2007)
On the June 11 episode of Raw, Benoit was drafted from SmackDown! to ECW as part of the 2007 WWE draft after losing to ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley. On the June 19 episode of ECW, Benoit wrestled his final match, defeating Elijah Burke in a match to determine who would compete for the vacated ECW World Championship at Vengeance on June 24. Since Lashley was drafted to Raw, he had vacated the title.
Benoit missed the weekend house shows, telling WWE officials that his wife and son were vomiting blood due to food poisoning. When he failed to show up for the pay-per-view, viewers were informed that he was unable to compete due to a "family emergency" and he was replaced in the title match by Johnny Nitro, who won the match and became ECW World Champion. The crowd spent the majority of the match chanting for Benoit. It would be revealed in the following days that Benoit had murdered his wife Nancy and son Daniel before committing suicide.
WWE executive Stephanie McMahon later indicated that Benoit would have defeated CM Punk for the ECW World Championship had he been present for the event. Professional wrestler and MMA fighter Bob Sapp, whom WWE had tried to sign up before a contract dispute with K-1 rendered it impossible, reported he would have been put into an oncoming angle with Benoit in case he would have been able to debut.
Professional wrestling style
Benoit included a wide array of submission holds in his move-set and used a crossface, dubbed the Crippler Crossface, and a sharpshooter as finishers. He also used a diving headbutt to finish off opponents. The diving headbutt, which saw the deliverer leap off the top rope and land head first on the opponent, was partially blamed for the head trauma that caused Benoit to commit his crimes. Another of Benoit's trademark moves was three rolling German suplexes. This move would later be mimicked by multiple other wrestlers, including Brock Lesnar who uses it as Suplex City.
Benoit was renowned for his high-impact technical style. Former WWE rival Kurt Angle said in a 2017 interview that "he has to got to be in the top three of all time."
Professional wrestling games
Championships and accomplishments
Cauliflower Alley Club
Future Legend Award (2002)
Catch Wrestling Association
CWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Dave Taylor
Extreme Championship Wrestling
ECW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Dean Malenko
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Super J-Cup (1994)
Top/Best of the Super Juniors (1993, 1995)
Super Grade Junior Heavyweight Tag League (1994) – with Shinjiro Otani
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Feud of the Year (2004)
Match of the Year (2004)
Wrestler of the Year (2004)
Ranked No. 1 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2004
Ranked No. 69 of the top 500 greatest wrestlers in the PWI Years in 2003
Stampede Wrestling
Stampede British Commonwealth Mid-Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Ben Bassarab (1), Keith Hart (1), Lance Idol (1), and Biff Wellington (1)
Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame (1995)
Universal Wrestling Association
WWF Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Championship Wrestling
WCW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WCW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Dean Malenko (1) and Perry Saturn (1)
WCW World Television Championship (3 times)
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
Seventh WCW Triple Crown Champion
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time, inaugural) – with Kurt Angle
WWE United States Championship (3 times)
WWF/WWE Intercontinental Championship (4 times)
WWF/World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Chris Jericho (1) and Edge (2)
Royal Rumble (2004)
WWE Tag Team Championship Tournament (2002) – with Kurt Angle
12th Triple Crown Champion
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Best Brawler (2004)
Best Technical Wrestler (1994, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2004)
Feud of the Year (2004)
Match of the Year (2002)
Most Outstanding Wrestler (2000, 2004)
Most Underrated (1998)
Readers' Favorite Wrestler (1997, 2000)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2003)
Personal life
Benoit spoke both English and French fluently. He married twice, and had two children (David and Megan) with his first wife, Martina. By 1997, that marriage had broken down, and Benoit was living with Nancy Sullivan, the wife of the WCW booker and frequent opponent Kevin Sullivan. On February 25, 2000, Chris and Nancy's son Daniel was born; on November 23, 2000, Chris and Nancy married. It was Nancy's third marriage. In 2003, Nancy filed for divorce from Benoit, citing the marriage as "irrevocably broken" and alleging "cruel treatment". She claimed that he would break and throw furniture around. She later dropped the suit as well as the restraining order she had filed.
Benoit became good friends with fellow wrestler Eddie Guerrero following a match in Japan, when Benoit kicked Guerrero in the head and knocked him out cold.
Benoit was also close friends with Dean Malenko, as the trio travelled from promotion to promotion together putting on matches, eventually being dubbed the "Three Amigos" by commentators. According to Benoit, the Crippler Crossface was borrowed from Malenko and eventually caught on as Benoit's signature hold.
Benoit's lost tooth, his top-right lateral incisor, was commonly misattributed to training or an accident early on in his wrestling career. It actually resulted from an accident involving his pet rottweiler: one day while playing with the dog, the animal's skull struck Benoit's chin, and his tooth "popped out".
Death
On June 25, 2007, police entered Benoit's home in Fayetteville, Georgia when WWE, Benoit's employers, requested a "welfare check" after Benoit missed weekend events without notice, leading to concerns. The officers discovered the bodies of Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their 7-year-old son Daniel at around 2:30 p.m. EDT. Upon investigating, no additional suspects were sought by authorities. It was determined that Benoit had committed the murders. Over a three-day period, Benoit had killed his wife and son before committing suicide. His wife was bound before the killing. Benoit's son was drugged with Xanax and likely unconscious before Benoit strangled him. Benoit then committed suicide by hanging himself on his lat pulldown machine.
WWE cancelled the scheduled three-hour long live Raw show on June 25 and replaced the broadcast version with a three-hour tribute to his life and career, featuring his past matches, segments from the Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story DVD, and comments from wrestlers and announcers.
Toxicology reports released on July 17, 2007, revealed that at their time of death, Nancy had three different drugs in her system: Xanax, hydrocodone, and hydromorphone, all of which were found at the therapeutic rather than toxic levels. Daniel was found to have Xanax in his system, which led the chief medical examiner to believe that he was sedated before he was murdered. Benoit was found to have Xanax, hydrocodone, and an elevated level of testosterone, caused by a synthetic form of the hormone, in his system. The chief medical examiner attributed the testosterone level to Benoit possibly being treated for a deficiency caused by previous steroid abuse or testicular insufficiency. There was no indication that anything in Benoit's body contributed to his violent behaviour that led to the murder-suicide, concluding that there was no "roid-rage" involved. Prior to the murder-suicide, Benoit had illegally been given medications not in compliance with WWE's Talent Wellness Program in February 2006, including nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, and anastrozole, a breast cancer medication which is used by bodybuilders for its powerful antiestrogenic effects. During the investigation into steroid abuse, it was revealed that other wrestlers had also been given steroids.
After the double-murder suicide, former wrestler Christopher Nowinski contacted Michael Benoit, Chris' father, suggesting that years of trauma to his son's brain may have led to his actions. Tests were conducted on Benoit's brain by Julian Bailes, the head of neurosurgery at West Virginia University, and results showed that "Benoit's brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient." He was reported to have had an advanced form of dementia, similar to the brains of four retired NFL players who had multiple concussions, sank into depression, and harmed themselves or others. Bailes and his colleagues concluded that repeated concussions can lead to dementia, which can contribute to severe behavioural problems. Benoit's father suggests that brain damage may have been the leading cause.
Once the details of Benoit's actions became apparent, WWE made the decision to remove nearly all mentions of Chris Benoit from their website, future broadcasts, and all publications.
See also
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
List of premature professional wrestling deaths
Notes
References
Sources
SLAM! Wrestling — Chris Benoit
Metro — 60 Seconds: Chris Benoit by Andrew Williams
Wrestling Digest: Technically Speaking, wrestler and sports entertainer Chris Benoit
External links
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2007 deaths
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Canadian people of French descent
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music%20of%20Scotland
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Music of Scotland
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Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which remained vibrant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. Despite emigration and a well-developed connection to music imported from the rest of Europe and the United States, the music of Scotland has kept many of its traditional aspects and has influenced many other forms of music.
Music is celebrated in Scotland through annual award ceremonies including the Scottish Music Awards, Scottish Album of the Year Award, the Scots Trad Music Awards and BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician.
Early music
Stringed instruments have been known in Scotland since at least the Iron Age. The first evidence of lyres was found in the Greco-Roman period on the Isle of Skye (dating from 2300 BCE), making it Europe's oldest surviving stringed instrument. Bards acted as musicians but also as poets, story-tellers, historians, genealogists and lawyers, relying on an oral tradition that stretched back generations, in Scotland as well as Wales and Ireland. Often accompanying themselves on the harp, they can be seen in records of Scottish courts throughout the medieval period. Scottish church music from the later Middle Ages was increasingly influenced by continental developments, with figures like 13th-century musical theorist Simon Tailler studying in Paris, before returning to Scotland where he introduced several reforms of church music. Scottish collections of music like the 13th-century 'Wolfenbüttel 677', which is associated with St Andrews, contain mostly French compositions, but with some distinctive local styles. The captivity of James I in England from 1406 to 1423, where he earned a reputation as a poet and composer, may have led him to bring English and continental styles and musicians back to the Scottish court on his release. In the late 15th century a series of Scottish musicians trained in the Netherlands before returning home, including John Broune, Thomas Inglis and John Fety. The latter became master of the song school in Aberdeen and then Edinburgh, introducing the new five-fingered organ playing technique.
In 1501 James IV refounded the Chapel Royal within Stirling Castle, with a new and enlarged choir and it became the focus of Scottish liturgical music. Burgundian and English influences were probably reinforced when Henry VII's daughter Margaret Tudor married James IV in 1503. James V (1512–42) was a major patron of music. A talented lute player, he introduced French chansons and consorts of viols to his court and was patron to composers such as David Peebles (c. 1510–1579?).
The Scottish Reformation, directly influenced by Calvinism, was generally opposed to church music, leading to the removal of organs and a growing emphasis on metrical psalms, including a setting by David Peebles commissioned by James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray. The most important work in Scottish reformed music was probably A forme of Prayers published in Edinburgh in 1564. The return in 1561 from France of James V's daughter Mary, Queen of Scots renewed the Scottish court as a centre of musical patronage and performance. The Queen played the lute and virginals and (unlike her father) was a fine singer. She brought many influences from the French court where she had been educated, employing lutenists and viol players in her household. Mary's position as a Catholic gave a new lease of life to the choir of the Scottish Chapel Royal in her reign, but the destruction of Scottish church organs meant that instrumentation to accompany the mass had to employ bands of musicians with trumpets, drums, fifes, bagpipes and tabors. The outstanding Scottish composer of the era was Robert Carver (c.1485–c.1570) whose works included the nineteen-part motet 'O Bone Jesu'. James VI, king of Scotland from 1567, was a major patron of the arts in general. He rebuilt the Chapel Royal at Stirling in 1594 and the choir was used for state occasions like the baptism of his son Henry. He followed the tradition of employing lutenists for his private entertainment, as did other members of his family. When he came south to take the throne of England in 1603 as James I, he removed one of the major sources of patronage in Scotland. The Scottish Chapel Royal was now used only for occasional state visits, as when Charles I returned in 1633 to be crowned, bringing many musicians from the English Chapel Royal for the service, and it began to fall into disrepair. From now on the court in Westminster would be the only major source of royal musical patronage.
Folk music
There is evidence that there was a flourishing culture of popular music in Scotland during the late Middle Ages, but the only song with a melody to survive from this period is the Pleugh Song. After the Reformation, the secular popular tradition of music continued, despite attempts by the Kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, to suppress dancing and events like penny weddings. This period saw the creation of the ceòl mór (the great music) of the bagpipe, which reflected its martial origins, with battle tunes, marches, gatherings, salutes and laments. The Highlands in the early seventeenth century saw the development of piping families including the MacCrimmonds, MacArthurs, MacGregors and the Mackays of Gairloch. There is also evidence of adoption of the fiddle in the Highlands with Martin Martin noting in his A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1703) that he knew of 18 players in Lewis alone. Well-known musicians included the fiddler Pattie Birnie and the piper Habbie Simpson. This tradition continued into the nineteenth century, with major figures such as the fiddlers Niel and his son Nathaniel Gow. There is evidence of ballads from this period. Some may date back to the late Medieval era and deal with events and people that can be traced back as far as the thirteenth century. They remained an oral tradition until they were collected as folk songs in the eighteenth century.
The earliest printed collection of secular music comes from the seventeenth century. Song collecting began to gain momentum in the early eighteenth century and, as the Kirk's opposition to music waned, there was a flood of publications including Allan Ramsay's verse compendium The Tea Table Miscellany (1723) and The Scots Musical Museum (1787 to 1803) by James Johnson and Robert Burns. From the late nineteenth century, there was renewed interest in traditional music, which was more academic and political in intent. In Scotland collectors included the Reverend James Duncan and Gavin Greig. Major performers included James Scott Skinner. This revival began to have a major impact on classical music, with the development of what was in effect a national school of orchestral and operatic music in Scotland, with composers that included Alexander Mackenzie, William Wallace, Learmont Drysdale, Hamish MacCunn and John McEwen.
After World War II traditional music in Scotland was marginalised, but remained a living tradition. This marginal status was changed by individuals including Alan Lomax, Hamish Henderson and Peter Kennedy, through collecting, publications, recordings and radio programmes. Acts that were popularised included John Strachan, Jimmy MacBeath, Jeannie Robertson and Flora MacNeil. In the 1960s there was a flourishing folk club culture and Ewan MacColl emerged as a leading figure in the revival in Britain. They hosted traditional performers, including Donald Higgins and the Stewarts of Blairgowrie, alongside English performers and new Scottish revivalists such as Robin Hall, Jimmie Macgregor, The Corries and the Ian Campbell Folk Group. There was also a strand of popular Scottish music that benefited from the arrival of radio and television, which relied on images of Scottishness derived from tartanry and stereotypes employed in music hall and variety. This was exemplified by the TV programme The White Heather Club which ran from 1958 to 1967, hosted by Andy Stewart and starring Moira Anderson and Kenneth McKellar.
The fusing of various styles of American music with British folk created a distinctive form of fingerstyle guitar playing known as folk baroque, pioneered by figures including Davey Graham and Bert Jansch. Others such as Donovan and The Incredible String Band abandoned the traditional element and have been seen as developing psychedelic folk. Acoustic groups who continued to interpret traditional material through into the 1970s included The Tannahill Weavers, Ossian, Silly Wizard, The Boys of the Lough, Battlefield Band, The Clutha and the Whistlebinkies.
Celtic rock developed as a variant of British folk rock by Scottish groups including the JSD Band and Spencer's Feat. Five Hand Reel, who combined Irish and Scottish personnel, emerged as the most successful exponents of the style. From the late 1970s the attendance at, and numbers of, folk clubs began to decrease, as new musical and social trends began to dominate. However, in Scotland, the circuit of ceilidhs and festivals helped sustain traditional music. Two of the most successful groups of the 1980s that emerged from this dance band circuit were Runrig and Capercaillie. A by-product of the Celtic Diaspora was the existence of large communities across the world that looked for their cultural roots and identity to their origins in the Celtic nations. From the US this includes Scottish bands Seven Nations, Prydein and Flatfoot 56. From Canada are bands such as Enter the Haggis, Great Big Sea, The Real McKenzies and Spirit of the West.
Classical music
The development of a distinct tradition of art music in Scotland was limited by the impact of the Scottish Reformation on ecclesiastical music from the sixteenth century. Concerts, largely composed of "Scottish airs", developed in the seventeenth century and classical instruments were introduced to the country. Music in Edinburgh prospered through the patronage of figures including the merchant Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. The Italian style of classical music was probably first brought to Scotland by the cellist and composer Lorenzo Bocchi, who travelled to Scotland in the 1720s. The Musical Society of Edinburgh was incorporated in 1728. Several Italian musicians were active in the capital in this period and there are several known Scottish composers in the classical style, including Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie, the first Scot known to have produced a symphony.
In the mid-eighteenth century, a group of Scottish composers including James Oswald and William McGibbon created the "Scots drawing room style", taking primarily Lowland Scottish tunes and making them acceptable to a middle-class audience. In the 1790s Robert Burns embarked on an attempt to produce a corpus of Scottish national song contributing about a third of the songs of The Scots Musical Museum. Burns also collaborated with George Thomson in A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs, which adapted Scottish folk songs with "classical" arrangements. However, Burns' championing of Scottish music may have prevented the establishment of a tradition of European concert music in Scotland, which faltered towards the end of the eighteenth century.
From the mid-nineteenth century, classical music began a revival in Scotland, aided by the visits of Chopin and Mendelssohn in the 1840s. By the late nineteenth century, there was in effect a national school of orchestral and operatic music in Scotland, with major composers including Alexander Mackenzie, William Wallace, Learmont Drysdale and Hamish MacCunn. Major performers included the pianist Frederic Lamond, and singers Mary Garden and Joseph Hislop.
After World War I, Robin Orr and Cedric Thorpe Davie were influenced by modernism and Scottish musical cadences. Erik Chisholm founded the Scottish Ballet Society and helped create several ballets. The Edinburgh Festival was founded in 1947 and led to an expansion of classical music in Scotland, leading to the foundation of Scottish Opera in 1960. Important post-war composers included Ronald Stevenson, Francis George Scott, Edward McGuire, William Sweeney, Iain Hamilton, Thomas Wilson, Thea Musgrave, Judith Weir, James MacMillan and Helen Grime. Craig Armstrong has produced music for numerous films. Major performers include the percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Major Scottish orchestras include the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO). Major venues include Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Usher Hall, Edinburgh and Queen's Hall, Edinburgh.
Pop, rock and fusion
Pop and rock were slow to get started in Scotland and produced few bands of note in the 1950s or 1960s, though thanks to accolades by David Bowie and others, the Edinburgh-based band 1-2-3 (later Clouds), active 1966–71, have later been acknowledged as a definitive precursor of the progressive rock movement. By the 1970s, groups such as the Average White Band, Nazareth, and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band began to have international success. The most commercially successful Scottish pop act of the 1970s by sales was the Bay City Rollers, who sold over 120 million albums worldwide. Pilot, a band formed by former Rollers members, also enjoyed some success. Several members of the internationally successful rock band AC/DC were born in Scotland, including original lead singer Bon Scott and guitarists Malcolm and Angus Young, though by the time they began playing, all three had moved to Australia. Angus and Malcolm's older brother, George Young, found success as a member of the Australian band The Easybeats and later produced some of AC/DC's records and formed a songwriting partnership with Dutch ex-pat Harry Vanda. Musicians Mark Knopfler and John Martyn were also partly raised in Scotland.
During the 1960s, Scotland contributed two innovative rock musicians who were central to the international scene; folk/psychedelia guitarist/singer/songwriter Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leitch), and blues-rock/jazz-rock bassist/composer Jack Bruce (John Symon Asher Bruce). Traces of Scottish literary and musical influences can be found in both Donovan's and Bruce's work. Donovan's music on 1965's Fairytale anticipated the British folk rock revival. Donovan pioneered psychedelic rock with Sunshine Superman in 1966. Donovan's decidedly Celtic rock directions can be found on his later albums like Open Road and HMS Donovan. Donovan is said to be an early influence and encouragement for Marc Bolan founder of T. Rex. Jack Bruce co-founded Cream along with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in 1966, debuting with the album Fresh Cream. Fresh Cream and the launch of Cream are considered a pivotal moment in blues-rock history, introducing virtuosity and improvisation to the form. Bruce, as a member of The Tony Williams Lifetime (along with John McLaughlin and Larry Young) on Emergency!, similarly contributed to a seminal jazz-rock work that predated Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.
Scotland produced a few punk bands of note, such as The Exploited, The Rezillos, The Skids, The Fire Engines, and the Scars. However, it was not until the post-punk era of the early 1980s, that Scotland really came into its own, with bands like Cocteau Twins, Orange Juice, The Associates, Simple Minds, Maggie Reilly, Annie Lennox (Eurythmics), Hue and Cry, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Wet Wet Wet, Big Country, The Proclaimers and Josef K. Since the 1980s Scotland has produced several popular rock and alternative rock acts. In 1990, Scottish band Aztec Camera released a protest song against Margaret Thatcher and her government entitled "Good Morning Britain", with lyrics references the social unrest evident in the country during the 1980s.
Scotland produced many indie bands in the 1980s, including Primal Scream, The Soup Dragons, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Blue Nile, Teenage Fanclub, 18 Wheeler, The Pastels and BMX Bandits being some of the best examples. The following decade also saw a burgeoning scene in Glasgow, with the likes of The Almighty, Arab Strap, Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, The Delgados, Bis and Mogwai.
The late 1990s and 2000s saw Scottish guitar bands continue to achieve critical or commercial success, examples include Franz Ferdinand, Frightened Rabbit, Biffy Clyro, Texas, Travis, KT Tunstall, Amy Macdonald, Paolo Nutini, The View, Idlewild, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Glasvegas, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Fratellis, and Twin Atlantic. Scottish extreme metal bands include Man Must Die and Cerebral Bore. One of the most famous and successful electronic music producers, Calvin Harris, is also Scottish. The Edinburgh-based group Young Fathers won the 2014 Mercury Prize for their album Dead.
With the arrival of musical talent television shows and increasing in popularity throughout the 2000s, notable Scottish acts include Michelle McManus (winner of Pop Idol, 2003), Darius Campbell Danesh (3rd, Pop Idol, 2001–2002), Leon Jackson (winner, The X Factor, 2007), Nicholas McDonald (runner-up, The X Factor, 2014) and Susan Boyle (runner-up, Britain's Got Talent, 2009).
Artists to achieve international and commercial success through the 2010s and 2020s include Susan Boyle, Lewis Capaldi, Nina Nesbitt, The Snuts, Nathan Evans, Gerry Cinnamon and Chvrches. Susan Boyle achieved international success, particularly with her first two studio albums, topping both the UK Album Charts and the Billboard 200 chart in the United States.
Scotland in Eurovision
As part of the United Kingdom, Scotland does not compete separately in the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Edinburgh hosted the contest in 1972.
Scotland entered the Eurovision Choir 2019, a European Broadcasting Union competition for choral singers. This marked the first time that Scotland had entered a Eurovision or European Broadcasting Union competition separately from the United Kingdom. The choir, Alba, performed three songs in Scottish Gaelic; Cumha na Cloinne, Ach a' Mhairead and Alba. The choir competed in the first round and did not advance to the second and final round.
Scotland competed in the second Free European Song Contest in 2021, a competition broadcast by German broadcaster ProSieben as an alternative to the main Eurovision Song Contest which had been cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Singer Amy Macdonald represented Scotland and finished in 4th place with the song Statues.
Instruments
Accordion
Though often derided as Scottish kitsch, the accordion has long been a part of Scottish music. Country dance bands, such as that led by the renowned Jimmy Shand, have helped to dispel this image. In the early 20th century, the melodeon, a variety of diatonic button accordion was popular among rural folk, and was part of the bothy band tradition. More recently, Phil Cunningham (of Silly Wizard) has helped popularise the accordion in Scottish music.
Bagpipes
Many associate Scottish folk music with the Great Highland Bagpipe, which has long played an important part in Scottish music. Although this particular form of bagpipe was developed exclusively in Scotland, it is not the only Scottish bagpipe. The earliest mention of bagpipes in Scotland dates to the 15th century although they are believed to have been introduced to Britain by the Roman armies. The pìob mhór, or Great Highland Bagpipe, was initially associated with both hereditary piping families and professional pipers to various clan chiefs; later, pipes were adopted for use in other venues, including military marching. Piping clans included the Clan Henderson, MacArthurs, MacDonalds, MacKays and, especially, the MacCrimmon, who were hereditary pipers to the Clan MacLeod.
Though bagpipes are closely associated with Scotland, the instrument (or, more precisely, family of instruments) is found throughout large swathes of Europe, North Africa and South Asia. The most common bagpipe heard in modern Scottish music is the Great Highland Bagpipe, which was spread by the Highland regiments of the British Army. Historically, numerous other bagpipes existed, and many of them have been recreated in the last half-century. Also during the 19th century bagpipes were played on ships sailing off to war to keep the men's hopes up and to bring good luck in the coming war.
The classical music of the Great Highland Bagpipe is called Pìobaireachd, which consists of a first movement called the urlar (in English, the 'ground' movement,) which establishes a theme. The theme is then developed in a series of movements, growing increasingly complex each time. After the urlar there is usually a number of variations and doublings of the variations. Then comes the taorluath movement and variation and the crunluath movement, continuing with the underlying theme. This is usually followed by a variation of the crunluath, usually the crunluath a mach (other variations: crunluath breabach and crunluath fosgailte) ; the piece closes with a return to the urlar.
Bagpipe competitions are common in Scotland, for both solo pipers and pipe bands. Competitive solo piping is currently popular among many aspiring pipers, some of whom travel from as far as Australia to attend Scottish competitions. Other pipers have chosen to explore more creative usages of the instrument. Different types of bagpipes have also seen a resurgence since the 70s, as the historical border pipes and Scottish smallpipes have been resuscitated and now attract a thriving alternative piping community. Two of Scotland's most highly regarded pipers are Gordon Duncan and Fred Morrison.
The pipe band is another common format for highland piping, with top competitive bands including the Victoria Police Pipe Band from Australia (formerly), Northern Ireland's Field Marshal Montgomery, the Republic of Ireland's Laurence O'Toole pipe band, Canada's 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band and Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, and Scottish bands like Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band and Strathclyde Police Pipe Band. These bands, as well as many others, compete in numerous pipe band competitions, often the World Pipe Band Championships, and sometimes perform in public concerts.
Fiddle
Scottish traditional fiddling encompasses a number of regional styles, including the bagpipe-inflected west Highlands, the upbeat and lively style of Norse-influenced Shetland Islands and the Strathspey and slow airs of the northeast. The instrument arrived late in the 17th century, and is first mentioned in 1680 in a document from Newbattle Abbey in Midlothian, Lessones For Ye Violin.
In the 18th century, Scottish fiddling is said to have reached new heights. Fiddlers like William Marshall and Niel Gow were legends across Scotland, and the first collections of fiddle tunes were published in mid-century. The most famous and useful of these collections was a series published by Nathaniel Gow, one of Niel's sons, and a fine fiddler and composer in his own right. Classical composers such as Charles McLean, James Oswald and William McGibbon used Scottish fiddling traditions in their Baroque compositions.
Scottish fiddling is most directly represented in North America in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, an island on the east coast of Canada, which received some 25,000 emigrants from the Scottish Highlands during the Highland Clearances of 1780–1850. Cape Breton musicians such as Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, and Jerry Holland have brought their music to a worldwide audience, building on the traditions of master fiddlers such as Buddy MacMaster and Winston Scotty Fitzgerald.
Among native Scots, Aly Bain and Alasdair Fraser are two of the most accomplished, following in the footsteps of influential 20th-century players such as James Scott Skinner, Hector MacAndrew, Angus Grant and Tom Anderson. The growing number of young professional Scottish fiddlers makes a complete list impossible.
The Annual Scots Fiddle Festival which runs each November showcases the great fiddling tradition and talent in Scotland.
Guitar
The history of the guitar in traditional music is recent, as is that of the cittern and bouzouki introduced into Celtic folk music by folksinger Johnny Moynihan in the late 1960s. The guitar featured prominently in the folk revival of the early 1960s with the likes of Archie Fisher, The Corries, Hamish Imlach, Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor. The virtuoso playing of Bert Jansch was widely influential, and the range of instruments was widened by The Incredible String Band. Notable artists include Tony McManus, Dave MacIsaac, Peerie Willie Johnson and Dick Gaughan. Other notable guitarists in Scottish music scene include Kris Drever of Fine Friday and Lau, and Ross Martin of Cliar, Dàimh and Harem Scarem. Scotland has also produced several notable electric guitarists, including Stuart Adamson of Big Country (once referred to as "Britain's Jimi Hendrix"), Angus Young of AC/DC, Jimmy McCulloch of Wings, Manny Charlton of Nazareth, Zal Cleminson of The Sensational Alex Harvey band, and Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy.
Gittern
Stringed instruments similar to that of modern guitars have appeared in Scottish folk music for centuries.
The Gittern, an ancestor to the modern guitar, featured in medieval Scottish appearing from at least the 13th century and was still around in Scotland 300 years later.
Harp
Material evidence suggests that lyres and / or harp, or clarsach, has a long and ancient history in Britain, with Iron Age lyres dating from 2300BC. The harp was regarded as the national instrument until it was replaced with the Highland bagpipes in the 15th century. Stone carvings in the East of Scotland support the theory that the harp was present in Pictish Scotland well before the 9th century and may have been the original ancestor of the modern European harp and even formed the basis for Scottish pibroch, the folk bagpipe tradition.
Barring illustrations of harps in the 9th century Utrecht Psalter, only thirteen depictions exist in Europe of any triangular chordophone harp pre-11th century, and all thirteen of them come from Scotland. Pictish harps were strung with horsehair. The instruments apparently spread south to the Anglo-Saxons, who commonly used gut strings, and then west to the Gaels of the Highlands and Ireland. The earliest Irish word for a harp is in fact Cruit, a word which strongly suggests a Pictish provenance for the instrument. The surname MacWhirter, Mac a' Chruiteir, means son of the harpist, and is common throughout Scotland, but particularly in Carrick and Galloway.
The Clàrsach (Gd.) or Cláirseach (Ga.) is the name given to the wire-strung harp of either Scotland or Ireland. The word begins to appear by the end of the 14th century. Until the end of the Middle Ages it was the most popular musical instrument in Scotland, and harpers were among the most prestigious cultural figures in the courts of Irish/Scottish chieftains and Scottish kings and earls. In both countries, harpers enjoyed special rights and played a crucial part in ceremonial occasions such as coronations and poetic bardic recitals. The Kings of Scotland employed harpers until the end of the Middle Ages, and they featured prominently in royal iconography. Several Clarsach players were noted at the Battle of the Standard (1138), and when Alexander III of Scotland (died 1286) visited London in 1278, his court minstrels with him, records show payments were made to one Elyas, "King of Scotland's harper." One of the nicknames for the Scottish harp is "taigh nan teud", the house of strings.
Three medieval Gaelic harps survived into the modern period, two from Scotland (the Queen Mary Harp and the Lamont Harp) and one in Ireland (the Brian Boru harp), although artistic evidence suggests that all three were probably made in the western Highlands.
The playing of this Gaelic harp with wire strings died out in Scotland in the 18th century and in Ireland in the early 19th century. In the late 19th century Gaelic revival the instruments used differed greatly from the old wire-strung harps. The new instruments had gut strings, and their construction and playing style was based on the larger orchestral pedal harp. Nonetheless, the name "clàrsach" was and is still used in Scotland today to describe these new instruments. The modern gut-strung clàrsach has thousands of players, both in Scotland and Ireland, as well as North America and elsewhere. The 1931 formation of the Clarsach Society kickstarted the modern harp renaissance. Recent harp players include Savourna Stevenson, Maggie MacInnes, and the band Sileas. Notable events include the annual Edinburgh International Harp Festival, which in 2006 staged the world record for the largest number of harpists to play at the same time.
Tin whistle
One of the oldest tin whistles still in existence is the Tusculum whistle, found with pottery dating to the 14th and 15th centuries; it is currently in the collection of the Museum of Scotland. Today the whistle is a very common instrument in recorded Scottish music. Although few well-known performers choose the tin whistle as their principal instrument, it is quite common for pipers, flute players, and other musicians to play the whistle as well.
Bodhrán
The Irish word bodhrán (plural bodhráin), indicating a drum, is first mentioned in a document translated to English from Irish in the 17th century. The bodhrán originated in south-west Ireland, probably in the 18th century, and was known as the "poor man's tambourine". Made from farm implements and without the cymbals, it was popular among mummers, or wren boys. A large oil painting by Irish artist Daniel Maclise (1806–1870) depicts a large Halloween house party in which a bodhrán features clearly. The bodhrán in Scotland and also Cape Breton, the northern mainland of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island is an import from Ireland due to its popularity in 1960s because of the music of Seán Ó Riada
Music awards
The Scottish Music Awards, Scottish Album of the Year Award, the Scots Trad Music Awards and the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award each recognise musical talent in Scotland annually from both Scottish and international artists.
Music festivals
Scotland has long had a number of festivals that celebrate music of Scottish and international origin on an annual basis. T in the Park (1994–2016) was arguably the largest and most widely known Scottish music festival, held annually in the second weekend of July since its beginning in 1994. The festival attracted some of the world's largest and best selling artists and bands. T in the Park was replaced by TRNSMT (2017–present) which similarly takes place in the second weekend of July and is held in Glasgow Green.
Other festivals include the Aberdeen and NE Scotland Music Festival, Big Burns Supper Festival, Callander Jazz and Blues Festival, Connect Music Festival, the Darvel Music Festival, Eden Festival, the Glasgow International Jazz Festival, Glasgow Summer Sessions, Let's Rock, the Leith Festival and the Skye Live Festival.
The Glasgow Bandstand at Kelvingrove Park hosts the annual Summer Nights festival with artists such as KT Tunstall, Anastacia, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Belinda Carlisle, Rick Astley and The Jesus & Mary Chain being past performers.
Former major festivals include Wickerman Festival, Big in Falkirk, RockNess and Be in Belhaven.
Celtic Connections started in 1994 and celebrates celtic music. It is held annually in Glasgow, for 18 days in January and February.
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is performed by international armed forces bands. It is held in August at Edinburgh Castle as part of the Edinburgh Festivals.
Samples
of Na cuperean, a traditional Scottish song from Nova Scotians in California from the Library of Congress' California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collection; performed by Mary A. McDonald on 11 April 1939 in Berkeley, California
See also
Gaelic music
Music of Ireland
Music of Wales
Music schools in Scotland
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
List of pipe bands
Scottish Gaelic punk
Scottish hip-hop
References
Notes
Further reading
Emmerson, George S. Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String – history of Scottish dance music. Second edition 1988. Galt House, London, Ontario, Canada.
Eydmann, Stuart "The concertina as an emblem of the folk music revival in the British Isles." 1995. British Journal of Ethnomusicology 4: 41–49.
Eydmann, Stuart "As Common as Blackberries: The First Hundred Years of the Accordion in Scotland." 1999. Folk Music Journal 7 No. 5 pp. 565–608.
Eydmann, Stuart "From the "Wee Melodeon" to the "Big Box": The Accordion in Scotland since 1945." The Accordion in all its Guises, 2001. Musical Performance Volume 3 Parts 2 – 4 pp. 107–125.
Eydmann, Stuart The Life and Times of the Concertina: the adoption and usage of a novel musical instrument with particular reference to Scotland. PhD Thesis, The Open University 1995 published online at www.concertina.com/eydmann Stuart Eydmann: The Scottish Concertina
Hardie, Alastair J. The Caledonian Companion – A Collection of Scottish Fiddle Music and Guide to its Performance. 1992. The Hardie Press, Edinburgh.
Heywood, Pete and Colin Irwin. "From Strathspeys to Acid Croft". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 261–272. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.
Gilchrist, Jim. "Scotland". 2001. In Mathieson, Kenny (Ed.), Celtic music, pp. 54–87. Backbeat Books.
External links
Five Centuries of Scottish Music a high-quality, free digital resource hosted by AHDS Performing Arts.
BBC Radio Scotland online radio: folk music on Travelling Folk, bagpipe music on Pipeline, country dance music on Reel Blend and Take the Floor. (RealPlayer plugin required)
Scottish Music Centre music archive and information resource.
Gaelic Modes Web articles on Gaelic harp harmony & modes
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Scottish folk music
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Scottish folk music (also Scottish traditional music) is a genre of folk music that uses forms that are identified as part of the Scottish musical tradition. There is evidence that there was a flourishing culture of popular music in Scotland during the late Middle Ages, but the only song with a melody to survive from this period is the "Pleugh Song". After the Reformation, the secular popular tradition of music continued, despite attempts by the Kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, to suppress dancing and events like penny weddings. The first clear reference to the use of the Highland bagpipes mentions their use at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547. The Highlands in the early seventeenth century saw the development of piping families including the MacCrimmons, MacArthurs, MacGregors and the Mackays of Gairloch. There is also evidence of adoption of the fiddle in the Highlands. Well-known musicians included the fiddler Pattie Birnie and the piper Habbie Simpson. This tradition continued into the nineteenth century, with major figures such as the fiddlers Niel and his son Nathaniel Gow. There is evidence of ballads from this period. Some may date back to the late Medieval era and deal with events and people that can be traced back as far as the thirteenth century. They remained an oral tradition until they were collected as folk songs in the eighteenth century.
The earliest printed collection of secular music comes from the seventeenth century. Collection began to gain momentum in the early eighteenth century and, as the Kirk's opposition to music waned, there was a flood of publications including Allan Ramsay's verse compendium The Tea Table Miscellany (1723) and The Scots Musical Museum (1787 to 1803) by James Johnson and Robert Burns. From the late nineteenth century there was renewed interest in traditional music, which was more academic and political in intent. In Scotland collectors included the Reverend James Duncan and Gavin Greig. Major performers included James Scott Skinner. This revival began to have a major impact on classical music, with the development of what was in effect a national school of orchestral and operatic music in Scotland, with composers such as Alexander Mackenzie, William Wallace, Learmont Drysdale, Hamish MacCunn and John McEwen.
After World War II, traditional music in Scotland was marginalised, but remained a living tradition. This was changed by individuals including Alan Lomax, Hamish Henderson and Peter Kennedy, through collecting, publications, recordings and radio programmes. Acts that were popularised included John Strachan, Jimmy MacBeath, Jeannie Robertson and Flora MacNeil. In the 1960s there was a flourishing folk club culture and Ewan MacColl emerged as a leading figure in the revival in Britain. The clubs hosted traditional performers, including Donald Higgins and the Stewarts of Blairgowrie, beside English performers and new Scottish revivalists such as Robin Hall, Jimmie Macgregor, The Corries and the Ian Campbell Folk Group. There was also a strand of popular Scottish music that benefited from the arrival of radio and television, which relied on images of Scottishness derived from tartanry and stereotypes employed in music hall and variety, exemplified by the TV programme The White Heather Club which ran from 1958 to 1967, hosted by Andy Stewart and starring Moira Anderson and Kenneth McKeller. The fusing of various styles of American music with British folk created a distinctive form of fingerstyle guitar playing known as folk baroque, pioneered by figures including Davy Graham and Bert Jansch. Others totally abandoned the traditional element including Donovan and the Incredible String Band, who have been seen as developing psychedelic folk. Acoustic groups who continued to interpret traditional material through into the 1970s included Ossian, Silly Wizard, The Boys of the Lough, Natural Acoustic Band, Battlefield Band, The Clutha, and The Whistlebinkies.
Celtic rock developed as a variant of British folk rock by Scottish groups including the JSD Band and Spencer's Feat.
Five Hand Reel, who combined Irish and Scottish personnel, emerged as the most successful exponents of the style. From the late 1970s the attendance at, and the number of, folk clubs began to decrease, as new musical and social trends began to dominate. However, in Scotland the circuit of ceilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music. Two of the most successful groups of the 1980s that emerged from this dance band circuit were Runrig and Capercaillie. A by-product of the Celtic Diaspora was the existence of large communities across the world that looked for their cultural roots and identity to their origins in the Celtic nations. From the United States this includes Scottish bands Seven Nations, Prydein and Flatfoot 56. From Canada are bands such as Enter the Haggis, Great Big Sea, The Real Mckenzies and Spirit of the West.
Development
There is evidence that there was a flourishing culture of popular music in Scotland in the Late Middle Ages. This includes the long list of songs given in The Complaynt of Scotland (1549). Many of the poems of this period were also originally songs, but for none has a notation of their music survived. Melodies have survived separately in the post-Reformation publication of The Gude and Godlie Ballatis (1567), which were spiritual satires on popular songs, adapted and published by the brothers James, John and Robert Wedderburn. The only song with a melody to survive from this period is the "Pleugh Song". After the Reformation, the secular popular tradition of music continued, despite attempts by the Kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, to suppress dancing and events like penny weddings at which tunes were played.
The first clear reference to the use of the Highland bagpipes is from a French history, which mentions their use at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547. George Buchanan claimed that they had replaced the trumpet on the battlefield. This period saw the creation of the ceòl mór (the great music) of the bagpipe, which reflected its martial origins, with battle-tunes, marches, gatherings, salutes and laments. The Highlands in the early seventeenth century saw the development of piping families including the MacCrimmonds, MacArthurs, MacGregors and the Mackays of Gairloch. There is also evidence of adoption of the fiddle in the Highlands with Martin Martin noting in his A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (1703) that he knew of eighteen players in Lewis alone. Well-known musicians included the fiddler Pattie Birnie (c. 1635–1721) and the piper Habbie Simpson (1550–1620). This tradition continued into the nineteenth century, with major figures such as the fiddlers Niel (1727–1807) and his son Nathaniel Gow (1763–1831), who, along with a large number of anonymous musicians, composed hundreds of fiddle tunes and variations.
There is evidence of ballads from this period. Some may date back to the late Medieval era and deal with events and people that can be traced back as far as the thirteenth century, including "Sir Patrick Spens" and "Thomas the Rhymer", but for which there is no evidence until the eighteenth century. Scottish ballads are distinct, showing some pre-Christian influences in the inclusion of supernatural elements such as the fairies in the Scottish ballad "Tam Lin". They remained an oral tradition until increased interest in folk songs in the eighteenth century led collectors such as Bishop Thomas Percy to publish volumes of popular ballads.
Early song collection
In Scotland the earliest printed collection of secular music was by publisher John Forbes, produced in Aberdeen in 1662 as Songs and Fancies: to Thre, Foure, or Five Partes, both Apt for Voices and Viols. It was printed three times in the next twenty years, and contained seventy-seven songs, of which twenty-five were of Scottish origin. Eighteenth century publications included John Playford's Collection of original Scotch-tunes, (full of the highland humours) for the violin (1700), Margaret Sinkler's Music Book (1710), James Watson's Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems both Ancient and Modern 1711. The oppression of secular music and dancing by the Kirk began to ease between about 1715 and 1725 and the level of musical activity was reflected in a flood of musical publications in broadsheets and compendiums of music such as the makar Allan Ramsay's verse compendium The Tea Table Miscellany (1723), William Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius: or, A collection of Scots songs (1733), James Oswald's The Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751), and David Herd's Ancient and modern Scottish songs, heroic ballads, etc.: collected from memory, tradition and ancient authors (1776). These were drawn on for the most influential collection, The Scots Musical Museum published in six volumes from 1787 to 1803 by James Johnson and Robert Burns, which also included new words by Burns. The Select Scottish Airs collected by George Thomson and published between 1799 and 1818 included contributions from Burns and Walter Scott. Among Scott's early works was the influential collection of ballads Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802–03).
Revivals
First revival
From the late nineteenth century there was renewed interest in traditional music, which was more academic and political in intent. Harvard professor Francis James Child's (1825–96) eight-volume collection The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882–92) has been the most influential on defining the repertoire of subsequent performers, and the English music teacher Cecil Sharp was probably the most important in understanding of the nature of folk song. In Scotland, collectors included the Reverend James Duncan (1848–1917) and Gavin Greig (1856–1914), who collected over 1,000 songs, mainly from Aberdeenshire. The tradition continued with figures including James Scott Skinner (1843–1927), known as the "Strathspey King", who played the fiddle in venues ranging from the local functions in his native Banchory, to urban centres of the south and at Balmoral. In 1923 the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society was founded in an attempt to preserve traditional Scottish dances that were threatened by the introduction of the continental ballroom dances such as the waltz or quadrilles. The accordion also began to be a central instrument at Highland balls and dances.
This revival began to have a major impact on classical music, with the development of what was in effect a national school of orchestral and operatic music in Scotland. Major composers included Alexander Mackenzie (1847–1935), William Wallace (1860–1940), Learmont Drysdale (1866–1909), Hamish MacCunn (1868–1916) and John McEwen (1868–1948). Mackenzie, who studied in Germany and Italy and mixed Scottish themes with German Romanticism, is best known for his three Scottish Rhapsodies (1879–80, 1911), Pibroch for violin and orchestra (1889) and the Scottish Concerto for piano (1897), all involving Scottish themes and folk melodies. Wallace's work included an overture, In Praise of Scottish Poesie (1894). Drysdale's work often dealt with Scottish themes, including the overture Tam O’ Shanter (1890), the cantata The Kelpie (1891). MacCunn's overture The Land of the Mountain and the Flood (1887), his Six Scotch Dances (1896), his operas Jeanie Deans (1894) and Dairmid (1897) and choral works on Scottish subjects have been described by I. G. C. Hutchison as the musical equivalent of the Scots Baronial castles of Abbotsford and Balmoral. Similarly, McEwen's Pibroch (1889), Border Ballads (1908) and Solway Symphony (1911) incorporated traditional Scottish folk melodies.
Second revival
After World War II, traditional music in Scotland was marginalised, but, unlike in England, it remained a much stronger force, with the Céilidh house still present in rural communities until the early 1950s and traditional material still performed by the older generation, even if the younger generation tended to prefer modern styles of music. This decline was changed by the actions of individuals such as American musicologist Alan Lomax, who collected numerous songs in Scotland that were issued by Columbia Records around 1955. Radio broadcasts by Lomax, Hamish Henderson and Peter Kennedy (1922–2006) were also important in raising awareness of the tradition, particularly Kennedy's As I Roved Out, which was largely based around Scottish and Irish music. The School of Scottish Studies was founded at University of Edinburgh in 1951, with Henderson as a research fellow and a collection of songs begun by Calum Maclean (1915–1960). Acts that were popularised included John Strachan (1875–1958), Jimmy MacBeath (1894–1972), Jeannie Robertson (1908–1975) and Flora MacNeil (1928–2015). A number of festivals also popularised the music, such as Edinburgh People's Festival (1951–1953) and Aberdeen Folk Festival (1963–). In the 1960s there was a flourishing folk club culture. The first folk club was founded in London by Ewan MacColl (1915–1989), who emerged as a leading figure in the revival in Britain, recording influential records such as Scottish Popular Ballads (1956). Scottish folk clubs were less dogmatic than their English counterparts which rapidly moved to an all English folk song policy, and they continued to encourage a mixture of Scottish, Irish, English and American material. Early on they hosted traditional performers, including Donald Higgins and the Stewarts of Blairgowrie, beside English performers and new Scottish revivalists such as Robin Hall (1936–1998), Jimmie Macgregor (born 1930) and The Corries. A number of these new performers, including the Ian Campbell Folk Group, emerged from the skiffle movement.
There was also a strand of popular Scottish music that benefited from the arrival of radio and television, which relied on images of Scottishness derived from tartanry and stereotypes employed in music hall and variety. Proponents included Andy Stewart (1933–1993), whose weekly programme The White Heather Club ran in Scotland from 1958 to 1967. Frequent guests included Moira Anderson (born 1938) and Kenneth McKeller (1927–2010), who enjoyed their own programmes. The programmes and their music were immensely popular, although their version of Scottish music and identity was despised by many modernists.
The fusing of various styles of American music with British folk created a distinctive form of fingerstyle guitar playing known as folk baroque, pioneered by figures including Davy Graham and Bert Jansch. This led in part to British progressive folk music, which attempted to elevate folk music through greater musicianship, or compositional and arrangement skills. Many progressive folk performers continued to retain a traditional element in their music, including Jansch who became a member of the band Pentangle in 1967. Others largely abandoned the traditional element of their music. Particularly important were Donovan (who was most influenced by emerging progressive folk musicians in America such as Bob Dylan) and the Incredible String Band, who from 1967 incorporated a range of influences including medieval and Eastern music into their compositions, leading to the development of psychedelic folk, which had a considerable impact on progressive and psychedelic rock. Acoustic groups who continued to interpret traditional material through into the 1970s included Ossian and Silly Wizard. The Boys of the Lough and Battlefield Band, emerged from the flourishing Glasgow folk scene. Also from this scene were the highly influential The Clutha, whose line up, with two fiddlers, was later augmented by the piper Jimmy Anderson, and the Whistlebinkies, who pursued a strongly instrumental format, relying on traditional instruments, including a Clàrsach (Celtic harp). Many of these groups played largely music originating from the Lowlands, while later, more successful bands tended to favor the Gaelic sounds of the Highlands. While fairly popular within folk circles, none of these groups achieved the success of Irish groups such as The Chieftains and The Dubliners. Some of these bands produced noted solo artists, including Andy M. Stewart of Silly Wizard, Brian McNeill of Battlefield Band, and Dougie MacLean of the Tannahill Weavers. MacLean is perhaps the best known of these, having written "Caledonia", one of Scotland's most beloved songs.
Though perhaps not as popular as some of their Celtic fusion counterparts, traditional Scottish artists are still making music. These include Hebridean singer Julie Fowlis, 'Gaelic supergroup' Dàimh, and Lau. Old Blind Dogs have also found success singing in the Doric Scots dialect of their native Aberdeenshire. Albannach has gained recognition for their distinctive combination of pipes and drums.
Celtic rock
Celtic rock developed as a variant of British folk rock, playing traditional Scottish folk music with rock instrumentation, developed by Fairport Convention and its members from 1969. Donovan used the term "Celtic rock" to describe the folk rock he created for his Open Road album in 1970, featured a song with "Celtic rock" as its title. The adoption of British folk rock heavily influenced by Scottish traditional music produced groups including the JSD Band The Natural Acoustic Band (1970) and Spencer's Feat. Out of the wreckage of the latter in 1974, guitarist Dick Gaughan formed probably the most successful band in this genre Five Hand Reel, who combined Irish and Scottish personnel, before he embarked on an influential solo career.
From the late 1970s the attendance at, and number of, folk clubs began to decrease, as new musical and social trends, including punk rock, new wave and electronic music began to dominate. However, in Scotland the circuit of cèilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music. Two of the most successful groups of the 1980s emerged from this dance band circuit. From 1978, when they began to release original albums, Runrig produced highly polished Scottish folk rock, including the first commercially successful album with the all Gaelic Play Gaelic in 1978. From the 1980s Capercaillie combined Scottish folk music, electric instruments and haunting vocals to considerable success. While bagpipes had become an essential element in Scottish folk bands they were much rarer in folk rock outfits, but were successfully integrated into their sound by Wolfstone from 1989, who focused on a combination of highland music and rock. More recently, bands such as Mànran and Tide Lines have also focused on a combination of Celtic music and pop-rock. Additionally, groups such as Shooglenifty and Peatbog Faeries mixed traditional highland music with more modern sounds, such as dubstep rhythms, creating a genre sometimes referred to as "Acid Croft". Niteworks inspired the two aforementioned bands and the electronic sampling of Martyn Bennett have further developed Celtic electronic music which has been described as both Gaelictronica and Celtictronica.
Successful Scottish stadium rock acts such as Simple Minds from Glasgow and Big Country from Dunfermline incorporated traditional Celtic sounds onto many of their songs. The former based their hit "Belfast Child" around the traditional Irish song "She Moved Through the Fair" and incorporated accordion into their line-up, while the latter's guitar and drum sounds on their early albums were heavily influenced by Scottish pipe bands, particularly on songs such as "In a Big Country" and "Fields of Fire". Big Country also covered Robert Burns' "Killiecrankie".
One by-product of the Celtic Diaspora was the existence of large communities across the world that looked for their cultural roots and identity to their origins in the Celtic nations. While it seems young musicians from these communities usually chose between their folk culture and mainstream forms of music such as rock or pop, after the advent of Celtic punk relatively large numbers of bands began to emerge styling themselves as Celtic rock. This is particularly noticeable in the United States and Canada, where there are large communities descended from Irish and Scottish immigrants. From the U.S. this includes Seven Nations, Prydein and Flatfoot 56. From Canada are bands such as Enter the Haggis, Great Big Sea, The Real Mckenzies and Spirit of the West. These groups were influenced by American forms of music, some containing members with no Celtic ancestry and commonly singing in English.
References
Notes
Bibliography
"Popular Ballads", in The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (Broadview Press, 2006), .
Baxter, J. R., "Culture, Enlightenment (1660–1843): music", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), .
Baxter, J. R., "Music, Highland", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), .
Broughton, S. ,Ellingham M., and Trillo, R., eds, World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East (London: Rough Guides, 1999), ..
Craig, C., "Culture: modern times (1914–): the novel", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), .
Dawson, J. E. A., Scotland Re-Formed, 1488–1587 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), .
DeRogatis, J., Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (Milwaukie MI, Hal Leonard, 2003), .
Gardiner, M., Modern Scottish Culture (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), .
Herman, J., "British Folk-Rock; Celtic Rock", The Journal of American Folklore, 107, (425), (1994).
Hutchison, I. G. C., "Workshop of Empire: The Nineteenth Century" in J. Wormald, ed., Scotland: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), .
Larkin, C., The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Guinness, 1992), .
Leitch, D., The Autobiography of Donovan: The Hurdy Gurdy Man (Macmillan, 2007), .
Lyle, E., Scottish Ballads (Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2001), .
MacDougall, C., Scots: The Language of the People (Black & White, 2006), .
Mathieson, K., Celtic Music (Backbeat Books, 2001), .
Millar, P., Four Centuries Of Scottish Psalmody (1949, Read Books, 2008), .
Porter, J., "Introduction" in J. Porter, ed., Defining Strains: The Musical Life of Scots in the Seventeenth Century (Peter Lang, 2007), .
Sawyers, J. S., Celtic Music: A Complete Guide (Da Capo Press, 2001), .
Simpson, P., The Rough Guide to Cult Pop (London: Rough Guides, 2003), .
Sweers, B., Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), .
Whetter, K. S., Understanding Genre and Medieval Romance (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008) .
Wormald, J., Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), .
External links
John Playford's Collection of original Scotch-tunes, (full of the highland humours) for the violin
Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
Folk music by country
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve%20Online
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Eve Online
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Eve Online (stylised EVE Online) is a space-based, persistent world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by CCP Games. Players of Eve Online can participate in a number of in-game professions and activities, including mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration, and combat (both player versus environment and player versus player). The game contains a total of 7,800 star systems that can be visited by players.
The game is renowned for its scale and complexity with regards to player interactions. In its single, shared game world, players engage in unscripted economic competition, warfare, and political schemes with other players. The Bloodbath of B-R5RB, a battle involving thousands of players in a single star system, took 21 hours and was recognized as one of the largest and most expensive battles in gaming history. Eve Online was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art with a video including the historical events and accomplishments of the playerbase.
Eve Online was released in North America and Europe in May 2003. It was published from May to December 2003 by Simon & Schuster Interactive, after which CCP purchased the rights and began to self-publish via a digital distribution scheme. On January 22, 2008, it was announced that Eve Online would be distributed via Steam. On March 10, 2009, the game was again made available in boxed form in stores, released by Atari. In February 2013, Eve Online reached over 500,000 subscribers. On November 11, 2016, Eve Online added a limited free-to-play version.
Background
Set more than 21,000 years in the future, the background story of Eve Online explains that humanity, having used up most of Earth's resources through centuries of explosive population growth, began colonizing the rest of the Milky Way. As on Earth, this expansion also led to competition and fighting over available resources, but everything changed with the discovery of a natural wormhole leading to an unexplored galaxy subsequently dubbed "New Eden". Dozens of colonies were founded, and a structure, a gate of sorts (which bears the inscription "EVE" on the New Eden side), was built to stabilize the wormhole that linked the colonies of New Eden with the rest of human civilization. However, when the wormhole unexpectedly collapsed, it destroyed the gate as well as the connection between the colonies of New Eden and the Milky Way. Cut off from the rest of humanity and supplies from Earth, the colonies of New Eden were left starving and disconnected from one another; many died out entirely. Over the millennia the descendants of the surviving colonists managed to rebuild their own societies, but by this time the memories and knowledge of humanity's origins, of Earth and the Milky Way galaxy, as well as the history of the settling of New Eden, were lost; what little information that survived transmission over the generations was misunderstood, lost in translation, or consigned to mythology. Five major distinct societies rose to prominence from the surviving colonies, all growing into interstellar spaceflight-capable civilizations. The states based around these societies make up the four major empires in Eve Online: the Amarr Empire, the Caldari State, the Gallente Federation, the Minmatar Republic, and the Jove Empire.
Races
The Amarr, a militantly theocratic empire, was the first of the playable races to rediscover faster-than-light travel. In terms of physical proximity, the space occupied by this society is physically nearest to the demolished EVE gate. Armed with this new technology and the strength of their faith in their god, the Amarr expanded their empire by conquering and enslaving several races, including the Minmatar race, who had only just begun colonizing other planets. Generations later, after the intense culture shock of encountering the Gallente Federation, and in the wake of a disastrous attempted invasion of Jovian space, many Minmatar took the opportunity to rebel and successfully overthrew their enslavers, forming their own government. However, much of their population remain enslaved by the Amarr, and some, having adopted the Amarrian religion and sided with their masters during the revolution, were released from bondage and incorporated into the Empire as commoners in the Ammatar Mandate. The free Minmatar Republic, taking as inspiration the ideals and practices of the Gallente Federation, is presently a strong military and economic power actively seeking the emancipation of their brethren and all other slaves.
The Gallente and the Caldari homeworlds are situated in the same star system. The Gallente homeworld was originally settled by descendants of the French colonists of Tau Ceti; Caldari Prime on the other hand was purchased by a multinational megacorporation that began to terraform it. The terraforming of Caldari Prime was incomplete at the time of the EVE wormhole's collapse, hence the planet remained environmentally inhospitable for millennia. The Gallente restored themselves to a high-functioning technological society some hundred years before the Caldari, building the first lastingly democratic republic of New Eden in the form of the Gallente Federation. Originally the Caldari composed a member race within the Federation, but cultural animosity between the two peoples spiralled into a war during which the Caldari seceded from the Federation to found their own Caldari State. The war lasted 93 years, with neither nation able to overwhelm the other. The planet Caldari Prime was initially retained by the Gallente Federation during the war, and did not become part of the new Caldari State. Much more recently, however, a Caldari offensive managed to recapture their lost homeworld, a fact which is viewed with abhorrence by the Gallente, who see the presence of a significant Caldari fleet about the planet as a mass hostage taking.
Both the Gallente Federation and Caldari State are economy- and trade-oriented nations. However, the Gallente favour liberal economic policies, encourage individual entrepreneurship and social democracy, and maintain a progressive approach to social welfare, whereas the Caldari State is organised as a form of statist corporatocracy; the Caldari State itself is owned by and operated on behalf of a few trust-like megaconglomerates. The Gallente Federation's official policies regarding multiculturalism and encouragement of diversity attract many immigrants to Gallente space; a third of all ethnic Minmatars reside as citizens there. As the Caldari did not share this enthusiasm for diversity with the Gallente, the Caldari State at the time of its formation found itself at a relative population deficit compared to its Gallente adversary; rather than encourage massive immigration to and diversity within the State, this population shortage was rectified by a Statewide programme of artificial reproduction, producing a generation of so-called 'Tube Children' raised by the Caldari State apparatus to enlarge the labour pools available to the megacorporations that ruled the State.
The Jovians (a non-playable race) were also descended from colonists. Unlike the other races of Eve Online, they maintained a relatively high-functioning technological society after the collapse of the EVE wormhole and did not need to spend millennia recapitulating ancient societal developments as the others did, and while the other four major races were still grounded, Jovian history saw two major periods of spacefaring imperialism. They expanded outward and eventually turned to genetic engineering in order to mold themselves into a species more suited for deep-space life and long-range interstellar exploration. Genetic experimentation and manipulation were not without their drawbacks, however: by the time period in which players enter the Eve Online universe, millennia of human genetic manipulation have rendered the Jovians barely recognizable as human; more critically, the Jovian manipulation of their genome has resulted in the eventually fatal "Jovian Disease", an inherited psychological disorder which, despite the best efforts of the Jovians to reverse it, has affected every individual of the Jovian race and thus crippled their civilization. Having experienced a catastrophic population decline (the Jovian societal structure is believed to be barely maintained by their immensely-advanced technological systems), the Jovians have effectively retreated to inhabit a region of space inaccessible to outsiders.
In addition to different backgrounds and histories, the races have characteristic philosophies of starship design. Minmatar ships tend to be quite fast but fragile, and rely on their high speed and maneuverability to evade the tracking systems of heavier weapons, while using projectile weapons such as artillery or autocannons, more sophisticated kin to today's munitions technology. Amarr ships are ponderous, densely armored, and pack batteries of powerful laser-based energy weaponry. Gallente ships are sleek and designed to favor armor plating; they specialize in deploying fleets of robotic drones while mounting hybrid weapons that operate using superconducting magnets to accelerate mass toward targets at great speed (see Railgun). Finally, Caldari ships are typically poorly armored and not particularly fast but utilize powerful energy shields, and make extensive use of torpedo/missile launchers and hybrid guns, favoring engagement at extreme ranges. However, there are exceptions to these general rules in each race.
Gameplay
Players start the game by either selecting a previously created character or by creating a new one. Each Eve Online account allows for up to three characters. When a player creates a new character, they start by choosing one of the four playable races – Amarr, Gallente, Minmatar, or Caldari. Each race is further divided into three bloodlines that give characters different pre-defined appearances, which can be finely tuned by the player.
Unlike many other MMOs, where there are numerous copies of the game universe intended to run at once (i.e., servers), Eve Online is functionally a single-universe game. There are at least four copies of the universe running: the main server "Tranquility", the Chinese-based "Serenity", the test server "Singularity" (also "Sisi") which is a general, public test server, and an event server, "Thunderdome", which is used for tournaments. A new test server was announced called "Buckingham" to replace "Singularity" as the main EVE Online test server while "Singularity" was used for Dust 514/EVE Online joint testing. As Dust 514 is no longer active, "Singularity" is now the main test server again and "Buckingham" is a closed test server for the CCP developers.
Universe
The playing environment in Eve Online consists of more than 5000 star systems, as well as 2500 randomly accessible wormhole systems, taking place in 23341 C.E. Systems are classified by their Security Status, on a decimal scale from −1.0 to 1.0. These systems are categorized into three groups, each determining the response from CONCORD (Consolidated Co-operation and Relations Command) NPC law enforcement units. Star systems classed as 0.5–1.0 security are considered "high security" and any unauthorized/unprovoked attack by a character on another character anywhere in the system will result in the appearance of law enforcement. These units will attack and destroy the aggressor, and are designed to reinforce in such strength that they will always win an engagement. However, CONCORD is not preventive, but punitive, meaning there is a short window between beginning an attack and getting destroyed where a player (or group of) can destroy another player's ship. Systems classified as 0.1–0.4 are considered "low security", where CONCORD law enforcement units will not destroy aggressors, but do monitor unprovoked acts of aggression and have automated sentry guns in some locations. Unprovoked attacks will flag the aggressor as a free target for other players, and attacks within sight of sentry guns will cause them to fire on the aggressor. Systems classified 0.0 to −1.0 are called "zero space" or "null sec", and feature no law enforcement; individual systems, or groups of systems, may be controlled by player alliances, up to the creation of player-owned empires reaching across entire "regions" (an aggregate group of star systems). Wormhole systems are accessible only by wormholes that randomly appear and disappear, and are also lawless space, showing as −1.0. However, player-run corporations cannot claim sovereignty in wormhole systems. Star systems contain different types of celestial objects, making them more or less suitable for different kinds of operations. Typically, players find asteroid fields, planets, stations, stargates, and moons in a system. Many of the game's most profitable income sources are found in dangerous null or low security systems, giving players incentive to engage in high-risk, high-reward activities in which they must survive the possible harassment of other players who may also enter the system.
Combat and travel
The game's primary mode of play is flying space ships. Players can dock at stations, where they are safe and can use station services such as repairing, refitting, and the regional market. All space combat takes place in real time at sub-light speeds from around 100 m/s to in excess of 8000 m/s, depending on ship size and setup. While players can manually control their ships as in space combat simulators such as Wing Commander or X-Wing following the release of the Rhea expansion on December 9, 2014, most opt instead to give commands such as Orbit, Approach or Align to their flight computer, which does its best to comply. Weapon aiming, however, cannot be done manually; instead, the player locks on to an opponent and orders their weapons to fire, and the result is determined through calculations based on factors such as range, velocity, weapon tracking, and a degree of randomness.
Travel across distances longer than hundreds of kilometers is mostly done with the ship's Warp Drive, which every ship and escape pod has. Alternatively a player may also choose to "slow boat" across these kind of distances, that is, traveling without warp drive. To warp, the player issues a command to warp to an object greater than 150 km away and in the same star system; after an alignment maneuver, their ship will enter warp. Warp speeds are measured in astronomical units per second and vary by ship class and fittings. A ship's warp drive can be temporarily disabled by warp disruption weapons, which is an essential part of combat to prevent a target from escaping.
For most ships, travel between star systems is only possible by using structures called "Stargates". Each stargate is linked to a partner stargate in another system; most star systems have more than two stargates, forming a network through which players travel. While players can travel to any number of destinations in individual systems, the need to use stargates to travel between systems makes them focal points for combat.
Besides using Stargates, capital ships may also by use jump drives, which require another ship to create a "Cynosural Field" which the capital ship can then jump to. While this allows the capital ship to travel instantaneously, it requires a trusted second party (or an alternate account) to create the beacon. Jump drives also consume fuel (in contrast to stargates, which require nothing), drain the ship of its capacitor, leaving it nearly defenseless until it is recharged, and incur "jump fatigue", which prevents the pilot from jumping for progressively longer periods of time after each consecutive jump. Titans are also capable of allowing other ships to instantaneously travel by creating temporary bridges to cynosural fields. Black Ops battleships can create similar, but undetectable, bridges capable of transporting only specific types of stealth ships such as Stealth Bombers.
Player-run corporations that claim sovereignty over two null sec systems within range of each other can also set up a jump bridge at a player owned starbase (POS) that is in orbit of a moon. Jump bridges allow instantaneous travel to the other system's jump bridge, at the cost of using fuel (requiring supply by the owning corporation) scaled to the mass of ships that use them. This also leads to the accumulation of jump fatigue. As the aging POS systems & code have been phased out of the game, a deployable structure has effectively replaced the old jump bridge. However, unlike the old POS jump bridges, it allows players to customize who may use the gate based on settings such as standings or corporation / alliance affiliation. It also does not need to be deployed in a POS, and as such is often deployed near player owned Citadel structures.
Advancement
Unlike other massively multiplayer online games, player characters in Eve Online advance continuously over time by training skills, a passive process that occurs in real world time so that the learning process continues even if the player is not logged in. The skill training queue allows up to 50 skills to be scheduled, with up to a 10-year total training schedule. Before the November 4, 2014 "Phoebe" release, the skill training queue allowed skills to be scheduled to start training only up to 24 hours in the future. Some skills require other prerequisite skills to be trained to a certain level to be trained, and some skills require more time to train than others; for example, the skill to fly a Titan-class spaceship takes 8 times as long to train as the skill to fly a frigate ship, with a significant number of prerequisite skills.
Until the Odyssey expansion, it was not possible to train more than one character per account at the same time. Odyssey introduced "Dual Character Training", which allows players to expend PLEX (see accounts and subscriptions) in order to allow that account to train a second character for 30 days, equivalent to paying for a 30-day subscription on another account to train a single character. Odyssey 1.2 introduced the more generalized "Multiple Character Training" which allows players to expend more PLEX to activate this feature for a third character on the account.
Economy
The in-game economy in Eve Online is an open economy that is largely player-driven. Non-player character (NPC) merchants sell skill books used by players to learn new skills and blueprints to manufacture ships and modules. NPC merchants also buy and sell Trade Goods. Some Trade Goods are only for trade between NPC merchants while others have a functional use and are not good for trade with NPCs. The characters themselves gather the necessary raw materials to manufacture almost all of the ships and ship modules in the game. NPC ships can be looted and salvaged for items and materials. Non-player created ships and equipment may be purchased from various NPC factions as a character gains status with them, and can be resold in the in-game economy. The in-game currency is ISK (Interstellar Kredits), which is also the currency code of the Icelandic króna, the real-world currency of Iceland, where the Eve Online development studio is located.
The amount of money or materials in the universe is not fixed and, as such, the economy operates under supply and demand. Market manipulation is possible on a large scale, particular examples being ramping and bear raids. CCP does not issue refunds on in-game purchases. Hence, there is always the risk of certain types of confidence tricks or other scams. The economy is balanced by the automatic introduction of extra materials in underpopulated areas. This encourages a more even spread of players.
The game provides support for the trading of in-game resources, including graphs of item price history, with Donchian Channel and daily average price. Some player characters operate primarily as traders, generating profits through buying, selling, and transporting goods. Others operate primarily as producers, obtaining components or raw materials and transforming them, sometimes on massive scales, into useful items such as weapons, ships, ammunition, items, or various technologies in demand by other players. Some less combat-oriented players operate as miners or salvagers, collecting and processing ores used in manufacturing or collecting salvage materials to make into items, respectively. Finally, some characters operate as mercenaries or pirates, being paid primarily to be battle-ready and either to attack or defend other profitable enterprises.
Unlike some games such as Second Life, in-game currency is not freely convertible with real world currency. Players may only buy specific in-game items (such as the Pilot License Extension (PLEX), a token of which 500 can be redeemed for 30 days of Omega time) from CCP with real-world currency. The player can then sell the items on the in-game market for ISK (game currency). The reverse process, selling in-game currency or items for real-world money, is prohibited. The developers' reasoning for this policy, as related by a CCP representative at Fanfest 2010, is that free interchange of currency causes in-game banking to fall under the same regulatory domain as real-world banking. CCP would rather not place this restriction on in-game behavior, due both to the difficulty of regulatory enforcement and the desire to allow players to create illegitimate in-game banks or Ponzi schemes if they wish to do so.
Commentators have attempted to estimate the value of Eve Online entities in real-world currency based on the current value of PLEX. One such conversion valued a fleet-ready titan (the most powerful ship in the game) at US$7,600, though estimates vary. Generally, no player expends such amounts of real-world currency to acquire such sums of in-game wealth, opting instead to do activities in-game that net high amounts of profit.
In 2007, CCP was the first game developer to hire an economist, Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, to oversee Eves in-game economy. Guðmundsson was previously dean of the faculty of business and science at the University of Akureyri. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson would leave CCP in 2014 to the position of Rector at the University of Akureyri in July 2014.
Griefing
Owing to the game's focus on freedom, consequence, and autonomy, many behaviours that are considered griefing in most MMOs are allowed in Eve. This includes stealing from other players, extortion, and causing other players to be killed by large groups of NPCs.
Only malicious, prolonged and concentrated harassment where no material gain is involved and a few other actions are considered to be illicit griefing by the game's developers. Escaping retribution by CONCORD, the NPC space police force that punishes criminal activity in higher security solar systems, for criminal actions is also forbidden, as CONCORD is intentionally designed by game mechanics to be unstoppable.
Ships
Ships in Eve Online are organized into classes, from tiny frigates only a few dozen meters in length to gigantic capital ships up to 17 kilometers long. Ships fill different roles and vary in size, speed, hull strength, and firepower; smaller ships are generally faster and capable of disabling their targets, but lack the damage output necessary to destroy larger ships, while capital ships do very high amounts of damage but have difficulty striking smaller, mobile targets. Each of the four races has its own unique ship design preferences and strengths and weaknesses, although all races have ships that are meant for the same basic roles and are balanced for play against each other. This means that there is no "best ship" in Eve Online. According to the player's preferred style of play, the player might want his or her characters to fly a ship with a huge cargo hold, one that is suited for mining, one that has a powerful array of weapons, or a ship that moves quickly through space; but the fluid, ever-changing nature of Eve Online means that no ship will be perfect at all of these tasks, nor is there any guarantee that the "best ship for the job" today will continue to be the best ship tomorrow.
Furthermore, unlike many online games, Eve Online does not feature racial bonuses; that is, characters of different races do not gain intrinsic advantages for flying ships designed by their own races. While a character will begin with more advanced skills in his or her own race's ships, a character of another race can reach the same proficiency through training. Thus, players are encouraged to use starships that meet their preferred style of play, and the game does not provide incentives for playing as one race rather than another. However, the ships of different races receive unique bonuses to certain things.
Classes
Ships in Eve Online come in four size classes:
Small starships include:
Frigates – small, mobile ships good for disruption and harassment
Destroyers – slightly larger and more offense-oriented than frigates
Medium starships include:
Cruisers – multipurpose ships with many possible roles
Battlecruisers – heavier, more combat-oriented cruisers
The large class is made up of
Battleships – heavily armed and armored dedicated combat ships
Extra-large, or capital class, starships include:
Carriers – offense-oriented ships that can launch wings of fighters to attack targets at extreme range
Dreadnoughts – dedicated siege ships for attacking structures and other capitals
Force auxiliary ships – dedicated support ships exceptional at repairing other ships
Supercarriers – larger versions of carriers, focused more on damage to capital class ships and powerful fleet disruption capabilities
Titans – supermassive mobile battle stations, capable of equipping doomsday devices which do massive amounts of damage to other capital ships, or have other powerful battle-affecting capabilities
Characteristics
Each spaceship within the Eve Online universe has a different set of characteristics, and can be fitted with different combinations of modules, subject to their fitting requirements. Ships have a wide variety of characteristics, including power grid, CPU, capacitor size and recharge rate, energy shields, armor, maximum velocity, agility, locking range, and maximum number of lockable targets. A ship's systems also receive bonuses depending on the ship's pilot's levels of various skills. These bonuses usually correspond to the role the ship has been designed for, and thus vary widely. For instance, the Caldari "Caracal" cruiser has a bonus to the rate of fire of certain missile launcher types, while the Gallente "Vexor" cruiser has a bonus to the damage and hitpoints of certain types of combat drones.
One important characteristic of a ship is the slots it has available for modules. Slots and modules come in three variants—high-, mid-, and low-power.
High-power slot modules include weapons such as turrets and missile launchers, cloaking devices, and tractor beams and other tools for mining and salvaging.
Mid-power slot items include modules to improve shields or propulsion, repair hull damage, engage in electronic warfare, and "tackle" other ships to slow or stop movement and prevent escape.
Low-power slot items include armor enhancements and repair, increased cargo space, and improved speed, agility, computers, or power supply.
Ships of different sizes have different numbers and ratios of module slots.
A ship may also have two to three slots for rigs, which are modules that require no power grid or CPU, but instead require a ship resource called calibration. Installing a rig is a semi-permanent action, as a rig cannot be removed from the ship without being destroyed. Rigs come in four sizes, small, medium, large, and capital, which roughly correspond to the size of the ship, and are used to affect other aspects of the ship such as maximum speed or cargo capacity, or to augment the capabilities of other modules installed in the ship. Most rigs also incur a penalty to a certain aspect of the ship; for example, armor rigs reduce the maximum velocity of the ship.
Tech level
All ships in the game are also classed according to Tech level, from Tech I to Tech III.
Tech I (or T1) ships are general purpose, easily manufactured models that perform simple, straightforward functions in an obvious way; faction ships, which are usually very expensive and very proficient at their intended tasks, are also T1.
Tech II (T2) ships are based on T1 designs, but have been modified to perform specific roles using specialized technology. T2 ships are harder to manufacture and are only produced by certain corporations, and are priced well above the T1 variants. They also require significantly greater skills to fly than their T1 variants.
Tech III (T3) strategic cruisers were introduced into Eve Online in the Apocrypha patch. These highly advanced starships are manufactured from material recovered from beyond wormholes, another new feature introduced by Apocrypha; this gives them unique qualities. Strategic cruisers are rare and expensive, and require manufacturers to have unique skillsets that allow the reverse engineering and integration of highly advanced technologies recovered from dead or dormant ancient civilizations. The T3 ships introduced by Apocrypha differ from other ships in that they are modular. Players start with a hull and then add four subsystems to it, the choice of which can dramatically change the ship's character, giving it a different layout of module slots, different preferred weapon systems, and abilities such as being able to fit covert cloaks or ignore some warp disruption effects. The Rhea, Aegis, Tiamat, and Carnyx patches introduced four new T3 tactical destroyers. While these lack the modular nature of their strategic cruiser big brothers, they can dynamically swap between three "modes", augmenting their offensive, defensive, or propulsion capabilities, respectively, as needed by the pilot, even in the midst of combat. This gives these tactical destroyers substantially superior offensive, defensive, or evasive capabilities than other lower-tech destroyers, though they can only utilize one of the three capabilities at a time.
Players and communities
Players have several interaction options when playing Eve Online. Every activity is possible for solo players but larger and more complicated tasks become more feasible for groups, such as pirate clans or corporations.
Corporations and alliances
Players can organize themselves into corporations (similar to guilds or clans in other MMOs). Corporations are run by one chief executive officer (CEO) who controls the corporation's assets. The CEO assigns roles to corporation members such as director, accountant and personnel manager. Corporations may also band together to form alliances. Corporations and alliances come in different shapes and sizes. Some player groups write press releases about new business openings and send out IPO information to potential in-game venture capital investors. Alliances can control enough star systems that their territory can be plotted on the Eve Online game map. Alliances based in lawless space often form unofficial political power blocs with other alliances. These power blocs are typically referred to as "coalitions". Unlike formally established alliances, coalitions are similar in nature to Japanese keiretsu an informal 'business arrangement' in which several corporations band together to provide mutual financial, military and/or industrial support.
Corporations take up numerous business models such as mining, manufacturing or "ratting" (hunting NPC pirates for their bounties and loot). Corporations can levy income taxes on their members, which skim off a percentage of every member's earnings. Many corporations offer a variety of benefits to their members, such as free or discounted ships, equipment, formal training, and organized corporate group operations.
Among the many activities that corporations can organize is piracy. Actions considered piracy generally involve breaking the in-game law, and can come in a variety of forms. Pirates may camp stargates waiting for other players to arrive, attack players operating in asteroid belts or hunt for players carrying out an NPC agent-assigned mission. Because these activities are considered to be "illegal" within the game mechanics, pirate characters often will have low security status and may even be branded as outlaws by CONCORD. Likewise, victims of overt piracy may retaliate without intervention from CONCORD, often via an expressed right to destroy the pirate ship (i.e., "kill right"). Although piracy activities are "illegal" within the game universe, they are not against the rules of the game, i.e., there will only be in-game retaliation and punishment for them.
Illegally attacking another player in secure space will result in a loss of security standing; CONCORD, the interstellar NPC police, will arrive shortly to destroy the aggressor's ship. There are, however, legal ways to attack other players in high-security space.
Whole corporations and whole alliances can officially declare war on (or "war-dec") other corporations or alliances for a weekly fee, permitting all members of the involved corporations or alliances to attack each other without loss of security status or the intervention of CONCORD. The weekly fee can be eliminated if the war declaration is reciprocated. War declarations will clearly flag a player's enemies, so the player can determine who can legally attack and be attacked.
Demographics
N.B.: Demographic data for this game has not been collected uniformly or regularly.
In March 2006, CCP made a deal with Optic Communications to start working on bringing Eve Online to the Chinese gaming audience. Closed alpha testing was held on a small cluster for some time, with about 3,000 players chosen from an initial pool of 50,000. The Chinese open beta test began on June 13, 2006, and proved to be very popular, gaining numbers comparable to Eve Online'''s main server cluster. In order to avoid the shock of quickly adding thousands of new players to the current server (Tranquility), CCP Games decided to launch Eve in China on its own server (Serenity). In 2011, CCP allowed its licensing agreement with CDC Games, which had acquired Optic in July 2007, to expire. CCP created a new partnership with TianCity to relaunch Serenity on December 11, 2012.
The code base between Serenity (serving China) and Tranquility (serving the rest of the world) is synchronised, so that feature development is distributed to both server clusters, although the game worlds are not connected. Eve Online fully supports Unicode and has a back-end system to enable localization of each and every aspect of the game's content and UI.
In October 2006, the average age of an Eve Online player was 27, and 95% of players were male. The average weekly playtime was 17 hours, or just under 2.5 hours per day. By May 6, 2009, Eve Online claimed to have more than 300,000 active subscriptions and 45,000 active trial accounts. The total active subscription count at end of 2010 was 357,000 accounts.
On July 7, 2011, CCP announced that it planned to partner with Nexon Co. Ltd. to bring a "fully localized game client and product services for CCP's award winning... EVE Online" to Japan in the fall. Localized services for Japanese players would enable them to access the game in their native language through the Tranquility server, which currently hosts over 350,000 subscribers from around the world in three languages: English, German and Russian.
On May 5, 2013, Eve Online claimed a new record for the maximum number of simultaneous pilots online with 65,303 concurrent accounts logged on to the same server at the same time. This record was set on the eve of Eve Onlines 10 year anniversary, and topped the previous record of 63,170 set January 23, 2011. Eve Online typically experiences the highest number of users on Sundays and the peak player records have almost exclusively been broken on Sundays.
Player tournaments
During two weekends in July 2006, a live streaming video production called Eve TV covered the events of the 2nd Caldari Alliance Tournament. The tournament pitted three-man teams from the top alliances against each other. Eve TV provided live in-game footage of the battles along with expert commentary. Analysis of the teams and strategies, interviews with CCP staff and behind-the-scenes specials were also aired between battles. Eve TV was produced and hosted primarily by DJs from Eve-Radio (a player-run streaming radio station) with resources provided by CCP. A total of 95 matches were scheduled, with the Band of Brothers alliance emerging the winner.
The first two weekends in December 2006 saw the 3rd Alliance tournament. This was once again broadcast via live streaming video by Eve TV The tournament saw 40 Alliances pitting five-man teams against each other. Once again, the Band of Brothers alliance emerged as the winner. Of particular note in this tournament was the fielding of an Imperial Apocalypse by the Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate. The ship was destroyed in the semi-finals of the tournament by the COW (Cult of War) team. A last-minute attempt to arrange an 8 billion ISK ransom for the ship fell through.
The fourth Alliance tournament in September 2007 brought several upsets, with Star Fraction defeating Band of Brothers in the second round, using only tech 1 cruisers, and Hun Reloaded sweeping both the semifinals and finals to win.
The two weekends starting February 29, 2008, and March 7, 2008, saw the fifth Alliance Tournament. Eve TV provided coverage via live streaming video. During the six days a total of 40 teams competed in 95 matches. The last tournament's winner, HUN Reloaded, made its way into the quarter-finals where it lost to Ev0ke alliance, who later became tournament champion after having won all eight of its matches.
The sixth Alliance Tournament was held during three consecutive weekends starting January 24, 2009, and ending on February 8, 2009. A total of 64 teams took part in the qualifying rounds on opening weekend. While the final weekend was broadcast live via Eve TV, the qualifying rounds were broadcast through various Eve Online radio channels. A number of changes were made to the tournament rules. This was also the first tournament Factional Militias were able to take part alongside traditional alliance teams. In the final match, R.U.R. went up against Pandemic Legion with Pandemic Legion emerging as the tournament winner.
Alliance Tournament 7 took place in September 2009, with Pandemic Legion winning a second successive tournament, beating Circle of Two in the final. Alliance Tournament 8 took place in June 2010, with Pandemic Legion winning for the third time, beating Hydra Reloaded, while Alliance Tournament 9 took place in June 2011, with Hydra Reloaded as the winner in the uncontested final match against Outbreak.
Alliance Tournament 10 took place over four consecutive weekends in July 2012. 64 Teams took part in the Tournament, with all matches being broadcast live on EVE TV. A number of changes were made to the format of matches, which included increasing the maximum number of pilots from 10 to 12. Verge of Collapse were eventually crowned Champions, defeating Alliance Tournament 4 winners HUN Reloaded in the final. The Alliance stunned everyone beating top teams to claim the title of Champions.
Alliance Tournament 11 took place over the course of three weekends in July and August 2013, with Pandemic Legion beating Exodus. in the loser's bracket, then coming back from a 2–0 score in a best of five match against Hydra Reloaded to win 3 matches in a row and win their fourth Alliance Tournament, and their first victory since Alliance Tournament 8.
Volunteer program
The Interstellar Services Department (ISD) is a group of volunteers, made up of subscribed players, who assist in a variety of tasks like answering questions from players, bug hunting and QA testing, covering player-driven news, and writing game fiction. It includes ECAID (Equipment Certification and Anomaly Investigations Division), STAR (Support, Training and Resources), IC (Interstellar Correspondents), M (Mercury), CCL (Community Communication Liaisons), and YARR (Yulai Archives & Records Repository Team).
Development
According to the developers, Eve Online evolved from the classic computer game Elite, which itself was based on concepts from the science-fiction role-playing game Traveller. Eve combined concepts from Elite with the multi player chat and player-versus-player aspects of Ultima Online. Elite had four single-player aspects: missions, mining, trade routes and combat with random hostile NPCs, all of which are aspects of the first incarnations of Eve Online.
One of the original developers of Elite, David Braben, believes Eve Online is a reimplementation of the 1980s game, not its true successor. Some of the developers (John Cameron, James Cassidy, Joe Chaney) also believe that this game creates a world where players can become someone else only possible in their imaginations.
Both the server and the client software for Eve Online are developed in Stackless Python, a variant of the Python programming language. Stackless Python allows a relatively large number of players to perform tasks without the overhead of using the call stack used in the standard Python distribution. This frees the game developers from performing some routine work and allows them to apply changes to the game universe without resetting the server. However, the Eve cluster is taken offline daily for database and server maintenance.
Compatibility
On March 14, 2006, the Eve Online development team announced that they would be upgrading the graphics engine of Eve Online to a DirectX 10 / Windows Vista graphics platform. Revelations patch 1.4 had patch notes quoted as saying that the current Eve Online client should work in Vista "as well as it does in XP".
On September 10, 2007, CCP Games announced that the new Trinity 2 graphics engine will be using DirectX 9.0. This was released on December 5, 2007.
Official support for Linux and Mac platforms, using Transgaming Technologies Cedega and Cider (forks of Wine) for Linux and Mac compatibility, was introduced with the Revelations 2.3 patch released on November 6, 2007. At Fanfest 2008 Transgaming announced and demonstrated that the Premium graphics client is now running on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. In February 2009 CCP announced that they planned to discontinue the official Linux client with the next major patch, and advised on using third-party programs to run the Windows version of the client under Linux (namely Wine). The discontinuation of the official Linux client was primarily because the game ran better using the Windows client via Wine than it did with the official one, as a result many Linux users were already using Wine instead.
On December 4, 2020, CCP Games announced the development of a native Mac client, running on macOS Big Sur and using the Metal graphics framework; the initial release supporting Intel-based Macs was targeted for the first half of 2021, with a subsequent release to support M1-based Macs.
Third-party applications and the Eve API Project
Third-party applications supplement players' Eve Online experience. Some of these, such as automated applications designed to claim publicly available contracts accidentally put up without an associated cost, can result in a ban if discovered, while others are endorsed, tacitly or explicitly, by CCP. EVEMon, a .NET application that monitors and forecasts skill training times, is one example of an explicitly authorized external application. Another such application, Eve Fitting Tool or EFT, allows players to try different ship setups and see how certain skills and modules will affect that ship.
Third-party applications to monitor character information and skill training exist for both the Android and iPhone mobile platforms.
In May 2005, CCP announced the Eve API Project; third-party utilities such as EVEMon now interface with character data, market, and other data through an API.
Major content patches
Since the initial release of Eve Online, CCP has added twenty-one expansions to the game, free of additional charge to its subscribers. The twentieth expansion "Rubicon", was released on November 19, 2013, and focused on new faction ships, introduction of mobile structures, and the first steps towards "The Future of EVE" outlined by CCP Seagull. The nineteenth expansion, "Odyssey", was released on June 4, 2013, and focused on exploration and rebalancing battleships. The eighteenth expansion, "Retribution", focused on a newly re-worked Crimewatch system. It also introduced the newly rebalanced frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and battlecruisers. The seventeenth expansion, "Inferno", added enhanced graphics for missile systems, a host of new ship modules, and a controversial new "Unified Inventory" UI. The sixteenth expansion, "Crucible", was released in November 2011 and shifted the focus from cosmetic changes to game mechanics. The fifteenth expansion, "Incarna", was released in the first stage of CCP's controversial Ambulation project, also known as the "Walking in Stations" project. "Incarna" added "Captain's Quarters" to stations, the first phase of allowing players to explore stations as human avatars, as well as an update to ship turret models. The fourteenth expansion, "Incursion", was released in stages, the second of which introduced the Sansha Incursions, in which Sansha's Nation invaded constellations, disrupting all forms of activity in the area, but provided large rewards for fighting back the incursions, and an overhaul of the character creation tool, paving the way for the Incarna expansion.
The eleventh expansion of Eve Online, "Apocrypha", was released on March 10, 2009, and introduced features such as further graphics updates as started in the Trinity expansion; the ability for players to group their vessels' weapons for easier interaction; changes to autopilot routes and avoidance of player-defined star systems. The twelfth expansion, "Dominion", was released on December 1, 2009, and overhauled the sovereignty system, while the thirteenth expansion, "Tyrannis", released on May 26, 2010, added planetary interaction as well as the online platform "EVE Gate".
Over time, expansions have added features such as conquerable and constructible space stations, massive capital ships, advanced versions of existing ships, or Epic Arcs for players to master. Apocrypha included an overhauled probing system, wormholes, a smarter and tougher AI and customizable Tech 3 ships as its major features. Dominion, which became available for download on December 1, 2009, included an overhaul of the sovereignty system, more realistic astronomy, the Titan Doomsday weapon functionality being changed and the in-game web browser with Chromium's WebKit. It also included a redesign of the UI and in-game mailing system. Tyrannis added new features, such as the ability to exploit planetary resources, a social networking program called EVE Gate, new technology for ships, and graphical updates.
Rapid release cycle
On May 6, 2014, at their yearly Fanfest convention, CCP announced the move from the current development cycle of two expansions per year, to ten feature-releases per year on a rapid release cycle. Senior Producer of EVE Online Andie Nordgren (CCP Seagull) stated that the move was to necessary for future developments to have a more flexible release cycle, rather than the deadline imposed on the previous system, allowing smaller patches and changes to be deployed more rapidly and large projects not having to be rushed due to the expansion deadline.
However, in September 2015, Nordgren announced that CCP, while continuing with a five-week release cycle, would return to intermittently releasing large scale expansions for EVE. She described the new release cycle as a "hybrid form", where expansions would be "a set of big, connected features" with no fixed number per year, while the feature-releases would continue to bring "quality of life changes, ship balance changes, visual upgrades" and other smaller additions. The first new expansion, which was announced at EVE Vegas 2015, introduced a new modular starbase called a Citadel, and an overhaul of capital-class ships.
Planned future developments
The developers have been working on a game feature to allow players to exit pods and interact with other player avatars in the communal setting of a station interior. The first iteration, called Captain's Quarters, was released on June 21, 2011. The second iteration, with stylised quarters for each race, was released with the Crucible expansion. Player interaction in station environments has not yet been announced and only preliminary details have emerged.
The ability to enter a planet's atmosphere and to interact with its surface is mentioned as one of the future development plans. The "Future Vision" trailer portrays Dreadnaught-class ships performing planetary orbital bombardments on Dust battlefields. The first glimpse trailer of Dust 514 ended with a ship exploding in the atmosphere. However, the interaction between Dust and Eve has not been fully defined and no official confirmation has yet been provided. At Eve Fanfest 2005, a working prototype was demonstrated in which a Caldari Crow interceptor could be seen navigating a makeshift landscape superimposed on a nebula. However, this effort was later abandoned. CCP has stated that full-scale integration of such features requires an enormous effort and is only planned for post-Revelations (expansion) production phases, 2006. Subsequently, it was stated that, until a proven in-game reason is found for planetary access, further work on this feature will not have a high priority.
Dust 514
During the 2009 Games Convention in Cologne, Germany, CCP unveiled Dust 514, a console-based MMOFPS title meant to integrate with the Eve Online universe. According to developers, players hired by Eve Online alliances would fight over planets.
According to Eve Online Creative Director Torfi Frans Ólafsson, at the 2009 Eve Online Fanfest, the Dominion release is planned to involve sovereignty, the ownership of districts on planets that are capable of creating industry. This player ownership system will be dynamic as it will be subject to PvP diplomacy as well as subjugation. The latter allows for linking with Dust 514, whereby players within Eve Online will be able to contract, in-game, Dust 514 players to take control of planetary regions within the Eve Online universe and these 'mercenaries' will then vie with other Dust 514 players hired by the opposing faction. The integration between the console MMOFPS game and the Eve Online MMORPG is both through community interaction and through the changeable battlefields based on the planetary architecture of a common universe the outcome of these battles in Dust 514 will affect the status and ownership of the corresponding planets in Eve Online as well. At E3 2011, it was announced that Dust 514 is a PlayStation 3 exclusive with a PS Vita tie-in, both to be released in early 2012.
Decompiled source code
On May 20, 2011, decompiled EVE Online source code was published by an unknown person on a GitHub repository. After being online for four days, CCP issued a DMCA take-down request which was granted by GitHub.
Music
The Eve Online soundtrack was composed by Jón Hallur Haraldsson, also known as Real-X. Icelandic rap-rock group Quarashi also composed several tracks for the game. A digital soundtrack titled EVE Online: Original Soundtrack, Vol. 1 was released on iTunes on August 12, 2009. The soundtrack comes with an audio book track EVE Chronicle – Taught Thoughts. The soundtrack has since been removed from iTunes.
The game itself contains an extensive in-game soundtrack. On December 4, 2012, the "Retribution" expansion of Eve Online was released. Among its features was the removal of the Jukebox, which enabled players to select their favorite songs to play. In tandem with this, CCP Games announced that the entire game soundtrack (consisting of music in the game at the time) would be available to download for free from SoundCloud. The soundtrack consists of 74 songs, with a running time of nearly seven hours.
Public perception
Virtual crime
Piracy (in the ship-to-ship sense) is part of the game, as are protection racketeering, theft, and ransom. Eve Online periodically has arisen for discussion within the wider gaming community as players of the game find various ingenious methods of scamming, deceiving, or attacking each other. One infamous example was a corporate infiltration and heist where one corporation infiltrated a target corporation over the course of nearly a year. They then performed a virtual assassination on the target's CEO and proceeded to steal corporate property to which they had gained access. The target corporation lost billions of ISK worth of property (amounting to about US$16,500) and a great deal of prestige; the CEO's expensive ship and cybernetic implants were destroyed in the attack. Events of this nature are debated both inside the game world and in the media.
In 2009, a player alliance known as Goonswarm was contacted by a disgruntled director of rival alliance Band of Brothers, one of the largest alliances in the game at that time. The defecting director then stripped Band of Brothers of a large quantity of assets including ships, money and territory, and disbanded the alliance.
A player-run bank known as 'EBank' was also involved in controversy in 2009 when Ricdic, the CEO of the bank, withdrew 200 billion ISK and converted it into real world currency worth about to make a down payment on a home and pay for medical expenses.
Such dangers are an inherent part of Eve Onlines virtual economy and thus are purposely not dealt with by the developers. Players are expected to make financial decisions based (among other factors) on the possibility of other players' fiduciary malfeasance, much as in real-life economics.
The most common acts of piracy in Eve are ganking, gate camping, and small gang warfare. Every pirate corporation in Eve Online has its own preferred activities, strategies, and tactics. Some utilize cheap but high damage ships to "suicide gank" and kill players in high-security space (where they should theoretically be safe) quickly before CONCORD law enforcement units arrive to destroy them (thus "suiciding"), in the knowledge that certain ships they destroy will be carrying valuable commodities or expensive gear capable of recovering the cost of the pirate vessels lost in the gank. Others choose to set up gate camping fleets consisting of varied ship types and roles capable of rapidly disabling and destroying any unwitting passersby, thereby locking down star systems and killing or robbing whoever tries to pass through. Other pirates choose to roam in very fast and versatile skirmish ships, such as interceptors, recons, or heavy assault ships, killing anyone they encounter in lightning attacks. On gaining the upper hand in a fight many pirates will ask the victim for an ISK ransom, in exchange for sparing their ship or escape pod.
Suicide ganking has declined in overall popularity since the release of the Crucible expansion; while players may opt to insure their ships against loss using in-game currency, pilots will no longer be reimbursed if their ship is destroyed by CONCORD. Such changes have been the subject of intense debate on the game's official forums, with opinions divided on whether or not players should be truly 'safe' while flying.
Developer misconduct
Instances of developer misconduct in Eve Online have been substantiated, leading to debates and controversy. On February 9, 2007, a player known as Kugutsumen hacked an enemy corporation's private forum to find out and reveal that Eve Online developer t20 had provided his corporation, Reikoku, with six valuable blueprints, giving them an advantage over competing corporations. Some within the Eve Online community asked for t20's dismissal. While an apology letter was left for the community in the form of a dev blog, he remained an Eve Online developer until late 2008. Kugutsumen was permanently banned from the Eve Online universe for violating the game's terms of service and end-user license agreement by revealing t20's real name.
In response to public concerns, CCP decided to set up an internal affairs division whose responsibility is to monitor the activities of both privileged and player accounts operated by CCP staff in-game.
Council of Stellar Management
In part due to the matters above, CCP invited users to stand for the first Council of Stellar Management (CSM) in March 2008, resulting in 66 candidates seeking election to nine positions. It was a requirement that candidates release their full real names in addition to stating their in-game details. In May, after a two-week voting period, the first Council was elected, comprising seven men and two women; three each from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, two from the US and one from Denmark, their ages ranging from 17 to 52.
The remit of the council has been changed since it was first proposed and is now seen by CCP primarily as a route for players to make requests for changes and improvements to the game mechanics, presentation, and game content of Eve Online. The first four Councils served for six months, after which new ones were to be elected. Each individual was only permitted to serve twice. Each CSM gets the authority to put requests to CCP three times during their term of office which CCP have stated must be answered; once in person in Iceland and twice by e-mail, with most of the costs of their visit to Iceland being borne by CCP. The rules were changed for the fifth CSM to feature one-year terms with two Iceland trips and four email requests, as well as the abolition of the two-term limit.
The first meeting of the CSM with CCP took place in Reykjavik between June 19 and 23, 2008, and included not only the nine CSM members but a number of developers, designers, game masters, and producers from CCP and members of print and video media. Matters discussed by players on the Eve Online forums were reviewed in detail and whilst some were rejected for technical reasons, many were accepted by CCP as useful improvements to the game which would be introduced either in an early so-called point release or added to the development plans for a future major update.
Nominations for the second CSM opened on September 26, 2008, with voting commencing on November 9. The following third Council of Stellar Management included a modified age restriction: candidates under the age of 21 are then no longer eligible as CSM members.
Beginning with the eighth CSM, a single transferable vote system was introduced, allowing voters to select up to 14 candidates.
Accounts and subscriptions
Users start playing Eve Online by creating a free account (known as an Alpha account), being invited to the game as via the game's Recruit-A-Friend program, or purchasing the Eve Online Special Edition retail box. Alpha accounts are freely available through both the Eve Online website and the Steam content delivery system. The accounts through the Recruit-A-Friend program function identically to normal Alpha accounts, but start with some additional unallocated skill points (worth approximately 5–6 days worth of training time) on their first character. In addition, if the recruited account is subsequently converted to a subscription account (known as an Omega account), the referrer is rewarded with 30 free days of subscription time or the equivalent amount of PLEX.
Alpha accounts are free and allow players to access most of the Eve Online game, with exceptions. Alpha players cannot train skills for some advanced ship types or modules, including all Tech 2 ships and most Tech 2 modules. Alpha accounts can also only passive train up to 5 million skill points using the normal skill training system. After that limit, the only way they can acquire more skill points is by converting to Omega, using skill point injectors (available on the in-game market), or skill point rewards, e.g. by the AIR Career Program or the Daily Skilling Spree. In December, 2017, an additional item called a Daily Alpha Injector was added to the game, available for purchase via the official game store for PLEX. This item is only usable by Alpha accounts, is only usable once per day, awards a number of skill points roughly equal to a full 24 hours of training time, and costs slightly more than 1/30th as much as a 30-day subscription. This allows Alpha accounts to progress at a similar rate and cost to an Omega account even beyond the 5 million skill point limit, but to purchase that progression in smaller increments than a full 30-day subscription. Alpha accounts are limited to a specific list of skills and levels in those skills, and are unable to inject skill points into disallowed skills or beyond the maximum level in allowed skills. Alpha accounts have approximately 20.5 million skillpoints worth of skills available to them.
Omega accounts that lapse on their subscription are downgraded to Alpha accounts. These accounts don't lose any skill points or skills, but any skills or skill levels beyond those allowed for an Alpha account are inactive and cannot be used to fulfill the prerequisites of modules or ships, nor do the passive effects of those skills take effect. Functionally, Omega accounts that lapse into Alpha accounts can only access and use any of those skills that are on the Alpha skill list (and thus may not be able to fly ships that they could as an Omega pilot), but if they later upgrade back to Omega, they regain access to their full skill list.
As of June 2008, Eve Time Codes (or ETCs) are available exclusively in 60-day increments. Before then, they were also offered in 30-, 50-, 90-, 100- and 120-day increments. Discontinued cards remain valid. Players using ETCs are treated like normal subscribers in every way. Eve Time Codes are available through CCP's online store as well as via online resellers. Cards purchased through resellers are usually delivered through email for immediate use while codes issued through the Eve Online store are issued via postal mail or in-game item, and as such ETCs do not violate the EULA and can be bought and sold within the game. There are no distinguishing differences in functionality between digital and hard-copy codes. Both provide the exact amount of specified game time, are entered into the same account section and can be exchanged between players for ISK using a secure exchange system facilitated by a "Timecode Bazaar" forum.
In November 2008, CCP introduced PLEX, the CONCORD Pilots License EXtension, which is an in-game item that can be used to extend a subscription for 30 days. PLEX can be purchased on the Eve Online website for real money, or inside the game for ISK. 60-day ETCs can be converted to two 30-day PLEX within the Eve Online client, which can then be sold via the in-game market. PLEX is the reason that the cost of in-game assets can be translated into real-life money. As the price of a PLEX is around €15, it can be calculated how much a certain ship or implant is theoretically worth in a real currency.
In May 2017, CCP converted PLEX into smaller increments. All existing PLEX were converted to 500 of the new PLEX (which are exclusively referred to as PLEX in-game, rather than Pilot License EXtension, though the acronym meaning remains unchanged). 30 days subscriptions now cost 500 PLEX, effectively the same cost as previously. The previous premium currency, Aurum, was retired and converted to PLEX at the same exchange rate as PLEX could be exchanged for Aurum previously (1 old PLEX per 3500 Aurum, so 1 new PLEX per 7 Aurum), provided the account had at least 1000 Aurum to convert. All items in the premium store that used to cost Aurum now cost an equivalent number of PLEX. This allowed CCP to market more granular deals on PLEX, as well as price certain services for PLEX with more granularity. For example, Multiple Character Training used to cost 1 PLEX, the same prices as 30 days of subscription time, but now costs 450 PLEX, 90% of the cost of 30 days of subscription time. In the same patch, CCP also introduced the PLEX Vault, a safe and secure way of moving PLEX around in-game without risking the item being lost if one's ship were destroyed.
As of March 10, 2009, a boxed edition is available in shops. The distribution is being managed by Atari. The boxed edition includes a 60-day ETC, instant standings update to facilitate quicker entry into factional warfare, exclusive online new player guide, and an exclusive expanded cargo hold shuttle. Although marketed as included in the retail box, the bonus items are only available to new accounts created with the 60-day ETC.
Subscribers
ReceptionEve Online received mixed reviews at the launch of the game in 2003 but more favorable reviews later in its lifecycle. The original version received 75% on GameRankings and 69/100 on Metacritic. The Special Edition released in 2009 has an aggregate score of 88/100 on Metacritic.
In 2013, PC Gamer placed Eve Online at #12 on their list of 100 Greatest Games of All Time.
In June 2013, the Museum of Modern Art added Eve Online to its permanent collection of video games. The game is showcased as a "day in the universe" video. To create this, CCP Games called upon Eve Onlines large player-base to provide gameplay footage of the game. Furthermore, CCP Games contributed a large amount of data from its servers, which were compiled to produce a "stunning view" of the accomplishments of player collaborations.
Awards
PC Gamer Sweden: Best Online RPG 2003
SuperPlay GULDPIXELN 2003: Online Game of the year
2003 Gamespy Best Graphics
2005 MMORPG.com Best Graphics, Best PvP, Favorite Company, and Reader's Choice Best Game
2006 MMORPG.com Favorite Graphics, Favorite PvE, Favorite PvP, Favorite Story, and Favorite Game
2007 MMORPG.com Best Overall Game of 2007
2009 MMORPG.com Game of the Year
2010 MMORPG.com Game of the Year
2011 MMORPG.com Game of the Year
Other media
In 2013, CCP said that they had made deals to create both a comic book and a television series based on Eve Online. The comic, titled Eve: True Stories, was released by Dark Horse Comics and made available for free online in 2014. Following this, a physical version of the graphic novel containing bonus material was made available that same year. To make the television series, CCP signed a deal with Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. As of May 2013, no information has been given about the title or the premiere date of the television series. The storylines from both the graphic novel and the television series will be based on actual player-driven events that happened in the game.
Tie-in novels
EVE: The Empyrean Age (2009) by Tony Gonzalez
EVE: The Burning Life (2010) by Hyalti Danielsson
EVE: Templar One (2012) by Tony Gonzalez
See also
Elite Dangerous Star Citizen No Man's Sky''
Notes
References
External links
2003 video games
Active massively multiplayer online games
Fiction about asteroid mining
MacOS games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Python (programming language)-scripted video games
Science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Space massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Space opera video games
Space trading and combat simulators
Video game franchises introduced in 2003
Video games adapted into comics
Video games with cross-platform play
Video games developed in Iceland
Video games with expansion packs
Virtual economies
Windows games
Simon & Schuster Interactive games
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403314
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%20Clement%27s%2C%20Eastcheap
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St Clement's, Eastcheap
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St Clement Eastcheap is a Church of England parish church in Candlewick Ward of the City of London. It is located on Clement's Lane, off King William Street and close to London Bridge and the River Thames.
Clement was a disciple of St Peter the Apostle and was ordained as Bishop of Rome in the year 93 AD. By legend, Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea, which led to his adoption as a patron saint of sailors. The dedication to St Clement is unusual in London, with only one other ancient church there dedicated to this saint, namely St Clement Danes, Westminster. It is also located a little north of the Thames, but further west from Eastcheap and outside the old City boundary, just beyond the Temple Bar on the Strand.
History
Medieval period
Eastcheap was one of the main streets of medieval London. The name 'Eastcheap' derives from the Saxon word 'cheap', meaning a market, and Eastcheap was so called to distinguish it from Westcheap, later to become Cheapside. The southern end of Clement's Lane opened onto Eastcheap until the 1880s when the construction of King William Street separated Clement's Lane from Eastcheap, which still remains nearby as a street.
The church's dedication to a Roman patron saint of sailors, the martyr Bishop Clement, coupled with its location near to what were historically the bustling wharves of Roman London, hints at a much earlier Roman origin. Indeed, Roman remains were once found in Clement's Lane, comprising walls 3 feet thick and made of flints at a depth of 12–15 feet together with tessellated pavements.
A charter of 1067 given by William I (1028–87) to Westminster Abbey mentions a church of St. Clement, which is possibly St. Clement Eastcheap, but the earliest definite reference to the church is found in a deed written in the reign of Henry III (1207–72), which mentions 'St Clement Candlewickstrate'. Other early documents refer to the church as "St Clement in Candlewystrate", 'St Clement the Little by Estchepe' and 'St Clement in Lumbard Street'. Until the dissolution of the monasteries – during the reign of Henry VIII – the parish was in the 'gift' of the Abbot of Westminster, then patronage of the parish passed to the Bishop of London. Now the patronage alternates with the appointment of each successive new parish priest (Rector), between the Bishop of London and the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's.
According to the London historian John Strype (1643–1737) St. Clement's church was repaired and beautified in 1630 and 1633.
Destruction and rebuilding
In 1666 the church was destroyed by the Great Fire of London, and then rebuilt in the 1680s. According to Strype the rebuilt church was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and this would seem to be confirmed by the fact that in the parish account for 1685 there is the following item: To one third of a hogshead of wine, given to Sir Christopher Wren, £4 2s. The construction was by Edward Strong the Elder.
In 1670, during the rebuilding of London that followed the fire, the parish was combined with that of St Martin Orgar, which lay on the south side of Eastcheap. At the same time the City planners sought to appropriate a strip of land from the west of St Clement's property to widen Clement's Lane. This led to a dispute with the parish authorities, who claimed that the proposed plan left too little room to accommodate the families of the newly combined parishes. The matter was resolved by permitting the addition of a 14 ft. building plot, formerly occupied by the churchyard, to the east of the church. It was not until 1683, however, that building of the church began, and was completed in 1687 at a total cost of £4,365.
Although nearby St Martin Orgar had been left in ruins by the Great Fire, the tower survived and, following the unification of the parish with St Clement's, the St Martin's site was used by French Huguenots who restored the tower and worshiped there until 1820. Later in the decade the ruins of the body of St Martin's church were removed to make way for the widening of Cannon Street, but the tower remained until 1851 when it was taken down, and – curiously – replaced with a new tower. The new tower served as a rectory for St. Clement Eastcheap until it was sold and converted into offices in the 1970s; it still survives on the present-day Martin Lane.
19th century
In May 1840 Edward John Carlos wrote in The Gentleman's Magazine, protesting about the proposed demolition of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange and St. Benet Fink, following a fire in 1838 that had razed the Royal Exchange and damaged those two churches. In his article, Carlos referred to earlier plans to reduce the number of City churches, from which we learn that in the 1830s St Clement's had been under threat of demolition.
The sweeping design of destroying a number of City churches was mediated in … 1834, and for the time arrested by the resolute opposition to the measure in the instance of the first church marked out for sacrifice, St. Clement Eastcheap, it may be feared is at length coming into full operation, not, indeed in the open manner in which it was displayed at that period, but in an insidious and more secure mode of procedure.
While St Clement's was spared, the 19th century saw many other City churches being destroyed, particularly following the Union of Benefices Act (1860), which sought to speed-up the reduction in the number of City parishes as a response to rapidly declining congregations; the result of the resident population moving in ever larger numbers from cramped City conditions to the more spacious suburbs.
In 1872 William Butterfield, a prominent architect of the gothic-revival, substantially renovated St. Clement's to conform with the contemporary Anglican 'High Church' taste. The renovation involved removing the galleries; replacing the 17th-century plain windows with stained glass; dividing the reredos into three pieces and placing the two wings on the side walls; dismantling the woodwork to build new pews; laying down polychrome tiles on the floor, and moving the organ into the aisle.
20th century
In 1933 the architect Sir Ninian Comper revised Butterfield's layout, moving the organ to its original position on the west wall and reassembling the reredos behind the altar, although before he did so, he had the reredos painted with figures in blue and gold.
St. Clement's suffered minor damage from bombing by German aircraft during the London Blitz in 1940 during the Second World War. The damage was repaired in 1949–50, and in 1968 the church was again redecorated.
Present
Today St Clement's holds weekly services and, from 1998 to 2011, it was the base of The Players of St Peter, an amateur theatre company devoted to performing medieval mystery plays in the church, around early December each year. The Players are now based at the church of St George in the East.
A number of charities have their administrative offices at St Clement's. The Cure Parkinson's Trust was based here for several years but is now at 120 Baker Street, London.
"Oranges and Lemons"
St Clement Eastcheap considers itself to be the church referred to in the nursery rhyme that begins "Oranges and lemons / Say the bells of St Clement's". So too does St Clement Danes Church, Westminster, whose bells ring out the traditional tune of the nursery rhyme three times a day.
There is a canard that the earliest mention of the rhyme occurs in Wynkyn de Worde's "The demaundes joyous" printed in 1511. This small volume consists entirely of riddles and makes no allusion to bells, St. Clement or any other church.
According to Iona and Peter Opie, the earliest record of the rhyme only dates to c.1744, although there is a square dance (without words) called 'Oranges and Limons' in the 3rd edition of John Playford's The English Dancing Master, published in 1665.
St Clement Eastcheap's claim is based on the assertion that it was close to the wharf where citrus fruit was unloaded. Yet, a perusal of a map of London shows that there were many churches, even after the Fire, that were closer to the Thames than St. Clement's (St. George Botolph Lane, St Magnus the Martyr, St. Michael, Crooked Lane, St Martin Orgar, St Mary-at-Hill, All Hallows the Great. All these would have been passed by a load of oranges and lemons making its way to Leadenhall Market, the nearest market where citrus fruit was sold, passing several more churches on the way. Thus, it would appear that the name of St. Clements was selected by the rhymer simply for its consonance with the word ‘lemons’, and it now seems more likely that the melody called ‘Oranges and Limons’ predates the rhyme itself.
Oranges and Lemons was most recently featured in the 2017 adaptation of the Stephen King novel It. In the film It, composer Benjamin Wallfisch used the haunting rhyme to open the recorded score, which was released by Watertower Music after the film's release and is available on digital, vinyl and compact disc formats
Building
St. Clement Eastcheap has an irregular plan. The nave is approximately rectangular, but the south aisle is severely tapered. The ceiling is divided into panels, the centre one being a large oval band of fruit and flowers. The main façade is on the west, on Clement's Lane, and comprises four bays. The main bay has a blocked pedimented round-headed window over the door. This is flanked by matching bays with two levels of windows. The tower to the south west forms the fourth bay. This is a simple square tower, with a parapet, but no spire. Each bay has stone quoins and is stuccoed, except for the upper levels of the tower where the brick is exposed.
A small churchyard remains to the east of St. Clement's hemmed-in by the backs of office buildings and contains tombstones whose inscriptions have, over time, become illegible. The churchyard is approached by a narrow alley along the church's north wall, at the entrance of which is a memorial plaque to Dositej Obradović, a Serbian scholar who lived next to the church.
In July 1645, so it is said, the poet John Milton was reconciled with his estranged wife Mary Powell, in the house of a Mrs Weber, a widow, in St Clement's churchyard where Mary was then lodging. Milton's description in Paradise Lost of the reconciliation of Adam and Eve draws, apparently, on the real life reconciliation between Milton and his wife.
She, not repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing
And tresses all disordered, at his feet
Fell humble, and, embracing them, besought
His peace.
[...]
Soon his heart relented
Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight,
Now to his feet submissive in distress.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
Organ
The present organ's oak case is the same one made to enclose the organ that was built for St Clement's in 1696 by Renatus Harris who maintained the instrument until 1704. While the case has remained largely intact, the organ itself has been variously rebuilt and restored; in 1704 by Christian Smith, and in 1711 by Abraham Jordan (c.1666–1716)—who it is thought added the swell organ to the two manual instrument. From 1838 the organ was in the care of Messrs Gray and Davison, who in 1872—as part of the renovation of the building—moved the organ from the west gallery to the south aisle. Care of the organ was transferred to Henry Wedlake that same year. In 1889 he rebuilt the instrument. Further work was undertaken in 1926 by Messrs J. W. Walker, and in 1936 by Messrs Hill, Norman and Beard, whew the instrument was moved back to an approximation of its original west-end location. The same company overhauled the organ in 1946, and in 1971 made 'neo-baroque' tonal revisions, which remain to this day. The instrument was last cleaned and repaired in 2004 by Colin Jilks of Sittingbourne, Kent.
Organists
The first known organist:
Henry Lightindollar (died 1702), appeared in the parish records in 1699. Successive organists were as follows:
William Gorton, a member of the King's Music (appt. 1702, died 1711)
Edward Purcell, son of Henry Purcell (born 1689, appt. 1711, died 1740, and buried in St Clements "near the gallery door" – Parish Burial Register, 4 July 1740)
Edward Henry Purcell, Edward's son (appt.1740, died 1765, and also buried in the church "by the organ gallery" – Parish Burial Register, 5 August 1765)
Jonathan Battishill (born 1738, appt. 1765, died 1801)
Thomas Bartholomew (appt. 1802, died 1819)
William Bradley (appt. 1819, res. 1828)
John Whitaker, a City music publisher, (appt. 1828, died 1847)
John Joff, promoted from assistant organist (appt. 1847, died 1885).
The current organist (September 2008) is Ian Shaw.
Furnishings
The altar, with cherubs for legs, dates from the 17th century, as does the reredos, which was decorated during the 1930s restoration of the building in a style reminiscent of Simone Martini. The outer panels depict the Annunciation while the central panel shows St. Clement and St. Martin of Tours, (the dedicatee of St. Martin Orgar).
The pulpit also dates from the 17th-century, and is made from Norwegian oak, topped with an hexagonal sounding board, with a dancing cherub on each corner.
Surviving from the 1872 Butterfield renovation are the polychrome floor and three stained-glass clerestory windows on the north wall. The windows were made by W. G. Taylor, and installed c.1887 during the last phase of Butterfield's work. The windows show SS. Andrew, James (major), James (minor), Peter, Mathias, and Thomas.
While the marble font can be seen, its wooden cover is not always on public display. The cover's ornate decoration, a carved dove holding an olive branch surrounded with gilded flames, so delighted William Gladstone, it is said, that he took his grandchildren to see it.
Clergy
Thomas Fuller (1608–61), then living in London, preached a series of sermons at St Clement's in 1647.
The diarist John Evelyn heard John Pearson (1613–86), later to be Bishop of Chester, preaching at St Clement's where he was the weekly preacher from 1654. His sermons there later became his An Exposition of the Creed (1659), which he dedicated "to the right worshipful and well-beloved, the parishioners of St. Clement's, Eastcheap."
One of the rectors of St. Clement's, Benjamin Stone, who had been presented to the living by Bishop Juxon, being deemed "too Popish" by Oliver Cromwell, was imprisoned for some time at Crosby Hall. From there he was sent to Plymouth where, after paying a fine of £60, he obtained his liberty. Stone recovered his benefice on the restoration of Charles II but died five years after. (Thornbury, volume 1)
In this church Josias Alsopp, who had succeeded Stone as rector in the early Restoration years of the 17th century, was heard preaching by Samuel Pepys who noted the following in his diary for 24 November 1661:
Up early, and by appointment to St. Clement lanes to church, and there to meet Captain Cocke, who had often commended Mr. Alsopp, their minister, to me, who is indeed an able man, but as all things else did not come up to my expectations. His text was that all good and perfect gifts are from above.
Among the mural tablets in the church are three which have been erected at the cost of the parishioners, commemorative of the Rev. Thomas Green, curate twenty-seven years, who died in 1734; the Rev. John Farrer, Rector, who died in 1820; and the Rev. W. Valentine Ireson, who was lecturer of the united parishes for thirty years and died in 1822.
Memorial
Immediately next to the church in Clement's Lane is a memorial stone to Dositej Obradović (1742–1811), a Serbian statesman and man of letters who became Serbia's first Education Minister. He stayed in a house here in 1784. His name here is anglicised to Dositey Obradovich.
See also
List of churches and cathedrals of London
List of Christopher Wren churches in London
References
Sources
Betjeman, J (1967) The City of London Churches Andover: Pitkin ()
Blatch, Mervyn (1995) A Guide to London's Churches London: Constable
Clout, Hugh (ed.) (1999) The Times History of London London: Times Books
Cobb, Gerald (1977) London City Churches London: Batsford
Heulin, Gordon (1996) Vanished Churches of the City of London London: Guildhall Library Publications
Hibbert,C;Weinreb,D;Keay:London Encyclopaedia London Pan Macmillan 1983 (rev2008)
Jeffery, Paul (1996) The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren London: Hambledon
External links
Parish Information from the Diocese of London Directory
Services at St Clement Eastcheap from Friends of the City Churches
Inhabitants of London in 1638 St. Clement’s, Eastcheap, edited from Ms.272 in Lambeth Palace Library by T. C. Dale (1931)
Four Shillings In The Pound Aid 1693–1694, City of London, Candlewick Ward, St Clements Eastcheap Precinct, data created by Derek Keene, Peter Earle, Craig Spence and Janet Barnes (1992)
Players of St Peter, medieval mystery plays in the City of London
The Foundation for Public Service Interpreting
The Cure Parkinson's Trust
Coordinates:
Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom
Christopher Wren church buildings in London
Church of England church buildings in the City of London
17th-century Church of England church buildings
Grade I listed churches in the City of London
Diocese of London
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403339
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel%20Authority%20of%20India
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Steel Authority of India
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Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is a central public sector undertaking based in New Delhi, India. It is under the ownership of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India with an annual turnover of for the fiscal year 2022-23. Incorporated on 24 January 1973, SAIL has 59,350 employees (as of 1 March 2023). With an annual production of 18.29 million metric tons, It is the largest government owned steel producer. The hot metal production capacity of the company will further increase and is expected to reach a level of 50 million tonnes per annum by 2025.
SAIL operates and owns five integrated steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur, Bokaro and Burnpur (Asansol) and three special steel plants at Salem, Durgapur and Bhadravathi. It also owns a Ferro Alloy plant at Chandrapur. As a part of its global ambition, the psu is undergoing a massive expansion and modernisation programme involving upgrading and building new facilities with emphasis on state of the art green technology. According to a recent survey, SAIL is one of India's fastest growing Public Sector Units. The psu also has an R&D Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS) and a Centre for Engineering in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
History
1959–1973
SAIL traces its origin to the Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL) which was set up on 19 January 1954. It was initially designed to manage only one plant that was coming up at Rourkela.
For Bhilai and Durgapur Steel Plants, the preliminary work was done by the Iron and Steel Ministry. From April 1957, the supervision and control of these two steel plants were also transferred to Hindustan Steel. The registered office was originally in New Delhi. It moved to Calcutta in July 1956, and ultimately to Ranchi in December 1959.
A new steel company, Bokaro Steel Limited (Bokaro Steel Plant), was incorporated on 29 January 1964 to construct and operate the steel plant at Bokaro. The 1 MT phases of Bhilai and Rourkela Steel Plants were completed by the end of December 1961. The 1 MT phase of Durgapur Steel Plant was completed in January 1962 after commissioning of the Wheel and Axle plant. The crude steel production of HSL went up from 1.58 MT (1959–60) to 1.6 MT. The second phase of the Bhilai Steel Plant was completed in September 1967 after commissioning of the Wire Rod Mill. The last unit of the 1.8 MT phase of Rourkela – the Tandem Mill – was commissioned in February 1968, and the 1.6 MT stage of Durgapur Steel Plant was completed in August 1969 after commissioning of the Furnace in SMS. Thus, with the completion of the 2.5 MT stage at Bhilai, 1.8 MT at Rourkela, and 1.6 MT at Durgapur, the total crude steel production capacity of HSL was raised to 3.7 MT in 1968–69 and subsequently to 4 MT in 1972–73. IISCO was taken over as a subsidiary in 1978 and later merged in 2006.
Holding Company
The Ministry drafted a policy statement to evolve a new model for managing the industry. The policy statement was presented to the Parliament on 2 December 1972. On this basis, the concept of creating a holding company to manage inputs and outputs under one roof was mooted. This led to the formation of The Steel Authority of India Ltd. The company, incorporated on 24 January 1973 with an authorized capital of , was made responsible for managing five integrated steel plants at Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur, Rourkela and Burnpur, the Alloy Steel Plant and the Salem Steel Plant. In 1978 SAIL was restructured as an operating company.
Major units
SAIL Integrated Steel Plants
Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) in Odisha set up with German collaboration (The first integrated steel plant in the Public Sector in India, 1959)
Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh set up with Soviet collaboration (1959)
Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) at Durgapur, West Bengal set up with British collaboration (1965)
Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) in Jharkhand (1964) set up with Soviet collaboration (The Plant is hailed as the country's first Swadeshi steel plant, built with maximum indigenous content in terms of equipment, material and know-how)
IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) at Burnpur in Asansol, West Bengal (Plant equipped with Largest Blast Furnace of country, Modernized in 2015 with investment of 16000 crore which will yield total production of 2.9 Million Ton annually )
Special Steel Plants
Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), Durgapur, West Bengal supplies to the Indian Ordnance Factories
Salem Steel Plant (SSP), Maramangalathupatti, at Salem, Tamil Nadu
Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited (VISL), at Bhadravathi, Karnataka
Ferro Alloy Plant
Chandrapur Ferro Alloy Plant (CFP) in Maharashtra
Refractory Plants - SAIL Refractory Unit (SRU)
SAIL Refractory Unit, Bhandaridah in Jharkhand
SAIL Refractory Unit, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh
SAIL Refractory Unit, IFICO, Ramgarh in Jharkhand
SAIL Refractory Unit, Ranchi Road in Jharkhand
Central units
Central Marketing Organisation
Centre for Engineering and Technology
Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel
SAIL Consultancy Organisation
Environment Management Division
Management Training Institute, Ranchi
Joint ventures
NTPC SAIL Power Company Limited (NSPCL)
A 50:50 joint venture between Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. (NTPC Ltd.). It manages the captive power plants at Rourkela, Durgapur and Bhilai with a combined capacity of 314 MW. It has installed additional capacity by implementation of 500 MW (2 x 250 MW Units) power plant at Bhilai. The commercial generation of Unit 1 commenced in April 2009 and the Unit 2 in October 2009.
NSPCL, Rourkela (2 x 60 MW)
NSPCL, Durgapur (2 x 60 MW)
NSPCL, Bhilai (2 x 30 MW + 1 x 14 MW)
During FY2013-14, NSPCL generated 6156.091 MU of electricity with a PLF of 86.33%
Bokaro Power Supply Company Pvt. Ltd. (BPSCL)
Established in 2001, A 50:50 joint venture between Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and is engaged in power and steam generation and supplies power and steam (at various pressures) to SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) located at Bokaro for meeting the process requirement of BSL.
The plant has 9 boilers (5 boilers each of 220 TPH, 3 boilers each of 260 TPH capacity and 1 boiler of 300 TPH) and 7 turbine generators (one 12 MW back Pressure Turbine Generator (TG), 2 TGs each of 55MW capacity, 3 TGs each of 60 MW capacity and one 36 MW back Pressure Turbine Generator. Gg
Mjunction services limited
Mjunction services limited operating in Information Technology and the Internet, is a 50:50 venture promoted by SAIL and TATA Steel. Founded in February 2001, it is today not only India's largest eCommerce company (having eTransacted worth over Rs. 900 billion till date) but also runs the world's largest eMarketplace for steel.
Bhilai JP Cement Ltd
SAIL has incorporated a joint venture company with M/s Jaiprakash Associates Ltd to set up a 2.2 MT slag based cement plant at Bhilai. The company shall commence cement production at Bhilai by March'2010, whereas clinker production at Satna shall start within 2009.
Bokaro JP Cement Ltd
SAIL has incorporated another joint venture company with M/s JaiPrakash Associates Ltd to set up a 2.1 MT cement plant at Bokaro utilising slag from BSL. The project implementation is under progress with commencement of cement production likely by July 2011. Bokaro Jaypee cement plant opening ceremony was held by the chief minister of Jharkhand shri. Arjun Munda in 2012.
SAIL&MOIL Ferro Alloys (Pvt.) Limited
SAIL has incorporated a joint venture company with Manganese Ore (India) Ltd on 50:50 basis to produce ferro-manganese and silico-manganese required for production of steel.
S&T Mining Company Pvt. Ltd
SAIL has incorporated a joint venture company with TATA Steel for joint acquisition and development of coal blocks/mines. New indigenous opportunities for coking coal development are being explored by the joint venture company for securing coking coal supplies.
International Coal Ventures Pvt. Limited
International Coal Ventures Private Limited is a special purpose vehicle set up to achieve the target of making steel PSUs self-reliant in the area of coking coal, a joint venture company has been incorporated composed of five central PSU companies i.e. SAIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), Coal India Limited and other target countries.
Development of Hajigak iron ore mines in Afghanistan
A consortium comprising state-owned NMDC and RINL and private sector steel players—JSW, JSW Ispat, Jindal Steel and Power, and Monnet Ispat and Energy and led by SAIL, plan to invest US$75 million in first phase for the development of Hajigak iron ore mines in Afghanistan. The consortium, in November 2011, had won the mining rights for three iron ore mines which are said to contain 1.28 billion tonnes of rich reserves.
Development of mines through outsourcing
SAIL has decided to outsource development of two virgin iron ore mines at Rowghat in Chhattisgarh and Chiria in Jharkhand with an annual capacity of 14 and 15 million tonnes, respectively. The development of each mine is likely to cost between – .
SAIL SCL Limited
A 50:50 JV with Government of Kerala where SAIL has management control to revive the existing facilities at Steel Complex Ltd, Calicut and also to set up, develop and manage a TMT rolling mill of 65,000 MT capacity along with balancing facilities and auxiliaries.
International Coal Ventures Private Limited
ICVL is a joint venture of five companies owned by the Indian government. Aside from Steel Authority of India Limited, the other venturers are Coal India, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, National Minerals Development Corporation and National Thermal Power Corporation. ICVL acquired a 65 percent stake in the Benga coal mine from the Rio Tinto Group in July 2014.
SAIL RITES Bengal Wagon Industry Pvt. Limited
SAIL had signed a 50:50 joint venture with RITES for setting up a wagon components manufacturing facility at Kulti in West Bengal's Paschim Bardhaman district. The total investment for this project was in West Bengal, and commercial production began from December 2016. It manufactures, sells, markets, distributes and exports railway wagons, including high-end specialised wagons, wagon prototypes, fabricated components/parts of railway vehicles, rehabilitation of industrial locomotives, etc., for the domestic market.
Ownership and management
The Government of India owns about 65% of SAIL's equity and retains voting control of the company. However, SAIL, by virtue of its Maharatna status in May 2010, enjoys significant operational and financial autonomy.
Amarendu Prakash is the current chairman.
Operations
As of 31 March 2015, SAIL has 93,352 employees, as compared to 170,368 (as of 31 March 2002). There has been a continuous reduction of headcount over the past few years due to enhanced productivity and rationalised manpower.
The total requirement of its main raw material, iron ore, is met through its captive mines. To meet its growing requirement, capacities of existing iron ore mines are being expanded and new iron ore mines are being developed. In addition, new iron ore deposits in the states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Karnataka are being explored. Around 24% of its coking coal requirements are met from domestic sources, the remaining through imports. For improving coking coal security, the company is also making efforts for development of new coking coal blocks at Tasra and Sitanalla. SAIL is also India's largest miner of minerals that are involved in the steel making process, such as iron ore and coking coal. During FY 2019-2020, the company mined 32.406 million tonnes of steel making minerals.
SAIL produced 13.9 million tonnes of crude steel by operating at 103% of its installed capacity, which is an increase of 1% over the previous year. It also generated 710 MW of electricity during FY2014-15.
SAIL records turnover of over Rs 1 lakh crore. Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) produced 18.733 million tonnes of hot metal and 17.366 million tonnes of crude steel during 2021-22, its best ever production performance. The increase in turnover coupled with improved operational performance, helped the company achieve its highest-ever numbers in terms of profitability.
Achievements
Source:
"Best of all" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award in 1993, 2006, and 2007 for their Bhilai and Bokaro plants
Quality Summit New York Gold Trophy 2007 (International Award for Excellence & Business Prestige) and Award of Excellence Maintenance for Sumitomo Heavy Industry & TSUBKIMOTO-KOGIO, Japan won by Alloy Steel Plant, Durgapur.
SAIL was featured in the 2008 list of Forbes Global 2000 companies at position 647.
Golden Peacock Award for Combating Climate Change – 2008 for BSP, Occupational Health and Safety- 2008 for BSL
National Safety Award to Bhilai Steel Plant announced by the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India – 2008
Durgapur Steel Plant won the 2nd Prize in the Association of Business Communicators of India Awards – 2008.
Ispat Bhasha Bharati. the Rajbhasha Journal of SAIL has been awarded with the first prize under the All India House Journal Award Scheme – 2008–09
Salem Steel Plant received the Greentech Gold Award in Metal and Mining Sector – 2008–09.
Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility won by Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) for the third year in a row – 2009.
Rourkela Steel Plant collected the Srishti Good Green Governance (G-Cube) Award – 2009.
Greentech HR Excellence Award secured by the Durgapur Steel Plant – 2009
The steel township of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has been ranked 14th in sanitation and cleanliness by Union Urban Development Ministry – 2009–10
Greentech Safety Gold Award was given to Bhilai Steel Plant – 2010
The HR Excellence Award by the Greentech Foundation won by Bhilai Steel Plant – 2010
SSP has won the Greentech Silver Award in Training Category of Greentech HR Excellence Awards – 2010.
Award for financial and operational strength by Indian Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIIE)- 2009–10
Golden Peacock Environment Management Award – 2011
Randstad Award for HR Practices and Employer Branding under 'Manufacturing Industries' category – 2011
Maiden Wockhardt Shining Star CSR Award in the Iron & Steel Sector category – 2011.
Salem Steel Plant (SSP) has won the National Sustainability Award for the 6th time in succession and 13th time since inception of the award from Indian Institute of Metals (IIM)- 2011
Of the 33 Prime Minister's Shram Awards announced for 2010 by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, 17 of which went to PSUs, SAIL employees won 11 awards. Of the total number of 76 awardees for the year, 45 belong to SAIL – a remarkable distinction for any organisation.
Maharatna SAIL has received the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award for the year 2011. The award, in recognition of SAIL's initiatives and achievements in the field of environment management, was presented by Union Minister for Home Affairs Shri P. Chidambaram on 24 June 2011
74 of a total of 128 awardees who have won the Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskar (VRP) are from SAIL. The 15 out of 28 awards won by SAIL went to our 74 employees for the performance year 2008. Bhilai Steel Plant won 7 such awards involving 36 employees, Bokaro Steel Plant won 6 awards involving 29 employees. Durgapur Steel Plant
and Salem Steel Plant both won 1 award each involving five and four employees respectively. SAIL employees have won 4 out of 5 awards of Class A, which is the highest number of A Class awards won by any PSU in India.
Future plans
SAIL is in the process of modernising and expanding its production units, raw material resources and other facilities to maintain its dominant position in the Indian steel market. The aim is to increase the production capacity from the base level production of 14.6 MT per annum (2006–07) to 26.2 MT per annum of hot metal.
The following table shows the increased production of various items prior to and post expansion.
On 25 May 2012, Steel Authority of India Limited entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of West Bengal and Burn Standard Company Ltd. for setting up of a Railway Wagon factory of approximately . This project will create an approximate 75,300 jobs.
The company also looking to establish one full capacity integrated plant in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana and surveying the possibilities to set up the plant. The plant, which was proposed to be the first steel plant of such scale in the state, was estimated to get an investment of Rs. 4,400 crore.
See also
List of steel producers
Steel production by country
References
External links
Steel companies of India
Government-owned companies of India
Companies based in New Delhi
Economy of Jharkhand
Manufacturing companies established in 1954
Indian companies established in 1954
Recipients of the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar
Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian%20Air%20Force
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Indian Air Force
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire which honoured India's aviation service during World War II with the prefix Royal. After India gained independence from United Kingdom in 1947, the name Royal Indian Air Force was kept and served in the name of the Dominion of India. With the transition to a republic in 1950, the prefix Royal was removed.
Since 1950, the IAF has been involved in four wars with neighbouring Pakistan. Other major operations undertaken by the IAF include Operation Vijay, Operation Meghdoot, Operation Cactus and Operation Poomalai. The IAF's mission expands beyond engagement with hostile forces, with the IAF participating in United Nations peacekeeping missions.
The President of India holds the rank of Supreme Commander of the IAF. , 170,576 personnel are in service with the Indian Air Force. The Chief of the Air Staff, an air chief marshal, is a four-star officer and is responsible for the bulk of operational command of the Air Force. There is never more than one serving ACM at any given time in the IAF. The rank of Marshal of the Air Force has been conferred by the President of India on one occasion in history, to Arjan Singh. On 26 January 2002, Singh became the first and so far, only five-star rank officer of the IAF.
Mission
The IAF's mission is defined by the Armed Forces Act of 1947, the Constitution of India, and the Air Force Act of 1950. It decrees that in the aerial battlespace:
Defence of India and every part there of including preparation for defence and all such acts as may be conducive in times of war to its prosecution and after its termination to effective demobilisation.
The Primary objective of IAF is to defend the nation and its airspace against Air threats in coordination with Army and Navy.
The secondary purpose is to assist civil power during natural calamities and internal disturbances.
The IAF provides close air support to the Indian Army troops in the battlefield and also provides strategic and tactical airlift capabilities.
IAF also provides strategic air lift or secondary Airlift for the Indian Army.
The IAF also operates the Integrated Space Cell together with the other two branches of the Indian Armed Forces, the Department of Space and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Rescue of civilians during natural disasters
Evacuation of Indian nationals from foreign countries in case of instability or other problems
In practice, this is taken as a directive meaning the IAF bears the responsibility of safeguarding Indian airspace and thus furthering national interests in conjunction with the other branches of the armed forces. The IAF provides close air support to the Indian Army troops on the battlefield as well as strategic and tactical airlift capabilities. The Integrated Space Cell is operated by the Indian Armed Forces, the civilian Department of Space, and the Indian Space Research Organisation. By uniting the civilian run space exploration organisations and the military faculty under a single Integrated Space Cell the military is able to efficiently benefit from innovation in the civilian sector of space exploration, and the civilian departments benefit as well.
The Indian Air Force, with highly trained crews, pilots, and access to modern military assets provides India with the capacity to provide rapid response evacuation, search-and-rescue (SAR) operations, and delivery of relief supplies to affected areas via cargo aircraft. The IAF provided extensive assistance to relief operations during natural calamities such as the Gujarat cyclone in 1998, the tsunami in 2004, and North India floods in 2013. The IAF has also undertaken relief missions such as Operation Rainbow in Sri Lanka.
History
Formation and early pilots
The Indian Air Force was established on 8 October 1932 in British India as an auxiliary air force of the Royal Air Force. The enactment of the Indian Air Force Act 1932 stipulated out their auxiliary status and enforced the adoption of the Royal Air Force uniforms, badges, brevets and insignia. On 1 April 1933, the IAF commissioned its first squadron, No.1 Squadron, with four Westland Wapiti biplanes and five Indian pilots. The Indian pilots were led by British RAF Commanding officer Flight Lieutenant (later Air Vice Marshal) Cecil Bouchier.
World War II (1939–1945)
During World War II, the IAF played an instrumental role in halting the advance of the Japanese army in Burma, where the first IAF air strike was executed. The target for this first mission was the Japanese military base in Arakan, after which IAF strike missions continued against the Japanese airbases at Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in northern Thailand.
The IAF was mainly involved in strike, close air support, aerial reconnaissance, bomber escort and pathfinding missions for RAF and USAAF heavy bombers. RAF and IAF pilots would train by flying with their non-native air wings to gain combat experience and communication proficiency. Besides operations in the Burma Theatre IAF pilots participated in air operations in North Africa and Europe.
In addition to the IAF, many native Indians and some 200 Indians resident in Britain volunteered to join the RAF and Women's Auxiliary Air Force. One such volunteer was Sergeant Shailendra Eknath Sukthankar, who served as a navigator with No. 83 Squadron. Sukthankar was commissioned as an officer, and on 14 September 1943, received the DFC. Squadron Leader Sukthankar eventually completed 45 operations, 14 of them on board the RAF Museum's Avro Lancaster R5868. Another volunteer was Assistant Section Officer Noor Inayat Khan a Muslim pacifist and Indian nationalist who joined the WAAF, in November 1940, to fight against Nazism. Noor Khan served bravely as a secret agent with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France, but was eventually betrayed and captured. Many of these Indian airmen were seconded or transferred to the expanding IAF such as Squadron Leader Mohinder Singh Pujji DFC who led No. 4 Squadron IAF in Burma.
During the war, the IAF experienced a phase of steady expansion. New aircraft added to the fleet included the US-built Vultee Vengeance, Douglas Dakota, the British Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, and Westland Lysander.
In recognition of the valiant service by the IAF, King George VI conferred the prefix "Royal" in 1945. Thereafter the IAF was referred to as the Royal Indian Air Force. In 1950, when India became a republic, the prefix was dropped and it reverted to being the Indian Air Force.
First years of independence (1947–1950)
After it became independent from the British Empire in 1947, British India was partitioned into the new states of the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. Along the lines of the geographical partition, the assets of the air force were divided between the new countries. India's air force retained the name of the Royal Indian Air Force, but three of the ten operational squadrons and facilities, located within the borders of Pakistan, were transferred to the Royal Pakistan Air Force. The RIAF Roundel was changed to an interim 'Chakra' roundel derived from the Ashoka Chakra.
Around the same time, conflict broke out between them over the control of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. With Pakistani forces moving into the state, its Maharaja decided to accede to India in order to receive military help. The day after, the Instrument of Accession was signed, the RIAF was called upon to transport troops into the war zone. And this was when a good management of logistics came into help. This led to the eruption of full-scale war between India and Pakistan, though there was no formal declaration of war. During the war, the RIAF did not engage the Pakistan Air Force in air-to-air combat; however, a couple of IAF Hawker Tempest fighters did intercept a Pakistani Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft & tried to shoot it down but the pilot of the DC-3 (Mukhtar Ahmad Dogar) managed to evade the fighters. Other than that, it also provided effective transport and close air support to the Indian troops.
When India became a republic in 1950, the prefix 'Royal' was dropped from the Indian Air Force. At the same time, the current IAF roundel was adopted.
Congo crisis and Annexation of Goa (1960–1961)
The IAF saw significant conflict in 1960, when Belgium's 75-year rule over Congo ended abruptly, engulfing the nation in widespread violence and rebellion. The IAF activated No. 5 Squadron, equipped with English Electric Canberra, to support the United Nations Operation in the Congo. The squadron started undertaking operational missions in November. The unit remained there until 1966, when the UN mission ended. Operating from Leopoldville and Kamina, the Canberras soon destroyed the rebel Air Force and provided the UN ground forces with its only long-range air support force.
In late 1961, the Indian government decided to attack the Portuguese colony of Goa after years of disagreement between New Delhi and Lisbon. The Indian Air Force was requested to provide support elements to the ground force in what was called Operation Vijay. Probing flights by some fighters and bombers were carried out from 8–18 December to draw out the Portuguese Air Force, but to no avail. On 18 December, two waves of Canberra bombers bombed the runway of Dabolim airfield taking care not to bomb the Terminals and the ATC tower. Two Portuguese transport aircraft (a Super Constellation and a DC-6) found on the airfield were left alone so that they could be captured intact. However the Portuguese pilots managed to take off the aircraft from the still damaged airfield and made their getaway to Portugal. Hunters attacked the wireless station at Bambolim. Vampires were used to provide air support to the ground forces. In Daman, Mystères were used to strike Portuguese gun positions. Ouragans (called Toofanis in the IAF) bombed the runways at Diu and destroyed the control tower, wireless station and the meteorological station. After the Portuguese surrendered the former colony was integrated into India.
Border disputes and changes in the IAF (1962–1971)
In 1962, border disagreements between China and India escalated to a war when China mobilised its troops across the Indian border. During the Sino-Indian War, India's military planners failed to deploy and effectively use the IAF against the invading Chinese forces. This resulted in India losing a significant amount of advantage to the Chinese; especially in Jammu and Kashmir.
On 24 April 1965, an Indian Ouragan strayed over the Pakistani border and was forced to land by a Pakistani Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, the pilot was returned to India; however, the captured aircraft would be kept by the Pakistan Air Force(PAF) and ended up being displayed at the PAF museum in Peshawar.
Three years after the Sino-Indian conflict, in 1965, Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar, strategy of Pakistan to infiltrate Jammu and Kashmir, and start a rebellion against Indian rule. This came to be known as the Second Kashmir War. This was the first time the IAF actively engaged an enemy air force. However, instead of providing close air support to the Indian Army, the IAF carried out independent raids against PAF bases. These bases were situated deep inside Pakistani territory, making IAF fighters vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. During the course of the conflict, the PAF enjoyed technological superiority over the IAF and had achieved substantial strategic and tactical advantage due to the suddenness of the attack and advanced state of their air force. The IAF was restrained by the government from retaliating to PAF attacks in the eastern sector while a substantive part of its combat force was deployed there and could not be transferred to the western sector, against the possibility of Chinese intervention. Moreover, international (UN) stipulations and norms did not permit military force to be introduced into the Indian state of J&K beyond what was agreed during the 1949 ceasefire. Despite this, the IAF was able to prevent the PAF from gaining air superiority over conflict zones. The small and nimble IAF Folland Gnats proved effective against the F-86 Sabres of the PAF earning it the nickname "Sabre Slayers". By the time the conflict had ended, the IAF lost 60–70 aircraft, while the PAF lost 43 aircraft. More than 60% of IAF's aircraft losses took place in ground attack missions to enemy ground-fire, since fighter-bomber aircraft would carry out repeated dive attacks on the same target. According to, Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh of the Indian Air Force, despite having been qualitatively inferior, IAF achieved air superiority in three days in the 1965 War.
After the 1965 war, the IAF underwent a series of changes to improve its capabilities. In 1966, the Para Commandos regiment was created. To increase its logistics supply and rescue operations ability, the IAF inducted 72 HS 748s which were built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under licence from Avro. India started to put more stress on indigenous manufacture of fighter aircraft. As a result, HAL HF-24 Marut, designed by the famed German aerospace engineer Kurt Tank, were inducted into the air force. HAL also started developing an improved version of the Folland Gnat, known as HAL Ajeet. At the same time, the IAF also started inducting Mach 2 capable Soviet MiG-21 and Sukhoi Su-7 fighters.
Bangladesh Liberation War (1971)
By late 1971, the intensification of the independence movement in East Pakistan lead to the Bangladesh Liberation War between India and Pakistan. On 22 November 1971, 10 days before the start of a full-scale war, four PAF F-86 Sabre jets attacked Indian and Mukti Bahini positions at Garibpur, near the international border. Two of the four PAF Sabres were shot down and one damaged by the IAF's Folland Gnats. On 3 December, India formally declared war against Pakistan following massive preemptive strikes by the PAF against Indian Air Force installations in Srinagar, Ambala, Sirsa, Halwara and Jodhpur. However, the IAF did not suffer significantly because the leadership had anticipated such a move and precautions were taken. The Indian Air Force was quick to respond to Pakistani air strikes, following which the PAF carried out mostly defensive sorties.
Within the first two weeks, the IAF had carried out almost 12,000 sorties over East Pakistan and also provided close air support to the advancing Indian Army. IAF also assisted the Indian Navy in its operations against the Pakistani Navy in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. On the western front, the IAF destroyed more than 20 Pakistani tanks, 4 APCs and a supply train during the Battle of Longewala. The IAF undertook strategic bombing of West Pakistan by carrying out raids on oil installations in Karachi, the Mangla Dam and a gas plant in Sindh. Similar strategy was also deployed in East Pakistan and as the IAF achieved complete air superiority on the eastern front, the ordnance factories, runways, and other vital areas of East Pakistan were severely damaged. By the time Pakistani forces surrendered, the IAF destroyed 94 PAF Aircraft
The IAF was able to conduct a wide range of missions – troop support; air combat; deep penetration strikes; para-dropping behind enemy lines; feints to draw enemy fighters away from the actual target; bombing; and reconnaissance. In contrast, the Pakistan Air Force, which was solely focused on air combat, was blown out of the subcontinent's skies within the first week of the war. Those PAF aircraft that survived took refuge at Iranian air bases or in concrete bunkers, refusing to offer a fight. Hostilities officially ended at 14:30 GMT on 17 December, after the fall of Dacca on 15 December. India claimed large gains of territory in West Pakistan (although pre-war boundaries were recognised after the war), and the independence of Pakistan's East wing as Bangladesh was confirmed. The IAF had flown over 16,000 sorties on both East and West fronts; including sorties by transport aircraft and helicopters. while the PAF flew about 30 and 2,840. More than 80 per cent of the IAF's sorties were close-support and interdiction, and according to neutral assessments about 45 IAF Aircraft were lost while, Pakistan lost 75 aircraft. Not including any F-6s, Mirage IIIs, or the six Jordanian F-104s which failed to return to their donors. But the imbalance in air losses was explained by the IAF's considerably higher sortie rate, and its emphasis on ground-attack missions. On the ground Pakistan suffered most, with 9,000 killed and 25,000 wounded while India lost 3,000 dead and 12,000 wounded. The loss of armoured vehicles was similarly imbalanced. This represented a major defeat for Pakistan. Towards the end of the war, IAF's transport planes dropped leaflets over Dhaka urging the Pakistani forces to surrender, demoralising Pakistani troops in East Pakistan.
Incidents before Kargil (1984–1988)
In 1984, India launched Operation Meghdoot to capture the Siachen Glacier in the contested Kashmir region. In Op Meghdoot, IAF's Mi-8, Chetak and Cheetah helicopters airlifted hundreds of Indian troops to Siachen. Launched on 13 April 1984, this military operation was unique because of Siachen's inhospitable terrain and climate. The military action was successful, given the fact that under a previous agreement, neither Pakistan nor India had stationed any personnel in the area. With India's successful Operation Meghdoot, it gained control of the Siachen Glacier. India has established control over all of the long Siachen Glacier and all of its tributary glaciers, as well as the three main passes of the Saltoro Ridge immediately west of the glacier—Sia La, Bilafond La, and Gyong La. Pakistan controls the glacial valleys immediately west of the Saltoro Ridge. According to the TIME magazine, India gained more than of territory because of its military operations in Siachen.
Following the inability to negotiate an end to the Sri Lankan Civil War, and to provide humanitarian aid through an unarmed convoy of ships, the Indian Government decided to carry out an airdrop of the humanitarian supplies on the evening of 4 June 1987 designated Operation Poomalai (Tamil: Garland) or Eagle Mission 4. Five An-32s escorted by four Mirage 2000 of 7 Sqn AF, 'The Battleaxes', carried out the supply drop which faced no opposition from the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. Another Mirage 2000 orbited 150 km away, acting as an airborne relay of messages to the entire fleet since they would be outside radio range once they descended to low levels. The Mirage 2000 escort formation was led by Wg Cdr Ajit Bhavnani, with Sqn Ldrs Bakshi, NA Moitra and JS Panesar as his team members and Sqn Ldr KG Bewoor as the relay pilot. Sri Lanka accused India of "blatant violation of sovereignty". India insisted that it was acting only on humanitarian grounds.
In 1987, the IAF supported the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in northern and eastern Sri Lanka in Operation Pawan. About 70,000 sorties were flown by the IAF's transport and helicopter force in support of nearly 100,000 troops and paramilitary forces without a single aircraft lost or mission aborted. IAF An-32s maintained a continuous air link between air bases in South India and Northern Sri Lanka transporting men, equipment, rations and evacuating casualties. Mi-8s supported the ground forces and also provided air transportation to the Sri Lankan civil administration during the elections. Mi-25s of No. 125 Helicopter Unit were utilised to provide suppressive fire against militant strong points and to interdict coastal and clandestine riverine traffic.
On the night of 3 November 1988, the Indian Air Force mounted special operations to airlift a parachute battalion group from Agra, non-stop over to the remote Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives in response to Maldivian president Gayoom's request for military help against a mercenary invasion in Operation Cactus. The IL-76s of No. 44 Squadron landed at Hulhule at 0030 hours and the Indian paratroopers secured the airfield and restored Government rule at Male within hours. Four Mirage 2000 aircraft of 7 Sqn, led by Wg Cdr AV 'Doc' Vaidya, carried out a show of force early that morning, making low-level passes over the islands.
Kargil War (1999)
On 11 May 1999, the Indian Air Force was called in to provide close air support to the Indian Army at the height of the ongoing Kargil conflict with the use of helicopters. The IAF strike was code named Operation Safed Sagar. The first strikes were launched on 26 May, when the Indian Air Force struck infiltrator positions with fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships. The initial strikes saw MiG-27s carrying out offensive sorties, with MiG-21s and later MiG-29s providing fighter cover. The IAF also deployed its radars and the MiG-29 fighters in vast numbers to keep check on Pakistani military movements across the border. Srinagar Airport was at this time closed to civilian air-traffic and dedicated to the Indian Air Force.
On 27 May, the Indian Air Force suffered its first fatality when it lost a MiG-21 and a MiG-27 in quick succession. The following day, while on an offensive sortie, a Mi-17 was shot down by three Stinger missiles and lost its entire crew of four. Following these losses the IAF immediately withdrew helicopters from offensive roles as a measure against the threat of Man-portable air-defence systems (MANPAD). On 30 May, the Mirage 2000s were introduced in offensive capability, as they were deemed better in performance under the high-altitude conditions of the conflict zone. Mirage 2000s were not only better equipped to counter the MANPAD threat compared to the MiGs, but also gave IAF the ability to carry out aerial raids at night. The MiG-29s were used extensively to provide fighter escort to the Mirage 2000. Radar transmissions of Pakistani F-16s were picked up repeatedly, but these aircraft stayed away. The Mirages successfully targeted enemy camps and logistic bases in Kargil and severely disrupted their supply lines. Mirage 2000s were used for strikes on Muntho Dhalo and the heavily defended Tiger Hill and paved the way for their early recapture. At the height of the conflict, the IAF was conducting over forty sorties daily over the Kargil region. By 26 July, the Indian forces had successfully repulsed the Pakistani forces from Kargil.
Post Kargil incidents (1999–present)
Since the late 1990s, the Indian Air Force has been modernising its fleet to counter challenges in the new century. The fleet size of the IAF has decreased to 33 squadrons during this period because of the retirement of older aircraft. Still, India maintains the fourth largest air force in the world. The IAF plans to raise its strength to 42 squadrons. Self-reliance is the main aim that is being pursued by the defence research and manufacturing agencies.
On 10 August 1999, IAF MiG-21s intercepted a Pakistan Navy Breguet Atlantique which was flying over Sir Creek, a disputed territory. The aircraft was shot down killing all 16 Pakistani Navy personnel on board. India claimed that the Atlantic was on a mission to gather information on IAF air defence, a charge emphatically rejected by Pakistan which argued that the unarmed aircraft was on a training mission.
On 2 August 2002, the Indian Air Force bombed Pakistani posts along the Line of Control in the Kel sector, following inputs about Pakistani military buildup near the sector.
On 20 August 2013, the Indian Air Force created a world record by performing the highest landing of a C-130J at the Daulat Beg Oldi airstrip in Ladakh at the height of . The medium-lift aircraft will be used to deliver troops, supplies and improve communication networks. The aircraft belonged to the Veiled Vipers squadron based at Hindon Air Force Station.
On 13 July 2014, two MiG-21s were sent from Jodhpur Air Base to investigate a Turkish Airlines aircraft over Jaisalmer when it repeated an identification code, provided by another commercial passenger plane that had already entered Indian airspace before it. The flights were on their way to Mumbai and Delhi, and the planes were later allowed to proceed after their credentials were verified.
2019 Balakot airstrike
Following heightened tensions between India and Pakistan after the 2019 Pulwama attack that was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) which killed forty servicemen of the Central Reserve Police Force, a group of twelve Mirage 2000 fighter planes from the Indian Air Force carried out air strikes on alleged JeM bases in Chakothi and Muzaffarabad in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Furthermore, the Mirage 2000s targeted an alleged JeM training camp in Balakot, a town in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan claimed that the Indian aircraft had only dropped bombs in the forest area demolishing pine trees near the Jaba village which is away from Balakot
and Indian officials claimed to bomb and kill a large number of terrorists in the airstrike.
2019 India–Pakistan standoff
On 27 February 2019, in retaliation for the IAF bombing of an alleged terrorist hideout in Balakot, a group of PAF Mirage-5 and JF-17 fighters allegedly conducted an airstrike against certain ground targets across the Line of Control. They were intercepted by a group of IAF fighters consisting of Su-30MKI and MiG-21 jets. An ensuing dogfight began. According to India, one PAF F-16 was shot down by an IAF MiG-21 piloted by Abhinandan Varthaman, while Pakistan denied use of F-16s in the operation. According to Pakistan, a MiG-21 and a Su30MKI were shot down, while India claims that only the MiG-21 was shot down. Indian officials rejected Pakistani claims of shooting down an Su-30MKI stating that its impossible to hide an aircraft crash as of now in populated area like Kashmir and said its a coverup for the loss of F16. While the downed MiG-21's pilot had ejected successfully, he landed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and was captured by the Pakistan military. Before his capture he was assaulted by a few locals. After a couple of days of captivity, the captured pilot was released by Pakistan per Third Geneva convention obligations. While Pakistan denied involvement of any of its F-16 aircraft in the strike, the IAF presented remnants of AMRAAM missiles that are only carried by the F-16s within the PAF as proof of their involvement. Unnamed US officials told Foreign Policy magazine in April 2019 that an audit didn't find any Pakistani F-16s missing. However, this was not confirmed by the United States, which cited it as bilateral matter between US and Pakistan.
Structure
The President of India is the Supreme Commander of all Indian armed forces and by virtue of that fact is the national Commander-in-chief of the Air Force. The Chief of the Air Staff with the rank of Air chief marshal is the Commander
In January 2002, the government conferred the rank of Marshal of the Indian Air Force on Arjan Singh making him the first and only Five-star officer with the Indian Air Force and ceremonial chief of the air force.
Commands
The Indian Air Force is divided into five operational and two functional commands. Each Command is headed by an Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief with the rank of Air Marshal. The purpose of an operational command is to conduct military operations using aircraft within its area of responsibility, whereas the responsibility of functional commands is to maintain combat readiness. Aside from the Training Command at Bangalore, the primary flight training is done at the Air Force Academy (located in Hyderabad), followed by operational training at various other schools. Advanced officer training for command positions is also conducted at the Defence Services Staff College; specialised advanced flight training schools are located at Bidar, Karnataka and Hakimpet, Telangana (also the location for helicopter training). Technical schools are found at a number of other locations.
Note: + = Functional Command
Wings
A wing is a formation intermediate between a command and a squadron. It generally consists of two or three IAF squadrons and helicopter units, along with forward base support units (FBSU). FBSUs do not have or host any squadrons or helicopter units but act as transit airbases for routine operations. In times of war, they can become fully fledged air bases playing host to various squadrons. In all, about 47 wings and 19 FBSUs make up the IAF. Wings are typically commanded by an air commodore.
Stations
Within each operational command are anywhere from nine to sixteen bases or stations. Smaller than wings, but similarly organised, stations are static units commanded by a group captain. A station typically has one wing and one or two squadrons assigned to it.
Squadrons and units
Squadrons are the field units and formations attached to static locations. Thus, a flying squadron or unit is a sub-unit of an air force station which carries out the primary task of the IAF. A fighter squadron consists of 18 aircraft; all fighter squadrons are headed by a commanding officer with the rank of wing commander. Some transport squadrons and helicopter units are headed by a commanding officer with the rank of group captain.
Flights
Flights are sub-divisions of squadrons, commanded by a squadron leader. Each flight consists of two sections.
Sections
The smallest unit is the section, led by a flight lieutenant. Each section consists of three aircraft.
Within this formation structure, IAF has several service branches for day-to-day operations. They are:
Garud Commando Force
The Garud commandos are the special forces of the Indian Air Force (IAF). Their tasks include counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, providing security to IAF's vulnerably located assets and various air force-specific special operations. First conceived in 2002, this unit was officially established on February 6, 2004.
All Garuds are volunteers who are imparted a 52-week basic training, which includes a three-month probation followed by special operations training, basic airborne training and other warfare and survival skills. The last phase of basic training sees Garuds been deployed to get combat experience. Advanced training follows, which includes specialised weapons training.
The mandated tasks of the Garuds include direct action, special reconnaissance, rescuing downed pilots in hostile territory, establishing airbases in hostile territory and providing air-traffic control to these airbases. The Garuds also undertake suppression of enemy air defences and the destruction of other enemy assets such as radars, evaluation of the outcomes of Indian airstrikes and use laser designators to guide Indian airstrikes.
The security of IAF installations and assets are usually performed by the Air Force Police and the Defence Security Corps even though some critical assets are protected by the Garuds.
Integrated Space Cell
An Integrated Space Cell, which will be jointly operated by all the three services of the Indian armed forces, the civilian Department of Space and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been set up to utilise more effectively the country's space-based assets for military purposes. This command will leverage space technology including satellites. Unlike an aerospace command, where the air force controls most of its activities, the Integrated Space Cell envisages co-operation and co-ordination between the three services as well as civilian agencies dealing with space.
India currently has 10 remote sensing satellites in orbit. Though most are not meant to be dedicated military satellites, some have a spatial resolution of or below which can be also used for military applications. Noteworthy satellites include the Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) which has a panchromatic camera (PAN) with a resolution of , the RISAT-2 which is capable of imaging in all-weather conditions and has a resolution of , the CARTOSAT-2, CARTOSAT-2A and CARTOSAT-2B which carries a panchromatic camera which has a resolution of (black and white only). The Integrated Space Cell was superseded by the Defence Space Agency in 2019.
Display teams
The Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT) (Surya Kiran is Sanskrit for Sun Rays) is an aerobatics demonstration team of the Indian Air Force. They were formed in 1996 and are successors to the Thunderbolts. The team has a total of 13 pilots (selected from the fighter stream of the IAF) and operate 9 HAL HJT-16 Kiran Mk.2 trainer aircraft painted in a "day-glo orange" and white colour scheme. The Surya Kiran team were conferred squadron status in 2006, and presently have the designation of 52 Squadron ("The Sharks"). The team is based at the Indian Air Force Station at Bidar. The IAF has begun the process of converting Surya Kirans to BAE Hawks.
Sarang (Sanskrit for Peacock) is the Helicopter Display Team of the Indian Air Force. The team was formed in October 2003 and their first public performance was at the Asian Aerospace Show, Singapore, 2004. The team flies four HAL Dhruvs painted in red and white with a peacock figure at each side of the fuselage. The team is based at the Sulur Air Force Station, Coimbatore.
Personnel
Over the years reliable sources provided notably divergent estimates of the personnel strength of the Indian Air Force after analysing open-source intelligence. In 2006, Anthony Cordesman estimated that strength to be 170,000 in the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) publication "The Asian Conventional Military Balance in 2006". In 2010, James Hackett revised that estimate to an approximate strength of 127,000 active personnel in the IISS publication "Military Balance 2010".
, the Indian Air Force has a sanctioned strength of 12,550 officers (12,404 serving with 146 under strength), and 142,529 airmen (127,172 serving with 15,357 under strength).
Rank structure
The rank structure of the Indian Air Force is based on that of the Royal Air Force. The highest rank attainable in the IAF is Marshal of the Indian Air Force, conferred by the President of India after exceptional service during wartime. MIAF Arjan Singh is the only officer to have achieved this rank. The head of the Indian Air Force is the Chief of the Air Staff, who holds the rank of Air Chief Marshal.
Officers
Anyone holding Indian citizenship can apply to be an officer in the Air Force as long as they satisfy the eligibility criteria. There are four entry points to become an officer. Male applicants, who are between the ages of 16 and 19 and have passed high school graduation, can apply at the Intermediate level. Men and women applicants, who have graduated from college (three-year course) and are between the ages of 18 and 28, can apply at the Graduate level entry. Graduates of engineering colleges can apply at the Engineer level if they are between the ages of 18 and 28 years. The age limit for the flying and ground duty branch is 23 years of age and for technical branch is 28 years of age. After completing a master's degree, men and women between the ages of 18 and 28 years can apply at the Post Graduate level. Post graduate applicants do not qualify for the flying branch. For the technical branch the age limit is 28 years and for the ground duty branch it is 25. At the time of application, all applicants below 25 years of age must be single. The IAF selects candidates for officer training from these applicants. After completion of training, a candidate is commissioned as a Flying Officer.
In May 2022 Abhilasha Barak became the first ever woman combat aviator in the Indian Army
Airmen
The duty of an airman is to make sure that all the air and ground operations run smoothly. From operating Air Defence systems to fitting missiles, they are involved in all activities of an air base and give support to various technical and non-technical jobs. The airmen of Technical trades are responsible for maintenance, repair and prepare for use the propulsion system of aircraft and other airborne weapon delivery system, Radar, Voice/Data transmission and reception equipment, latest airborne weapon delivery systems, all types of light, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic systems of airborne missiles, aero engines, aircraft fuelling equipment and heavy duty mechanical vehicles, cranes and loading equipment etc. The competent and qualified Airmen from Technical trades also participate in flying as Flight Engineers, Flight Signallers and Flight Gunners. The recruitment of personnel below officer rank is conducted through All India Selection Tests and Recruitment Rallies. All India Selection Tests are conducted among 15 Airmen Selection Centres (ASCs) located all over India. These centres are under the direct functional control of Central Airmen Selection Board (CASB), with administrative control and support by respective commands. The role of CASB is to carry out selection and enrolment of airmen from the Airmen Selection Centres for their respective commands. Candidates initially take a written test at the time of application. Those passing the written test undergo a physical fitness test, an interview conducted in English, and medical examination. Candidates for training are selected from individuals passing the battery of tests, on the basis of their performance. Upon completion of training, an individual becomes an Airman. Some MWOs and WOs are granted honorary commission in the last year of their service as an honorary Flying Officer or Flight Lieutenant before retiring from the service.
Honorary officers
Sachin Tendulkar was the first sportsperson and the first civilian without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of group captain by the Indian Air Force.
Non combatants enrolled and civilians
Non combatants enrolled (NCs(E)) were established in British India as personal assistants to the officer class, and are equivalent to the orderly or sahayak of the Indian Army.
Almost all the commands have some percentage of civilian strength which are central government employees. These are regular ranks which are prevalent in ministries. They are usually not posted outside their stations and are employed in administrative and non-technical work.
Training and education
The Indian Armed Forces have set up numerous military academies across India for training its personnel, such as the National Defence Academy (NDA). Besides the tri-service institutions, the Indian Air Force has a Training Command and several training establishments. While technical and other support staff are trained at various Ground Training Schools, the pilots are trained at the Air Force Academy, Dundigul (located in Hyderabad). The Pilot Training Establishment at Allahabad, the Air Force Administrative College at Coimbatore, the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at Bangalore, the Air Force Technical College, Bangalore at Jalahalli, the Tactics and Air Combat and Defence Establishment at Gwalior, and the Paratrooper's Training School at Agra are some of the other training establishments of the IAF.
Aircraft inventory
The Indian Air Force has aircraft and equipment of Russian (erstwhile Soviet Union), British, French, Israeli, US and Indian origins with Russian aircraft dominating its inventory. HAL produces some of the Russian and British aircraft in India under licence. The exact number of aircraft in service with the Indian Air Force cannot be determined with precision from open sources. Various reliable sources provide notably divergent estimates for a variety of high-visibility aircraft. Flight International estimates there to be around 1,750 aircraft in service with the IAF, while the International Institute for Strategic Studies provides a similar estimate of 1,850 aircraft. Both sources agree there are approximately 900 combat capable (fighter, attack etc.) aircraft in the IAF.
Multi-role fighters and strike aircraft
Dassault Rafale: the latest addition to India's aircraft arsenal; India has signed a deal for 36 Dassault Rafale multirole fighter aircraft. As of June 2022, 36 Rafale fighters are in service with the Indian Air Force.
Sukhoi Su-30MKI: the IAF's primary air superiority fighter, with additional air-to-ground (strike) mission capability, is the Sukhoi Su-30MKI. 260 Su-30MKIs are in service.
Mikoyan MiG-29: the MiG-29, known as Baaz (Hindi for Hawk), is a dedicated air superiority fighter, constituting the IAF's second line of defence after the Su-30MKI. There are 69 MiG-29s in service, all of which have been recently upgraded to the MiG-29UPG standard, after the decision was made in 2016 to upgrade the remaining 21 MiG-29s to the UPG standard.
Dassault Mirage 2000: the Mirage 2000, known as Vajra (Sanskrit for diamond or thunderbolt) in Indian service. The IAF currently operates 49 Mirage 2000Hs and 8 Mirage 2000 TH all of which are currently being upgraded to the Mirage 2000-5 MK2 standard with Indian specific modifications and 2 Mirage 2000-5 MK2 are in service . The IAF's Mirage 2000 are scheduled to be phased out by 2030.
HAL Tejas: IAF MiG-21s are to be replaced by domestically built HAL Tejas. The first Tejas IAF unit, No. 45 Squadron IAF Flying Daggers, was formed on 1 July 2016, followed by No. 18 Squadron IAF "Flying Bullets" on 27 May 2020. Initially stationed at Bangalore, the first squadron was then to be transferred to its home base in Sulur, Tamil Nadu. In February 2021, the Indian Air Force ordered 83 Tejas, including 40 Mark 1, 73 single-seat Mark 1As and 10 two-seat Mark 1 trainers. Total 123 ordered.
SEPECAT Jaguar: the Jaguar, known as the Shamsher, serves as the IAF's primary ground attack force. The IAF currently operates 139 Jaguars. The first batch of DARIN-1 Jaguars are now going through a DARIN-3 upgrade being equipped with EL/M-2052 AESA radars, and an improved jamming suite plus new avionics. These aircraft are scheduled to be phased out by 2030.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21: the MiG-21 serves as an interceptor aircraft in the IAF, which phased out most of its MiG-21s and planned to keep only the 125 aircraft upgraded to the MiG-21 Bison standard. The phase-out date for these interceptors has been postponed several times. Initially set for 2014–2017, it was later postponed to 2019. Current phase-out is scheduled for 2021–2022.
Airborne early warning and control system
The IAF operates three Netra Embraer ERJ 145I aircraft. The IAF also operates the EL/W-2090 Phalcon AEW&C incorporated in a Beriev A-50 platform. A total of three such systems are currently in service, with two further potential orders. India is also investing in a DRDO project to develop six new Airborne AEW&C aircraft, as an upgrade to the Netra systems.
Aerial refuelling
The IAF currently operates six Ilyushin Il-78MKIs in the aerial refueling (tanker) role.
Transport aircraft
For strategic airlift operations, the IAF uses the Ilyushin Il-76, known as Gajraj (Hindi for King Elephant) in Indian service. The IAF operated 17 Il-76s in 2010, which are in the process of being replaced by C-17 Globemaster IIIs.
IAF C-130Js are used by special forces for combined Army-Air Force operations. India purchased six C-130Js; however, one crashed at Gwalior on 28 March 2014 while on a training mission, killing all 5 on board and destroying the aircraft. The Antonov An-32, known in Indian service as the Sutlej (named after Sutlej River), serves as a medium transport aircraft in the IAF. The aircraft is also used in bombing roles and paradropping operations. The IAF currently operates 105 An-32s, all of which are being upgraded. The IAF operates 53 Dornier 228 to fulfil its light transport duties. The IAF also operates Boeing 737s and Embraer ECJ-135 Legacy aircraft as VIP transports and passenger airliners for troops. 2 specially modified Boeing 777 are used for both the Indian President and Prime Minister under the call sign Air India One.
The Hawker Siddeley HS 748 once formed the backbone of the IAF's transport fleet, but are now used mainly for training and communication duties. A replacement is under consideration.
Trainer aircraft
The HAL HPT-32 Deepak is IAF's basic flight training aircraft for cadets. The HPT-32 was grounded in July 2009 following a crash that killed two senior flight instructors, but was revived in May 2010 and is to be fitted with a parachute recovery system (PRS) to enhance survivability during an emergency in the air and to bring the trainer down safely. The HPT-32 is to be phased out soon. initially by 75 trainers Pilatus aircraft, and followed by 70 HTT-40 trainers. 36 more HTT-40s to be ordered once fleet is operational. The IAF uses the HAL HJT-16 Kiran mk.I for intermediate flight training of cadets, while the HJT-16 Kiran mk.II provides advanced flight and weapons training. The HAL HJT-16 Kiran Mk.2 is also operated by the Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT) of the IAF. The Kiran is to be replaced by the HAL HJT-36 Sitara. The BAE Hawk Mk 132 serves as an advanced jet trainer in the IAF and is progressively replacing the Kiran Mk.II. The IAF has begun the process of converting the Surya Kiran display team to Hawks. A total of 106 BAE Hawk trainers have been ordered by the IAF of which 39 have entered service . IAF also ordered 72 Pipistrel Virus SW 80 microlight aircraft for basic training purpose.
Helicopters
The HAL Dhruv serves primarily as a light utility helicopter in the IAF. In addition to transport and utility roles, newer Dhruvs are also used as attack helicopters. Four Dhruvs are also operated by the Indian Air Force Sarang Helicopter Display Team. The HAL Chetak is a light utility helicopter and is used primarily for training, rescue and light transport roles in the IAF. The HAL Chetak is being gradually replaced by HAL Dhruv. The HAL Cheetah is a light utility helicopter used for high altitude operations. It is used for both transport and search-and-rescue missions in the IAF.
The Mil Mi-8 and the Mil Mi-17, Mi-17 1V and Mi-17V 5 are operated by the IAF for medium lift strategic and utility roles. The Mi-8 is being progressively replaced by the Mi-17 series of helicopters. The IAF has ordered 22 Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, 68 HAL Light Combat Helicopters (LCH), 35 HAL Rudra attack helicopters, 15 CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters and 150 Mi-17V-5s to replace and augment its existing fleet of Mi-8s, Mi-17s, and Mi-24s. The Mil Mi-26 serves as a heavy lift helicopter in the IAF. It can also be used to transport troops or as a flying ambulance. The IAF currently operates three Mi-26s.
The Mil Mi-35 serves primarily as an attack helicopter in the IAF. The Mil Mi-35 can also act as a low-capacity troop transport. The IAF currently operates two squadrons (No. 104 Firebirds and No. 125 Gladiators) of Mi-25/35s.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
The IAF currently uses the IAI Searcher II and IAI Heron for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes. The IAI Harpy serves as an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) which is designed to attack radar systems. The IAF also operates the DRDO Lakshya which serves as realistic towed aerial sub-targets for live fire training.
Land-based missile systems
Surface-To-Air Missiles
The air force operates twenty-five squadrons of S-125 Pechora, six squadrons of 9K33 Osa-AK, ten flights of 9K38 Igla-1, thirteen squadrons of Akash along with eighteen squadron of SPYDER for air defence. Two squadrons of Akash were on order. IAF and Indian Army has both placed the order of 1,000 kit of MRSAM.
Ballistic missiles
The IAF currently operates the Prithvi-II short-range ballistic missile (SRBM). The Prithvi-II is an IAF-specific variant of the Prithvi ballistic missile.
Future
The number of aircraft in the IAF has been decreasing from the late 1990s due to the retirement of older aircraft and several crashes. To deal with the depletion of force levels, the IAF has started to modernise its fleet. This includes both the upgrade of existing aircraft, equipment and infrastructure as well as induction of new aircraft and equipment, both indigenous and imported. As new aircraft enter service and numbers recover, the IAF plans to have a fleet of 42 squadrons.
Expected future acquisitions
Single-engined fighter
On 3 January 2017, Minister of Defence Manohar Parrikar addressed a media conference and announced plans for a competition to select a Strategic Partner to deliver "... 200 new single engine fighters to be made in India, which will easily cost around (USD)$45 million apiece without weaponry" with an expectation that Lockheed Martin (USA) and Saab (Sweden) will pitch the F-16 Block 70 and Gripen, respectively. An MoD official said that a global tender will be put to market in the first quarter of 2018, with a private company nominated as the strategic partners production agency followed by a two or more year process to evaluate technical and financial bids and conduct trials, before the final government-to-government deal in 2021. This represents 11 squadrons of aircraft plus several 'attrition' aircraft. India is also planning to set up an assembly line of American Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon Block 70 in Bengaluru. It is not yet confirmed whether IAF will induct these aircraft or not.
In 2018, the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave the go ahead to scale up the manufacturing of Tejas at HAL and also to export Tejas. She is quoted saying "We are not ditching the LCA. We have not gone for anything instead of Tejas. We are very confident that Tejas Mark II will be a big leap forward to fulfil the single engine fighter requirement of the forces.". IAF committed to buy 201 Mark-II variant of the Tejas taking the total order of Tejas to 324. The government also scrapped the plan to import single engine fighters leading to reduction in reliance on imports thereby strengthening the domestic defence industry.
The IAF also submitted a request for information to international suppliers for a stealth unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV).
Current acquisitions
The IAF has placed orders for 123 HAL Tejas comprising 40 Mark 1, 73 Mark 1A fighters and 10 Mark 1 trainers, 106 basic trainer aircraft HAL HTT-40, 75 Pilatus PC-7MkII basic trainers, 72 HAL HJT-36 Sitara trainers, 65 HAL Light Combat Helicopters, 6 Airbus A330 MRTT, 56 EADS CASA C-295 aircraft, IAI Harop UCAVs. and TAPAS-BH-201 MALE UAV's.
DRDO and HAL projects
Indian defence company HAL and Defense Research Organization DRDO are developing several aircraft for the IAF such as the HAL Tejas Mk2, HAL TEDBF (naval aircraft), HAL AMCA (5th generation aircraft), NAL Saras, HAL HJT-36 Sitara, HAL HTT-40, HAL Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), DRDO Rustom and DRDO Ghatak UCAV. DRDO has developed the Akash missile system for the IAF and also developed the Prithvi II ballistic missile.
HAL is also close to develop its own fifth generation fighter aircraft HAL AMCA which will be inducted by 2028. DRDO has entered in a joint venture with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to develop the Barak 8 SAM. Akash-NG is also being developed by DRDO which will be the same range of Barak 8. DRDO is developing the air-launched version of the BrahMos cruise missile in a joint venture with Russia's NPO Mashinostroeyenia. DRDO has now successfully developed the nuclear capable Nirbhay cruise missile.
DRDO and HAL has also engaged in the unmanned combat system. According to this, HAL will develop the whole family of unmanned aircraft by the end of 2024–25
Network-centric warfare
The Air Force Network (AFNET), a robust digital information grid that enabled quick and accurate threat responses, was launched in 2010, helping the IAF become a truly network-centric air force. AFNET is a secure communication network linking command and control centres with offensive aircraft, sensor platforms and ground missile batteries. Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), an automated system for Air Defence operations will ride the AFNet backbone integrating ground and airborne sensors, weapon systems and command and control nodes. Subsequent integration with civil radar and other networks shall provide an integrated Air Situation Picture, and reportedly acts as a force multiplier for intelligence analysis, mission control, and support activities like maintenance and logistics. The design features multiple layers of security measures, including encryption and intrusion prevention technologies, to hinder and deter espionage efforts.
See also
List of Indian Air Force Gallantry Award Winners
List of Indian Army Gallantry Award Winners
List of historical aircraft of the Indian Air Force
Indian Air Force Football Team
References
Bibliography
External links
Defence agencies of India
Military units and formations established in 1932
1931 establishments in India
Military history of India during World War II
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Radeon
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Radeon () is a brand of computer products, including graphics processing units, random-access memory, RAM disk software, and solid-state drives, produced by Radeon Technologies Group, a division of AMD. The brand was launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006 for US$5.4 billion.
Radeon Graphics
Radeon Graphics is the successor to the Rage line. Three different families of microarchitectures can be roughly distinguished, the fixed-pipeline family, the unified shader model-families of TeraScale and Graphics Core Next. ATI/AMD have developed different technologies, such as TruForm, HyperMemory, HyperZ, XGP, Eyefinity for multi-monitor setups, PowerPlay for power-saving, CrossFire (for multi-GPU) or Hybrid Graphics. A range of SIP blocks is also to be found on certain models in the Radeon products line: Unified Video Decoder, Video Coding Engine and TrueAudio.
The brand was previously only known as "ATI Radeon" until August 2010, when it was renamed to increase AMD's brand awareness on a global scale. Products up to and including the HD 5000 series are branded as ATI Radeon, while the HD 6000 series and beyond use the new AMD Radeon branding.
On 11 September 2015, AMD's GPU business was split into a separate unit known as Radeon Technologies Group, with Raja Koduri as Senior Vice President and chief architect.
Radeon Graphics card brands
AMD does not distribute Radeon cards directly to consumers (though some exceptions can be found). Instead, it sells Radeon GPUs to third-party manufacturers, who build and sell the Radeon-based video cards to the OEM and retail channels. Manufacturers of the Radeon cards—some of whom also make motherboards—include ASRock, Asus, Biostar, Club 3D, Diamond, Force3D, Gainward, Gigabyte, HIS, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire, VisionTek, and XFX.
Graphics processor generations
Early generations were identified with a number and major/minor alphabetic prefix. Later generations were assigned code names. New or heavily redesigned architectures have a prefix of R (e.g., R300 or R600) while slight modifications are indicated by the RV prefix (e.g., RV370 or RV635).
The first derivative architecture, RV200, did not follow the scheme used by later parts.
Fixed-pipeline family
R100/RV200
The Radeon, first introduced in 2000, was ATI's first graphics processor to be fully DirectX 7 compliant. R100 brought with it large gains in bandwidth and fill-rate efficiency through the new HyperZ technology.
The RV200 was a die-shrink of the former R100 with some core logic tweaks for clockspeed, introduced in 2002. The only release in this generation was the Radeon 7500, which introduced little in the way of new features but offered substantial performance improvements over its predecessors.
R200
ATI's second generation Radeon included a sophisticated pixel shader architecture. This chipset implemented Microsoft's pixel shader 1.4 specification for the first time.
Its performance relative to competitors was widely perceived as weak, and subsequent revisions of this generation were cancelled in order to focus on development of the next generation.
R300/R350
The R300 was the first GPU to fully support Microsoft's DirectX 9.0 technology upon its release in 2001. It incorporated fully programmable pixel and vertex shaders.
About a year later, the architecture was revised to allow for higher frequencies, more efficient memory access, and several other improvements in the R350 family. A budget line of RV350 products was based on this refreshed design with some elements disabled or removed.
Models using the new PCI Express interface were introduced in 2004. Using 110-nm and 130-nm manufacturing technologies under the X300 and X600 names, respectively, the RV370 and RV380 graphics processors were used extensively by consumer PC manufacturers.
R420
While heavily based upon the previous generation, this line included extensions to the Shader Model 2 feature-set. Shader Model 2b, the specification ATI and Microsoft defined with this generation, offered somewhat more shader program flexibility.
R520
ATI's DirectX 9.0c series of graphics cards, with complete shader Model 3.0 support. Launched in October 2005, this series brought a number of enhancements including the floating point render target technology necessary for HDR rendering with anti-aliasing.
TeraScale-family
R600
ATI's first series of GPUs to replace the old fixed-pipeline and implement unified shader model. Subsequent revisions tuned the design for higher performance and energy efficiency, resulting in the ATI Mobility Radeon HD series for mobile computers.
R700
Based on the R600 architecture. Mostly a bolstered with many more stream processors, with improvements to power consumption and GDDR5 support for the high-end RV770 and RV740(HD4770) chips. It arrived in late June 2008. The HD 4850 and HD 4870 have 800 stream processors and GDDR3 and GDDR5 memory, respectively. The 4890 was a refresh of 4870 with the same amount of stream processors yet higher clock rates due to refinements. The 4870x2 has 1600 stream processors and GDDR5 memory on an effective 512-bit memory bus with 230.4 Gbit/s video memory bandwidth available.
Evergreen
The series was launched on 23 September 2009. It featured a 40 nm fabrication process for the entire product line (only the HD4770 (RV740) was built on this process previously), with more stream cores and compatibility with the next major version of the DirectX API, DirectX 11, which launched on 22 October 2009 along with Microsoft Windows 7. The Rxxx/RVxxx codename scheme was scrapped entirely. The initial launch consisted of only the 5870 and 5850 models. ATI released beta drivers that introduced full OpenGL 4.0 support on all variants of this series in March 2010.
Northern Islands
This is the first series to be marketed solely under the "AMD" brand. It features a 3rd generation 40 nm design, rebalancing the existing architecture with redesigned shaders to give it better performance. It was released first on 22 October 2010, in the form of the 6850 and 6870. 3D output is enabled with HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2 outputs.
Graphics Core Next-family
Southern Islands
"Southern Islands" was the first series to feature the new compute microarchitecture known as "Graphics Core Next"(GCN). GCN was used among the higher end cards, while the VLIW5 architecture utilized in the previous generation was used in the lower end, OEM products. However, the Radeon HD 7790 uses GCN 2, and was the first product in the series to be released by AMD on 9 January 2012.
Sea Islands
The "Sea Islands" were OEM rebadges of the 7000 series, with only three products, code named Oland, available for general retail. The series, just like the "Southern Islands", used a mixture of VLIW5 models and GCN models for its desktop products.
Volcanic Islands
"Volcanic Islands" GPUs were introduced with the AMD Radeon Rx 200 Series, and were first released in late 2013. The Radeon Rx 200 line is mainly based on AMD's GCN architecture, with the lower end, OEM cards still using VLIW5. The majority of desktop products use GCN 1, while the R9 290x/290 & R7 260X/260 use GCN 2, and with only the R9 285 using the new GCN 3.
Caribbean Islands
GPUs codenamed "Caribbean Islands" were introduced with the AMD Radeon Rx 300 Series, released in 2015. This series was the first to solely use GCN based models, ranging from GCN 1st to GCN 3rd Gen, including the GCN 3-based Fiji-architecture models named Fury X, Fury, Nano and the Radeon Pro Duo.
Arctic Islands
GPUs codenamed "Arctic Islands" were first introduced with the Radeon RX 400 Series in June 2016 with the announcement of the RX 480. These cards were the first to use the new Polaris chips which implements GCN 4th Gen on the 14 nm fab process. The RX 500 Series released in April 2017 also uses Polaris chips.
Vega
RDNA-family
RDNA 1
On 27 May 2019, at COMPUTEX 2019, AMD announced the new 'RDNA' graphics micro-architecture, which is to succeed the Graphics Core Next micro-architecture. This is the basis for the Radeon RX 5700-series graphics cards, the first to be built under the codename 'Navi'. These cards feature GDDR6 SGRAM and support for PCI Express 4.0.
RDNA 2
On 5 March 2020, AMD publicly announced its plan to release a "refresh" of the RDNA micro-architecture. Dubbed as the RDNA 2 architecture, it was stated to succeed the first-gen RDNA micro-architecture and was initially scheduled for a release in Q4 2020. RDNA 2 was confirmed as the graphics microarchitecture featured in the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles from Microsoft, and PlayStation 5 from Sony, with proprietary tweaks and different GPU configurations in each systems' implementation.
AMD unveiled the Radeon RX 6000 series, its next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards at an online event on 28 October 2020. The lineup consists of the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT. The RX 6800 and 6800 XT launched on 18 November 2020, with the RX 6900 XT being released on 8 December 2020. Further variants including a Radeon RX 6700 (XT) series based on Navi 22, launched on 18 March 2021, a Radeon RX 6600(XT) series based on Navi 23, launched on 11 August 2021 (that is the 6600XT release date, the RX 6600 launched on 13 October 2021), and a Radeon RX 6500(XT), launched on 19 January 2022.
API overview
Some generations vary from their predecessors predominantly due to architectural improvements, while others were adapted primarily to new manufacturing processes with fewer functional changes. The table below summarizes the APIs supported in each Radeon generation. Also see AMD FireStream and AMD FirePro branded products.
Feature overview
Graphics device drivers
AMD's proprietary graphics "Radeon Software" (Formerly Catalyst)
On 24 November 2015, AMD released a new version of their graphics driver following the formation of the Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) to provide extensive software support for their graphics cards. This driver, labelled Radeon Software Crimson Edition, overhauls the UI with Qt, resulting in better responsiveness from a design and system perspective. It includes a new interface featuring a game manager, clocking tools, and sections for different technologies.
Unofficial modifications such as Omega drivers and DNA drivers were available. These drivers typically consist of mixtures of various driver file versions with some registry variables altered and are advertised as offering superior performance or image quality. They are, of course, unsupported, and as such, are not guaranteed to function correctly. Some of them also provide modified system files for hardware enthusiasts to run specific graphics cards outside of their specifications.
On operating systems
Radeon Software is being developed for Microsoft Windows and Linux. , other operating systems are not officially supported. This may be different for the AMD FirePro brand, which is based on identical hardware but features OpenGL-certified graphics device drivers.
ATI previously offered driver updates for their retail and integrated Macintosh video cards and chipsets. ATI stopped support for Mac OS 9 after the Radeon R200 cards, making the last officially supported card the Radeon 9250. The Radeon R100 cards up to the Radeon 7200 can still be used with even older classic Mac OS versions such as System 7, although not all features are taken advantage of by the older operating system.
Ever since ATI's acquisition by AMD, ATI no longer supplies or supports drivers for classic Mac OS nor macOS. macOS drivers can be downloaded from Apple's support website, while classic Mac OS drivers can be obtained from 3rd party websites that host the older drivers for users to download. ATI used to provide a preference panel for use in macOS called ATI Displays which can be used both with retail and OEM versions of its cards. Though it gives more control over advanced features of the graphics chipset, ATI Displays has limited functionality compared to Catalyst for Windows or Linux.
Third-party free and open-source "Radeon"
The free and open-source for Direct Rendering Infrastructure has been under constant development by the Linux kernel developers, by 3rd party programming enthusiasts and by AMD employees. It is composed out of five parts:
Linux kernel component DRM
this part received dynamic re-clocking support in Linux kernel version 3.12 and its performance has become comparable to that of AMD Catalyst
Linux kernel component KMS driver: basically the device driver for the display controller
user-space component libDRM
user-space component in Mesa 3D; currently most of these components are written conforming to the Gallium3D-specifications.
all drivers in Mesa 3D with Version 10.x (last 10.6.7) are as of September 2014 limited to OpenGL version 3.3 and OpenGL ES 3.0.
all drivers in Mesa 3D with Version 11.x (last 11.2.2) are as of Mai 2016 limited to OpenGL version 4.1 and OpenGL ES 3.0 or 3.1 (11.2+).
all drivers in Mesa 3D with version 12.x (in June 2016) can support OpenGL version 4.3.
all drivers in Mesa 3D with Version 13.0.x ( in November 2016) can support OpenGL 4.4 and unofficial 4.5.
all drivers in Mesa 3D with Version 17.0.x ( in January 2017) can support OpenGL 4.5 and OpenGL ES 3.2
Actual Hardware Support for different MESA versions see: glxinfo
AMD R600/700 since Mesa 10.1: OpenGL 3.3+, OpenGL ES 3.0+ (+: some more Features of higher Levels and Mesa Version)
AMD R800/900 (Evergreen, Northern Islands): OpenGL 4.1+ (Mesa 13.0+), OpenGL ES 3.0+ (Mesa 10.3+)
AMD GCN (Southern/Sea Islands and newer): OpenGL 4.5+ (Mesa 17.0+), OpenGL ES 3.2+ (Mesa 18.0+), Vulkan 1.0 (Mesa 17.0+), Vulkan 1.1 (GCN 2nd Gen+, Mesa 18.1+)
a special and distinct 2D graphics device driver for X.Org Server, which is finally about to be replaced by Glamor
OpenCL with GalliumCompute (previous Clover) is not full developed in 1.0, 1.1 and only parts of 1.2. Some OpenCL conformance tests were failed in 1.0 and 1.1, most in 1.2. ROCm is developed by AMD and Open Source. OpenCL 1.2 is full supported with OpenCL 2.0 language. Only CPU or GCN-Hardware with PCIe 3.0 is supported. So GCN 3rd Gen. or higher is here full usable for OpenCL 1.2 software.
Supported features
The free and open-source driver supports many of the features available in Radeon-branded cards and APUs, such as multi-monitor or hybrid graphics.
Linux
The free and open-source drivers are primarily developed on Linux and for Linux.
Other operating systems
Being entirely free and open-source software, the free and open-source drivers can be ported to any existing operating system. Whether they have been, and to what extent depends entirely on the man-power available. Available support shall be referenced here.
FreeBSD adopted DRI, and since Mesa 3D is not programmed for Linux, it should have identical support.
MorphOS supports 2D and 3D acceleration for Radeon R100, R200 and R300 chipsets.
AmigaOS 4 supports Radeon R100, R200, R300, R520 (X1000 Series), R700 (HD 4000 Series), HD 5000 (Evergreen) series, HD 6000 (Northern Islands) series and HD 7000 (Southern Islands) series. The RadeonHD AmigaOS 4 driver has been developed by Hans de Ruiter funded and owned by A-EON Technology Ltd. The older R100 and R200 "ATIRadeon" driver for AmigaOS, originally developed Forefront Technologies has been acquired by A-EON Technology Ltd in 2015.
In the past ATI provided hardware and technical documentation to the Haiku Project to produce drivers with full 2D and video in/out support on older Radeon chipsets (up to R500) for Haiku. A new Radeon HD driver was developed with the unofficial and indirect guidance of AMD open source engineers and currently exists in recent Haiku versions. The new Radeon HD driver supports native mode setting on R600 through Southern Islands GPU's.
Embedded GPU products
AMD (and its predecessor ATI) have released a series of embedded GPUs targeted toward medical, entertainment, and display devices.
Radeon Memory
In August 2011, AMD expanded the Radeon name to include random access memory modules under the AMD Memory line. The initial releases included 3 types of 2GiB DDR3 SDRAM modules: Entertainment (1333 MHz, CL9 9-9), UltraPro Gaming (1600 MHz, CL11 11-11) and Enterprise (specs to be determined).
In 2013-05-08, AMD announced the release of Radeon RG2133 Gamer Series Memory.
Radeon R9 2400 Gamer Series Memory was released in 2014-01-16.
Production
Dataram Corporation is manufacturing RAM for AMD.
Radeon RAMDisk
In 2012-09-06, Dataram Corporation announced it has entered into a formal agreement with AMD to develop an AMD-branded version of Dataram's RAMDisk software under the name Radeon RAMDisk, targeting gaming enthusiasts seeking exponential improvements in game load times leading to an enhanced gaming experience. The freeware version of Radeon RAMDisk software supports Windows Vista and later with minimum 4GiB memory, and supports maximum of 4GiB RAM disk (6GiB if AMD Radeon Value, Entertainment, Performance Edition or Products installed, and Radeon RAMDisk is activated between 2012-10-10 and 2013-10-10). Retail version supports RAM disk size between 5MiB to 64GiB.
Version history
Version 4.1 was released in 2013-05-08.
Production
In 2014-04-02, Dataram Corporation announced it has signed an Agreement with Elysium Europe Ltd. to expand sales penetration in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Under this Agreement, Elysium is authorized to sell AMD Radeon RAMDisk software. Elysium is focusing on etailers, retailers, system builders and distributors.
Radeon SSD
AMD planned to enter solid state drive market with the introduction of R7 models powered by Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller and Toshiba 19 nm MLC flash memory, and initially available in 120G, 240G, 480G capacities. The R7 Series SSD was released on 2014-08-09, which included Toshiba's A19 MLC NAND flash memory, Indilinx Barefoot 3 M00 controller. These components are the same as in the SSD OCZ Vector 150 model.
See also
AMD FirePro – brand for professional product line based on Radeon GPUs up to the AMD Radeon Rx 300 series
AMD Radeon Pro – successor to AMD FirePro and launched alongside the AMD Radeon 400 series
AMD FireStream – brand for stream processing and GPGPU based on Radeon GPUs
AMD FireMV – brand for multi-monitor product line based on Radeon GPUs
References
External links
Radeon Technologies Group pages: Radeon Graphics Cards,
AMD Radeon pages: AMD Graphics, Radeon Memory, Radeon RAMDisk
X.Org driver for ATI/AMD Radeon
DRI Wiki: ATI Radeon
Rage3D: Support community for ATI hardware and drivers. News and discussion.
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies products
Graphics cards
Products introduced in 2000
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraph%20%28orthography%29
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Digraph (orthography)
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A digraph or digram (from the , "double" and , "to write") is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined.
Some digraphs represent phonemes that cannot be represented with a single character in the writing system of a language, like in English ship and fish. Other digraphs represent phonemes that can also be represented by single characters. A digraph that shares its pronunciation with a single character may be a relic from an earlier period of the language when the digraph had a different pronunciation, or may represent a distinction that is made only in certain dialects, like the English . Some such digraphs are used for purely etymological reasons, like in English.
In some orthographies, digraphs (and occasionally trigraphs) are considered individual letters, which means that they have their own place in the alphabet and cannot be separated into their constituent places graphemes when sorting, abbreviating, or hyphenating words. Digraphs are used in some Romanization schemes, e.g. as a romanisation of Russian .
The capitalisation of digraphs can vary, e.g. in English is capitalized , while in Dutch is capitalized and word initial in Irish is capitalized .
Digraphs may develop into ligatures, but this is a distinct concept: a ligature involves the graphical fusion of two characters into one, e.g. when and become , e.g. as in French "heart".
Double letters
Digraphs may consist of two different characters (heterogeneous digraphs) or two instances of the same character (homogeneous digraphs). In the latter case, they are generally called double (or doubled) letters.
Doubled vowel letters are commonly used to indicate a long vowel sound. This is the case in Finnish and Estonian, for instance, where represents a longer version of the vowel denoted by , represents a longer version of the vowel denoted by , and so on. In Middle English, the sequences and were used in a similar way, to represent lengthened "e" and "o" sounds respectively; both spellings have been retained in modern English orthography, but the Great Vowel Shift and other historical sound changes mean that the modern pronunciations are quite different from the original ones.
Doubled consonant letters can also be used to indicate a long or geminated consonant sound. In Italian, for example, consonants written double are pronounced longer than single ones. This was the original use of doubled consonant letters in Old English, but during the Middle English and Early Modern English period, phonemic consonant length was lost and a spelling convention developed in which a doubled consonant serves to indicate that a preceding vowel is to be pronounced short. In modern English, for example, the of tapping differentiates the first vowel sound from that of taping. In rare cases, doubled consonant letters represent a true geminate consonant in modern English; this may occur when two instances of the same consonant come from different morphemes, for example in unnatural (un+natural).
In some cases, the sound represented by a doubled consonant letter is distinguished in some other way than length from the sound of the corresponding single consonant letter:
In Welsh and Greenlandic, stands for a voiceless lateral consonant, while in Spanish and Catalan it stands for a palatal consonant.
In several languages of western Europe, including English, French, Portuguese and Catalan, the digraph is used between vowels to represent the voiceless sibilant , since an alone between vowels normally represents the voiced sibilant .
In Spanish, Catalan, and Basque, is used between vowels for the alveolar trill , since an alone between vowels represents an alveolar flap (the two are different phonemes in those languages).
In Spanish, the digraph formerly indicated (a palatal nasal); it developed into the letter ñ.
In Basque, double consonant letters generally mark palatalized versions of the single consonant letter, as in , , . However, is a trill that contrasts with the single-letter flap, as in Spanish, and the palatal version of is written .
In several European writing systems, including the English one, the doubling of the letter or is represented as the heterogeneous digraph instead of or respectively. In native German words, the doubling of , which corresponds to , is replaced by the digraph .
Pan-dialectical digraphs
Some languages have a unified orthography with digraphs that represent distinct pronunciations in different dialects (diaphonemes). For example, in Breton there is a digraph that represents in most dialects, but in Vannetais. Similarly, the Saintongeais dialect of French has a digraph that represents in words that correspond to in standard French. Similarly, Catalan has a digraph that represents in Eastern Catalan, but or in Western Catalan–Valencian.
Split digraphs
The pair of letters making up a phoneme are not always adjacent. This is the case with English silent e. For example, the sequence a_e has the sound in English cake. This is the result of three historical sound changes: cake was originally , the open syllable came to be pronounced with a long vowel, and later the final schwa dropped off, leaving . Later still, the vowel became . There are six such digraphs in English, .
However, alphabets may also be designed with discontinuous digraphs. In the Tatar Cyrillic alphabet, for example, the letter ю is used to write both and . Usually the difference is evident from the rest of the word, but when it is not, the sequence ю...ь is used for , as in юнь 'cheap'.
The Indic alphabets are distinctive for their discontinuous vowels, such as Thai เ...อ in เกอ . Technically, however, they may be considered diacritics, not full letters; whether they are digraphs is thus a matter of definition.
Ambiguous letter sequences
Some letter pairs should not be interpreted as digraphs but appear because of compounding: hogshead and cooperate. They are often not marked in any way and so must be memorized as exceptions. Some authors, however, indicate it either by breaking up the digraph with a hyphen, as in hogs-head, co-operate, or with a trema mark, as in coöperate, but the use of the diaeresis has declined in English within the last century. When it occurs in names such as Clapham, Townshend, and Hartshorne, it is never marked in any way. Positional alternative glyphs may help to disambiguate in certain cases: when round, was used as a final variant of long , and the English digraph resembling would always be .
In romanization of Japanese, the constituent sounds (morae) are usually indicated by digraphs, but some are indicated by a single letter, and some with a trigraph. The case of ambiguity is the syllabic ん, which is written as n (or sometimes m), except before vowels or y where it is followed by an apostrophe as n’. For example, the given name じゅんいちろう is romanized as Jun’ichirō, so that it is parsed as "Jun-i-chi-rou", rather than as "Ju-ni-chi-rou". A similar use of the apostrophe is seen in pinyin where 嫦娥 is written Chang'e because the g belongs to the final (-ang) of the first syllable, not to the initial of the second syllable. Without the apostrophe, Change would be understood as the syllable chan (final -an) followed by the syllable ge (initial g-).
In several Slavic languages, e.g. Czech, double letters may appear in compound words, but they are not considered digraphs. Examples: bezzubý 'toothless', cenný 'valuable', černooký 'black-eyed'.
In alphabetization
In some languages, certain digraphs and trigraphs are counted as distinct letters in themselves, and assigned to a specific place in the alphabet, separate from that of the sequence of characters that composes them, for purposes of orthography and collation. For example:
In the Gaj's Latin alphabet used to write Serbo-Croatian, the digraphs , and , which correspond to the single Cyrillic letters , , , are treated as distinct letters.
In the Czech and Slovak alphabet, is treated as a distinct letter, coming after in the alphabet. Also, in the Slovak alphabet the relatively rare digraphs and are treated as distinct letters.
In the Danish and Norwegian alphabet, the former digraph , where it appears in older names, is sorted as if it were the letter , which replaced it.
In the Norwegian alphabet, there are several digraphs and letter combinations representing an isolated sound.
In the Dutch alphabet, the digraph is sometimes written as a ligature and may be sorted with (in the Netherlands, though not usually in Belgium); however, regardless of where it is used, when a Dutch word starting with 'ij' is capitalized, the entire digraph is capitalized (IJmeer, IJmuiden). Other Dutch digraphs are never treated as single letters.
In Hungarian, the digraphs , , , , , , , , and the trigraph , have their own places in the alphabet (where follows , and follow , etc.)
In Spanish, the digraphs and were formerly treated as distinct letters, but are now split into their constituent letters.
In Welsh, the alphabet includes the digraphs , , , , , , , . However, , and , which represent mutated voiceless consonants, are not treated as distinct letters.
In the romanization of several Slavic countries that use the Cyrillic script, letters like ш, ж, and ч might be written as sh, zh and ch, however sometimes the result of the romanization might modify a letter to be a diacritical letter instead of a digraph.
In Maltese, two digraphs are used, għ which comes right after g, and ie which comes right after i.
Most other languages, including English, French, German, Polish, etc., treat digraphs as combinations of separate letters for alphabetization purposes.
Examples
Latin script
English
English has both homogeneous digraphs (doubled letters) and heterogeneous digraphs (digraphs consisting of two different letters). Those of the latter type include the following:
normally represents (voiceless alveolar fricative - scene) or (voiceless postalveolar fricative - conscious) before or .
represents (velar nasal) as in thing.
usually corresponds to (voiceless postalveolar affricate - church), to (voiceless velar plosive) when used as an etymological digraph in words of Greek origin (christ), less commonly to (voiceless postalveolar fricative) in words of French origin (champagne).
corresponds to as in check.
represents (voiced velar plosive) at the beginning of words (ghost), represents (voiceless labiodental fricative in enough) or is silent at the end of words (sigh).
represents (voiceless labiodental fricative), as in siphon.
represents English in words of Greek origin, such as rhythm.
represents (voiceless postalveolar fricative), as in sheep.
usually represents word-medially before a vowel, as in education.
usually corresponds to (voiceless interdental fricative) in thin or (voiced interdental fricative) in then. See also Pronunciation of English .
represents in some conservative dialects; in other dialects (while); and in a few words in which it is followed by , such as who and whole. See also Phonological history of .
represents in words transliterated from Slavic languages, and in American dictionary pronunciation spelling.
usually appears as before vowels, like in facial and artificial. Otherwise it is as in fancier and icier or as in acid and rancid.
represents . Originally, it stood for a labialized sound, while without was non-labialized, but the distinction has been lost in most dialects, the two sounds merging into a single alveolar approximant, allophonically labialized at the start of syllables, as in red . See also rhotic consonant.
usually represents ; is conventionally followed by and a vowel letter as in quick, with some exceptions.
Digraphs may also be composed of vowels. Some letters are preferred for the first position, others for the second . The latter have allographs in English orthography.
Other languages using the Latin alphabet
In Serbo-Croatian:
corresponds to , (palatal lateral approximant)
corresponds to (palatal nasal)
corresponds to (voiced postalveolar affricate)
Note that in the Cyrillic orthography, those sounds are represented by single letters (љ, њ, џ).
In Czech and Slovak:
corresponds to (voiceless velar fricative), counted as a distinct letter
corresponds to (voiced alveolar affricate), counted as a distinct letter in Slovak, relatively rare digraph
corresponds to (voiced postalveolar affricate), counted as a distinct letter in Slovak, relatively rare digraph
In Danish and Norwegian:
The digraph represented until 1917 in Norway and 1948 in Denmark, but is today spelt . The digraph is still used in older names, but sorted as if it were the letter with the diacritic mark.
In Norwegian, several sounds can be represented only by a digraph or a combination of letters. They are the most common combinations, but extreme regional differences exists, especially those of the eastern dialects. A noteworthy difference is the aspiration of rs in eastern dialects, where it corresponds to skj and sj. Among many young people, especially in the western regions of Norway and in or around the major cities, the difference between ç and ʃ has been completely wiped away and are now pronounced the same.
represents as in ch in German ich or x in México.
represents as in ch in German ich or x in México.
represents as in sh in English she.
represents as in sh in English she.
represents (before i or y) as in sh in English she.
represents as in ng in English thing.
In Catalan:
represents (palatal lateral approximant)
represents (palatal nasal)
represents (post-alveolar trill)
represents (voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant)
represents (voiceless velar plosive)
represents (voiced velar plosive)
postvocalic represents (voiceless postalveolar fricative) in Eastern dialects, in Western dialects it represents /jʃ/.
In Dutch:
corresponds to (see above for its possible status as a separate letter).
represents (velar nasal)
represents (voiceless velar fricative)
represents (voiceless postalveolar fricative)
represents (close front unrounded vowel)
represents (close back rounded vowel)
represents (close-mid front rounded vowel)
In French:
represents (voiceless postalveolar fricative)
represents (palatal nasal)
represents (voiceless velar stop), typically before historic front vowels
{| class="wikitable"
|+ French vocalic digraphs
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See also French phonology.
In German:
represents (voiceless velar fricative) or (voiceless palatal fricative)
represents (voiceless velar plosive)
represents (open front unrounded vowel) followed by (near-close near-front unrounded vowel)
represents (open-mid back rounded vowel) followed by (near-close near-front rounded vowel)
In Hungarian:
represents (voiceless postalveolar affricate)
represents (voiced postalveolar fricative)
represents (voiced palatal plosive)
originally represented (palatal lateral approximant), but in the modern language stands for (palatal approximant)
represents (palatal nasal)
represents (voiceless palatal plosive)
represents (voiced postalveolar affricate)
represents (voiceless alveolar fricative) ( is pronounced )
The Hungarian alphabet additionally contains also a trigraph, .
In Italian:
corresponds to , (voiceless postalveolar fricative) before -i and -e (but to before other letters)
corresponds to (only before i, e)
corresponds to (only before i, e)
represents , palatal lateral approximant, before -i (with some exceptions)
represents (palatal nasal)
In Manx Gaelic, represents , but represents .
In Polish:
corresponds to (voiceless velar fricative)
corresponds to (voiceless retroflex affricate)
corresponds to (voiced alveolar affricate)
corresponds to (voiced alveolo-palatal affricate)
corresponds to (voiced retroflex affricate)
corresponds to (voiced retroflex fricative)
corresponds to (voiceless retroflex fricative)
In Portuguese:
corresponds to (voiceless postalveolar fricative)
corresponds to (palatal lateral approximant)
corresponds to (palatal nasal)
⟨qu⟩ usually represents /k/ (voiceless velar stop)
In Spanish:
is traditionally (but now usually not) pronounced /ʎ/
represents (voiceless postalveolar affricate). Since 2010, neither is considered part of the alphabet. They used to be sorted as separate letters, but a reform in 1994 by the Spanish Royal Academy has allowed that they be split into their constituent letters for collation. The digraph , pronounced as a distinct alveolar trill, was never officially considered to be a letter in the Spanish alphabet, and the same is true and (for /ɡ/ and /k/ respectively before or ).
In Welsh:
represents (velar nasal), the same sound as in English (but in some words is pronounced ).
represents (voiceless uvular fricative)
represents (voiceless alveolar trill), pronounced roughly like the combination hr.
represents (voiceless interdental fricative)
represents (voiced dental fricative), like the English in then (but is pronounced as voiceless in many contexts).
represents (voiceless labiodental fricative), like English , since Welsh is pronounced like an English .
also represents (voiceless labiodental fricative) but, in modern orthography, is used only for the aspirate mutation of words starting with .
represents (voiceless alveolar lateral fricative)
The digraphs listed above represent distinct phonemes and are treated as separate letters for collation purposes. On the other hand, the digraphs , , and the trigraph , which stand for voiceless consonants but occur only at the beginning of words as a result of the nasal mutation, are not treated as separate letters, and thus are not included in the alphabet.
Daighi tongiong pingim, a transcription system used for Taiwanese Hokkien, includes or that represents (mid central vowel) or (close-mid back rounded vowel), as well as other digraphs.
In Yoruba:
is an alphabet, and a plosive most accurately pronounced by trying to say and at the same time.
Cyrillic
Modern Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic alphabet make little use of digraphs apart from for , for (in Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Bulgarian), and and for the uncommon Russian phoneme . In Russian, the sequences and do occur (mainly in loanwords) but are pronounced as combinations of an implosive (sometimes treated as an affricate) and a fricative; implosives are treated as allophones of the plosive /d̪/ and so those sequences are not considered to be digraphs. Cyrillic has few digraphs unless it is used to write non-Slavic languages, especially Caucasian languages.
Arabic script
Because vowels are not generally written, digraphs are rare in abjads like Arabic. For example, if sh were used for š, then the sequence sh could mean either ša or saha. However, digraphs are used for the aspirated and murmured consonants (those spelled with h-digraphs in Latin transcription) in languages of South Asia such as Urdu that are written in the Arabic script by a special form of the letter h, which is used only for aspiration digraphs, as can be seen with the following connecting (kh) and non-connecting (ḍh) consonants:
{|
|Urdu||colspan=2|connecting|| ||colspan=3|non-connecting
|-
|digraph:|| کھا || || ||ڈھا || ||
|-
|sequence: ||کہا |||| ||ڈہا ||||
|}
Armenian
In the Armenian language, the digraph ու transcribes , a convention that comes from Greek.
Georgian
The Georgian alphabet uses a few digraphs to write other languages. For example, in Svan, is written ჳე , and as ჳი .
Greek
Modern Greek has the following digraphs:
αι (ai) represents
ει (ei) represents
οι (oi) represents
ου (oy) represents
υι (yi) represents
They are called "diphthongs" in Greek; in classical times, most of them represented diphthongs, and the name has stuck.
γγ (gg) represents or
τσ (ts) represents the affricate
τζ (tz) represents the affricate
Initial γκ (gk) represents
Initial μπ (mp) represents
Initial ντ (nt) represents
Ancient Greek also had the "diphthongs" listed above although their pronunciation in ancient times is disputed. In addition, Ancient Greek also used the letter γ combined with a velar stop to produce the following digraphs:
γγ (gg) represents
γκ (gk) represents
γχ (gkh) represents
Tsakonian has a few additional digraphs:
ρζ (rz) (historically perhaps a fricative trill)
κχ (kkh) represents
τθ (tth) represents
πφ (pph) represents
σχ (skh) represents
In addition, palatal consonants are indicated with the vowel letter ι, which is, however, largely predictable. When and are not palatalized before ι, they are written νν and λλ.
In Bactrian, the digraphs ββ, δδ, and γγ were used for , , and respectively.
Hebrew
In the Hebrew alphabet, and may sometimes be found for . Modern Hebrew also uses digraphs made with the symbol for non-native sounds: , , ; and other digraphs of letters when it is written without vowels: for a consonantal letter in the middle of a word, and for or , etc., that is, a consonantal letter in places where it might not have been expected. Yiddish has its own tradition of transcription and so uses different digraphs for some of the same sounds: , , , and (literally ) for , , also available as a single Unicode character , or as a single character in Unicode , or , and . The single-character digraphs are called "ligatures" in Unicode. may also be used following a consonant to indicate palatalization in Slavic loanwords.
Indic
Most Indic scripts have compound vowel diacritics that cannot be predicted from their individual elements. That can be illustrated with Thai in which the diacritic เ, pronounced alone , modifies the pronunciation of other vowels:
{|
|single vowel sign: ||กา ||, ||เก ||, ||กอ ||
|-
|vowel sign plus เ: ||เกา ||, ||แก ||, ||เกอ ||
|}
In addition, the combination รร is pronounced or , there are some words in which the combinations ทร and ศร stand for and the letter ห, as a prefix to a consonant, changes its tonic class to high, modifying the tone of the syllable.
Inuit
Inuktitut syllabics adds two digraphs to Cree:
rk for q ᙯ qai, ᕿ qi, ᖁ qu, ᖃ qa, ᖅ q
and
ng for ŋ ᖕ ng
The latter forms trigraphs and tetragraphs.
CJK Characters
Chinese
Several combinations of Chinese characters (Hanzi) formed from two or more different characters that known as digraphs.
Japanese
Two kana may be combined into a CV syllable by subscripting the second; the convention cancels the vowel of the first. That is commonly done for CyV syllables called yōon, as in ひょ (ひよ) hyo . They are not digraphs since they retain the normal sequential reading of the two glyphs. However, some obsolete sequences no longer retain that reading, as in くゎ kwa, ぐゎ gwa, and むゎ mwa, now pronounced ka, ga, ma. In addition, non-sequenceable digraphs are used for foreign loans that do not follow normal Japanese assibilation patterns, such as ティ ti, トゥ tu, チェ tye / che, スェ swe, ウィ wi, ツォ tso, ズィ zi. (See katakana and transcription into Japanese for complete tables.)
Long vowels are written by adding the kana for that vowel, in effect doubling it. However, long ō may be written either oo or ou, as in とうきょう toukyou 'Tōkyō'. For dialects that do not distinguish ē and ei, the latter spelling is used for a long e, as in へいせい heisei 'Heisei'. In loanwords, chōonpu, a line following the direction of the text, as in ビール bīru bīru 'beer'. With the exception of syllables starting with n, doubled consonant sounds are written by prefixing a smaller version of tsu (written っ and ッ in hiragana and katakana respectively), as in きって kitte 'stamp'. Consonants beginning with n use the kana n character (written ん or ン) as a prefix instead.
There are several conventions of Okinawan kana that involve subscript digraphs or ligatures. For instance, in the University of the Ryukyu's system, ウ is , ヲ is , but ヲゥ (ヲウ) is .
Korean
As was the case in Greek, Korean has vowels descended from diphthongs that are still written with two letters. Those digraphs, ㅐ and ㅔ (also ㅒ , ㅖ ), and in some dialects ㅚ and ㅟ , all end in historical ㅣ .
Hangul was designed with a digraph series to represent the "muddy" consonants: ㅃ , ㄸ , ㅉ , ㄲ , ㅆ , ㆅ ; also ᅇ, with an uncertain value. Those values are now obsolete, but most of the doubled letters were resurrected in the 19th century to write consonants that did not exist when hangul was devised: ㅃ , ㄸ , ㅉ , ㄲ , ㅆ .
Ligatures and new letters
Digraphs sometimes come to be written as a single ligature. Over time, the ligatures may evolve into new letters or letters with diacritics. For example sz became ß in German, and "nn" became ñ in Spanish.
In Unicode
Generally, a digraph is simply represented using two characters in Unicode. However, for various reasons, Unicode sometimes provides a separate code point for a digraph, encoded as a single character.
The DZ and IJ digraphs and the Serbian/Croatian digraphs DŽ, LJ, and NJ have separate code points in Unicode.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Two Glyphs
! Digraph
! data-sort-type="number" | Unicode Code Point
! class="unsortable" | HTML
|-
| DZ, Dz, dz
| DZ, Dz, dz
| data-sort-value="497"|U+01F1 U+01F2 U+01F3
| DZ Dz dz
|-
| DŽ, Dž, dž
| DŽ, Dž, dž
| data-sort-value="452"| U+01C4 U+01C5 U+01C6
| DŽ Dž dž
|-
| IJ, ij
| IJ, ij
| data-sort-value="306"| U+0132 U+0133
| IJ ij
|-
| LJ, Lj, lj
| LJ, Lj, lj
| data-sort-value="455"| U+01C7 U+01C8 U+01C9
| LJ Lj lj
|-
| NJ, Nj, nj
| NJ, Nj, nj
| data-sort-value="458"| U+01CA U+01CB U+01CC
| NJ Nj nj
|-
| th
| ᵺ
| U+1D7A
|
|}
See also Ligatures in Unicode.
See also
Multigraph (orthography)
Trigraph
Tetragraph
Pentagraph
Hexagraph
Bigram
Diphthong
List of Latin letters
Digraph (programming)
References
2
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403372
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadlands
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Deadlands
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Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history role-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres, with some steampunk elements. The original game was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 1996.
The eight-time Origins Award–winning setting has been converted to many other systems over the years and is available in the original Classic Rules, the revised Classic Rules, d20 System and GURPS adaptations, and a Savage Worlds version called Deadlands: Reloaded.
Development
Shane Lacy Hensley had the idea for a new game focusing on cowboys and zombies in 1994 as he was setting up his company Pinnacle Entertainment Group, when he saw a painting by Brom of a Confederate vampire on the cover of White Wolf Publishing's soon-to-be released Necropolis: Atlanta supplement; he then began writing the game that became Deadlands, and after completing a first draft, Hensley flew in two game designer friends of his, Greg Gorden and Matt Forbeck, and both of them liked the game enough that they asked to buy into Pinnacle.
Setting
The game is set in the United States in the last quarter of the 19th century. The canonical year for the first edition of Deadlands is 1876. A later supplement, Tales o' Terror, advances the game's backstory and metaplot ahead one year, to 1877. The second edition of Deadlands uses the updated backstory of 1877 as the canonical starting point. Deadlands: Reloaded further updates the backstory and advances the canonical starting point to 1879.
The basic rules provide for characters and settings that could be expected to appear in the "Wild West" genre of movies and pulp fiction, and most of the in-game action is presumed to occur in the wild frontiers of the American West, or in barely tamed frontier towns like Tombstone, Arizona or Dodge City, Kansas. However, later supplements expanded the in-game adventuring area to include places such as the Deep South, the Mississippi River, Mexico, and the Northeastern United States. These supplements often provide for adventures set in urban areas such as New Orleans, New York City, or Boston.
The canonical, basic setting is referred to as the "Weird West" due to the juxtaposition of the Western setting with the horrific and fantastical elements of the game. The history of the Weird West is identical to real-world history, up until July 3, 1863. On this date in the game, a group of American Indians from various tribes, led by a Sioux shaman known as "Raven," performed a ritual in an effort to drive out the European settlers. This ritual created a conduit to a spiritual realm populated by powerful malicious entities known as the "Reckoners". The events surrounding and immediately subsequent to Raven's ritual is known as "The Reckoning".
The Reckoners feed on negative emotions, particularly fear. Sufficient levels of fear in the population of a given location allow the Reckoners to begin subtly altering the environment of that location: the sun shines a little less brightly, trees become stunted and "evil" looking, rock formations take on the appearance of corpses or monsters, and so on. The more powerful the fear, the greater the environmental changes.
The ultimate goal of the Reckoners is to turn the entire Earth into an evil, haunted wasteland — literally a Hell on Earth. However, the Reckoners cannot directly enter Earth's realm unless the overall fear level of the entire planet becomes sufficiently high. To this end, they use their powers to create monsters, madmen, zombies, and other creatures and villains that will sow fear and terror throughout the land.
The first instance of this occurred on July 4, 1863, at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg that had just ended; dead soldiers from both sides of the conflict rose from the battlefield and began indiscriminately attacking the surviving soldiers and civilians. Since then, undead gunslingers, hostile Indian spirits, strange cults, and deadly creatures have begun terrorizing the world. The American Civil War drags on thanks to the machinations of the Reckoners, and the country remains divided into U.S. and Confederate sections along with "disputed territories". Federal agents and Texas Rangers struggle to deal with the eldritch menaces while hiding the awful truth from the general public. Seismic upheavals have pushed much of California into the ocean, creating a badlands area known as "the Great Maze". In the Great Maze, miners discover "ghost rock," a mineral that burns hotter and longer than coal and is used as the basis for most Deadlands technology as well as alchemical potions and semi-magical materials.
The unleashing of the Reckoners has had a number of important side effects. Magic was revealed to be real, although it involves challenging otherworldly spirits, "manitous", in contests that are either viewed as a negotiation or a test of will. These same manitous can possess a recently deceased body and reanimate it, creating a "Harrowed". Harrowed beings are sometimes under the control of the spirit (which uses the opportunity to spread fear) and sometimes under the control of the deceased being. Scientific progress rapidly advances as the Reckoners support experimental designs that normally would not work. This progress drives the technological level of Deadlands from historical levels to a "steampunk" setting.
Players take on the role of various mundane or arcane character types, including Gunfighters, Lawmen (such as U.S. Marshals or local sheriffs), Hucksters (magic users), Shamans, Blessed (those of faith), and Mad Scientists in an attempt to learn about the Reckoning and the mysterious beings behind it.
System
Deadlands features a unique way of creating playing characters for the game. Instead of spending character points, or randomly rolling dice, a character's abilities are determined by drawing cards from a standard 54-card poker deck (jokers included), which determine the character's Traits (their basic attributes). The game also uses polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20) which are referred to as the "Bones", and a set of white, red, and blue poker chips called "Fate Chips".
In a Deadlands game, the Game Master is called The Marshal, and the players are called The Posse.
To perform an action a player rolls for successes with a handful of dice and hopes that at least one of the dice rolls the Target Number or higher. Rolling the highest possible number on any of the dice is known as "rolling an ace", and that die may be re-rolled, with the total being added to the initial roll value. In most cases only the highest single die's value (with "aces" added) is compared to a target number. For each five points over the target number the character is considered to have a "raise" which typically makes the character's action more effective. When attacking someone, raises give the attacker more control over where on the victim's body the blow or bullet strikes. When attempting to quickly reload a gun, each raise allows another round of ammunition to be loaded in a single action.
Spell casting
Players with huckster characters use a deck of playing cards in addition to dice to cast their spells (hexes). A successful skill check allows the player to draw five or more cards and makes the best possible poker hand with those cards. The strength of the hand determines not only whether the hex was successfully cast, but also the strength of its effects. In the game world, this mechanic is explained as the huckster literally gambling with a magical spirit in order to get it to do his or her bidding — a high ranking poker hand means the huckster has won, and the spirit casts the hex as desired; a low ranking poker hand results in failure. Both jokers are present and wild, increasing the chance of a good hand, but the black joker means that the spirit does something harmful to the huckster.
Blessed characters can use their faith to invoke miracles—they pray for their patron to grant their request. The miracles are usually protective or restorative in nature, although there are some for attack. The difficulty of a given miracle (the amount of faith required by the patron for their assistance) can vary. For example, a priest seeking to heal a gunshot to the stomach would require more faith than if he were trying to mend a broken arm. Although the basic miracle set is predominantly Christian in nature, one of the extension sourcebooks includes miracles from other religions, and some of those are not permitted to Christian player characters.
Native American shamans cast spells by making deals with spirits. This happens in three stages: the shaman asks for a favor, performs the ritual that tradition demands for that favor, and then his skill is tested by the spirit. If he succeeds all three, he earns "appeasement points" according to how well he succeeded. If he earned enough points for the favor, it is granted. If not, his work was in vain.
Action Decks
Instead of rolling for Initiative as in most other RPGs, the players make a "speed" roll on the bones — the exact number and type being rolled determined by each character's stats — and then draw a number of cards from a community playing card deck based on the results of that roll. The Marshal then calls out card values, starting from Aces and going all the way down to Deuces. The card's suit (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, which is reverse alphabetical order and also the valuation in bridge) indicates who goes first if the same value of card is drawn.
Fate Chips
Along with Bones and Cards, characters get Fate Chips which are typically poker chips, although colored stones or coins can also be used. These are drawn from a hat or some other container that the player blindly chooses at the beginning of play. Each player draws a certain number of Fate Chips at the beginning of the game from the Fate Pot, modified according to player actions and Marshal preference. Fate chips can be spent for in-game bonuses such as bonus dice to use during certain rolls, or the prevention of physical damage. The Marshal can draw chips as well for enemies to use.
Bounties
At the end of a gaming session, players can cash in unused Fate Chips for Bounty Points. These are like Experience Points in other systems and are used to improve Traits and Aptitudes. The Marshal may also award additional Bounty Points at the end of the session for completing the mission objectives and any exceptional role-playing by players.
Instant rewards for roleplaying
Marshals are also encouraged to reward players with instantaneous rewards for good role-playing. During character creation players can choose "Hindrances" (disadvantages) such as Big Britches, Bloodthirsty, or Big Mouth. When a player role-plays this Hindrance well, the Marshal can reward them instantly with a Fate Chip. This has the effect of promoting and encouraging role-playing.
Spinoff games
The "Weird West" mark is used to distinguish the primary game setting from the various other settings:
Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars: a tabletop wargame with miniature figures.
Doomtown: a collectible card game. A sourcebook for the town described in the game was released under the title Doomtown or Bust!. A secondary sourcebook, detailing the town after the events of the CCG, was released under the title The Black Circle. A third sourcebook titled The Collegium, detailing the Mad Scientist faction of the same name, was also released.
Range Wars: a tabletop wargame that used collectible cardboard disks instead of miniatures. As much a spin-off from Doomtown as Deadlands, it used many of the same factions. It is based on the Disk Wars game. The base set: Doomtown: Range Wars was released, and a single expansion, Ghost Creek. Material from this game was incorporated into the Black Circle sourcebook.
Deadlands: Hell on Earth: a role-playing game set in one possible future of the Weird West, where the Reckoners succeeded in turning the entire Earth into a haunted wasteland. This game features elements from the Western genre as well as elements from Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic fiction and, of course, horror.
Deadlands: Lost Colony: a role-playing game set in the same future as Deadlands: Hell on Earth, except on another planet. This game features sci-fi, Western, and horror elements.
Deadlands: Lost Colony CCG: A collectible card game with the same setting as the Lost Colony RPG.
Savage Worlds: a miniatures and generic role-playing game system derived from The Great Rail Wars.
Deadlands: The Battle For Slaughter Gulch: A board game from Twilight creations.
FRAG Deadlands: A first-person shooter themed board game in the Frag series from Steve Jackson Games.
Deadlands: a cancelled video game developed by Headfirst Productions for the PC.
Deadlands Noir: Set in the same world, but in a Dieselpunk 1930s New Orleans.
Doomtown:Reloaded: The classic CCG is back in a non-collectible boxed set. Released at GenCon in August 2014 by Alderac Entertainment Group, the game (in September 2014) was already in its THIRD printing. Doomtown: Reloaded is basically the same game as the older version, (now referred to as Classic) with a number of rule revisions that have streamlined and simplified the game. The basics are the same, with minor differences. The four factions released initially were the Law Dogs, The Sloan Gang (similar to the Blackjacks), The Fourth Ring (a circus that is similar to The Whatleys) and the Morgan Cattle Company (which appears to be similar to a Sweetrock/Collegium blend).
Deadlands: Reloaded
In May 2006, Great White Games published a new edition of Deadlands under the company's Pinnacle Entertainment Group label. This new edition, written by Shane Lacy Hensley and B.D. Flory and entitled Deadlands: Reloaded, used Great White Games' Savage Worlds generic role-playing system. The 256-page setting book updates the canonical setting to 1879 and includes information on the events of the past year, as well as new rules. Among the most drastic changes to the basic Savage Worlds rules was "The Way of the Brave" rule, which revamped the way combat works in the system, making it more dangerous and deadly for characters and increasing the effectiveness of melee combat. This book also updated Fate Chips to work with the Savage Worlds system. This book marked a first for Great White Games in that it is the first setting book published without a scripted or plot point campaign.
The publisher has hinted that four complete plot point campaign books will be released for Deadlands: Reloaded, each focusing on certain regions and events in the metaplot of the game. In 2009 the first of these campaigns, The Flood, was released. In 2012, the second of these campaigns, The Last Sons, was released. Matthew Cutter of Pinnacle has also stated that updated Hell on Earth and Lost Colony books will be published for the Savage Worlds system. The Hell on Earth update was released in 2012. Additionally, an equipment guide "The Smith & Robards Catalog", was published in 2011. A successfully funded Kickstarter for a new spin-off setting, Deadlands Noir, was conducted from May to June 2012, with the product's release expected in 2013. Reaper miniatures has, as of August 2012, solicited two white-metal miniatures for the Deadlands Noire setting to distributors: "Stone" and "Femme Fatal"
Release history
1996–1999: Original Deadlands custom rules. Exists also in hardcover and leatherbound collector editions.
1999–2006: Revised Deadlands custom rules.
2001: d20 System rules. Supported for several years.
October 2001: GURPS rules, done under license to Steve Jackson Games
GURPS Deadlands: Hexes supplement
GURPS Deadlands: Varmints supplement
GURPS Deadlands Dime Novel 1—Aces and Eights (adventure)
GURPS Deadlands Dime Novel 2—Wanted: Undead or Alive (adventure)
May 2006: Savage Worlds rules in Deadlands: Reloaded.
May 2017: Deadlands 20th Anniversary Edition is published after a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2016. The content is the same as the 1999 edition.
2020: Rerelease of 2001 GURPS material as Classic GURPS
2021: Deadlands: The Weird West revised for compatibility with latest edition Savage Worlds rules
Reception
In the December 1996 edition of Dragon (issue 236), Rick Swan liked the energy of the Western/horror mash-up, calling it "a revolutionary mix of fantasy and cyberpunk." However, Swan criticized the lack of setting details: "What we're given is little more than an overview... there are no interesting personalities to speak of. There's next to nothing about geography, politics, or culture. Cities, villages, places to explore—practically none. And there's not a single ready-to-play adventure." He concluded by giving the game an average rating of 4 out of 6, saying, "Deadlands is by no means bad. It's beautifully written and bursting with nifty ideas. It strikes a masterful balance between high camp and high adventure. It has a great cover. But it's incomplete; with a setting this skeletal and the absence of adventures, how's a newcomer supposed to cobble together a campaign?"
Awards
Deadlands, its supplements and spin-offs have won nine Origins Awards:
Best Role-playing Rules of 1996 for Deadlands
Best Graphic Presentation of a Role-playing Game, Adventure, or Supplement of 1996 for Deadlands
Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures Rules of 1997 for Deadlands: the Great Rail Wars
Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1997 for Independence Day
Best Trading Card Game of 1998
Best Graphic Presentation of a Card Game of 1998
Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Figure Miniature of 1998 for Hangin' Judge
Best Vehicle Miniature of 1998 for Velocipede
Roleplaying Game Supplement of 2007 for Deadlands: Reloaded
Reviews
Valkyrie #14 (1997)
Shadis #30 (1996)
Pyramid #23 (Jan./Feb., 1997)
Arcane #13 (December 1996)
Backstab (Issue 1 - Jan/Feb 1997)
Television series
In 2014, Microsoft announced that it was developing an original television series for the Xbox based on Deadlands.
See also
High Moon
Jonah Hex
List of Deadlands: The Weird West publications
Western genre in other media
References
External links
Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Campaign settings
Multigenre Western role-playing games
Origins Award winners
Pinnacle Entertainment Group games
Role-playing games introduced in 1996
Steampunk role-playing games
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403381
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary%2C%20Princess%20Royal%20and%20Princess%20of%20Orange
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Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange
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Mary, Princess Royal (Mary Henrietta Stuart; 4 November 1631 – 24 December 1660), was an English princess, a member of the House of Stuart, and by marriage Princess of Orange and Countess of Nassau. She acted as regent for her minor son from 1651 to 1660. She was the first holder of the title Princess Royal.
The eldest daughter of King Charles I of England and Queen Henrietta Maria, Mary was married to the future stadtholder of the Netherlands, William II of Orange, at 9 years old in 1641. Initially, she remained in England with her parents because of the heated political situation in England until early 1642, when she and her mother left for the Netherlands. Five years later in 1647, Mary's husband inherited the titles of Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands.
Eight days after her husband's death in 1650, Mary gave birth to a son, William III of Orange, who later became King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Mary, who became the only guardian of her son, was not popular in the Netherlands because of her support of her brothers and her difficult relationship with her mother-in-law Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, who considered the princess young and inexperienced. After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, Mary departed for celebrations in London, where she fell ill with smallpox and died.
Early years
Princess Mary Henrietta was born on 4 November 1631 at St. James's Palace, London, the third (but second surviving) child and eldest daughter of Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. She was baptized on the same day of her birth, as there were fears that the newborn princess was not in good health and might die; the ceremony was presided over by William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. The girl received her first name in honour of her maternal grandmother, Marie de' Medici, Queen of France. Mary's first public appearance took place in 1640 at the baptism of her brother Henry, Duke of Gloucester; she became the only godmother of the little prince.
Mary spent the first years of her life with her brothers and sisters at St James's Palace, as well as at Richmond Palace and Hampton Court. The education of the princesses was entrusted to the Countess of Roxburghe. Mary was known for her grace, beauty, and manners; in addition, she excelled in dancing, but her knowledge of the sciences left much to be desired. The girl's mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, wanted to convert her daughter to Catholicism, for which she introduced a young lady who secretly professed Catholicism to Mary's circle of friends, but King Charles I quickly stopped his wife's actions.
In January 1640, 8-year-old Mary received her first marriage proposal from the 13-year-old William, the eldest son and heir of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. The mother of the potential groom, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, was once a lady-in-waiting and close friend of Mary's aunt Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, which later played an important role in Mary's life. The offer of the House of Orange was at first rejected by King Charles I, who wanted to give his daughter in marriage to Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias, only son and heir of King Philip IV of Spain and also Mary's maternal first cousin. A prerequisite for such a union was Mary's conversion to Catholicism, but the princess, who at the request of her mother studied the basics of the Catholic religion, did not want to change her faith. In addition, her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, was anti-Spanish and was against an alliance with Spain. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, Mary's paternal first-cousin, was also a suitor for her hand, but in the end, this proposal also fell through.
Princess consort of Orange
By the end of the 1630s, relations between the various factions in English society had become very tense; controversies over religion, social relations, morality, and political power became more and more heated. At the same time, Mary's mother, who openly professed Catholicism, became more and more unpopular in the country. In late 1640–early 1641, King Charles I decided to renew negotiations with Prince Frederick Henry of Orange.
The negotiations progressed quickly. On 10 February 1641, Charles announced to Parliament that the betrothal of his daughter was actually concluded and that it only remained to consider this union from a political point of view. Charles himself hoped that in case of emergency, the Prince of Orange would help him to maintain royal power in England. A modest wedding ceremony took place on 2 May 1641 at the Chapel Royal in Whitehall Palace, London. Queen Henrietta Maria was unable to attend the religious ceremony as it was a Protestant one; instead, she watched her daughter's wedding from a small gallery. The marriage of the King's eldest daughter was practically not celebrated in England, as the country was on the verge of a war that broke out in less than a year. The king gave her a crystal and gold casting bottle garnished with rubies and diamonds and a gold chain with the cipher "AR" which had belonged to Anne of Denmark.
Mary and William were congratulated by courtiers, and received several gifts; in addition, in honour of the newlyweds, a volley of 120 guns was fired. After the ceremony, William returned to the Netherlands. According to the marriage contract, Mary could remain in England until she was 12 years old, and her husband would provide her with 1,500 livres per year for personal expenses. In addition, in the event of the untimely death of William, Mary would receive a maintenance of 10,000 livres per year and two residences for her personal use. The marriage contract also provided that Mary and her English attendants could still worship in the manner of the Church of England, rather than join the Dutch Reformed Church.
In early 1642, the situation in the country heated up. Mary and her parents were forced to take refuge in Hampton Court, but the situation steadily turned into open war. In February, Queen Henrietta Maria departed with her daughter to The Hague in the Netherlands; they travelled on a Dutch fleet of fifteen ships. Mary was accompanied to the Netherlands by her governess, Lady Stanhope, who later became her confidant and companion. From a political point of view, the marriage of Mary partially paid off in 1643, when Henrietta Maria persuaded the Dutch government to provide a ship and arms for Charles, and sent them to England.
Shortly before leaving for the Netherlands, Mary was designated by her father Princess Royal, thus establishing the tradition that the eldest daughter of the British sovereign might bear this title. The title was created because Queen Henrietta Maria, the daughter of King Henry IV of France, wanted her daughter to have a title comparable to "Madame Royale", the style of the eldest daughter of the King of France. Until that time, the eldest daughters of English and Scottish kings were variously titled lady or princess. The younger daughters of British sovereigns were not consistently titled princesses of Great Britain and styled "Royal Highness" until the accession of George I in 1714.
In November 1643, the second marriage ceremony between the 12-year-old Mary and 17-year-old William took place in The Hague. The marriage was not consummated until 1644. In February 1644, Mary completely merged into the life of the Dutch court. She gave audiences, met with foreign ambassadors, and performed all the functions assigned to her with an importance and dignity considered astonishing for her age. In March, she participated in court celebrations of the recent alliance between France and the Netherlands, and led the entertainment that her husband arranged for the French ambassador.
Mary, who was constantly receiving news from England, sympathized with her father Charles' cause. In December 1646, she sent him a letter (via a Dutch merchant ship) urging him to flee to the Netherlands, but Charles declined. In The Hague, Mary developed a very warm relationship with her aunt, Elizabeth, the exiled former Queen of Bohemia. However, Mary didn't develop a good relationship with her mother-in-law Amalia, so she tried to minimize contact with her.
Prince Frederick Henry of Orange died on 14 March 1647. On the day of his death, Parliament was convened, which proclaimed William II to be his father's heir as stadtholder and head of the army; one by one, the remaining titles of her late father-in-law were recognized for Mary's husband, and he became the new Prince of Orange. In 1648, Mary was visited by her brothers, Charles, Prince of Wales, and James, Duke of York. In 1649, Mary's father King Charles was executed; subsequently, Mary helped many English Royalist exiles. Among those who were under her patronage was the family of Anne Hyde – the future wife of the Duke of York and mother of two English Queens, Mary II and Anne.
Co-regency
In the autumn of 1647 Mary suffered a miscarriage, after which she could not conceive for several years. In early 1650, she was pregnant again. In late October-early November, when the princess's pregnancy was coming to an end, her husband fell ill with smallpox and died on 6 November, just after his attempt to capture Amsterdam from his political opponents; eight days after his death, on the day of her nineteenth birthday, Mary gave birth to a son, William. The newborn prince's cradle was draped with black cloth as a sign of mourning for his father. Since the titles of the stadtholder of the Netherlands and the Prince of Orange were not inheritable, the child did not receive them immediately after birth.
Soon after the birth of her son, Mary had several conflicts with her mother-in-law. She planned to name her son Charles in honour of her executed father, but Amalia insisted that the boy be named William, which was a better choice: the first ruler of the United Provinces of the Netherlands was William I of Orange and in addition, the boy's late father also wanted to name his son William. Having won the battle for the name of her grandson, Amalia now wanted to become his legal guardian, referring to the fact that Mary was too young. On 13 August 1651, the Hoge Raad van Holland en Zeeland (Supreme Court) ruled that guardianship would be shared between Mary, her mother-in-law, and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (whose wife, Louise Henriette was William II's eldest sister); the Elector was chosen because he could act as a neutral party mediating between the two women, but also because as a possible heir he was interested in protecting the Orange family fortune, which Amalia feared Mary would squander.
In general, Mary was not popular in the Netherlands, which was more sympathetic to Oliver Cromwell; the princess herself, because of such preferences of the Dutch, refused to hire them to serve her son. In January 1650, Mary, along with her brother James and aunt Elizabeth, planned to modestly commemorate the first anniversary of her father's death, but the Dutch government considered even modest events offensive to the English government. A little later, when envoys from the English parliament were received by the States General, Mary retired to her widow's seat in Breda, but the influence of her party prevented the English from concluding an alliance with the Netherlands. After Mary secretly received her brother Charles II in 1651 (who considered himself the legitimate King of England), the Dutch government forbade her to accept any of her relatives. The household of Mary and her aunt was called a "nest of vipers", weaving conspiracies against the Netherlands, England, and Cromwell in particular.
In 1652, the mood in the Netherlands changed due to the outbreak of war with England. Mary's son was officially elected as stadtholder of Zealand and several northern provinces, but Witte de With, the republican leader, prevented William from being elected in Holland. In addition, when concluding a peace treaty, Cromwell insisted on the adoption of the Act of Seclusion, which prohibited Holland from electing a member of the Orange dynasty as stadtholder. Another requirement of Cromwell was the expulsion of all enemies of the Commonwealth from Holland. Mary made an official protest, but it was not taken into account, despite the fact that the country was threatened by civil war; the peace treaty was signed on 27 May 1654.
Mary's worries about the position of her son affected her health. To cut her own expenses in the interests of her brothers, she announced her intention to abandon two of the four palaces at her disposal. In July 1654, she went to a water resort, where she spent a few weeks, and then went to visit her brother Charles in Cologne, where his court was located. She returned to the Netherlands in October, but in July 1655 she again went to Charles in Cologne, visited the fair in Frankfurt incognito, and returned home on 15 November. In January 1656, Mary went to Paris, where her mother and younger sister Henrietta lived, and was received with all honours at the French court.
Later years and death
In the Netherlands, the early widowed Mary was visited by numerous admirers and suitors, among whom was George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. According to contemporaries, Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Ernest's brother George William also offered their hands to Mary in Paris. In addition, Cardinal Mazarin showed particular favour to the princess, and also circulated rumours that she was having an affair with (or had been secretly married to) Henry Jermyn, a member of her brother James of York' household. The rumours were probably untrue, but Charles II took them seriously and tried to prevent any further contact between Jermyn and the princess. Mary left Paris on 21 November and after a two-month stay at her brother's court in Bruges returned to The Hague. Soon after her return, Mary learned that her mother-in-law Amalia had offered Charles II the hand of her daughter Henriette Catherine, which deeply angered the princess. In 1658, Amalia tried to obtain the post of sole regent for her grandson, to whom Mary was also appointed by the Supreme Court, but the princess, with the support of her French relatives, thwarted the intrigues of her mother-in-law.
In November 1659, Mary sent her son to study at Leiden University. On 14 May 1660, the Dutch parliament informed Mary, who was in Breda, about the restoration of the monarchy in England and the accession to the throne of her brother Charles (henceforth King Charles II). A few days later she took part in the celebrations at The Hague on this occasion. Mary henceforth occupied the third place in the line of succession to the English throne after her brothers, James and Henry (although Henry would die later that same year). Her renewed status as an English princess, therefore, helped the attitude towards her in the Netherlands grow more tolerant: in all the cities where Mary and her son passed through or attended solemn events, they were greeted with royal honours. After the Stuart Restoration, it was proclaimed that the Act of Seclusion was void since the English Commonwealth no longer existed. In 1660, Mary, united with her mother-in-law, tried to get the states of several provinces to acknowledge William as future Stadtholder, but many refused at first.
On 30 September 1660, Mary sailed to England, where (her concern for her exiled compatriots and brothers being known) she was warmly received. Upon arrival in London, Mary discovered to her surprise and dismay that her brother the King not only recognized the marriage of James, Duke of York, with Anne Hyde, Mary's former lady-in-waiting, but also declared that their offspring would be princes and princesses of England with full succession rights. This fact upset Mary so much that she decided to significantly shorten her visit to her homeland. She attended the official service at Whitehall Chapel, where everyone who wanted to see her flocked, and also gave a private reception at Whitehall for Elias Ashmole to see some anatomical curiosities. She accepted a monetary gift from Parliament, received in a letter dated 7 November, and asked for a long-promised dowry; to resolve this issue, the King appointed a commission. In November 1660, Mary met with the Embassy of the United Provinces, who came to renew an alliance with England.
On 20 December the English court was stirred up by the news that Mary was seriously ill with smallpox. Having received this news, Queen Henrietta Maria arrived at the bedside of her dying daughter and made a last attempt to convert her to Catholicism, but Mary refused. The Queen managed to insist that her French doctor take over the treatment of the princess, which, as many contemporaries believed, was fatal for Mary, since the doctor was an ardent supporter of bloodletting. On 24 December, Mary signed her will and died on the same day. At her own request, she was buried in Westminster Abbey next to her brother Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who also died of smallpox in September 1660.
In her will, Mary asked the King to take care of the interests of her 10-year-old son, whose sole guardian was now his grandmother Amalia. In 1672, after several years of confrontation with republican leaders in the Netherlands, 21-year-old William was nevertheless elected stadtholder of five provinces, starting with Holland on 4 July, and named commander-in-chief. Five years later, he married his cousin Mary, the daughter of James II and Anne Hyde. In 1688, with the support of English Protestants, William deposed Mary's father and with his wife was proclaimed co-ruler of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Ancestry
Notes
References
External links
The Correspondence of Mary Stuart, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange in EMLO
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1631 births
1660 deaths
17th-century Scottish people
17th-century Scottish women
17th-century women rulers
17th-century regents
Princesses Royal
English princesses
Scottish princesses
Countesses of Nassau
House of Stuart
People from Westminster
English people of French descent
Deaths from smallpox
Infectious disease deaths in England
British expatriates in the Dutch Republic
William III of England
Children of Charles I of England
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability%20heuristic
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Availability heuristic
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The availability heuristic, also known as availability bias, is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. This heuristic, operating on the notion that, if something can be recalled, it must be important, or at least more important than alternative solutions not as readily recalled, is inherently biased toward recently acquired information.
The mental availability of an action's consequences is positively related to those consequences' perceived magnitude. In other words, the easier it is to recall the consequences of something, the greater those consequences are often perceived to be. Most notably, people often rely on the content of their recall if its implications are not called into question by the difficulty they have in recalling it.
Overview and history
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman began work on a series of papers examining "heuristic and biases" used in the judgment under uncertainty. Prior to that, the predominant view in the field of human judgment was that humans are rational actors. Kahneman and Tversky explained that judgment under uncertainty often relies on a limited number of simplifying heuristics rather than extensive algorithmic processing. Soon, this idea spread beyond academic psychology, into law, medicine, and political science. This research questioned the descriptive adequacy of idealized models of judgment, and offered insights into the cognitive processes that explained human error without invoking motivated irrationality. One simplifying strategy people may rely on is the tendency to make a judgment about the frequency of an event based on how many similar instances are brought to mind. In 1973, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman first studied this phenomenon and labeled it the "availability heuristic". An availability heuristic is a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. As follows, people tend to use a readily available fact to base their beliefs on a comparably distant concept. There has been much research done with this heuristic, but studies on the issue are still questionable with regard to the underlying process. Studies illustrate that manipulations intended to increase the subjective experience of ease of recall are also likely to affect the amount of recall. Furthermore, this makes it difficult to determine whether the obtained estimates of frequency, likelihood, or typicality are based on participants' phenomenal experiences or on a biased sample of recalled information.
However, some textbooks have chosen the latter interpretation introducing the availability heuristic as "one's judgments are always based on what comes to mind". For example, if a person is asked whether there are more words in the English language that contain a t or a k, the person will probably be able to think of more words that begin with the letter t, concluding that t is more frequent than k. In this Wikipedia article itself, for example, there are multiple instances of words such as "likely", "make", "take", "ask", "work" and indeed "Wikipedia", but (aside from names) only a couple of initial K's: "know" and "key".
Research
Chapman (1967) described a bias in the judgment of the frequency with which two events co-occur. This demonstration showed that the co-occurrence of paired stimuli resulted in participants overestimating the frequency of the pairings. To test this idea, participants were given information about several hypothetical mental patients. The data for each patient consisted of a clinical diagnosis and a drawing made by the patient. Later, participants estimated the frequency with which each diagnosis had been accompanied by various features of the drawing. The subjects vastly overestimated the frequency of this co-occurrence (such as suspiciousness and peculiar eyes). This effect was labeled the illusory correlation. Tversky and Kahneman suggested that availability provides a natural account for the illusory-correlation effect. The strength of the association between two events could provide the basis for the judgment of how frequently the two events co-occur. When the association is strong, it becomes more likely to conclude that the events have been paired frequently. Strong associations will be thought of as having occurred together frequently.
In Tversky & Kahneman's first examination of availability heuristics, subjects were asked, "If a random word is taken from an English text, is it more likely that the word starts with a K, or that K is the third letter?" They argue that English-speaking people would immediately think of many words that begin with the letter "K" (kangaroo, kitchen, kale), but that it would take a more concentrated effort to think of any words in which "K" is the third letter (acknowledge, ask). Results indicated that participants overestimated the number of words that began with the letter "K" and underestimated the number of words that had "K" as the third letter. Tversky and Kahneman concluded that people answer questions like these by comparing the availability of the two categories and assessing how easily they can recall these instances. In other words, it is easier to think of words that begin with "K", more than words with "K" as the third letter. Thus, people judge words beginning with a "K" to be a more common occurrence. In reality, however, a typical text contains twice as many words that have "K" as the third letter than "K" as the first letter.
In Tversky and Kahneman's seminal paper, they include findings from several other studies, which also show support for the availability heuristic. Apart from their findings in the "K" study, they also found:
When participants were shown two visual structures and asked to pick the structure that had more paths, participants saw more paths in the structure that had more obvious available paths. In the structure that participants chose, there were more columns and shorter obvious paths, making it more available to them. When participants were asked to complete tasks involving estimation, they would often underestimate the end result. Participants were basing their final estimation on a quick first impression of the problem. Participants particularly struggled when the problems consisted of multiple steps. This occurred because participants were basing their estimation on an initial impression. Participants failed to account for the high rate of growth in the later steps due to the impression they formed in the initial steps. This was shown again in a task that asked participants to estimate the answer to a multiplication task, in which the numbers were presented as either 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8 or 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1. Participants who were presented the equation with the larger numbers first (8x7x6...), estimated a significantly higher result than participants with the lower numbers first (1x2x3...). Participants were given a short amount of time to make the estimation, thus participants based their estimates off of what was easily available, which in this case was the first few numbers in the sequence.
Explanations
Many researchers have attempted to identify the psychological process which creates the availability heuristic.
Tversky and Kahneman argue that the number of examples recalled from memory is used to infer the frequency with which such instances occur. In an experiment to test this explanation, participants listened to lists of names containing either 19 famous women and 20 less famous men or 19 famous men and 20 less famous women. Subsequently, some participants were asked to recall as many names as possible whereas others were asked to estimate whether male or female names were more frequent on the list. The names of the famous celebrities were recalled more frequently compared to those of the less famous celebrities. The majority of the participants incorrectly judged that the gender associated with more famous names had been presented more often than the gender associated with less famous names. Tversky and Kahneman argue that although the availability heuristic is an effective strategy in many situations when judging probability, use of this heuristic can lead to predictable patterns of errors.
Schwarz and his colleagues, on the other hand, proposed the ease of retrieval explanation, wherein the ease with which examples come to mind, not the number of examples, is used to infer the frequency of a given class. In a study by Schwarz and colleagues to test their explanation, participants were asked to recall either six or twelve examples of their assertive or very unassertive behavior. Participants were later asked to rate their own assertiveness. Pretesting had indicated that although most participants were capable of generating twelve examples, this was a difficult task. The results indicated that participants rated themselves as more assertive after describing six examples of assertive compared with unassertive behavior, but rated themselves as less assertive after describing twelve examples of assertive compared with unassertive behavior. The study reflected that the extent to which recalled content impacted judgment was determined by the ease with which the content could be brought to mind (it was easier to recall 6 examples than 12), rather than the amount of content brought to mind.
Research by Vaughn (1999) looked at the effects of uncertainty on the use of the availability heuristic. College students were asked to list either three or eight different study methods they could use in order to get an A on their final exams. The researchers also manipulated the time during the semester they would ask the students to complete the questionnaire. Approximately half of the participants were asked for their study methods during the third week of classes, and the other half were asked on the last day of classes. Next, participants were asked to rate how likely they would be to get an A in their easiest and hardest classes. Participants were then asked to rank the difficulty they experienced in recalling the examples they had previously listed. The researchers hypothesized that students would use the availability heuristic, based on the number of study methods they listed, to predict their grade only when asked at the beginning of the semester and about their hardest final. Students were not expected to use the availability heuristic to predict their grades at the end of the semester or about their easiest final. The researchers predicted this use of the availability heuristic because participants would be uncertain about their performance throughout the semester. The results indicated that students used the availability heuristic, based on the ease of recall of the study methods they listed, to predict their performance when asked at the beginning of the semester and about their hardest final. If the student listed only three study methods, they predicted a higher grade at the end of the semester only on their hardest final. If students listed eight study methods, they had a harder time recalling the methods and thus predicted a lower final grade on their hardest final. The results were not seen in the easy final condition because the students were certain they would get an A, regardless of the study method. The results supported this hypothesis and gave evidence to the fact that levels of uncertainty affect the use of the availability heuristic.
Applications
Media
After seeing news stories about child abductions, people may judge that the likelihood of this event is greater. Media coverage can help fuel a person's example bias with widespread and extensive coverage of unusual events, such as homicide or airline accidents, and less coverage of more routine, less sensational events, such as common diseases or car accidents. For example, when asked to rate the probability of a variety of causes of death, people tend to rate "newsworthy" events as more likely because they can more readily recall an example from memory. Moreover, unusual and vivid events like homicides, shark attacks, or lightning are more often reported in mass media than common and un-sensational causes of death like common diseases.
For example, many people think that the likelihood of dying from shark attacks is greater than that of dying from being hit by falling airplane parts when more people actually die from falling airplane parts. When a shark attack occurs, the deaths are widely reported in the media whereas deaths as a result of being hit by falling airplane parts are rarely reported in the media.
In a 2010 study exploring how vivid television portrayals are used when forming social reality judgments, people watching vivid violent media gave higher estimates of the prevalence of crime and police immorality in the real world than those not exposed to vivid television. These results suggest that television violence does in fact have a direct causal impact on participants' social reality beliefs. Repeated exposure to vivid violence leads to an increase in people's risk estimates about the prevalence of crime and violence in the real world. Counter to these findings, researchers from a similar study argued that these effects may be due to effects of new information. Researchers tested the new information effect by showing movies depicting dramatic risk events and measuring their risk assessment after the film. Contrary to previous research, there were no long-term effects on risk perception due to exposure to dramatic movies. However, the study did find evidence of idiosyncratic effects of the movies - that is, people reacted immediately after the movies with enhanced or diminished risk beliefs, which faded after a period of 10 days.
Another measurable effect is the inaccurate estimation of the fraction of deaths caused by terrorism compared to homicides with other causes.
Health
Researchers examined the role of cognitive heuristics in the AIDS risk-assessment process. 331 physicians reported worry about on-the-job HIV exposure, and experience with patients who have HIV. By analyzing answers to questionnaires handed out, researchers concluded that availability of AIDS information did not relate strongly to perceived risk.
Participants in a 1992 study read case descriptions of hypothetical patients who varied on their sex and sexual preference. These hypothetical patients showed symptoms that could have been caused by five different diseases (AIDS, leukemia, influenza, meningitis, or appendicitis). Participants were instructed to indicate which disease they thought the patient had and then they rated patient responsibility and interaction desirability. Consistent with the availability heuristic, either the more common (influenza) or the more publicized (AIDS) disease was chosen.
Business and economy
One study sought to analyze the role of the availability heuristic in financial markets. Researchers defined and tested two aspects of the availability heuristic:
Outcome Availability – availability of positive and negative investment outcomes, and
Risk Availability – availability of financial risk.
On days of substantial stock market moves, abnormal stock price reactions to upgrades are weaker, than those to downgrades. These availability effects are still significant even after controlling for event-specific and company-specific factors.
Similarly, research has pointed out that under the availability heuristic, humans are not reliable because they assess probabilities by giving more weight to current or easily recalled information instead of processing all relevant information. Since information regarding the current state of the economy is readily available, researchers attempted to expose the properties of business cycles to predict the availability bias in analysts' growth forecasts. They showed the availability heuristic to play a role in analysis of forecasts and influence investments because of this.
In effect, investors are using the availability heuristic to make decisions and subsequently, may be obstructing their own investment success. An investor's lingering perceptions of a dire market environment may be causing them to view investment opportunities through an overly negative lens, making it less appealing to consider taking on investment risk, no matter how small the returns on perceived "safe" investments. To illustrate, Franklin Templeton's annual Global Investor Sentiment Survey 1 asked individuals how they believed the S&P 500 Index performed in 2009, 2010, and 2011. 66 percent of respondents stated that they believed the market was either flat or down in 2009, 48 percent said the same about 2010 and 53 percent also said the same about 2011. In reality, the S&P 500 saw 26.5 percent annual returns in 2009, 15.1 percent annual returns in 2010, and 2.1 percent annual returns in 2011, meaning lingering perceptions based on dramatic, painful events are impacting decision-making even when those events are over.
Additionally, a study by Hayibor and Wasieleski found that the availability of others who believe that a particular act is morally acceptable is positively related to others' perceptions of the morality of that act. This suggests that availability heuristic also has an effect on ethical decision making and ethical behavior in organizations.
Education
A study done by Craig R. Fox provides an example of how availability heuristics can work in the classroom. In this study, Fox tests whether the difficulty of recall influences judgment, specifically with course evaluations among college students. In his study he had two groups complete a course evaluation form. He asked the first group to write two recommended improvements for the course (a relatively easy task) and then write two positives about the class. The second group was asked to write ten suggestions where the professor could improve (a relatively difficult task) and then write two positive comments about the course. At the end of the evaluation, both groups were asked to rate the course on a scale from one to seven. The results showed that students asked to write ten suggestions (difficult task) rated the course less harshly because it was more difficult for them to recall the information. Most of the students in the group that was asked to fill in 10 suggestions didn't fill in more than two being unable to recall more instances where they were unsatisfied with the class. Students asked to do the easier evaluation with only two complaints had less difficulty in terms of availability of information, so they rated the course more harshly.
A study done was testing the memory of children and the ease of recall. They were asked to learn a list of names and then to recall different amounts. Researchers found that when asked to recall lower amounts compared to larger amounts and then asked what was easier to remember. They responded the shorter list going along with the theory of availability heuristic.
Criminal justice
The media usually focuses on violent or extreme cases, which are more readily available in the public's mind. This may come into play when it is time for the judicial system to evaluate and determine the proper punishment for a crime. In one study, respondents rated how much they agreed with hypothetical laws and policies such as "Would you support a law that required all offenders convicted of unarmed muggings to serve a minimum prison term of two years?" Participants then read cases and rated each case on several questions about punishment. As hypothesized, respondents recalled more easily from long-term memory stories that contain severe harm, which seemed to influence their sentencing choices to make them push for harsher punishments. This can be eliminated by adding high concrete or high contextually distinct details into the crime stories about less severe injuries.
A similar study asked jurors and college students to choose sentences on four severe criminal cases in which prison was a possible but not an inevitable sentencing outcome. Respondents answering questions about court performance on a public opinion formulated a picture of what the courts do and then evaluated the appropriateness of that behavior. Respondents recalled public information about crime and sentencing. This type of information is incomplete because the news media present a highly selective and non-representative selection of crime, focusing on the violent and extreme, rather than the ordinary. This makes most people think that judges are too lenient. But, when asked to choose the punishments, the sentences given by students were equal to or less severe than those given by judges. In other words, the availability heuristic made people believe that judges and jurors were too lenient in the courtroom, but the participants gave similar sentences when placed in the position of the judge, suggesting that the information they recalled was not correct.
Researchers in 1989 predicted that mock jurors would rate a witness to be more deceptive if the witness testified truthfully before lying than when the witness was caught lying first before telling the truth. If the availability heuristic played a role in this, lying second would remain in jurors' minds (since it was more recent) and they would most likely remember the witness lying over the truthfulness. To test the hypothesis, 312 university students played the roles of mock jurors and watched a videotape of a witness presenting testimony during a trial. Results confirmed the hypothesis, as mock jurors were most influenced by the most recent act.
Perceived risk
Previous studies have indicated that explaining a hypothetical event makes the event seem more likely through the creation of causal connections. However, such effects could arise through the use of the availability heuristic; that is, subjective likelihood is increased by an event becoming easier to imagine.
A study done asked those participating to pick between two illnesses. Those doing the study wanted to know which disease they thought was more likely to cause death. In the study, they asked participants to choose between a stroke and asthma as to which one someone was more likely to die from. The researchers concluded that it depended on what experiences were available to them. If they knew someone or heard of someone that died from one of the diseases that is the one they perceived to be a higher risk to die from.
Vividness effects
Two studies with 108 undergraduates investigated vivid information and its impact on social judgment and the availability heuristic and its role in mediating vividness effects.
In study 1, Subjects listened to a tape recording that described a woman who lived with her 7-year-old son. Subjects then heard arguments about the woman's fitness as a parent and were asked to draw their own conclusions regarding her fitness or unfitness. The concrete and colorful language were found to influence judgments about the woman's fitness as a mother.
In study 2, a series of male and female names were presented to subjects; for each name, subjects were told the university affiliation of the individual (Yale or Stanford). When some names were presented, subjects were simultaneously shown a photograph that purportedly portrayed the named individual. Subsequently, to assess what subjects could remember (as a measure of availability), each name was represented, as well as the appropriate photograph if one had been originally presented. The study considered whether the display or non-display of photographs biased subjects' estimates as to the percentage of Yale (vs Stanford) students in the sample of men and women whose names appeared on the original list, and whether these estimated percentages were causally related to the respondents' memory for the college affiliations of the individual students on the list. The presence of photographs affected judgments about the proportion of male and female students at the two universities. Such effects have typically been attributed to the ready accessibility of vividly presented information in memory—that is, to the availability heuristic.
In both studies, vividness affected both availability (ability to recall) and judgments. However, causal modeling results indicated that the availability heuristic did not play a role in the judgment process.
Judging frequency and probability
In general, availability is correlated with ecological frequency, but it is also affected by other factors. Consequently, the reliance on the availability heuristic leads to systematic biases. Such biases are demonstrated in the judged frequency of classes of words, of combinatoric outcomes, and of repeated events. The phenomenon of illusory correlation is explained as an availability bias.
In the original Tversky and Kahneman (1973) research, three major factors that are discussed are the frequency of repetition, frequency of co-occurrence, and illusory correlation. The use of frequency of repetition aids in the retrieval of relevant instances. The idea behind this phenomenon is that the more an instance is repeated within a category or list, the stronger the link between the two instances becomes. Individuals then use the strong association between the instances to determine the frequency of an instance. Consequently, the association between the category or list and the specific instance often influences frequency judgement. Frequency of co-occurrence strongly relates to Frequency of repetition, such that the more an item-pair is repeated, the stronger the association between the two items becomes, leading to a bias when estimating the frequency of co-occurrence. Due to the phenomena of frequency of co-occurrence, illusory correlations also often play a big role.
Another factor that affects the availability heuristic in frequency and probability is exemplars. Exemplars are the typical examples that stand out during the process of recall. If asked what participants thought different set sizes were (how many men and how many women are in the class), participants would use exemplars to determine the size of each set. Participants would derive their answers on ease of recall of the names that stood out. Participants read a list of names of members of a class for 30 seconds, and then participants were asked the male to female ratio of the class. The participant's answer would depend on the recall of exemplars. If the participant reading the list recalled seeing more common male names, such as Jack, but the only female names in the class were uncommon names, such as Deepika, then the participant will recall that there were more men than women. The opposite would be true if there were more common female names on the list and uncommon male names. Due to the availability heuristic, names that are more easily available are more likely to be recalled, and can thus alter judgments of probability.
Another example of the availability heuristic and exemplars would be seeing a shark in the ocean. Seeing a shark has a greater impact on an individual's memory than seeing a dolphin. If someone sees both sharks and dolphins in the ocean, they will be less aware of seeing the dolphins, because the dolphins had less of an impact on their memory. Due to the greater impact of seeing a shark, the availability heuristic can influence the probability judgement of the ratio of sharks and dolphins in the water. Thus, an individual who saw both a shark and a dolphin would assume a higher ratio of sharks in the water, even if there are more dolphins in reality.
Critiques
Ease of recall as a critique
One of the earliest and most powerful critiques of the original Tversky and Kahneman study on the availability heuristic was the Schwarz et al. study which found that the ease of recall was a key component in determining whether a concept became available. Many studies since this criticism of the original availability heuristic model have repeated this initial criticism, that the ease of recall factor became an integral facet of the availability heuristic itself (see Research section).
Alternative explanations
Much of the criticism against the availability heuristic has claimed that making use of the content that becomes available in our mind is not based on the ease of recall as suggested by Schwarz et al. For example, it could be argued that recalling more words that begin with K than words with the third letter being K could arise from how we categorize and process words into our memory. If we categorize words by the first letter and recall them through the same process, this would show more support for the representative heuristic than the availability heuristic. Based on the possibility of explanations such as these, some researchers have claimed that the classic studies on the availability heuristic are too vague in that they fail to account for people's underlying mental processes. Indeed, a study conducted by Wanke et al. demonstrated this scenario can occur in situations used to test the availability heuristic.
A second line of study has shown that frequency estimation may not be the only strategy we use when making frequency judgments. A recent line of research has shown that our situational working memory can access long-term memories, and this memory retrieval process includes the ability to determine more accurate probabilities.
See also
List of cognitive biases
Attribute substitution
Confirmation bias
Recency bias
Streetlight effect
Cache language model
References
External links
How Belief Works – an article on the origins of the availability bias.
Prospect theory
Cognitive biases
Causal fallacies
Inductive fallacies
Heuristics
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic%20Salvation%20Front
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Islamic Salvation Front
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The Islamic Salvation Front (; , FIS) was an Islamist political party in Algeria. The party had two major leaders representing its two bases of its support; Abbassi Madani appealed to pious small businessmen, and Ali Belhadj appealed to the angry, often unemployed youth of Algeria.
Officially made legal as a political party in September 1989, less than a year later the FIS received more than half of valid votes cast by Algerians in the 1990 local government elections. When it appeared to be winning a general election in January 1992, a military coup dismantled the party, interning thousands of its officials in the Sahara. It was officially banned two months later.
Goals
The founders and leaders of the FIS did not agree on all issues, but agreed on the core objective of establishing an Islamic State ruled by sharia law. FIS hurriedly assembled a platform in 1989, the Projet de Programme du Front Islamique du Salut, which was widely criticized as vague.
Its 1990 electoral victory, giving it control of many local governments, led to the imposing of the veil on female municipal employees, pressuring of liquor stores, video shops and other establishments perceived as un-Islamic to close, and segregation of bathing areas by gender.
Elimination of the French language and culture was an important issue for many in the FIS such as co-leader Ali Benhadj, who in 1990 declared his intention "to ban France from Algeria intellectually and ideologically, and be done, once and for all, with those whom France has nursed with her poisoned milk." Devout activists removed satellite dishes of households receiving European satellite broadcast in favor of Arab satellite dishes receiving Saudi broadcasts. Educationally, the party was committed to continue the Arabization of the educational system by shifting the language of instruction in more institutions, such as medical and technological schools, from French to Arabic. Large numbers of recent graduates, the first post-independence generation educated mainly in Arabic, liked this measure, as they had found the continued use of French in higher education and public life jarring and disadvantageous.
Following the first National Assembly ballot, the FIS issued a second pamphlet. Economically, it strongly criticized Algeria's planned economy, urging the need to protect the private sector and encourage competition – earning it support from traders and small businessmen – and urged the establishment of Islamic banking. However, leaders Abbasi Hadani and Abdelkader Hachani both made statements opposed to opening the country to competition from foreign business.
Socially, it suggested that women should be given a financial incentive to stay at home rather than working outside, thus introducing sexual segregation (Ali Belhadj called it immoral for men and women to work in the same office) with the supposed goal of increasing the number of jobs available to men in a time of chronic unemployment.
Politically, the contradiction between Madani and Belhadj's words was noteworthy: Madani condemned violence "from wherever it came", and expressed his commitment to democracy and resolve to "respect the minority, even if it is composed of one vote".
Belhadj said, "There is no democracy in Islam" and "If people vote against the Law of God... this is nothing other than blasphemy. The ulama will order the death of the offenders who have substituted their authority for that of God".
In an interview with Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson, Anwar Haddam rejected this view of Belhadj, saying, "He has been misquoted. He has been accused of things out of bitterness. He wrote a book in which he expressed himself clearly in favor of democracy. In it, he writes on page 91 that "the West progressed by defeating tyranny and preserving freedoms; this is the secret of the Western world's remarkable progress." Belhadj refers many times to the Western world and to those very values that people are trying to deny us within our own borders."
History
Background
Social conditions that led to formation and popularity of the FIS included a population explosion in the 1960s and 70s that outstripped the stagnant economy's ability to supply jobs, housing, food and urban infrastructure to massive numbers of young in the urban areas; a collapse in price of oil, whose sale supplied 95% of Algeria's exports and 60% of the government's budget; a single-party state ostensibly based on socialism, anti-imperialism, and popular democracy but ruled by high level military and party nomenklatura from the east side of the country; "corruption on a grand scale"; and in response to these issues, "the most serious riots since independence" occurred in October 1988 when thousands of urban youth took control of the streets.
Earlier Salafist movements in Algeria included the Association of Muslim Ulemas founded in 1931 by Abdel Hamid Ben Badis, which like the Muslim Brotherhood believed that religion should be the "absolute focus of private life and society", preached against the "superstitions" of popular Islam and French culture or secularism in Algeria, but did not venture into politics or promotion of an Islamic state.
After independence the government of Houari Boumediene began a campaign of Arabization and Islamization against the French language which was still dominant in higher education and the professions. It recruited Egyptians to Arabize and de-Frenchify the school system, including a substantial number of Muslim Brotherhood members. Many of the generation of "strictly Arabphone teachers" trained by the Brothers adopted the beliefs of their teachers and went on to form the basis of an "Islamist intelligentsia" that made up the FIS (Ali Belhadj being a prime example).
In the 1980s the government imported two renowned Islamic scholars, Mohammed al-Ghazali and Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to "strengthen the religious dimension" of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party's "nationalist ideology". However, both clerics were "fellow travelers" of the Muslim Brotherhood, supporters of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies, and supported "Islamic awakening" in Algeria, giving only "lip service" to the government.
Another Islamist, Mustafa Bouyali, a "gifted inflammatory preacher" and veteran of the Algerian independence struggle, called for the application of the sharia and creating of an Islamic state by jihad. After persecution by the security services he founded the Mouvement Islamique Arme (MIA), "a loose association of tiny groups", with himself as amir in 1982. His group carried out a series of "bold attacks" against the regime and was able to carry it fight on underground for five years before Bouyali was killed in February 1987.
Also in the 1980s, several hundred youth left Algeria for camps of Peshawar to fight jihad in Afghanistan. As Algeria was a close ally of the jihadists' enemy the Soviet Union, these jihadists tended to consider the Afghan jihad a "prelude" to jihad against the Algerian FLN. After the Marxist government in Afghanistan fell, many of the Salafist jihadis returned to Algeria and supported the FIS and later the GIA.
Also adding to the strength of salafist "Islamic revivalism" and political Islam in Algeria was the weakness (or nonexistence) of any alternative in the form of popular Muslim brotherhoods which had been dismantled by the FLN government in retaliation for lack of support and whose land had been confiscated and redistributed by the FLN government after independence.
During and after the 1988 October Riots, Islamists "set about building bridges to the young urban poor". The riots "petered out" after meetings between the President Chadli and Islamists Ali Belhadj and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Founding
On 3 November 1988, the Algerian Constitution was amended to allow parties other than the ruling FLN to operate legally. The FIS was born shortly afterwards in Algiers on 18 February 1989, led by an elderly sheikh, Abbassi Madani, and a charismatic young mosque preacher, Ali Belhadj. Its views ranged across a wide (but not complete) spectrum of Islamist opinion, exemplified by its two leaders. Abbassi Madani, a professor at University of Algiers and ex-independence fighter, represented a relatively moderate religious conservatism and symbolically connected the party to the Algerian War of Independence, the traditionally emphasized source of the ruling FLN's legitimacy. His aim was to "Islamise the regime without altering society's basic fabric." The party came into legal existence on 16 September 1989.
Ali Belhadj, a high school teacher, appealed to a younger and less educated class. An impassioned orator, he was known for his ability to both enrage and calm at will the tens of thousands of young hittiestes who came to hear him speak. However, his radical speeches alarmed non-Islamists and feminists. He purportedly represented a Salafi mindset. Madani sometimes expressed support for multiparty democracy, whereas Belhadj denounced it as a potential threat to sharia. Their support of free market trading and opposition to the ruling elite also attracted middle class traders, who felt left out of the economy.
As in other Muslim countries where the political system allowed opposition and free elections for the first time, the FIS benefited from being a religious party. Unlike the secular parties it had "a coherent network of preachers already in place."
Its support base increased rapidly with the help of activists preaching in friendly mosques.
1990 local elections victory
The FIS made "spectacular" progress in the first year of its existence. The first edition of its weekly publication, Al Munqidh, was distributed to 200,000. The FIS-inspired doctors, nurses and rescue teams showed "devotion and effectiveness" helping victims of an earthquake in Tipaza Province. It organized marches and rallies and "applied steady pressure on the state" to force a promise of early elections.
In the first free elections since independence on 12 June 1990, they swept the local elections with 54% of votes cast, almost double that of the FLN and far more than any of the other parties. The FIS took 46% of town assemblies and 55% of wilaya assemblies. Its supporters were especially concentrated in urban areas: it secured 93% of towns/cities of over 50,000. This was the "high point" of FIS influence. Its rapid rise alarmed the government, which moved to curtail the powers of local government.
Once in power in local governments, its administration and its Islamic charity was praised by many as just, equitable, orderly and virtuous, in contrast to its corrupt, wasteful, arbitrary and inefficient FLN predecessors.
The victory in local elections was the "high point" of FIS influence, which benefited from widespread disillusionment with the Algerian ruling party. As time went on non-core supporters began to become disenchanted. The secular, educated, salaried urban middle class began to be concerned over the anti-French language policy.
The Gulf War energized the party, but brought fissures. The FIS had condemned Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, but once it was apparent that Western intervention was inevitable, public opinion shifted and there were massive demonstrations, blood donation drives. When Binhadj delivered a speech in front of the Ministry of Defense building demanding a corp be sent to fight in Iraq's favor, the military took it as a "direct affront" and challenge to the discipline in the armed forces. (Binhadj later appealed unsuccessfully to the armed forces rank and file for a general mutiny.) Furthermore, his co-leader Madani had received much aid from Iraq's direct enemies, Saudi Arabia and other oil monarchies, supported them and was unhappy about having to defer to Binhadj and the pro-Sadam position.
General strike and arrests of leadership
In May 1991, the FIS called for a general strike to protest the government's redrawing of electoral districts, which it saw as gerrymandering directed against it. The strike itself was a failure, but the demonstrations FIS organized in Algiers were huge. Mass sit-ins were held in one of Algiers largest squares for a week, and the FIS succeeded in pressuring the government. It was persuaded in June to call the strike off by the promise of fair parliamentary elections.
However, disagreements on the strike provoked open dissension among the FIS leadership (the Madjliss ech-Choura), and the prolonged demonstrations alarmed the military. Shortly afterwards the government arrested Madani and Belhadj on 30 June 1991, having already arrested a number of lower-ranking members. The party, however, remained legal in the meantime, and passed to the effective leadership of "djazarists" led by Abdelkader Hachani after four days of contested leadership by Mohamed Said (who was then arrested).
Despite activists anger that its demands for the leaders' release went unheeded, after some deliberation (and expulsion of dissenters such as Said Mekhloufi and Kamareddine Kherbane who advocated direct action against the government), the FIS agreed to participate in the next elections. On 26 December 1991, the FIS won the first round of parliamentary elections, although with one million fewer votes than in the earlier local elections. It won 48% of the overall popular vote, and 188 of the 231 seats contested in that round, putting them far ahead of rivals.
The army saw the seeming certainty of resulting FIS rule as unacceptable. On 11 January 1992, it cancelled the electoral process, forcing President Chadli Bendjedid to resign and bringing in the exiled independence fighter Mohammed Boudiaf to serve as a new president. Many FIS members were arrested, including FIS number three leader Abdelkader Hachani on 22 January. A state of emergency was declared on 9 February, and the government officially dissolved FIS on 4 March. On 12 July, Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj were sentenced to 12 years in prison.
40,000 FIS militants and elected FIS officials were interned in tents deep in the Sahara. Mosques were placed under "tight surveillance". Such activists as remained at large took this as a declaration of war, though FIS would not officially call for armed resistance until 1993, attempting to steer a nuanced course of expressing sympathy for the guerrillas without endorsing their actions.
Civil war
Many took to the hills and joined guerrilla groups. The country inexorably slid into a civil war which would claim more than 250,000 lives, from which it only began to emerge at the end of the 1990s. Initially, the guerrillas were led by members of non-FIS groups, such as Mustafa Bouyali's supporters and people who had fought in Afghanistan, although FIS itself established an underground network, led by Mohamed Said and Abderrezak Redjam, setting up clandestine newspapers and even a radio station with close links to the MIA. From late 1992, they also began issuing official statements from abroad, led by Rabah Kebir and Anwar Haddam.
Soon after taking office in 1994, Liamine Zeroual began negotiations with the imprisoned FIS leadership, releasing some prisoners (including such figures as Ali Djeddi and Abdelkader Boukhamkham) by way of encouragement. These first negotiations collapsed in March, as each accused the other of reneging on agreements; but further, initially secret, negotiations would take place over the following months.
Founding of the Islamic Salvation Army
As the radical Armed Islamic Group (Groupe Islamique Armé or GIA), hostile to FIS as well as to the government, rose to the forefront, FIS-loyalist guerrillas, threatened with marginalization, attempted to unite their forces. In July 1994, the MIA, together with the remainder of the MEI and a variety of smaller groups, united as the Islamic Salvation Army (or AIS, a term that had previously sometimes been used as a general label for pro-FIS guerrillas), declaring their allegiance to FIS and thus strengthening FIS' hand for the negotiations. It was initially headed by MIA's Abdelkader Chebouti, who was superseded in November 1994 by MEI's Madani Mezrag.
It rejected all truces and compromises with the government. The AIS favored a long-term jihad directed against the state and its representatives, not civilians. The GIA appealed to the hittistes urban youth, while the AIS support came from the pious middle class.
By the end of 1994, the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) controlled over half the guerrillas of the east and west, but barely 20% in the center, near the capital, where the GIA were mainly based. Their main leadership was based in the Beni Khettab mountains near Jijel. It issued communiqués condemning the GIA's indiscriminate targeting of women, journalists, and other civilians "not involved in the repression", and attacking its school arson campaign.
Meanwhile, following letters from Madani and Belhadj expressing a commitment to pluralistic democracy and proposing possible solutions to the crisis, the government released both from jail to house arrest on 13 September. However, no let up was observed in the fighting, and the government was unwilling to allow them to consult with FIS figures that remained in prison; the negotiations soon foundered, and at the end of October the government announced the failure of the second round of negotiations, and published incriminating letters from Belhadj that were allegedly found on the body of GIA leader Cherif Gousmi, who had been killed on 26 September.
Work in exile
A few FIS leaders, notably Rabah Kebir, had escaped into exile abroad. During 1994, they carried out negotiations in Italy with other political parties, notably the FLN and FFS, and came out with a mutual agreement on 14 January 1995: the Sant'Egidio platform. This set forth a set of principles: respect for human rights and multiparty democracy, rejection of army rule and dictatorship, recognition of Islam, Arabness, and Berberness as essential aspects of Algerianness, demand for the release of FIS leaders, and an end to extrajudicial killing and torture on all sides. To the surprise of many, even Ali Belhadj endorsed the agreement. However, a crucial signatory was missing: the government itself. As a result, the platform had little if any effect.
Despite the government's extremely hostile reaction to the Rome Platform, though, a third attempt at negotiations took place, starting in April with a letter from Madani condemning acts of violence, and hopes were raised. However, the FIS did not offer enough concessions to satisfy the government, demanding, as usual, that FIS leaders should be released before FIS could call for a ceasefire. In July Zeroual announced that the talks had failed, for the last time.
In 1995, the GIA turned on the AIS in earnest. Reports of battles between the AIS and GIA increased (resulting in an estimated 60 deaths in March 1995 alone), and the GIA reiterated its death threats against FIS and AIS leaders, claiming to be the "sole prosecutor of jihad" and angered by their negotiation attempts. On July 11 Abdelbaki Sahraoui, a co-founder of FIS, was assassinated in Paris; the GIA said that they were responsible, although there was no evidence supporting this. On November 22, 1995, the FIS asked to meet with President Zeroual in order to disband the cycle of violence that was occurring in Algeria
Declaration of ceasefire
The AIS, faced with attacks from both sides and wanting to dissociate itself from the GIA's civilian massacres, declared a unilateral ceasefire on 21 September 1997 (in order to "unveil the enemy who hides behind these abominable massacres"), and disbanded in 1999. Thousands of AIS fighters surrendered and handed over their weapons to the authorities. In January 2000 those fighters obtained amnesty under the terms of the "Civil Concord" decreed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika after his election in April 1999. Both Mezrag and Benaïcha offered their services to the authorities to fight the GIA and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has links to Al-Qaeda.
On 2 July 2003, Belhadj and Madani were released (the former had been in jail, the latter had been moved to house arrest in 1997). Foreign media were banned from covering the event locally, and FIS itself remains banned. However, their release has had little apparent impact. After a decade of vicious civil conflict, there was little enthusiasm in Algeria for reopening old wounds.
As the civil war jihad impoverished the pious middle class, the AIS lost support to the "moderate" Islamic parties, especially the Hamas party of Mahfoud Nahnah.
See also
Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation
Integrism
Notes
References
External links
Algerian Islamists' conception of democracy
1989 establishments in Algeria
1992 disestablishments in Algeria
Arab militant groups
Banned Islamist parties
Banned political parties in Algeria
Conservative parties in Algeria
Defunct political parties in Algeria
Factions of the Algerian Civil War
Islamic political parties in Algeria
Political parties disestablished in 1992
Political parties established in 1989
Rebel groups in Algeria
Muslim Brotherhood
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Greens%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Green%20Alternative
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The Greens – The Green Alternative
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The Greens – The Green Alternative (, ) is a green political party in Austria.
The party was founded in 1986 under the name "Green Alternative" (Grüne Alternative), following the merger of the more conservative Green party Vereinte Grüne Österreichs (United Greens of Austria VGÖ, founded 1982) and the more progressive party Alternative Liste Österreichs (Alternative List Austria, ALÖ, founded 1982). Since 1993, the party has carried the official name Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative (Grüne), but refers to itself in English as "Austrian Greens". There are still differences between the former members of the old Alternative and VGÖ factions within the party, reflected in the differing approaches of the national and state parties.
Apart from ecological issues such as environmental protection, the Greens also campaign for the rights of minorities and advocate a socio-ecological (ökosozial) tax reform. Their basic values according to their charter in 2001 are: "direct democracy, nonviolence, ecology, solidarity, feminism and self-determination". The party is a member of the European Green Party and Global Greens.
History
In 1978 the Austrian Green movement began with the successful campaign to prevent the opening of the nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf (which had been favoured by Bruno Kreisky's government), the Green Party was born in 1984 during the sit-in protests which prevented the Danube power plant at Hainburg from being built.
Federal level
In the 1986 parliamentary elections the Green Party started off with 4.82% of all votes cast and entered parliament with eight National Council mandates. In the early elections to National Council in 2002, the Green Party nationwide received 9.47% of votes, and won 17 mandates to the National Council. At that time, it was the highest number of votes garnered by any European Green party.
When the Greens took their seats in parliament for the first time, they chose to appear somewhat unconventional. They initially refused to adapt their behaviour to that of the other parties; an example of this is their refusal to elect a chairperson (Klubobmann/Klubobfrau) and designated a puppet made out of straw instead. Delegates would appear in parliament dressed in casual wear such as jeans and trainers. Worldwide attention was drawn when the Green delegate Andreas Wabl hoisted a swastika flag on the speakers podium in the Austrian parliament, protesting against then Federal President Kurt Waldheim.
After the national election in 2002, the Greens entered into preliminary negotiations about a possible coalition government with the conservative ÖVP. During negotiations, party leadership was accused of internally black-mailing skeptical members. Negotiations between the two parties were subsequently called off, after the results with the ÖVP were not sufficient. The Green youth organisation Grünalternative Jugend (Green Alternative Youth or GAJ) briefly occupied the rooms of the Green parliamentary club in the Austrian parliament building in protest.
In 2003 three Green federal counsellors formed their own club in the Upper House Federal Council (Bundesrat) of Parliament.
After the 2006 elections the Greens gained four seats and ended up with 21 seats and became the third largest party in Parliament, however did not have enough mandates to form a coalition government with either the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) or Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and became the largest opposition party, while the SPÖ and ÖVP formed a grand coalition government.
The party suffered from internal struggles in 2017, losing its Youth wing (which split away and formed an ephemeral joint list with the Communist Party of Austria) and later experiencing a split of Peter Pilz's faction, forming the Peter Pilz List.
The 2017 legislative election saw a collapse for the party, scoring only 3.8% and losing its representation in the Nationalrat for the first time since 1986. Following the results, party spokesman Ingrid Felipe resigned from her post and was replaced by Werner Kogler.
The party saw a revival in the 2019 European election, in which they scored 14.1% and elected 2 MEPs. The election saw the collapse of JETZ.
The party eventually later this year, experienced a strong recovery and performed better well leading up to the 2019 snap legislative election, the Greens returned to the National Council () with their best ever result in a legislative election, scoring 13.9% and electing 26 MPs, an upswing of 10.2% from 2017.
Chairpersons since 1986
The chart below shows a timeline of the Green chairpersons and the Chancellors of Austria. The left green bar shows all the chairpersons (Bundessprecher, abbreviated as "CP") of the Green party, and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Austrian government at that time. The red (SPÖ), black (ÖVP), and light grey (Independent) colours correspond to which party led the federal government (Bundesregierung, abbreviated as "Govern."). The last names of the respective chancellors are shown, the Roman numeral stands for the cabinets.
Federal state level
The Green party also entered the parliaments or assemblies (Landtag) of Austrian federal states and communal governments. Following is an analysis of the party on the federal state (Länder) level:
Burgenland
The Burgenland Greens were able to take their seats in the federal state parliament (Landtag) for the first time in 2000. The party received 5.49% of the tally, which meant two mandates. In the federal state elections in 2005 these two seats were reaffirmed with 5.21% received of all votes cast.
Carinthia
In the southernmost federal state Carinthia, different Green parties ran state elections: the KEL/AL in 1984, Anderes Kärnten in 1989 and 1994, and Demokratie 99 in 1999. These parties were, however, never able to enter the federal state assembly, since the Carinthian voting system requires a party to win a direct mandate in one of the four regional election districts, which effectively means a 10%-threshold in order to enter.
Only in 2004 were the Carinthian Greens finally able to take their seats in the federal state assembly, where they are represented by cabaret artist Rolf Holub and Barbara Lesjak. On a regional level, for example in the federal state capital Klagenfurt, the Carinthian Greens have already played a political role for a longer time. In the Klagenfurt city council, the Greens are represented by Andrea Wulz, Matthias Koechl, Angelika Hoedl and Reinhold Gasper. Since the local election in 2003, the Klagenfurt Greens were able to take one of nine seats in the proportional city-government, Andrea Wulz is the town councillor for issues relating to women, family matters and social housing projects.
Lower Austria
In 1998 the Lower Austrian Greens were represented with two delegates in the federal state assembly. In the federal state elections in 2003 the Greens received 7.22% and thus won four mandates, which enabled them to form a parliamentary group - called club in Austrian politics - in the assembly. With Madeleine Petrovic, the Lower Austrian Greens have a former federal spokeswoman and one of the most outspoken animal activists of Austria as their leader (Klubobfrau). In 2005 the Lower Austrian Greens managed to win and take their seats in 100 municipal assemblies and as of 2005 had four vice-mayors. Their managing director in Lower Austria is Thomas Huber.
Salzburg
After the federal state elections in 1989 the Salzburg State Greens had two mandates in the Salzburg federal state assembly, in 1994 three and in 1999 again two. Under the leadership of Cyriak Schwaighofer the Greens performed under their expectations in the 2004 federal state elections and could not achieve the desired club status of at least three mandates. As voter-current analyses showed, the small increases in votes were largely due to former voters of the Liberal Forum (LiF), which did not run in the Salzburg elections. In March 2009 they were down from 8% to 7.3%, keeping their two seats in Salzburg State's parliament.
The Bürgerliste (Citizen List) is the common platform of the Greens in Salzburg municipality. Like many other autonomous municipal groups it carries its own name.
Styria
The Styrian Greens have three delegates sitting in the federal state assembly, federal state spokesperson Lambert Schönleitner, Sandra Krautwaschl, and Lara Köck. There are two independent Greens parties: on the one hand the federal state party, on the other hand there is the Die Grünen - Alternative Liste Graz party for the federal state capital Graz. In the Graz city-council the Greens are represented by Sigi Binder, Lisa Rücker, Hermann Candussi and Christina Jahn.
Styria has the largest Austrian Green youth organization in Austria, called Grüne Jugend Steiermark (Green Youth Styria). Beside the Green Youth Styria there also exists Austria's first Green students' organization, the ECO Students.
Tyrol
In Tyrol the Greens (official name: Die Grünen – die Grüne Alternative Tirol) were able to win seats and placed in 1994 Eva Lichtenberger as Austria's first Green state councillor in a local government, responsible for environmental affairs.
The 2003 Tyrolean Landtag (state assembly) elections were the best ever for the Austrian Greens, winning 15.59% of all votes cast. In the capital city of Innsbruck the Greens reached approximately 27% of the vote. The Tyrolean election result also meant that the Greens could for the first time in history nominate a member to the Upper House of Parliament. Since 2003 the Green delegate to the Federal Council (Bundesrat) of Parliament is Eva Konrad, former chairlady of the Austrian National Union of Students (Österreichische HochschülerInnenschaft) of the University of Innsbruck.
The communal elections of 2004 brought a doubling of the mandates for the Tyrolean Greens. City elections in Innsbruck in 2006 were a success for the Greens and they gained 8 of the 40 seats in the parliament of Innsbruck.
In the elections to the European parliament the Tyrolean Greens obtained 17.32%, their best result until then. Eva Lichtenberger subsequently changed her position to become a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). The results in Innsbruck were particularly good: there the Green party received 28.28%, which made it the strongest party, even before the Christian-democratic ÖVP and the social-democratic SPÖ. The Greens were able to score on a number of issues that they have been fighting for years. Besides the social topics above all the problems of transit traffic over the Alps was important.
The Tyrolean Greens have experts on traffic issues with MEP Eva Lichtenberger, the national speaker and club chairperson Georg Willi and the speaker of group of regional of Innsbruck Gerhard Fritz. The issue of transit traffic through the Tyrol is of great importance, because the state is troubled by the massive transit traffic between Germany and Italy over the Brenner Pass. Since the Tyrol sits right in between Germany and Italy, the bulk of the commercial traffic passes through there. This heavy-duty traffic has devastating effects on the fragile alpine environment and decreases the quality of life for the inhabitants. Since the entry to the European Union, Austria had to give up any quota limitations on how much international traffic coming from EU-countries is allowed to pass through its territory.
The Tyrolean Greens accused the federal government of not having pushed for a better deal with the European Union concerning transit-traffic and in effect abandoning the concerns of the citizens. They also heavily criticised the government's failure to negotiate a follow-up of the 1994 transit-treaty signed with the EU. Apart from the Greens, various anti-transit civic movements have formed to protest against the environmental damages caused by the traffic.
Sitting in the National Council is Kurt Grünewald, a Tyrolean member of parliament, as well as the former leader of the Greens Alexander Van der Bellen, who has Tyrolean roots (he spent a part of his youth there and went to high school in Innsbruck).
The results of the Tyrolean Landtag elections:
2003 delegates: Sepp Brugger, Maria Scheiber, Uschi Schwarzl, Elisabeth Wiesmüller und Georg Willi (club chairman);
1999 delegates: Maria Scheiber, Elisabeth Wiesmüller, Georg Willi (club chairman);
1994 delegates: Bernhard Ernst, Franz Klug, Max Schneider und Georg Willi (club chairman [Klubobmann]);
1989 delegates: Eva Lichtenberger, Jutta Seethaler, Franz Klug.
Upper Austria
In 1997 the Upper Austrian Greens successfully entered the Upper Austrian Landtag (state assembly) for the first time. After the state elections in 2003 (state elections in Upper Austria are held every six years, not five like in the other states), the Greens were able to win even more seats. The campaign was already aimed at gaining ministerial seats in the state government. Since the conservative Christian-democratic ÖVP was the strongest party, this would have meant for the Greens to enter into a coalition government with them (the so-called "Schwarz-Grün" [Black-Green] coalition, named after the party-colours). This new political constellation was quite controversial amongst party members on both sides. In the Green party, the leader Rudi Anschober was able to convince party members and after some dealing became state councillor for environmental affairs. The Greens of the state capital of Linz under the leadership of city councillor Jürgen Himmelbauer were most against this black-green project.
On the national level, the Upper Austrian Greens were able to nominate and send to the parliamentary Upper House Federal Council (Bundesrat) councillor Ruperta Lichtenecker.
Vorarlberg
The Vorarlberg Greens were the first to ever win mandates in an Austrian state assembly election. Already in 1984 they were able to win 13% of the votes in the Vorarlberg state assembly elections, which for that time was an absolute sensation. The charismatic alpine farmer Kaspanaze Simma from Bregenzerwald was the leading candidate, it was mainly due to his efforts why the party was so instantly successful. Because of their strength, the Greens were allowed to form their own parliamentary fraction (Klub), which caused some logistical problems as the newly constructed Landtag building in 1981 only provided space for the traditional three parties (ÖVP, SPÖ, FPÖ), not four. Since the traditional organic farming sector is important in the western Austrian regions, the Greens were able to gain support.
In the following years the Greens were able to consolidate their position by gaining seats on the communal and municipal level. Occasionally they lost their official club status in the state assembly, when they fared poorly from 1999 to 2004. In 2006 the speaker of the Vorarlberg Greens was Johannes Rauch.
The results of the Vorarlberg Landtag elections:
1 Combined result of ALÖ and VGÖ
Vienna
The Viennese Greens started nominating candidates in the Vienna Gemeinderat (municipal council or state assembly) in 1983 and were able to enter in 1991. Over the years they have been able to continually gather support. A lot of support has been coming from former Liberal Forum voters, after the liberals failed to enter any legislature. The traditional strongholds in Vienna for the Greens are the districts of Neubau (2005: 43.26%), Josefstadt (32.26%), Alsergrund (29.43%), Mariahilf (28.97%) and Wieden (25.14%).
In the 2001 Gemeinderat elections, the Greens were able to win the majority of a district for the first time. In the district of Neubau they won 32.55% and were able to nominate the Bezirksvorsteher (mayor of the district). The results of 2001 also allowed the Viennese Greens to nominate Stefan Schennach as federal councilor to the Upper House of Parliament (Bundesrat). But despite the strong gains, the Greens were not able to enter into a coalition government with the SPÖ, since the social-democrats were able to win an absolute majority.
The 2004 European Parliament election were the best for the Viennese Greens so far. From the total tally, they received 22%, which put them ahead of the Christian-democratic ÖVP and placed them on second position behind the SPÖ (37.7%). In Neubau the Greens received 41%. They were also able to win first place in the districts of Wieden, Mariahilf, Josefstadt and Alsergrund.
In the 2005 Gemeinderat elections, the Greens were able to win votes, but missed their target of becoming the second most powerful party and ended up on fourth place, right behind the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ). Because of the different weighing by districts, the Greens received 14 mandates, one more than the FPÖ. They were also able to place another city-councillor. In the districts, the party was able to consolidate their holding on Neubau, as well as win the majority of votes in Josefstadt. With that, the Greens were able to nominate a second Green district-mayor. The second place was won in the districts of Leopoldstadt, Margareten, Mariahilf, Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus and Alsergrund.
The Green delegates to the Viennese Gemeinderat or Landtag as of 2006 were: Maria Vassilakou (club-chairlady [Klubobfrau]), Waltraut Antonov, Heidi Cammerlander, Christoph Chorherr, Sabine Gretner, Susanne Jerusalem, Alev Korun, Rüdiger Maresch, Martin Margulies, Sigrid Pilz, Ingrid Puller, Marie Ringler, Marco Schreuder, Claudia Sommer-Smolik. The two city-councillors are David Ellensohn and Monika Vana.
The 2010 results meant that the SPÖ was unable to hold the majority of seats in the Vienna city council and therefore had to rule together with the Greens performing for the first time as coalition partner. The current vice-governor/vice-mayor of Vienna as of 26 June 2019 is Birgit Hebein.
The results of the Viennese Gemeinderat elections:
1 ran as Alternative Liste Wien (ALW)
Organisation
In 2004 the Greens had about 3,000 members nationwide, although at present there are no uniform regulations for membership. Apart from the members, the Greens rely on a large number of volunteers. The party used to function on the principles of grassroots democracy (Basisdemokratie) and rotation principle (Rotationsprinzip), but this was stopped in the course of the time. The last basic-democratic element is the Urabstimmung, which is a vote on any issue that can be initiated with the petition of at least 100 members. As of 2003 however, no such vote has taken place.
The highest body is the Federal Congress (Bundeskongress), which convenes at least once a year. All federal state organisations send delegates, also the immigrants-organisation is allowed to send delegates as "the tenth Austrian state". The Federal Congress decides the electoral lists for the National Council elections and elections to the European parliament. The congress also elects the federal spokesperson (BundesprecherIn). The congress also decides the party program and sets the party guidelines.
In the last few years, the federal executive (Bundesvorstand) has developed into the actual decision-making centre. It meets at least once a week, mostly on Tuesdays, and determines the guidelines of daily politics. The federal executive also decides on party finances.
The extended federal executive (Erweiterter Bundesvorstand) consists of a smaller number of delegates from each state and meets at least once a month. It takes care of the implementation of the party-guidelines, which were set by the party congress. It also chooses the representatives of the party spokesperson.
The highest office in the party is that of the federal spokesperson (Bundessprecher). The party's federal spokesman is Werner Kogler.
The federal state organisations (Landesorganisationen) are organised similarly: There are federal state meetings, which sometimes convene as a members meeting or a delegates meeting. Similar to the federal executive, there are federal state executives (Landesvorstände). The party charter also allows for each federal state group to hold a vote on basic issues as well that affect the whole party.
Independently in the National Council there also exists a Green National Council Club (faction), which can independently specify its guidelines. In recent years however an increasing fusion of the work between party and its club was noticeable. Michaela Sburny, successor of Franz Raft since June 2004 as the Greens' federal chairperson, was allowed to keep her National Council mandate. This means she is allowed to hold two offices at the same time, something that was frowned upon by the Greens previously.
There are different Green or Greenish organisations within the party and associated with it. These include:
The Grünen Andersrum is the gay-, lesbian and transgender organisation, which is organised differently from state to state, and exists in all states except Vorarlberg and Burgenland. In Vienna, the Grünen Andersrum are a part of the party itself.
The Grünen SeniorInnen (DGS) is the organisation for senior citizens. It was founded on March 9, 2001, in Vienna. The DGS fights for a policy more friendly to senior citizens and their right to lead an active, fulfilling and self-determined life.
The Initiative Grüne MigrantInnen (IGM) is the Green group for immigrants in Austria. Their demands are a facilitation of integration into life in Austria, equal rights and equal opportunities, fight against racism and other issues concerning migrants.
The Grüne und Alternative Studierende (GRAS) is a separate party which candidates in the elections for the Austrian National Union of Students (Österreichische HochschülerInnenschaft – ÖH). There they are the biggest faction, together with the Socialist Students of Austria (Verband Sozialistischer StudentInnen Österreichs – VSStÖ) they form the executive committee of the Austrian National Union for Students.
The Grünalternative Jugend (GAJ) is the youth organisation of the Green party. The GAJ existed since the 1990s. It is a member of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG). The GAJ sees itself rather as extreme left. The organisation is subdivided into smaller groups for each state.
The Grüne Frauenorganisation is the organisation for women. As of 2005, it does not exist yet in every state.
ECO Students is a Green student's organisation, which currently only exists in Styria.
The Grüne Wirtschaft is the Green economic organisation and runs in the elections for the Economic Parliament of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich – WKÖ).
The Alternative und Unabhängige GewerkschafterInnen (AUGE/UG) is the Green labour union. It runs in the elections for the labour parliament of the Austrian Labour Chamber (Arbeiterkammer – AK).
The education and training of new Green politicians is done by the Grüne Bildungswerkstatt, which is an independent voluntary association. The Grüne Bildungswerkstatt is financed by the republic, as regulated by Austrian law for the equal treatment of all parliamentary parties.
Electoral results
National Council
President
In the 2016 Austrian presidential election, Alexander Van der Bellen won the election with 50.35% of the votes and defeated Norbert Hofer the Freedom Party of Austria politician who received 49.65% of the vote. Van der Bellen became the first president from the Greens. On 1 July, the Constitutional Court overturned the result of the election and ordered a re-run because of irregularities during the counting process. On 4 December 2016 Van der Bellen won the re-run of the second round with 53.79% of the votes to Hofer's 46.21%.
European Parliament
State Parliaments
Results timeline
Prominent members
Among the most notable founding members and mentors are or were Professor Alexander Tollmann, the painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser, actor Herbert Fux, the mayor of Steyregg Josef Buchner (the first Green mayor in Austria – in 1987 excluded from the Green parliamentary club), Freda Meissner-Blau and Günther Nenning, with Nobel prize laureate Konrad Lorenz supporting the 1984 protests at Hainburg.
Today, Green politicians include (in alphabetical order)
Rudolf Anschober (State councillor of Upper Austria)
Thomas Blimlinger (Mayor of the Viennese district Neubau)
Dieter Brosz (former MP (former member of the lower house National Council), spokesman for education)
Christoph Chorherr (Member of the state assembly of Vienna)
Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek (former MP, former federal spokeswoman)
Werner Kogler (federal spokesperson)
Ulrike Lunacek (former MEP, former spokeswoman for foreign policy)
Karl Oellinger (former MP, deputy federal speaker)
Madeleine Petrovic (Club chairperson of the Lower Austrian Greens)
Johannes Rauch, (Club chairperson and state speaker for Vorarlberg)
Marie Ringler, (former Member of the Viennese state assembly, spokeswoman for culture and technology)
Michaela Sburny (former MP, Spokeswoman for the economy, former Federal Executive Manager of the party)
Terezija Stoisits (Ombudswoman, former MP and spokeswoman for minorities)
Ingrid Lechner Sonnek (Club chairperson of the Styrian Greens)
Alexander Van der Bellen (former Federal Speaker, club chairman in the National Council), President of Austria
Maria Vassilakou (Club chairperson of the Viennese Greens, Vice Mayor)
Georg Willi (Club chairperson and state speaker for the Tyrol)
Members of the European Parliament
Mercedes Echerer (MEP from 1999 to 2004)
Eva Lichtenberger (MEP since 2004, member of the Austrian national convention)
Johannes Voggenhuber (MEP from 1995 to 2009, Member of the European Convention, member of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union)
Ulrike Lunacek (2009–2017)
See also
Green party
Green politics
List of environmental organizations
Anti-nuclear movement in Austria
Notes
References
External links
Austrian Greens in the European Parliament
Die Grünen Austria at European Greens
The Green Parties Country Studies - Austria
Political parties established in 1993
1993 establishments in Austria
European Green Party
Global Greens member parties
Green parties in Europe
Feminist parties
Parties represented in the European Parliament
Pro-European political parties in Austria
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%20Liberation%20Front%20%28Algeria%29
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National Liberation Front (Algeria)
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The National Liberation Front, commonly known by its French acronym FLN, is a nationalist political party in Algeria. It was the principal nationalist movement during the Algerian War and the sole legal and ruling political party of the Algerian state until other parties were legalised in 1989.
The FLN was established in 1954 from a split in the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties from members of the Special Organisation paramilitary; its armed wing, the National Liberation Army, participated in the Algerian War from 1954 to 1962. After the Évian Accords of 1962, the party purged internal dissent and ruled Algeria as a one-party state. After the 1988 October Riots and the Algerian Civil War (1991–2002) against Islamist groups, the FLN was reelected to power in the 2002 Algerian legislative election, and has generally remained in power ever since, although sometimes needing to form coalitions with other parties.
History
Colonial era
The background of the FLN can be traced back to the growing anti-colonialism and Algerian nationalist sentiments since the outbreak of WWII. The repression against the Algerian Muslim population intensified as Abdelhamid Ben Badis got placed under house arrest and Marshal Pétain's government banned the Algerian Communist Party and Algerian People's Party. As the war turned gradually more in favor of the Western Allies, given the US's global engagement and its ideological campaign against colonialism, the core sentiment amongst the Algerian nationalists was to use the victory in Europe to promote the independence of the country, which is reflected by the issuing of the Manifesto of the Algerian People by Ferhat Abbas. As this objective failed to realize, a new party Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTDL) founded by the just-released Messali Hadj started to gain momentum and took the lead in the nationalist movement.
However, the Algerian Assembly's double electoral college system stipulated an equal number of 60 representation between the French settlers and the Muslim community while the Muslim community was significantly larger than the settlers. The underrepresentation combined with the unfair election in 1948 limited the MTDL's ability to gain further political power. Consequently, the Algerian nationalists veered to a more military approach as noted in their participation in the Special Organisation (Algeria), which is a paramilitary component of the MTLD and included the important figures in Algerian politics such Ahmed Ben Bella, Hocine Aït Ahmed, and Mohammed Boudiaf.
Later in 1951, the capture of Ahmed Ben Bella and the subsequent dismantling of the Special Organisation temporarily subdued the nationalist movement but sparkled the desire inside the Special Organisation militants to form a new organization – Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action(CRUA). It initially had a five-man leadership consisting of Mostefa Ben Boulaïd, Larbi Ben M'hidi, Rabah Bitat, Mohamed Boudiaf and Mourad Didouche. They were joined by Krim Belkacem in August, and Hocine Aït Ahmed, Ahmed Ben Bella and Mohamed Khider later in the summer.
The National Liberation Front (FLN) was established on 10 October 1954. It succeeded the CRUA which had been formed earlier in the year because the CRUA failed to provide unity within the MTLD Party. On 1 November 1954 the FLN launched the Algerian War after publishing the Declaration of 1 November 1954 written by journalist Mohamed Aïchaoui. Didouche was killed on 18 January 1955, whilst both Ben Boulaïd and Bitat were captured by the French. Abane Ramdane was recruited to take control of the FLN's Algiers campaign, and went on to become one of its most effective leaders. By 1956 nearly all the nationalist organizations in Algeria had joined the FLN, which had established itself as the main nationalist group through both co-opting and coercing smaller organizations; the most important group that remained outside the FLN was Messali Hadj's Algerian National Movement (MNA). At this time the FLN reorganized into something like a provisional government, consisting of a five-man executive and legislative body, and was organized territorially into six wilayas, following the Ottoman-era administrative boundaries.
The FLN's armed wing during the war was called the National Liberation Army (ALN). It was divided into guerrilla units fighting France and the MNA in Algeria (and wrestling with Messali's followers over control of the expatriate community, in the "Café Wars" in France), and another, stronger component more resembling a traditional army. These units were based in neighbouring Arab countries (notably in Oujda in Morocco, and Tunisia), and although they infiltrated forces and ran weapons and supplies across the border, they generally saw less action than the rural guerrilla forces. These units were later to emerge under the leadership of army commander Colonel Houari Boumediene as a powerful opposition to the political cadres of the FLN's exile government, the GPRA, and they eventually came to dominate Algerian politics.
FLN violence
The Algerian war resulted in between 300,000 and 400,000 deaths. The FLN is considered responsible for over 16,000 civilians killed and over 13,000 disappeared between 1954 and 1962. After the ceasefire of 19 March 1962, the FLN is thought to have massacred thousands of harkis, Muslim Algerians who had served in the French army and whom the French, contrary to promises given, had denied a "repatriation" to France. An example of an FLN massacre is the Philippeville massacre.
Independence and one-party state
The war for independence continued until March 1962, when the French government finally signed the Évian Accords, a ceasefire agreement with the FLN. In July of the same year, the Algerian people approved the cease-fire agreement with France in a referendum, supporting economic and social cooperation between the two countries as well. Full independence followed, and the FLN seized control of the country. Political opposition in the form of the MNA and Communist organizations was outlawed, and Algeria was constituted as a one-party state. The FLN became its only legal and ruling party.
Immediately after independence, the party experienced a severe internal power struggle. Political leaders coalesced into two large camps: a Political Bureau formed by the radical Ahmed Ben Bella, who was assisted by the border army, faced off against the political leadership in the former exile government; Boumédiène's army quickly put down resistance and installed Ben Bella as president. The single most powerful political constituency remained the former ALN, which had returned largely unscathed from exile and was now organized as the country's armed forces; added to this were regionally powerful guerrilla irregulars and others who jockeyed for influence in the party. In building his one-party regime, Ben Bella purged remaining dissidents (such as Ferhat Abbas), but also quickly ran into opposition from Boumédiène as he tried to assert himself independently from the army.
In 1965, the tension between Boumédiène and Ben Bella culminated in a coup d'état, after Ben Bella had tried to sack one of the Colonel's closest collaborators, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika (who was elected President of Algeria in 1999). A statist-socialist and anticolonial nationalist, Boumédiène ruled through decree and "revolutionary legitimacy", marginalizing the FLN in favor of his personal decision-making and the military establishment, even while retaining the one-party system. Boumédiène held tight control over party leadership until his death in 1978, at which time the party reorganized again under the leadership of the military's next candidate, Col. Chadli Bendjedid. The military remained well-represented on the FLN Central Committee and is widely thought to have been the real power-broker in the country. During the 1980s the FLN toned down the socialist content of its programme, enacting some free-market reforms and purging Boumédiène stalwarts.
Multi-party era
It was not until 1988 that massive demonstrations and riots jolted the country towards major political reform. The riots led to the constitution being amended to allow a multi-party system. The first multi-party elections were the 1990 local elections, which saw the FLN heavily defeated by the Islamist Islamic Salvation Front (ISF), which won control of over half the local councils; the FLN received just over a quarter of the vote, retaining control of a similar number of councils. The first round of the parliamentary elections the following year saw the ISF win 188 of the 231 seats, whilst the FLN won only 16, placing third behind the Socialist Forces Front. However, shortly afterwards, due to fears of the ISF forming an Islamic state, a military coup d'état cancelled the election process and forced president Bendjedid to resign, sparking the Algerian Civil War.
Algeria was under direct military rule for several years, during which the party remained in opposition to the government during the first part of the war, notably in 1995 signing the Sant'Egidio Platform, which was highly critical of the military establishment. After internal power struggles and a leadership change, it returned to supporting the presidency. After formal democracy was restored, the FLN initially failed to regain its prominent position; in the 1997 parliamentary elections it emerged as the third-largest party, receiving 14% of the vote and winning 69 of the 231 seats. However, it won a landslide victory in the 2002 elections, winning 199 of the 389 seats.
The party nominated Ali Benflis as its candidate for the 2004 presidential elections. He finished as runner-up to the incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika, but received only 6.4% of the vote. In 2005 FLN formed the Presidential Alliance with the National Rally for Democracy (RND) and the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP).
The 2007 parliamentary elections saw the FLN reduced to 163 seats, although the FLN's Abdelaziz Belkhadem remained Prime Minister. Bouteflika was the party's candidate in the 2009 presidential elections, which he won with 90% of the vote.
In 2012 MSP left the Presidential Alliance and joined the Green Algeria Alliance. Despite that, the FLN remained the largest party following the 2012 parliamentary elections, winning 208 of the 462 seats. Bouteflika was re-elected on the FLN ticket in the 2014 presidential elections with 82% of the vote. The elderly and ailing Bouteflika is widely seen as a mere frontman for what has often described as a "shadowy" group of generals and intelligence officers known to the Algerians collectively as le pouvoir (“the power”) and whose individual members are called décideurs with The Economist writing in 2012 "The most powerful man in the land may be Mohamed Mediène, known as Toufiq who has headed military intelligence for two decades". General Mohamed Mediène, the chief of military intelligence from 1990 to 2015 was known to be a leading décideur within le pouvior and for his secrecy with The Economist reporting on 21 September 2013: "Despite his leading role in defeating Islamic militants in a brutal civil war between 1991 and 2000, and his less public role as kingmaker in the pouvoir, General Mediene’s face remains unknown; it is said that anyone who has seen it expires soon after." On 13 September 2015, it was announced that Mediène was retiring and President Bouteflika had appointed General Athmane Tartag to succeed him. Mediène's dismissal was viewed as the culmination of a long "behind-the-scenes power struggle" with Bouteflika, leaving the latter fully in charge and giving him more power to determine his own successor.
In the 2017 parliamentary elections FLN won 164 of the 462 seats, thus losing 44 seats; however, thanks to the good performance of the RND (which won 100 seats), the Presidential Alliance was able to maintain a parliamentary majority and continue to rule the country.
Relationship with Jewish Algerians
Jews in Algeria were given French citizenship during the colonial era starting in 1870, while Muslims were denied citizenship by the French. The Jews in Algeria were seen as a go-between for French-Muslim relations; however, the lack of citizenship on behalf of the Muslims created tension between the two groups. During the Algerian War, Jews felt as if they were being forced to choose sides; they were either Algerian and fighting with the FLN for independence, or they were French and fighting with the French to keep Algeria as a colony. At the start of the Algerian War, the FLN offered Jews the opportunity to join their efforts, and in return Jews would be given Algerian citizenship when Algeria won independence. Most of the Jews in Algeria sided with the French Government, much to the dismay of the FLN and their supporters. During the course of the war, Jews in Algeria began to feel as if the FLN was targeting Jews and not just the French people living in Algeria. This led to increased tensions between Jews and Muslims in the area. After the war, Algerian citizenship was only extended to Muslims whose fathers and grandfathers were Muslim at the time the FLN won independence from the French Government. Algerian Jews were no longer considered Algerian, but they still retained French citizenship. With their French citizenship, the majority of Jews in Algeria decided to emigrate to France, with a small number of Jews deciding to emigrate to Israel and an even smaller number of Jews deciding to stay in Algeria under the rule of the FLN. Between 1961 and 1962, 130,000 out of Algeria's 140,000 Jews left for France, while around 10,000 immigrated to Israel.
Ideology
The FLN's ideology was primarily Algerian nationalist, understood as a movement within a wider Arab nationalism and also a pan-Arab solidarity. It essentially drew its political self-legitimization from three sources: Nationalism, and the revolutionary war against France; Socialism, loosely interpreted as a popular anti-exploitation creed; Islam, defined as the main foundation for the national consciousness, and a crucial factor in solidifying the Algerian identity as separate from that of French Algerians or pied-noirs.
As the name implies, it viewed itself as a "front" composed of different social sectors and ideological trends, even if the concept of a monolithic Algerian polity gradually submerged this vision. A separate party ideology was not well developed at the time of independence, except insofar as it focused on the liberation of Algeria. This latter aspect led to the denial of or refusal to deal with the separate Berber identity held by Algerian Berbers who made up about 20% of Algeria, something which caused fierce opposition and led to the splintering of the movement immediately after independence, as Hocine Aït Ahmed set up the Berberist and pro-democracy Socialist Forces Front (FFS) in Tizi Ouzou and began a rebellion in Kabylia which was defeated by the government in 1965.
Anti-colonialism and Islamism
Anti-Colonialism is widely considered as the core value in Algerian official discourse during its entire contemporary political and social history, especially during the formation of the FLN and later during the Islamist movement. The Muslim population had been discriminated against at a constitutional level, as illustrated by the fact that French settlers formed up to 80% of the membership in three departmental councils in 1875; and at a local level, the metropolitan model composed of a major and municipal council only granted voting right to 5% of the adult male Muslim population until 1919, when the number increase to 25%. Therefore, its nationalist outlook was also closely interwoven with anti-Colonialism and anti-imperialism, something which would remain a lasting characteristic of Algerian foreign policy.
Islamism pertained its dominance in Algerian politics because of the specific social contexts during different periods. The humiliating failure of the Mokrani Revolt in 1871 facilitated the pro-Islamism sentiment in the society as people generally regarded Islam as the long-lasting and never-fading symbolic opposition towards the French rule; also the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911 provoked sympathy in the Muslim community and strengthened the Islamic cultural identity and these two events together consolidated the Islamism-Colonialism opposition rhetoric.
The politicization of the Islamism started with the noticeable wave of Islamic discourse led by religious scholars such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838–97), Mohammed Abduh (1849–1905) and Rashid Rida (1865–1935) that focused on resisting the foreign economic control and establishing an Islamic country based on the sharia, which were the core values of the Algerian Ulama. The movement absolutely rejected atheism and was not overtly secularist, contrary to widespread perception in the West, and Islamism was perhaps the most important mobilizing ideology during the Algerian War. Still, after independence, the party would in practice assume a strongly modernist interpretation of Islam, supported the social transformation of Algerian society, the emancipation of women, etc., and worked only through secular institutions.
Before Col. Chadli Bendjedid came into power in 1971, the Islamic movement had been rather successfully monitored and subdued by the government during the previous 20 years, but the Iranian Revolution rekindled the movement and posed a greater threat to the state. Since the Algerian independence, Religion had been relegated to the role of legitimizing factor for the party-regime, especially under the presidency of Col. Houari Boumédiènne (1965–78), but even then Islam was considered the state religion and a crucial part of Algerian identity, as Boumédiènne himself took pride in his Quranic training. His predecessor Ahmed Ben Bella (1962–65) was more committed to the Islamic component of the regime, although always viewed as more of an Arab nationalist than an Islamic activist (and he remains far removed from what is today referred to as Algeria's Islamists). During the mid- to late-1980s, Bendjedid reintroduced religiously conservative legislation in an attempt to appease growing Islamist opposition. During and after the Algerian Civil War, the party's position has remained that of claiming Algerian Islam as a main influence, while simultaneously arguing that this must be expressed as a progressive and modern faith, even if the party generally keeps in line with the conservative social mores of Algeria's population. It has strongly condemned the radical-fundamentalist religious teachings of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and other Islamist groups, even while supporting the inclusion of non-violent Islamist parties in the political system and working with them.
Arab nationalism and Pan-Arabism
Arab nationalism and Pan-Arabism are considered core principles of the FLN and Algerian nationalism. Arab themes were glorified as the foundation of Algerian nationalism that would fit into Pan-Arabism. Albert Camus argued that Algerian nationalism was closely tied to Nasserism and Pan-Arabism in an essay titled 'Algeria 1958'. A prominent member of the Algerian independence movement, Abdel-Hamid ibn Badis (1889–1940), emphasized the Arab and Muslim character of Algeria through his Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema, and famously coined the often-cited phrase: "Islam is our religion, Algeria is our homeland, Arabic is our language", while his fellow 'alim Ahmad Tawfiq al-Madani (1889–1983) wrote extensive historical writings in Arabic celebrating the Muslim and Arab ancestors of Algeria.
During the Algerian war of independence, the FLN emerged as the main socialist group after uniting with several smaller independence groups, and was strongly committed to Pan-Arabism. A major supporter of the Algerian independence movement was Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose mixture of Arab nationalism and revolution appealed to the Arabs in North Africa. He provided financial, diplomatic and military support to the FLN, and based the Algerian provisional government in Cairo. This played a major role in France's decision to wage war against him during the 1956 Suez Crisis. Once Algeria gained independence in 1962, Arab nationalist leader Ahmed Ben Bella was elected president after winning elections with 99.6 per cent of the votes. He composed the Algerian constitution in October 1963, which asserted that Islam was the state religion, Arabic was the sole national and official language of the state, Algeria was an integral part of the Arab world, and that Arabization was the first priority of the country to reverse French colonization.
Ben Bella was succeeded by Houari Boumédiène in 1965, who also pursued Arab socialist and Pan-Arabist policies. He drafted a new Algerian constitution in 1976 which declared "the unity of the Arab people is written in the community of the destinies of these people. When there will be the conditions for a unity based on the liberation of the popular masses, Algeria will engage itself in the promotion of the formulas of union, integration or fusion that may fully respond to the legitimate and deep aspirations of the Arab people". Like Ben Bella, Boumédiène imposed Arab socialism as the state ideology and declared Islam the state religion. He was more assertive than Ben Bella in carrying out Arabization, especially between 1970 and 1977. The year 1971 was declared the "year of Arabization". Chadli Bendjedid had talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 1988 about forming an Algeria-Libya Arab union. Instead the Arab Maghreb Union was formed in 1989.
Socialism
A historical reference of socialist values is the implementation of the Warnier Law of 1873, which allowed the selling of community land at an individual base toppled the economic power of the Algerian indigenous elites; the elimination of class structure undertoned the later FLN populism and socialist agendas. Such egalitarianism, which implies a liberation struggle, reflects the FLN's militant socialism during Ben Bella's period, who considered the struggle was to invent a new society to release the peasantry's potential.
This ideological construct of the FLN is controversial and disputed but can be analyzed through lenses of different socio-economic contexts. Given the global background of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, Algeria was considered the entry point into the Third World in this ideological conflict; the FLN's ideologies under Ben Bella and Boumédiène were largely shaped by the fundamental needs of the country such as radical economic reforms, getting international aids and recognition, along with the domestic Islamic pressure.
Facing the grave economic consequences of the Algerian War of Independence that included the destruction of 8000 villages and millions of acres of land, a centralized authority, in this case, the FLN, was forced to act and redress the problem through a Leninist and corporatist framework. In response, Ben Bella also experimented the socialist autogestion among the Muslim workers who entered industrial and agricultural businesses that featured profit-sharing and equity. Ben Bella and his supporters in the FLN believed in the harmony between religion and socialism and it was in their political interest to renew the FLN party by leading a popular revolution to integrate Islam and socialism.
Despite being challenged by the Algerian Ulema and other domestic conservatives who criticized Ben Bella on the shallowness of his intentionally Islamism-leaning policies, the FLN kept its Marxist–Leninist organization principles that featured a secular institutional dominance over religion. The later FLN's ideological change towards anti-socialism and anti-communism can be illustrated by Kaid Ahmed's opposition towards Boumédiène's leftist agenda, which featured the radical agrarian revolution that hurt rich landowners who defended themselves on the religious ground and fueled the Islamic movement, which gradually took over the national sentiment later in the century. Starting in 1971 and ending in 1992, the government under Chadli Bendjedid was authoritative but collegial, less rigid on ideologies but more moderate on domestic and international issues, while Bendjedid and his advisers believed in socialism.
Communism
The organization initially committed itself to socialism, but understood this along the lines of Arab socialism, and opposed orthodox Marxism. The existence of different classes in Algerian society was generally rejected, even if several of the party's top ideologues were influenced to varying degrees by Marxist analysis.
Borrowed Marxist terminology was instead commonly reinterpreted by party radicals in terms of the conflict with France, e.g. casting the colonizer in the role of economic exploiter-oppressor as well as national enemy, while the label of "bourgeoisie" was applied to uncooperative or pro-French elites. The FLN absorbed some communist activists into its ranks during the War of Independence for pragmatic reasons but refused to allow them to organize separately from the FLN after the war. The FLN then quickly moved to dissolve the pro-Moscow Algerian Communist Party (PCA). However, since independent Algeria was set up as a one-party system under the FLN soon thereafter, many communist intellectuals were later co-opted into the regime at various stages. The cooperation occurred during the early Ben Bella and late Boumédiènne years when the Socialist Vanguard Party (PAGS), established in 1966, cooperated and tactically consulted with the FLN and recognized the FLN as the sole legitimate party in the country.
Contemporary developments
During all periods of Algerian post-colonial history, except for a few years ca. 1990–96, the FLN has been a pillar of the political system and has primarily been viewed as a "pro-system" party. Its role as Algeria's liberators has remained the absolute cornerstone of the party's self-perception, and the defining feature of its otherwise somewhat fluid ideology. The FLN was close to former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was made honorary chairman. It mixes its traditional populist interpretations of Algeria's nationalist-revolutionary and Islamic heritage with a pro-system conservatism, and support for gradual pro-market reform qualified by statist reflexes. Since the breakdown of the one-party system and its detachment from the state structure in ca. 1988–1990, the FLN has been in favor of multi-party democracy, whereas it upheld itself as the only organization representing the Algerian people before this period.
The FLN was admitted into Socialist International (SI) as a consultative member at the SI's spring congress on 4–5 February 2013. It was expelled from the Socialist International during the 2019 protests in Algeria.
Electoral history
Presidential elections
People's National Assembly elections
See also
French rule in Algeria (1830–1962)
The Wretched of the Earth
The Battle of Algiers
Frantz Fanon
Jeanson network
Notes
References
Further reading
Aussaresses, General Paul, The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955–1957 (New York: Enigma Books, 2010). .
Derradji Abder-Rahmane, The Algerian Guerrilla Campaign: Strategy & Tactics, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.
Derradji Abder-Rahmane, Concise History of Political Violence in Algeria in Arms: Brothers in Faith, Enemies in Arms, Vol. 1, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, September 2002.
Derradji Abder-Rahmane, Concise History of Political Violence in Algeria in Arms: Brothers in Faith, Enemies in Arms, Vol. 2, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, November 2002.
Horne, Alistair. (1977). A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962. Viking Press.
McDougall, James. (2017). A History of Algeria. Cambridge University Press.
McDougall, James. (2006). History and the culture of nationalism in Algeria. Cambridge University Press.
External links
1954 establishments in Algeria
Algerian Civil War
Algerian nationalism
Algerian War
Arab nationalism
Consultative member parties of the Socialist International
Left-wing parties
National liberation armies
National liberation movements
Parties of one-party systems
Political parties established in 1954
Political parties in Algeria
Rebel groups in Algeria
Separatism in Algeria
Separatism in France
Socialism in Algeria
Socialist parties in Algeria
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatay%20Province
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Hatay Province
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Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 5,524 km2, and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of Adana to the northwest, Osmaniye to the north, and Gaziantep to the northeast. It is partially in Çukurova, a large fertile plain along Cilicia. Its administrative capital is Antakya (ancient Antioch), making it one of the three Turkish provinces not named after its administrative capital or any settlement. The second-largest city is İskenderun (formerly Alexandretta). Sovereignty over most of the province remains disputed with neighbouring Syria, which claims that the province had a demographic Arab majority, and was separated from itself against the stipulations of the French Mandate of Syria in the years following Syria's occupation by France after World War I.
History
Antiquity
Settled since the early Bronze Age, Hatay was once part of the Akkadian Empire, then of the Amorite Kingdom of Yamhad. Later, it became part of the Kingdom of Mitanni, then the area was ruled by a succession of Hittites and Neo-Hittite peoples that later gave the modern province of Hatay its name.
The Neo-Hittite kingdom of Palistin was also located here.
The area came under the control of Assyrians (except for a brief occupation by Urartu), and later the Neo-Babylonians and the Persians.
The region was the center of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, home to the four Greek cities of the Syrian tetrapolis (Antioch, Seleucia Pieria, Apamea, and Laodicea). From 64 BC onwards the city of Antioch became an important regional centre of the Roman Empire.
Among the famous archaeological sites in the province are Alalakh, Tell Tayinat, Tell Judaidah, and Antioch.
Medieval era
The area was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in 638 and later it came under the control of the Umayyad and Abbasid Arab dynasties. Tulunids briefly ruled it before Abbasid one was restored. From the 10th century onwards, the region was controlled by the Aleppo-based Hamdanids after a brief rule of Ikhshidids. In 969 the city of Antioch was recaptured by the Byzantine Empire. It was conquered by Philaretos Brachamios, a Byzantine general in 1078. He founded a principality from Antioch to Edessa. It was captured by Suleiman I, who was Sultan of Rum (ruler of Anatolian Seljuks), in 1084. It passed to Tutush I, Sultan of Aleppo (ruler of Syria Seljuks), in 1086. Seljuk rule lasted 14 years until Hatay's capture by the Crusaders in 1098, when parts of it became the centre of the Principality of Antioch. At the same time, much of Hatay was part of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, who subsequently allied with the Mongols and took control of the Principality of Antioch in 1254. Hatay was captured from the Mongol-Armenian alliance by the Mameluks in 1268, who subsequently lost it to Timur (Tamerlane) at the start of the 15th century.
Sanjak of Alexandretta
By the time it was taken from the Mameluks by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I in 1516, Antakya was a medium-sized town on of land between the Orontes River and Mount Habib Neccar. Under the Ottomans the area was known as the sanjak (or governorate) of Alexandretta. Gertrude Bell in her book Syria: The Desert & the Sown published in 1907 wrote extensively about her travels across Syria including Antioch & Alexandretta and she noted the heavy mix between Turks and Arabs in the region at that time.
Many believe that Alexandretta had traditionally been a part of Syria. Maps as far back as 1764 confirm this. During the First World War in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated most of Syria was occupied by the British forces. But when the Armistice of Mudros was signed at the end of the war, Hatay was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, after the armistice it was occupied by the British forces an operation which was never accepted by the Ottoman side. Later like the rest of Syria it was handed to France by the British Empire.
After World War I and the Turkish War of Independence, the Ottoman Empire was disbanded and the modern Republic of Turkey was created, and Alexandretta was not part of the new republic, it was put within the French mandate of Syria after a signed agreement between the Allies and Turkey, the Treaty of Sèvres, which was neither ratified by the Ottoman parliament nor by the Turkish National Movement in Ankara. The subsequent Treaty of Lausanne also put Alexandretta within Syria. The document detailing the boundary between Turkey and Syria around 1920 and subsequent years is presented in a report by the Official Geographer of The Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the US Department of State. A French-Turkish treaty of 20 October 1921 rendered the Sanjak of Alexandretta autonomous, and it remained so from 1921 to 1923. Out of 220,000 inhabitants in 1921, 87,000 were Turks. Along with Turks the population of the Sanjak included: Arabs of various religious denominations (Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Maronites); Jews; Syriacs; Kurds; and Armenians. In 1923 Hatay was attached to the State of Aleppo, and in 1925 it was directly attached to the French mandate of Syria, still with special administrative status.
Despite this, a Turkish community remained in Alexandretta, and Mustafa Kemal said that Hatay had been a Turkish homeland for 4,000 years. This was due to the contested nationalist pseudoscientific Sun Language Theory prevalent in the 1930s in Turkey, which presumed that some ancient peoples of Anatolia and the Middle East such as the Sumerians and Hittites, hence the name Hatay, were related to the Turks. In truth, the Turks first appeared in Anatolia during the 11th century when the Seljuk Turks occupied the eastern province of the Abbasid Empire and captured Baghdad. Resident Arabs organised under the banner of Arabism, and in 1930, Zaki al-Arsuzi, a teacher and lawyer from Arsuz on the coast of Alexandretta published a newspaper called 'Arabism' in Antioch that was shut down by Turkish and French authorities.
The 1936 elections returned two MPs favouring the independence of Syria from France, and this prompted communal riots as well as passionate articles in the Turkish and Syrian press. This then became the subject of a complaint to the League of Nations by the Turkish government concerning alleged mistreatment of the Turkish populations. Atatürk demanded that Hatay become part of Turkey claiming that the majority of its inhabitants were Turks. However, the French High Commission estimated that the population of 220,000 inhabitants was made up of 46% Arabs (28% Alawites, 10% Sunni, 8% Christians), 39% Turks, 11% Armenians, while the remaining 4% was made up of Circassians, Jews, and Kurds. The sanjak was given autonomy in November 1937 in an arrangement brokered by the League. Under its new statute, the sanjak became "distinct but not separated" from the French mandate of Syria on the diplomatic level, linked to both France and Turkey for defence matters.
Hatay State
Hatay State (, , ), also known informally as the Republic of Hatay, was a transitional political entity that existed from September 7, 1938, to June 29, 1939, in the territory of the Sanjak of Alexandretta of the French Mandate of Syria. The state was transformed de jure into the Hatay Province of Turkey on July 7, 1939, de facto joining the country on July 23, 1939.
Hatay Province of Turkey
On 29 June 1939, following a referendum, Hatay became a Turkish province. This referendum has been labelled both "phoney" and "rigged", and is seen as a way for the French to cede the area to Turkey, in the hope that they would turn on Hitler. For the referendum, Turkey moved tens of thousands of Turks into Alexandretta so they could vote. These Turks were born in Hatay but now they were living in other regions of Turkey. In two government communiqués which were issued in 1937 and 1938, the Turkish government asked all local government authorities to make lists of all of their employees who were originally from Hatay. Those employees whose names were listed were then sent to Hatay so they could register as citizens and vote.
Syrian President Hashim al-Atassi resigned in protest at continued French intervention in Syrian affairs, maintaining that the French were obliged to refuse the annexation under the Franco-Syrian Treaty of Independence of 1936.
The Hassa district of Gaziantep, Dörtyol district (Erzin was nahiya of it) of Adana were then incorporated into Hatay. As a result of the annexation, a number of demographic changes occurred in Hatay. During the six months following the annexation, inhabitants over the age of 18 were given the right to choose between staying and becoming Turkish citizens, or emigrating to the French Mandate of Syria or Greater Lebanon and acquiring French citizenship. If they chose to emigrate, they were given 18 months to bring in their movable assets and establish themselves in their new states. Almost half of the Sunni Arabs left. Many Armenians also left and 1,068 Armenian families were relocated from the six Armenian villages of Musa Dagh to the Beqaa Valley which is located in Lebanon. Many of these Armenians had fled for their lives and settled in the French Mandate of Syria because they were survivors of the genocide which had previously been committed against their people by the government of the Ottoman Empire. The total number of people who left for Syria was estimated to be 50,000 including 22,000 Armenians, 10,000 Alawites, 10,000 Sunni Arabs and 5,000 Arab Christians.
Turkish–Syrian dispute
For much of its premodern history, Alexandretta, with its capital city Antioch, was considered as part of Bilad al-Sham, the area known today as Syria. In Ottoman times, Hatay was part of the Vilayet of Aleppo in Ottoman Syria. In 1920 the sanjak (province) of Alexandretta was warded to Syria by the League of Nations in the guise of a French mandate. In 1936 Alexandretta became the subject of a complaint to the League of Nations by Turkey, which claimed that the privileges of the Turkish plurality in the sanjak were being infringed. (In 1921, there were 87,000 Turks amid a population of 220,000.) Unlike other regions historically belonging to Syrian provinces (such as Aintab, Kilis and Urfa), Alexandretta was confirmed as Syrian territory in the Treaty of Lausanne agreed upon by Kemal Atatürk but was granted a special autonomous status because it contained a Turkish plurality.
However, culminating a series of border disputes with France-mandated Syria, Atatürk obtained in 1937 an agreement with France recognizing Alexandretta as an independent state, and in 1939 this state, called the Republic of Hatay, was annexed to Turkey as the 63rd Turkish province following a controversial referendum. Syria bitterly disputed both the separation of Alexandretta and its subsequent annexation to Turkey.
Syria maintains that the separation of Alexandretta violated France's mandatory responsibility to maintain the unity of Syrian lands (article 4 of the mandate charter). It also disputes the results of the referendum held in the province because, according to a League of Nations commission that registered voters in Alexandretta in 1938, Turkish voters in the province represented no more than 46% of the population. Syria continues to consider Hatay part of its territory as of the 2010s, and shows it as such on its maps. At the same time, Turkey and Syria have strengthened their ties and opened the border between the two countries.
Syrians hold the view that this land was illegally ceded to Turkey by France, the mandatory occupying power of Syria in the late 1930s. Syria still considers it an integral part of its own territory. Syrians call this land Liwa' aliskenderun () rather than the Turkish name of Hatay. Official Syrian maps still show Hatay as part of Syria.
Under the leadership of Syrian President Bashar al Assad from 2000 onwards, there was a lessening of tensions over the Hatay issue. Indeed, in early 2005, when visits from Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened a way to discussions between two states. These discussions resulted with the Syrian government agreeing to end its demand that the province should be returned under Syrian sovereignty as a condition to end hostilities; however, there was no official announcement by the Syrians relinquishing their rights of sovereignty.
Following changes to Turkish land registry legislation in 2003 a large number of properties in Hatay were purchased by Syrian nationals, mostly people who had been residents of Hatay since the 1930s but had retained their Syrian citizenship and were buying the properties that they already occupied. By 2006 the amount of land owned by Syrian nationals in Hatay exceeded the legal limit for foreign ownership of 0.5%, and sale of lands to foreigners was prohibited.
There has been a policy of cross border co-operation, on the social and economic level, between Turkey and Syria starting in the 2000s. This allowed families divided by the border to freely visit each other during the festive periods of Christmas and Eid. In December 2007 up to 27,000 people crossed the border to visit their brethren on the other side. In the wake of an agreement in the autumn of 2009 to lift visa requirements, nationals of both countries can travel freely. However, out of 50 agreements signed between Turkey and Syria in December 2009, the Hatay dispute stalled a water agreement over the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Turkey asked Syria to publicly recognize Hatay as a Turkish territory before signing on to the agreement.
Apart from maps showing Hatay as Syrian territory, the Syrian policy has been to avoid discussing Hatay and giving evasive answers when asked to specify Syrian future goals and ambitions with regard to the area. This has included a complete media silence on the issue. In February 2011 the dispute over Hatay was almost solved. The border separating Syria from Hatay was going to be blurred by a shared Friendship Dam on the Orontes river and as part of this project the two states had agreed on the national jurisdiction on each side of the border. Only weeks before the outbreak of the Syrian uprising and later war, groundbreaking ceremonies were held in Hatay and Idlib. As a result of the Syrian war and the extremely tense Turkish-Syrian relations it brought, construction was halted. As part of the ongoing war, the question of the sovereignty of Hatay has resurfaced in Syria and the Syrian media silence has been broken. Syrian media began broadcasting documentaries on the history of the area, the Turkish annexation and Turkification policies. Syrian newspapers have also reported on demonstrations in Hatay and on organizations and parties in Syria demanding an "end to the Turkish occupation". However, although the Syrian government has repeatedly criticized the Turkish policies towards Syria and the armed rebel groups operating on Syrian territory, it has not officially brought up the question of Hatay.
2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes
Hatay Province was heavily damaged by the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes. The province registered 23,065 earthquake-related fatalities and 30,762 injuries. More than 13,500 buildings collapsed, 67,346 were heavily damaged and 8,162 had to be demolished. The most affected areas were Antakya, Kırıkhan and İskenderun.
Geography
Hatay is traversed by the north-easterly line of equal latitude and longitude. 46% of the land is mountain, 33% plain and 20% plateau and hillside. The most prominent feature is the north-south leading Nur Mountains and the highest peak is Mığırtepe (2,240m), other peaks include Ziyaret dağı and Keldağ (Jebel Akra or Casius) at 1,739 m. The folds of land that make up the landscape of the province were formed as the land masses of Arabian-Nubian Shield and Anatolia have pushed into each other, meeting here in Hatay, a classic example of the Horst–graben formation. The Orontes River rises in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and runs through Syria and Hatay, where it receives the Karasu and the Afrin River. It flows into the Mediterranean at its delta in Samandağ. There was a lake in the plain of the Amik Valley but this was drained in the 1970s, and today Amik is now the largest of the plains and an important agricultural center. The climate is typical of the Mediterranean, with warm wet winters and hot, dry summers. The mountain areas inland are drier than the coast. There are some mineral deposits, İskenderun is home to Turkey's largest iron and steel plant, and the district of Yayladağı produces a colourful marble called Rose of Hatay.
Climate
Hatay has a humid Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa, Trewartha: 'wet' Cs or Cf) which has very hot, long and dry summers with cool rainy winters.
Districts
Hatay province is divided into 15 districts, listed below with their populations officially estimated as at 31 December 2022:
Altınözü (60,344)
Antakya (399,045)
Arsuz (101,233)
Belen (34,449)
Defne (165,494)
Dörtyol (128,941)
Erzin (41,558)
Hassa (56,675)
İskenderun (251,682)
Kırıkhan (121,028)
Kumlu (13,333)
Payas (43,919)
Reyhanlı (108,092)
Samandağ (123,447)
Yayladağı (36,803)
Demographics
The majority of the population adheres to Islam, belonging to either the Alawi branch of Shia Islam or Sunni Islam, but other minorities are also present, including Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Maronite, Antiochian Greek and Armenian communities. The village of Vakıflı in the district of Samandağ is Turkey's last remaining rural Armenian community. Arabs form the majority in three districts out of the twelve: Samandağ (Suwaidiyyah) (Alawi), Altınözü (Qusair) and Reyhanlı (Rihaniyyah) (Sunni). Unlike most Mediterranean provinces, Hatay has not experienced mass migration from other parts of Turkey in recent decades and has therefore preserved much of its traditional culture; for example, Arabic is still widely spoken in the province. To celebrate this cultural mix, in 2005 "Hatay Meeting of Civilisations" congress was organised by Dr Aydın Bozkurt of Mustafa Kemal University and his "Hatay Association for the Protection of Universal Values".
During the Syrian Civil War, the province has experienced an influx of refugees. According to official figures, as of 21 April 2016, 408,000 Syrian refugees lived in the province.
Language
As of 2016, 85% of Arabic-heritage-speaking people in relevant parts of Hatay, specifically those who hear and may use the language on a daily basis, believe its use is decreasing; the rest disagree. The Arabic-speaking Antiochian Greek Christian minority has the right to teach Arabic under the Treaty of Lausanne, however they tend to refrain from doing so to avoid sectarian tensions as the treaty does not apply to the Muslim majority.
Population
Education
Mustafa Kemal University is one of Turkey's newer tertiary institutions, founded in İskenderun and Antakya in 1992.
Transport
The province is served by Hatay Airport, as well as inter-city buses.
Culture
Cuisine
Hatay is warm enough to grow tropical crops such as sweet potato and sugar cane, and these are used in the local cuisine, along with other local specialities including a type of cucumber/squash called kitte. Well-known dishes of Hatay are its local variety of a widespread syrup-rich shredded pastry künefe (kanafeh), squash cooked in onions and tomato paste (sıhılmahsi), aubergine and tahini paste (Baba ghanoush), chickpea and tahini paste hummus and dishes such as kebab found throughout Turkey. Particular spice mixes and herb mixes are popular. Pastes include:
walnut and spice paste, muhammara
thyme and parsley paste, Za'atar
Animal products include spicy köfte (across western Asia and beyond, kofta): "oruk"; and spicy sun-dried cheese, surke.
Syrup of pomegranate (nar ekşisi) is Hatay's hallmark salad dressing.
Landmarks
World's second-largest collection of Roman mosaics in the Hatay Archaeology Museum at Antakya.
Habib-i Najjar Mosque, built on a former Pagan temple, where two saints are buried and visited by Muslims.
Rock-carved Church of St Peter in Antakya, a site of Christian pilgrimage.
Gündüz cinema, once parliament building of the Republic of Hatay.
Titus Tunnel of Vespasian, in Samandağı, built as a water channel in the 2nd century.
Castles: Koz Castle, Bakras Castle, Payas Castle, Mancınık Castle, Cin Castle, Darbısak Castle
Films
Hatay is featured in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where it was portrayed as the final resting place of the Holy Grail in the fictitious "Canyon of the Crescent Moon" outside of Alexandretta. In the movie, set in 1938, the Nazis offer the Sultan of Hatay (a monarchy which the province never had in real life) precious valuables to compensate for removing the Grail from his borders. He ignores the valuables, but accepts their Rolls-Royce Phantom II.
The Turkish film Propaganda (1999) by Sinan Çetin, portrays the difficult materialisation of the Turkish-Syrian border in 1948, cutting through villages and families.
The 2001 film Şelale by local director Semir Aslanyürek was filmed in Hatay.
Notable people
Mehmet Aksoy – sculptor (b. Antakya 1939–)
Gökhan Zan – Beşiktaş and Galatasaray footballer, (b. Antakya 1981)
Selçuk İnan – Trabzonspor and Galatasaray footballer, (b. İskenderun 1985)
İsmail Köybaşı – Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe footballer, (b. İskenderun 1989)
Yasin Özdenak – Retired Galatasaray footballer, (b. İskenderun 1948)
Selami Şahin – musician, composer and actor (b. Yayladağı 1948)
See also
Baku–Supsa Pipeline
Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline
Çukurova
List of populated places in Hatay Province
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Hatay News
pictures Photo Gallery
the provincial governor's website
Pictures of Antakya
Pictures of Antakya Museum
Pictures of Hatay
Flag and info of the Republic of Hatay
Hatay Weather Forecast Information
Hatay Radio Stations
Tourist Information and pictures about Hatay/Antakya with Webcams and weather information
Hatay Radio Station
Turkish
The local newspaper
Mustafa Kemal University
The local newspaper
Disputed territories in Asia
Eastern Mediterranean
Geographic history of Syria
Levant
States and territories established in 1939
Syria–Turkey relations
Territorial disputes of Syria
Territorial disputes of Turkey
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orhan%20Pamuk
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Orhan Pamuk
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Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him the country's best-selling writer.
Pamuk's novels include Silent House, The White Castle, The Black Book, The New Life, My Name Is Red and Snow. He is the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches writing and comparative literature. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.
Of partial Circassian descent and born in Istanbul, Pamuk is the first Turkish Nobel laureate. He is also the recipient of numerous other literary awards. My Name Is Red won the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, 2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour and 2003 International Dublin Literary Award.
The European Writers' Parliament came about as a result of a joint proposal by Pamuk and José Saramago. Pamuk's willingness to write books about contentious historical and political events put him at risk of censure in his homeland. In 2005, a lawyer sued him over a statement acknowledging the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Pamuk said his intention had been to highlight issues of freedom of speech in Turkey. The court initially declined to hear the case, but in 2011 Pamuk was ordered to pay 6,000 liras in compensation for having insulted the plaintiffs' honor.
Early life
Pamuk was born in Istanbul, in 1952, and grew up in a wealthy but declining upper-class family, an experience he describes in passing in his novels The Black Book and Cevdet Bey and His Sons, as well as more thoroughly in his personal memoir Istanbul: Memories and the City. Pamuk's paternal grandmother was Circassian. He was educated at Robert College secondary school in Istanbul and studied architecture at the Istanbul Technical University, a subject related to his dream career, painting. He left architecture school after three years to become a full-time writer, and graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1976. From ages 22 to 30, Pamuk lived with his mother, writing his first novel and attempting to find a publisher. He describes himself as a Cultural Muslim who identifies with Islam historically and culturally while not believing in a personal connection to God.
Work
Pamuk started writing regularly in 1974. His first novel, Karanlık ve Işık (Darkness and Light) was a co-winner of the 1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest (Mehmet Eroğlu was the other winner). This novel was published with the title Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları (Mr. Cevdet and His Sons) in 1982 and won the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1983. It tells the story of three generations of a wealthy Istanbul family living in Nişantaşı, the district of Istanbul where Pamuk grew up.
Pamuk won a number of critical prizes for his early work, including the 1984 Madarali Novel Prize for his second novel Sessiz Ev (Silent House) and the 1991 Prix de la Découverte Européenne for its French translation. His historical novel Beyaz Kale (The White Castle), published in Turkish in 1985, won the 1990 Independent Award for Foreign Fiction and extended his reputation abroad. On 19 May 1991, The New York Times Book Review wrote, "A new star has risen in the east—Orhan Pamuk." He started experimenting with postmodern techniques in his novels, a change from his early works' strict naturalism.
Popular success took a bit longer, but his 1990 novel Kara Kitap (The Black Book) became one of the most controversial and popular books in Turkish literature, due to its complexity and richness. In 1992, he wrote the screenplay for the movie Gizli Yüz (Secret Face), based on Kara Kitap and directed by a prominent Turkish director, Ömer Kavur. Pamuk's fifth novel, Yeni Hayat (New Life), caused a sensation in Turkey upon its 1994 publication and became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history. By this time, Pamuk had also become a high-profile figure in Turkey due to his support for Kurdish political rights. In 1995, he was among a group of authors tried for writing essays that criticized Turkey's treatment of the Kurds. In 1999, Pamuk published his book of essays Öteki Renkler (Other Colors).
In 2019, the 66-year-old Nobel laureate held an exhibition of his photographs of Istanbul taken from his own balcony, "Balkon: Photos by Orhan Pamuk". It captured the "subtle and ever-changing view of Istanbul" photographed by Pamuk from his balcony using a telephoto lens. Curated by Gerhard Steidl, the German publisher of his photo book Balkon, the exhibition ran for three months at the Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts building on Istanbul's Istiklal Street. It featured more than 600 colour photos selected from over 8,500 Pamuk took over a five-month period in late 2012 and early 2013, in what the gallery called "a period of intense creativity".
My Name Is Red
Pamuk's international reputation continued to increase when he published Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is Red) in 1998. The novel blends mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles in a setting of 16th-century Istanbul. It opens a window into the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III in nine snowy winter days of 1591, inviting the reader to experience the tension between East and West from a breathlessly urgent perspective. My Name Is Red has been translated into 24 languages and in 2003 won the International Dublin Literary Award, one of the world's most lucrative literary prizes.
Asked what impact winning this last award (currently $127,000) had on his life and work, Pamuk replied:
Nothing changed in my life since I work all the time. I've spent 30 years writing fiction. For the first 10 years, I worried about money and no one asked how much money I made. The second decade I spent money and no one was asking about that. And I've spent the last 10 years with everyone expecting to hear how I spend the money, which I will not do.
Snow
Pamuk followed this with the novel Kar, published in 2002 (English translation: Snow, 2004). Set in the border city of Kars, it explores the conflict between Islamism and Westernism in modern Turkey. Snow follows Ka, an expatriate Turkish poet, as he wanders around the snowy Kars and gets caught up in the muddle of aimless Islamists, MPs, headscarf advocates, secularists, and a number of factions who die and kill in the name of highly contradictory ideals. The New York Times listed Snow as one of its Ten Best Books of 2004.
In a conversation with Carol Becker in the Brooklyn Rail about creating sympathetic characters in the political novel, Pamuk said:
I strongly feel that the art of the novel is based on the human capacity, though it’s a limited capacity, to be able to identify with "the other". Only human beings can do this. It requires imagination, a sort of morality, a self-imposed goal of understanding this person who is different from us, which is a rarity.
The Museum of Innocence
In May 2007, Pamuk was among the jury members at the Cannes Film Festival headed by British director Stephen Frears. He completed his next novel, Masumiyet Müzesi (The Museum of Innocence) in the summer of 2008 - the first novel he published after receiving the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Pamuk created an actual Museum of Innocence, consisting of everyday objects tied to the narrative, and housed them at an Istanbul house he purchased. Pamuk collaborated on a documentary "The Innocence of Memories" that expanded on his Museum of Innocence. Pamuk stated that "(Museum of Dreams will) tell a different version of the love story set in Istanbul through objects and Grant Gee’s wonderful new film". In both Snow and the Museum of Innocence Pamuk describes tragic love-stories, where men fall in love with beautiful women at first sight. Pamuk's heroes tend to be educated men who fall tragically in love with beauties, but who seem doomed to a decrepit loneliness.
In 2013, Pamuk invited Grazia Toderi, whose work he admired, to design a work for the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. Their collaboration culminated in the exhibition Words and Stars. Words and Stars opened on 2 April 2017, at the MART (Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto), and which explores "the inclination of man to explore space and innate vocation to question the stars." The show was curated by Gianfranco Maraniello. It also showed from 4 November 2016 to 29 March 2017 from 5–6 November 2016 at the Palazzo Madama, Piazza Castello, Turin, and at Infini-to, the Planetarium of Turin (Infini.to - Planetario di Torino, Museo dell'Astronomia e dello Spazio) by invitation.
Non-fiction
Pamuk published a memoir/travelogue Istanbul—Hatıralar ve Şehir in 2003 (English version, Istanbul—Memories and the City, 2005). Pamuk's Other Colours – a collection of non-fiction and a story — was published in the UK in September 2007.
Asked how personal his book Istanbul: Memories and the City was, Pamuk replied:
I thought I would write Memories and the City in six months, but it took me one year to complete. And I was working twelve hours a day, just reading and working. My life, because of so many things, was in a crisis; I don’t want to go into those details: divorce, father dying, professional problems, problems with this, problems with that, everything was bad. I thought if I were to be weak I would have a depression. But every day I would wake up and have a cold shower and sit down and remember and write, always paying attention to the beauty of the book. Honestly, I may have hurt my mother, my family. My father was dead, but my mother is still alive. But I can’t care about that; I must care about the beauty of the book.
Style
Pamuk's books are characterized by a confusion or loss of identity brought on in part by the conflict between Western and Eastern values. They are often disturbing or unsettling, and include complex plots and characters. His works are also redolent with discussion of and fascination with the creative arts, such as literature and painting. Pamuk's work often touches on the deep-rooted tensions between East and West and tradition and modernism/secularism.
Pamuk speaks about "the angel of inspiration" when he discusses his creativity:
"I am just listening to an inner music, the mystery of which I don't completely know. And I don't want to know."
"I am most surprised by those moments when I have felt as if the sentences, dreams, and pages that have made me so ecstatically happy have not come from my own imagination – that another power has found them and generously presented them to me."
A group of writers assert that some parts of Pamuk's works are heavily influenced by the works of other writers, and some chapters are almost totally quoted from other books. Pamuk himself said that his works have been inspired by the writings of rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. One of the writers, nationalist popular historian Murat Bardakçı, accused him of counterfeiting and plagiarism in the Hurriyet, a Turkish newspaper. Another accusation is that Pamuk's novel The White Castle contains exact paragraphs from Fuad Carim's Kanuni Devrinde İstanbul ("Istanbul in the Time of the Kanuni") novel. After a question raised at the 2009 Boston Book Festival as to whether he wanted to respond to these accusations, Pamuk responded, "No I do not. Next question?". However, many attributed such accusations to their ignorance about postmodern literature, and the literary technique of intertextuality which Pamuk almost always uses in his novels in full disclosure.
Personal life
Pamuk's elder brother Şevket Pamuk, who sometimes appears as a fictionalized character in his works, is a professor of economics internationally recognised for his work in economic history of the Ottoman Empire, working at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Pamuk also has a younger half-sister, Hümeyra Pamuk, who is a journalist.
On 1 March 1982, Pamuk married historian Aylin Türegün. From 1985 to 1988, while she was a graduate student at Columbia University, Pamuk assumed the position of visiting scholar there, using the time to conduct research and write his novel The Black Book at the university's Butler Library. This period also included a visiting fellowship at the University of Iowa. Pamuk returned to Istanbul, a city to which he is strongly attached. In 1991 he and his wife had a daughter, Rüya, whose name means "dream" in Turkish, and to whom his novel My Name is Red is dedicated. In 2002, they were divorced.
In 2006, Pamuk returned to the U.S. to take a position as a visiting professor at Columbia, where he was a Fellow with Columbia's Committee on Global Thought and held an appointment in Columbia's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department and at its School of the Arts. In the 2007–08 academic year Pamuk returned to Columbia to jointly teach comparative literature classes with Andreas Huyssen and David Damrosch. Pamuk was also a writer-in-residence at Bard College. In 2009, he was Harvard's Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer, delivering a series of lectures titled "The Naive and Sentimental Novelist".
Orhan publicly acknowledged his relationship with the writer Kiran Desai. In January 2011, Turkish-Armenian artist Karolin Fişekçi told Hürriyet Daily News that Pamuk had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with her during the same time (2010–12), which Pamuk expressly denied.
Since 2011 he has been in a relationship with Aslı Akyavaş, whom he married in 2022.
Trial
In 2005, after Pamuk made a statement about the Armenian genocide and mass killings of Kurds, a criminal case was opened against him based on a complaint filed by lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz. The charges were dropped on 22 January 2006. In Bilecik, his books were burned in a nationalist rally. Pamuk subsequently said his intent was to draw attention to freedom of speech issues. Kerinçsiz appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal, which ordered the court in Şişli to reopen the case. On 27 March 2011, Pamuk was found guilty and ordered to pay 6,000 liras in compensation to five people for, among other things, having insulted their honour.
Pamuk's statements
The criminal charges against Pamuk resulted from remarks he made during an interview in February 2005 with the Swiss publication Das Magazin, a weekly supplement to a number of Swiss daily newspapers: the Tages-Anzeiger, the Basler Zeitung, the Berner Zeitung and the Solothurner Tagblatt. In the interview, Pamuk said, "Thirty thousand Kurds have been killed here, and a million Armenians. And almost nobody dares to mention that. So I do." Turkish historians were divided over the remarks.
Pamuk said he was consequently subjected to a hate campaign that forced him to flee the country. He returned later in 2005 to face the charges against him. In an interview with BBC News, he said that he wanted to defend freedom of speech, which was Turkey's only hope for coming to terms with its history: "What happened to the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 was a major thing that was hidden from the Turkish nation; it was a taboo. But we have to be able to talk about the past." But when CNN TURK asked Pamuk about his speech, he admitted that he said that "Armenians were killed" but he denied that he said "Turks killed Armenians", and estimated the number of deaths as 1 million in that speech.
Prosecution
At the time, Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code stated: "A person who publicly insults the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months to three years." Pamuk was charged with violating this law in the interview. In October, after the prosecution had begun, Pamuk reiterated his views in a speech given during an award ceremony in Germany: "I repeat, I said loud and clear that one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey."
Article 301's old form before 2005 (and also the new form after the amendments in 2008) required that prosecution under the article needs to be approved by the Ministry of Justice. A few minutes after Pamuk's trial started on 16 December, the judge found that this approval had not yet been received and suspended the proceedings. In an interview published in the Akşam newspaper the same day, then Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek said he had not yet received Pamuk's file but would study it thoroughly once it came.
On 29 December 2005, Turkish state prosecutors dropped the charge that Pamuk insulted Turkey's armed forces, although the charge of "insulting Turkishness" remained.
International reaction
The charges against Pamuk caused an international outcry and led to questions in some circles about Turkey's proposed entry into the European Union. On 30 November, the European Parliament announced that it would send a delegation of five MEPs led by Camiel Eurlings, to observe the trial. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn subsequently stated that the Pamuk case would be a "litmus test" of Turkey's commitment to the EU's membership criteria.
On 1 December, Amnesty International released a statement calling for Article 301 to be repealed and for Pamuk and six other people awaiting trial under the act to be freed. PEN American Center also denounced the charges against Pamuk, stating: "PEN finds it extraordinary that a state that has ratified both the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which see freedom of expression as central, should have a Penal Code that includes a clause that is so clearly contrary to these very same principles."
On 13 December, eight world-renowned authors—José Saramago, Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass, Umberto Eco, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Goytisolo, John Updike and Mario Vargas Llosa—issued a joint statement supporting Pamuk and decrying the charges against him as a violation of human rights.
In 2008, in an open online poll, Pamuk was voted as the fourth most intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect Magazine (United Kingdom) and Foreign Policy (United States).
Charges dropped
On 22 January 2006, Turkey's Justice Ministry refused to issue an approval of the prosecution, saying that they had no authority to open a case against Pamuk under the new penal code. With the trial in the local court, it was ruled the next day that the case could not continue without Justice Ministry approval. Pamuk's lawyer, Haluk İnanıcı, subsequently confirmed that the charges had been dropped.
The announcement occurred in a week when the EU was scheduled to begin a review of the Turkish justice system.
Interplay
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed the dropping of charges, saying, "This is obviously good news for Mr. Pamuk, but it's also good news for freedom of expression in Turkey". But some EU representatives expressed disappointment that the justice ministry had rejected the prosecution on a technicality rather than on principle. An Ankara-based EU diplomat reportedly said, "It is good the case has apparently been dropped, but the justice ministry never took a clear position or gave any sign of trying to defend Pamuk". Meanwhile, the lawyer who had led the effort to try Pamuk, Kemal Kerinçsiz, said he would appeal the decision, saying, "Orhan Pamuk must be punished for insulting Turkey and Turkishness, it is a grave crime and it should not be left unpunished."
In 2006, the magazine Time listed Pamuk in the cover article "TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World", in the category "Heroes & Pioneers", for speaking up.
In April 2006, on the BBC's HARDtalk program, Pamuk stated that his remarks regarding the Armenian genocide were meant to draw attention to freedom of expression issues in Turkey rather than to the massacres themselves.
On 19–20 December 2006, a symposium on Orhan Pamuk and His Work was held at Sabancı University, Istanbul. Pamuk himself gave the closing address.
In January 2008, Turkish authorities arrested 13 ultranationalists, including Kerinçsiz, for participating in a Turkish nationalist underground organisation, Ergenekon, allegedly conspiring to assassinate political figures, including several Christian missionaries and Armenian intellectual Hrant Dink. Several reports suggest that Pamuk was among the figures this group plotted to kill. The police informed Pamuk about the assassination plans eight months before the Ergenekon investigation.
Awards and honours
1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest Award (Turkey) for his novel Karanlık ve Işık (co-winner)
1983 Orhan Kemal Novel Prize (Turkey) for his novel Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları
1984 Madarali Novel Prize (Turkey) for his novel Sessiz Ev
1990 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (United Kingdom) for his novel Beyaz Kale
1991 Prix de la Découverte Européenne (France) for the French edition of Sessiz Ev: La Maison de Silence
1991 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival (Turkey) Best Original Screenplay Gizli Yüz
1995 Prix France Culture (France) for his novel Kara Kitap: Le Livre Noir
2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (France) for his novel My Name Is Red: Mon Nom est Rouge
2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy) for his novel My Name Is Red
2003 International Dublin Literary Award (Ireland) for his novel My Name Is Red (awarded jointly with translator Erdağ M. Göknar)
2005 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Germany)
2005 Prix Médicis étranger (France) for his novel Snow: La Neige
2006 Nobel Prize in Literature (Sweden)
2006 Washington University in St. Louis's Distinguished Humanist Award (United States)
2006 Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
2008 Ovidius Prize (Romania)
2010 Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement (USA)
2012 Sonning Prize (Denmark)
2012 Légion d'honneur Officier (France)
2014 The Mary Lynn Kotz Award (USA) for his book "The Innocence of Objects"
2014 Tabernakul Prize (Macedonia)
2014 European Museum of the Year Award (Estonia)
2014 Helena Vaz da Silva European Award for Public Awareness on Cultural Heritage (Portugal)
2015 Erdal Öz Prize (Turkey), for his novel A Strangeness in My Mind
2015 Aydın Doğan Foundation Award (Turkey), for his novel A Strangeness in My Mind
2016 The Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award ("Foreign Literature" category, Russia) for his novel A Strangeness in My Mind
2016 Milovan Vidaković Prize in Novi Sad (Serbia)
2017 Budapest Grand Prize (Hungary)
2017 Literary Flame Prize (Montenegro)
2019 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
Doctorates, honoris causa
2007 Free University of Berlin, Department of Philosophy and Humanities – 4 May 2007
2007 Tilburg University – 15 November 2007
2007 Boğaziçi University, Department of Turkish Language and Literature – 14 May 2007
2007 Georgetown University's Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa
2007 Complutense University of Madrid
2008 University of Florence
2008 American University of Beirut
2009 University of Rouen
2010 University of Tirana
2010 Yale University
2011 Sofia University
2017 Brera Academy (Italia)
2017 St. Petersburg State University
2018 University of Crete
2023 Paris Nanterre University
2023 Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
Honours
2005 Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Letters (USA)
2008 Honorary Member of Social Sciences of Chinese Academy (China)
2008 Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (USA)
In 2005, Pamuk received the €25,000 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for his literary work, in which "Europe and Islamic Turkey find a place for one another." The award presentation was held at Paul's Church, Frankfurt.
Bibliography
Novels (English)
All the novels except Cevdet Bey and his Sons have been translated into English.
The White Castle, translated by Victoria Holbrook, Manchester (UK): Carcanet Press Limited, 1990; 1991; New York: George Braziller, 1991 [original title: Beyaz Kale]
The Black Book, translated by Güneli Gün, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994 [original title: Kara Kitap]. (A new translation by Maureen Freely was published in 2006)
The New Life, translated by Güneli Gün, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997 [original title: Yeni Hayat]
My Name Is Red, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 [original title: Benim Adım Kırmızı].
Snow, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004 [original title: Kar]
The Museum of Innocence, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, was released on 20 October 2009 [original title: Masumiyet Müzesi]
Silent House, translated by Robert Finn, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012 [original title: Sessiz Ev]
A Strangeness in My Mind, translated by Ekin Oklap, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015 [original title: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık]
The Red-Haired Woman, translated by Ekin Oklap, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017 [original title: Kırmızı saçlı kadın]
Nights of Plague, translated by Ekin Oklap, London: Faber & Faber, 2022 [original title: Veba Geceleri]
Non-fiction (English)
Istanbul: Memories and the City, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 [original title: İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir]
My Father’s Suitcase [original title: Babamın Bavulu] Nobel lecture
Other Colors: Essays and a Story, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007 [original title: Öteki Renkler]
The Innocence of Objects [original title: Şeylerin Masumiyeti]
The Naive and Sentimental Novelist, Harvard University Press, 2010
Balkon, Steidl Publisher, 2018
Orange, Steidl Publisher, 2020
Turkish
Novels
Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları (Cevdet Bey and His Sons), novel, Istanbul: Karacan Yayınları, 1982
Sessiz Ev (Silent House), novel, Istanbul: Can Yayınları, 1983
Beyaz Kale (The White Castle), novel, Istanbul: Can Yayınları, 1985
Kara Kitap (The Black Book), novel, Istanbul: Can Yayınları, 1990
Yeni Hayat (The New Life), novel, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1994
Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is Red), novel, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1998
Kar (Snow), novel, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2002
Masumiyet Müzesi (The Museum of Innocence), novel, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2008
Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık (A Strangeness in My Mind), novel, Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Publications, 2014
Kırmızı Saçlı Kadın, (The Red-Haired Woman), novel, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2016
Veba Geceleri (tr,): "Nights of Plague" (2021)
Fathers, Mothers and Sons: Cevdet Bey and Sons; The Silent House; The Red-Haired Woman ("Delta" Omnibüs, Novels volume I), Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2018
Other works
Gizli Yüz (Secret Face), screenplay, Istanbul: Can Yayınları, 1992
Öteki Renkler (Other Colours), essays, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1999
İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir (Istanbul: Memories and the City), memoirs, Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2003
Babamın Bavulu (My Father's Suitcase), Nobel Söylevi, İstanbul, İletişim Yayınları, 2007
Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat (Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature), essays, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2010
Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı ("Naive and Sentimental Novelist") literary criticism, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2011
Şeylerin Masumiyeti (The Innocence of Objects), Masumiyet Müzesi Kataloğu, İletişim Yayınları 2012
Resimli İstanbul - Hatıralar ve Şehir, memoir, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2015
Hatıraların Masumiyeti, scripts and essays, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2016
Balkon, (Introduction and photographs), Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2018
Orange, (Introduction and Photographs), Yapi Kredi Yayınları, 192 pages, 350 images, 2020
Uzak Dağlar ve Hatıralar Yapi Kredi Yayınları, selections from personal diary and photographs, 2022
References
External links
The comprehensive website on Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk at Nobelprize.org - prize announcement
List of Works
Orhan Pamuk at The New York Review of Books (article archive)
Documentary about Pamuk and The Armenian Genocide at the ABC
Urdu Translations of Orhan Pamuk's books, Jumhoori Publications
List of Published Books
Interviews
1952 births
Living people
Bard College faculty
Best Screenplay Golden Orange Award winners
Freedom of expression in Turkey
Columbia University faculty
Istanbul University alumni
Nobel laureates in Literature
Writers from Istanbul
Postmodern writers
Prix Médicis étranger winners
Robert College alumni
Turkish essayists
Turkish historical novelists
Turkish people of Circassian descent
Turkish memoirists
Turkish Nobel laureates
Turkish non-fiction writers
Turkish novelists
Turkish male screenwriters
20th-century novelists
21st-century novelists
International Writing Program alumni
20th-century essayists
21st-century essayists
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Cultural Muslims
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain%20Marvel%20%28DC%20Comics%29
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Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
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Captain Marvel, also known as Shazam and the Captain, is a superhero in American comic books originally published by Fawcett Comics and currently published by DC Comics. Artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker created the character in 1939. Captain Marvel first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (cover-dated Feb. 1940), published by Fawcett Comics. He is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a boy who, by speaking the magic word "Shazam!" (acronym of six "immortal elders": Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury), is transformed into a costumed adult with the powers of superhuman strength, speed, flight, and other abilities. The character battles an extensive rogues' gallery, most of them working in tandem as the Monster Society of Evil, including primary archenemies Black Adam, Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind. Billy often shares his powers with other children, primarily his sister Mary Batson and their best friend/foster brother Freddy Freeman, who also transform into superheroes and fight crime with Billy as members of the Marvel Family, also known as the Shazam Family.
Based on comic book sales, Captain Marvel was the most popular superhero of the 1940s, outselling even Superman. Captain Marvel was also the first comic book superhero to be adapted to film, in a 1941 Republic Pictures serial, Adventures of Captain Marvel, with Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson.
Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953, partly because of a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics alleging that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman. In 1972, Fawcett licensed the character rights to DC, which by 1991 acquired all rights to the entire family of characters. DC has since integrated Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into their DC Universe and has attempted to revive the property several times, with mixed success. Owing to trademark conflicts over other characters named "Captain Marvel" owned by Marvel Comics, DC has branded and marketed the character using the trademark Shazam! since his 1972 reintroduction. This led many to assume that "Shazam" was the character's name. DC renamed the mainline version of the character "Shazam" when relaunching its comic book properties in 2011, and his associates became the "Shazam Family" at this time as well.
DC's revival of Shazam! has been adapted twice for television by Filmation: as a live-action 1970s series with Jackson Bostwick and John Davey as Captain Marvel and Michael Gray as Billy Batson, and as an animated 1980s series. The 2019 New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. film Shazam!, an entry in the DC Extended Universe, stars Zachary Levi as Shazam and Asher Angel as Billy Batson. Levi and Angel return in the sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
The character was ranked as the 55th-greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine. IGN also ranked Shazam as the 50th-greatest comic book hero of all time, stating that the character will always be an enduring reminder of a simpler time. UGO Networks ranked him as one of the top heroes of entertainment, saying, "At his best, Shazam has always been compared to Superman with a sense of crazy, goofy fun."
Captain Marvel's first appearance, Whiz Comics #2, did not have any copyright registration or renewal, meaning that the character is in the public domain.
Publication history
Development and inspirations
After the success of National Comics' new superhero characters Superman and Batman, Fawcett Publications started its own comics division in 1939, recruiting staff writer Bill Parker to create several hero characters for the first title in their line, tentatively titled Flash Comics. Besides penning stories featuring his creations Ibis the Invincible, the Spy Smasher, the Golden Arrow, Lance O'Casey, Scoop Smith, and Dan Dare for the new book, Parker also wrote a story about a team of six superheroes. Each superhero in this team possessed a special power granted to them by a mythological figure.
Fawcett Comics' executive director Ralph Daigh decided it would be best to combine the team of six into one hero who would embody all six powers. Parker responded by creating a character he called "Captain Thunder". Staff artist Charles Clarence "C. C." Beck was recruited to design and illustrate Parker's story, rendering it in a direct, somewhat cartoony style that became his trademark. "When Bill Parker and I went to work on Fawcett's first comic book in late 1939, we both saw how poorly written and illustrated the superhero comic books were," Beck told an interviewer. "We decided to give our reader a real comic book, drawn in comic-strip style and telling an imaginative story, based not on the hackneyed formulas of the pulp magazine, but going back to the old folk-tales and myths of classic times".
The first issue of the comic book, printed as both Flash Comics #1 and Thrill Comics #1, had a low print run in the fall of 1939 as an ashcan copy created for advertising and trademark purposes. Shortly after its printing, however, Fawcett found it could not trademark "Captain Thunder", "Flash Comics", or "Thrill Comics", because all three names were already in use. Consequently, the book was renamed Whiz Comics, and Fawcett artist Pete Costanza suggested changing Captain Thunder's name to "Captain Marvelous", which the editors shortened to "Captain Marvel". The word balloons in the story were re-lettered to label the hero of the main story as "Captain Marvel".
Introduction
Whiz Comics #2 (cover-dated Feb. 1940) was published in late 1939. Captain Marvel, the comic's lead feature, introduced audiences to Billy Batson, an orphaned 12-year-old boy who, by speaking the name of the ancient wizard Shazam, is struck by a magic lightning bolt and transformed into the adult superhero Captain Marvel. Shazam's name was an acronym derived from the six immortal elders who grant Captain Marvel his superpowers: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.
In addition to introducing the main character, his alter ego, and his mentor, Captain Marvel's first adventure in Whiz Comics #2 also introduced his archenemy, the evil Doctor Sivana, and found Billy Batson talking his way into a job as an on-air radio reporter with station WHIZ. Captain Marvel was an instant success, with Whiz Comics #2 selling over 500,000 copies. By 1941, he had his own solo series, Captain Marvel Adventures, the premiere issue of which (cover-dated March 1941) was written and drawn by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Captain Marvel continued to appear in Whiz Comics, as well as periodic appearances in other Fawcett books, including Master Comics.
Inspiration and success at Fawcett
Inspiration for Captain Marvel came from a number of sources. His visual appearance was modeled after that of Fred MacMurray, a popular American actor of the period, though comparisons with both Cary Grant and Jack Oakie were made as well. Fawcett Publications' founder, Wilford H. Fawcett, was nicknamed "Captain Billy", which inspired the name "Billy Batson" as well as Marvel's title. Fawcett's earliest magazine was titled Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, which inspired the title Whiz Comics. In addition, Fawcett took several of the elements that had made Superman the first popular comic book superhero (super-strength and speed, science-fiction stories, a mild-mannered reporter alter ego) and incorporated them into Captain Marvel. Fawcett's circulation director Roscoe Kent Fawcett recalled telling the staff, "Give me a Superman, only have his other identity be a 10- or 12-year-old boy rather than a man".
Through much of the Golden Age of Comic Books, Captain Marvel proved to be the most popular superhero character of the medium, and his comics outsold all others. Captain Marvel Adventures sold fourteen million copies in 1944, and was at one point being published bi-weekly with a circulation of 1.3 million copies an issue. Several issues of Captain Marvel Adventures included a blurb on their covers proclaiming the series the "Largest Circulation of Any Comic Magazine".
The franchise was expanded to introduce spin-off characters to Captain Marvel between 1941 and 1942. Whiz Comics #21 (1941) introduced the Lieutenant Marvels: three other boys named "Billy Batson" who could also become adult superheroes. Captain Marvel Jr., the alter-ego of disabled newsboy Freddy Freeman, debuted in Whiz Comics #25 (1941). Mary Marvel, alter-ego of Billy's twin sister Mary Batson, first appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (1942). In contrast to Captain Marvel and the Lieutenants, both Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. remained kids in superhero form, and were given their own eponymous books in addition to appearing as the lead features in Master Comics and Wow Comics, respectively. Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Mary Marvel appeared together as a team in another Fawcett publication, The Marvel Family. In addition, there was a talking animal spin-off character, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, which was created in 1942 for Fawcett's Funny Animals comic book and later given an eponymous series as well.
With Bill Parker having been drafted into World War II, chief writing duties on the Captain Marvel-related comics stories went to Otto Binder by 1942. C.C. Beck remained as lead artist, and he and Binder steered the Captain Marvel stories towards a whimsical tone that emphasized comedy and fantasy elements alongside the superhero action. Other artists associated with the Marvel Family at Fawcett included Pete Costanza, Mac Raboy, Marc Swayze, and Kurt Schaffenberger. Otto Binder would write over 900 of the approximately 1,790 Captain Marvel-related stories published by Fawcett. Several of Captain Marvel's enduring supporting characters and enemies—including the non-powered Uncle Marvel, Tawky Tawny the talking tiger, and the villains Mister Mind and Black Adam—were created by Binder during the mid-to-late 1940s.
Copyright infringement lawsuit and cancellation
Detective Comics (later known as National Comics Publications, National Periodical Publications, and today known as DC Comics) sued both Fawcett Comics and Republic Pictures for copyright infringement in 1941, alleging that Captain Marvel was based on their character Superman. After seven years of litigation, National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc. went to trial in 1948. Although the presiding judge decided that Captain Marvel was an infringement, DC was found to be negligent in copyrighting several of their Superman daily newspaper strips, and it was decided that National had abandoned the Superman copyright. As a result, the initial verdict, delivered in 1951, went in Fawcett's favor.
National appealed this decision, and Judge Learned Hand declared in 1952 that National's Superman copyright was in fact valid. Judge Hand did not find that the character of Captain Marvel itself was an infringement, but rather that specific stories or super feats could be infringements, and this would have to be determined in a retrial. He therefore sent the matter back to the lower court for final determination.
Instead of retrying the case, however, Fawcett settled with National out of court. The National lawsuit was not the only problem Fawcett faced in regard to Captain Marvel. While Captain Marvel Adventures had been the top-selling comic series during World War II, it suffered declining sales every year after 1945, and, by 1949, it was selling only half its wartime rate. Fawcett tried to revive the popularity of its Captain Marvel series in the early 1950s by introducing elements of the horror comics trend that had gained popularity at the time.
Feeling that this decline in the popularity of superhero comics meant that it was no longer worth continuing the fight, Fawcett agreed on August 14, 1953, to permanently cease publication of comics with the Captain Marvel-related characters and to pay National $400,000 in damages. Fawcett shut down its comics division in the autumn of 1953 and fired its comic book staff. Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger ended up at DC, becoming prominent members of the creative team for the Superman-related comics from 1954 through the 1960s. Schaffenberger snuck an unauthorized cameo by Captain Marvel into a story in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #42 in 1963.
Whiz Comics had ended with issue #155 in June 1953, Captain Marvel Adventures was canceled with #150 in November 1953, and The Marvel Family ended its run with #89 in January 1954. Hoppy the Marvel Bunny was sold to Charlton Comics, where a few Fawcett-era stories from that strip were reprinted as Hoppy the Magic Bunny, with all references to "Captain Marvel" and "Shazam" removed.
Marvelman/Miracleman
In the 1950s, a small British publisher, L. Miller and Son, published a number of black-and-white reprints of American comic books, including the Captain Marvel series. With the outcome of the National v. Fawcett lawsuit, L. Miller and Son found their supply of Captain Marvel material abruptly cut off. They requested the help of a British comic writer, Mick Anglo, who created a thinly disguised version of the superhero called Marvelman. Captain Marvel Jr. was adapted to create Young Marvelman, while Mary Marvel had her sex changed to create the male Kid Marvelman. The magic word "Shazam!" was replaced with "Kimota" ("Atomik" spelled backwards). The new characters took over the numbering of the original Captain Marvel's United Kingdom series with issue number #25.
Marvelman ceased publication in 1963, but the character was revived in 1982 by writer Alan Moore in the pages of Warrior Magazine. Beginning in 1985, Moore's black-and-white serialized adventures were reprinted in color by Eclipse Comics under the new title Miracleman (as Marvel Comics objected to the use of "Marvel" in the title), and continued publication in the United States after Warriors demise. Within the metatextual story line of the comic series itself, it was noted that Marvelman's creation was based upon Captain Marvel comics, by both Moore and later Marvelman/Miracleman writer Neil Gaiman. In 2009, Marvel Comics obtained the rights to the original 1950s Marvelman characters and stories, and later purchased the rights to the 1980s version and those reprints in 2013.
M. F. Enterprises
In 1966, M. F. Enterprises produced their own Captain Marvel: an android superhero from another planet whose main characteristic was the ability to split his body into several parts, each of which could move on its own. He triggered the separation by shouting "Split!" and reassembled himself by shouting "Xam!" He had a young human ward named Billy Baxton. This short-lived Captain Marvel was credited in the comic as being "based on a character created by Carl Burgos". Marvel Comics subsequently created their own character named Captain Marvel in 1967, and Myron Fass sued Marvel for trademark infringement. Fass accepted a $4,500 settlement from Marvel, and Marvel secured the trademark of the name.
Bill Black's attempted revival
Bill Black attempted to revive Captain Marvel in 1969, but written and drawn in a more realistic Marvel Comics style for his fanzine Paragon Golden Age Greats, Vol. 1, #2. However, on the legal advice of his friend and publishing mentor Martin L. Greim he decided that rather than risk legal trouble with Fawcett Publications to destroy the entire print run except for two copies he saved for his files. Black then rewrote the story using his own newly created hero Captain Paragon.
C.C. Beck and Rocket's Blast Comicollector
In 1970, fanzine Rocket's Blast Comicollector (RBCC) staffed C.C. Beck, Don Newton, Robert Kline, and Gene Arnold for a special issue called The Rocket's Blast Special 8. The comic book focuses on Captain Marvel's origins and creation through a series of columns by the group where they also discussed their history with Fawcett Publications. Along with new and exclusive art by Beck and Newton, the issue included an opinion piece by the staff strongly criticizing the copyright infringement lawsuit by Detective Comics. The opinion piece was titled THE DEMISE OF CAPTAIN MARVEL and is found on the very last page above where the staff still credits the copyright of Captain Marvel to Fawcett Publications.
DC Comics revival: Shazam! (1972–1978)
When superhero comics became popular again in the mid-1960s in what is now called the "Silver Age of Comic Books", Fawcett was unable to revive Captain Marvel, having agreed to never publish the character again as part of their 1953 settlement. Looking for new properties to introduce to the DC Comics line, at the urging of Jack Kirby who recently defected from Marvel Comics, DC publisher Carmine Infantino decided to bring the Captain Marvel property back into print. On June 16, 1972, DC entered into an agreement with Fawcett to license the Captain Marvel and Marvel Family characters. Because Marvel Comics had by this time established Captain Marvel as a comic book trademark for their own character, created and first published in 1967, DC published their book under the name Shazam! Infantino attempted to give the Shazam! book the subtitle The Original Captain Marvel, but a cease and desist letter from Marvel Comics forced them to change the subtitle to The World's Mightiest Mortal, starting with Shazam! #15 (December 1974). As all subsequent toys and other merchandise featuring the character have also been required to use the "Shazam!" label with little to no mention of the name "Captain Marvel", the title became so linked to Captain Marvel that many people took to identifying the character as "Shazam" instead of "Captain Marvel".
The Shazam! comic series began with Shazam! #1 (Feb. 1973). It contained both new stories and reprints from the 1940s and 1950s. Dennis O'Neil was the primary writer of the book. His role was later taken over by writers Elliot S. Maggin and E. Nelson Bridwell. C. C. Beck drew stories for the first 10 issues of the book before quitting because of creative differences. Bob Oksner and Fawcett alumnus Kurt Schaffenberger were among the later artists of the title. As per DC's agreement with Fawcett, DC paid Fawcett—and after 1977, its successor CBS Publications—a licensing fee per issue, per page for each of the Fawcett characters who appeared, either in Shazam! or crossovers in other comic series.
With DC's Multiverse concept in effect during this time, the revived Marvel Family and related characters lived within the DC Universe on the parallel world of "Earth-S". The Fawcett material was still considered canon, with the Marvel Family's 20-year layoff explained in the comic as time spent in suspended animation due to Doctor Sivana. While the series began with a great deal of fanfare, the book had a lackluster reception. The creators themselves had misgivings. Beck said, "As an illustrator, I could, in the old days, make a good story better by bringing it to life with drawings. But I couldn't bring the new [Captain Marvel] stories to life no matter how hard I tried".
Shazam! was heavily rewritten as of issue #34 (April 1978), and Bridwell provided more realistic stories, accompanied by similar art; the first issue was drawn by Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein, and thereafter by Don Newton, a longtime fan of the character, and Schaffenberger. Nevertheless, the next issue was the last one, though the feature was kept alive in a back-up position in the Dollar Comics-formatted run of World's Finest Comics (from #253, October/November 1978, to #282, August 1982, skipping only #271, which featured a full-length origin of the Superman-Batman team story). Schaffenberger left the feature after #259, and the inking credit subsequently varied. When World's Finest Comics reverted to the standard 36 pages, leftover Shazam! material saw publication in Adventure Comics (#491–492, September–October 1982). The remaining 11 issues of that run contained reprints, with Shazam! represented by mostly Fawcett-era stories (left out of Adventure Comics #500 and the final #503, where two features were doubled up to complete their respective story arcs).
Outside of their regular series and features, the Marvel Family characters also appeared as guest stars in the Justice League of America series, in particular issues #135–137 (vol. 1) for the "Crisis on Earth-S" story arc in 1976. Limited Collectors' Edition #C-58 (April 1978) featured a "Superman vs. Shazam!" story by writer Gerry Conway and artists Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano.
Captain Marvel, and often the Marvel Family, also co-starred with Superman in several issues of DC Comics Presents written by Roy Thomas. Roy Thomas, a veteran comic book writer and editor, had been lured from Marvel Comics to DC in 1981 with the specific contractual obligation that he would become the main writer of Shazam! and the Justice Society of America characters. The Marvels also guest-starred in several issues of All-Star Squadron, a series centered on the Justice Society and the other Earth-2 characters written by Roy Thomas and his wife Dann. As All-Star Squadron was set during World War II, several events of the comic fell concurrent with and referenced the events of the original early-1940s Fawcett stories. With their 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries, DC fully integrated the characters into the DC Universe.
Captain Marvel in the late 1980s
The first Post-Crisis appearance of Captain Marvel was in the 1986 Legends miniseries. In 1987, Captain Marvel appeared as a member of the Justice League in Keith Giffen's and J. M. DeMatteis' relaunch of that title. That same year (spinning off from Legends), he was given his own miniseries titled Shazam!: The New Beginning. With this four-issue miniseries, writers Roy and Dann Thomas and artist Tom Mandrake attempted to re-launch the Captain Marvel mythos and bring the wizard Shazam, Dr. Sivana, Uncle Dudley, and Black Adam into the modern DC Universe with an altered origin story.
The most notable change that the Thomases, Giffen, and DeMatteis introduced into the Captain Marvel mythos was that the personality of young Billy Batson is retained when he transforms into the Captain. This change would remain for most future uses of the character as justification for his sunny, Golden-Age personality in the darker modern-day comic book world, instead of the traditional depiction used prior to 1986, which tended to treat Captain Marvel and Billy as two separate personalities.
This revised version of Captain Marvel also appeared in one story arc featured in the short-lived anthology Action Comics Weekly #623–626 (October 25, 1988 – November 15, 1988), in which a Neo-Nazi version of Captain Nazi was introduced. At the end of the arc, it was announced that this would lead to a new Shazam! ongoing series. Though New Beginning had sold well and multiple artists were assigned to and worked on the book, it never saw publication owing to editorial disputes between DC Comics and Roy Thomas. As a result, Thomas's intended revival of the Marvel Family with a new punk-styled Mary Bromfield/Mary Marvel (a.k.a. "Spike") who was not Billy's sister, and an African-American take on Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr., did not see print. Thomas departed DC in 1989, not long after his removal from the Shazam! project.
Other attempts at reviving Shazam! were initiated over the next three years, including a reboot project by John Byrne, illustrator of Legends and writer/artist on the Superman reboot miniseries The Man of Steel (1986). None of these versions saw print, though Captain Marvel, the wizard Shazam, and Black Adam did appear in DC's War of the Gods miniseries in 1991. By this time, DC had ended the fee-per-use licensing agreement with CBS Publications and purchased the full rights to Captain Marvel and the other Fawcett Comics characters.
The Power of Shazam! (1994; 1995–1999)
In 1991, Jerry Ordway was given the Shazam! assignment, which he pitched as a painted graphic novel that would lead into a series, rather than starting the series outright. Ordway both wrote and illustrated the graphic novel, titled The Power of Shazam!, which was released in 1994. Power of Shazam! retconned Captain Marvel again and gave him a revised origin, rendering Shazam! The New Beginning and the Action Comics Weekly story apocryphal while Marvel's appearances in Legends and Justice League still counted as part of the continuity.
Ordway's story more closely followed Captain Marvel's Fawcett origins, with only slight additions and changes. The graphic novel was a critically acclaimed success, leading to a Power of Shazam! ongoing series which ran from 1995 to 1999. That series reintroduced the Marvel Family and many of their allies and enemies into the modern-day DC Universe.
Kingdom Come and Shazam! Power of Hope
Captain Marvel also appeared in Mark Waid and Alex Ross's critically acclaimed 1996 alternate universe Elseworlds miniseries Kingdom Come. Set 20 years in the future, Kingdom Come features a brainwashed Captain Marvel playing a major role in the story as a mind-controlled pawn of an elderly Lex Luthor. In 2000, Captain Marvel starred in an oversized special graphic novel, Shazam! Power of Hope, written by Paul Dini and painted by Alex Ross.
Early to mid-2000s: JSA and 52
Since the cancellation of the Power of Shazam! title in 1999, the Marvel Family has made appearances in a number of other DC comic books. Black Adam became a main character in Geoff Johns' and David S. Goyer's JSA series, which depicted the latest adventures of the world's first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, with Captain Marvel also briefly joining the team to keep an eye on his old nemesis. Captain Marvel also appeared in Frank Miller's graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the sequel to Miller's highly acclaimed graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, which culminated in his death. The Superman/Shazam: First Thunder miniseries, written by Judd Winick with art by Josh Middleton, and published between September 2005 and March 2006, depicted the first post-Crisis meeting between Superman and Captain Marvel.
The Marvel Family played an integral part in DC's 2005/2006 Infinite Crisis crossover, which began DC's efforts to retool the Shazam! franchise. In the Day of Vengeance miniseries, which preceded the Infinite Crisis event, the wizard Shazam is killed by the Spectre, and Captain Marvel assumes the wizard's place in the Rock of Eternity. The Marvel Family made a handful of guest appearances in the year-long weekly maxi-series 52, which featured Black Adam as one of its main characters. 52 introduced Adam's "Black Marvel Family," which included Adam's wife Isis, her brother Osiris, and Sobek. The series chronicled Adam's attempts to reform after falling in love with Isis, only to launch the DC universe into World War III after she and Osiris are killed. The Marvel Family appeared frequently in the 12-issue bimonthly painted Justice maxi-series by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithwaite, published from 2005 to 2007.
The Trials of Shazam! (2006–2008)
The Trials of Shazam!, a 12-issue maxiseries written by Judd Winick and illustrated by Howard Porter for the first eight issues, and by Mauro Cascioli for the remaining four, was published from 2006 to 2008. The series redefined the Shazam! property with a stronger focus on magic and mysticism. Trials of Shazam! featured Captain Marvel, now with a white costume and long white hair, taking over the role of the wizard Shazam under the name Marvel, while the former Captain Marvel Jr., Freddy Freeman, attempts to prove himself worthy to become Marvel's champion under the name Shazam.
In the pages of the 2007–2008 Countdown to Final Crisis limited series, Black Adam gives the powerless Mary Batson his powers, turning her into a more aggressive super-powered figure, less upstanding than the old Mary Marvel. By the end of the series, as well as in DC's 2008–2009 Final Crisis limited series, the now black-costumed Mary Marvel, possessed by the evil New God DeSaad, becomes a villainess, joining forces with Superman villain Darkseid and fighting both Supergirl and Freddy Freeman/Shazam.
A three-issue arc in Justice Society of America (vol. 3) undid many of the Trials of Shazam! changes. Issues #23-25 of Justice Society featured Black Adam and a resurrected Isis defeating Marvel and taking over the Rock of Eternity. Adam and Isis recruit the now-evil Mary Marvel to help them in the ensuing fight against a now-powerless Billy Batson and the Justice Society.
Billy and Mary Batson made a brief appearance during DC's 2009–2010 Blackest Night saga in a one-shot special, The Power of Shazam! #48. In 2011, DC published a one-shot Shazam! story written by Eric Wallace, in which the still-powerless Billy and Mary help Freddy/Shazam in a battle with the demoness Blaze. Freddy would eventually have his powers stolen by Osiris in Titans (vol. 2) #32 the same year.
The New 52 relaunch
In 2011, DC Comics relaunched their entire comic book lineup, creating The New 52 lineup of comics. The revamp began with a seven-issue miniseries, Flashpoint, which features an alternate timeline in which Billy Batson, Mary Batson, and Freddy Freeman are joined by three new kids, Eugene Choi, Pedro Peña, and Darla Dudley, as the "S! H! A! Z! A! M! Family." In this concept, all six kids say "Shazam!" in unison to become an alternate version of Captain Marvel named Captain Thunder. While the continuity would be altered again by the conclusion of the story, creating the "New 52" multiverse, the three new Shazam! kids would be reintroduced for later appearances.
One of these relaunched series, Justice League (vol. 2), began featuring a Shazam! backup story with issue #7 in March 2012. The feature, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Gary Frank, introduces Billy Batson and his supporting cast into the new DC Universe. As part of the redesign, Captain Marvel received a new costume designed by Frank with a long cloak and hood, and a metallic belt instead of a sash. His lightning bolt appears as an opening into his body with magical energy visibly inside of him. Johns noted that the character's place in the world will be "far more rooted in fantasy and magic than it ever was before". The character also was officially renamed "Shazam" at this time. The Shazam! origin story, which included two full issues in Justice League (vol. 2) #0 (2012) and 21 (2013), reintroduced Billy Batson/Shazam, the Wizard, Black Adam, Tawny the tiger, and the Shazam Family (Freddy, Mary, Darla, Eugene, and Pedro) to continuity. The Shazam! feature concluded with Justice League (vol. 2) #21, preceding DC's crossover storyline "Trinity War" which heavily features the Shazam mythos.
Johns and Frank's reboot was met with both acclaim and criticism, and the renaming of the hero as Shazam brought mixed reactions. Johns noted that the change was made "because that's what everyone thinks his name is anyway," owing to the inability to use the "Captain Marvel" moniker on comic book covers and merchandise. In updating Shazam!, Johns and Frank skirted some controversy among long-time fans by introducing Billy Batson as a cynical foster child who comes to appreciate his potential as a hero and the concept of family, rather than starting him from that point as with earlier retellings.
Following his appearances in the "Trinity War" and "Forever Evil" crossover storylines, Shazam appeared as a member of the Justice League from Justice League (vol. 2) #30–50 from 2014 through 2016, and also in a one-shot spinoff titled Justice League: The Darkseid War - Shazam (cover-dated January 2016). He also appeared as a supporting character in the Cyborg series as the friend of Victor Stone/Cyborg. New takes on the classic Fawcett versions of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family appeared in Grant Morrison's 2014 miniseries The Multiversity (which takes place on the parallel world of Earth-5) and in a 2015 spin-off to the Convergence crossover event, Convergence: Shazam! (which takes place on the parallel world of Earth-S).
DC Rebirth and beyond
Following DC's 2016 DC Rebirth soft-relaunch event, the Shazam! characters were largely absent from new DC continuity, though Mary Marvel of Earth-5 appeared in Superman (vol. 4) #14–16 (2016), and Black Adam appeared in Dark Nights: Metal #4–5 (2017) to battle Wonder Woman. In late 2018, with the Shazam! movie in production at New Line Cinema, DC began publishing a new ongoing Shazam! series, written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Dale Eaglesham, Marco Santucci, and Scott Kolins. The series features an older and wiser Billy Batson and his foster siblings Mary, Freddy, Eugene, Pedro, and Darla exploring their powers as the Shazam Family. As the six kids venture beyond the nexus of the Rock of Eternity to explore the mysterious Seven Magic Realms, Doctor Sivana teams up with Mister Mind and a reluctant Black Adam to form the Monster Society of Evil, and Billy's long-missing father C.C. Batson returns to attempt to re-connect with his son.
The first issue, featuring a manga backup story focused on Mary and her pet rabbit Hoppy by Johns and Shazam! fan Mayo "SEN" Naito, was published on December 5, 2018. Thirteen issues from Johns, Eaglesham, and others - along with two guest issues, #12 and 15, from writer Jeff Loveness and artist Brandon Peterson - were published between 2018 and 2020. Despite initial positive reviews, the third volume of Shazam! fell victim to several publishing delays. The book was cancelled with issue #15 (November 2020); Johns cited the COVID-19 pandemic and Eaglesham's desire to take a break as reasons for discontinuing the book.
In November 2022, it was announced that a new Shazam! ongoing would begin publication in May 2023, with Mark Waid writing and Dan Mora serving as artist. During this series, Billy earned a new codename for his superpowered counterpart, dubbed "The Captain", and was also trying to find a way to share the powers of Shazam with his foster family after their connection was cut off.
Fictional character biography
Fawcett/Early DC origin
Whiz Comics #2 (Feb. 1940) introduces William Joseph "Billy" Batson, a homeless 12-year-old (later 14-year-old) newsboy who sleeps in the subway station of his home city (originally New York City; later referred to in DC publications as Fawcett City). A mysterious man in a green cloak asks Billy to follow him into the subway station. A magic subway car painted in unusual shapes and colors escorts them to an underground throne room, which is inhabited by a very old man with a long beard and a white robe. As the man in green disappears, the old man on the throne explains to Billy that he is the wizard Shazam, and has used the powers of "the gods"—Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury, hence the name "Shazam"—to fight evil for over 3,000 years. However, he has now grown too old to continue and is in need of a successor. The wizard explains that Billy was chosen because of his misfortune: he had been thrown out by a greedy uncle who stole his inheritance following the deaths of his parents (later retellings of the origin would also note that Billy was chosen for being "pure of heart"). Ordered by the wizard to speak the name "Shazam," Billy is struck by a sudden bolt of lightning and transformed into a superpowered adult in a red costume with gold trim.
The wizard Shazam declares the new hero "Captain Marvel" and orders him to carry on his work, as a stone block suspended above his throne falls upon him, killing him as prophesied. The wizard would return—in later retellings of the origin story, immediately—as a spirit to serve as a mentor to Billy and Captain Marvel, summoned by lighting a torch on the wall of his lair. As a spirit, the wizard Shazam lives at the Rock of Eternity, a bicone-shaped rock formation situated at the nexus of time and space. Later retellings of the Captain Marvel origin place Shazam's underground lair within the Rock. Saying the word "Shazam" allows Billy to summon the magic lightning and become Captain Marvel, while Captain Marvel can say the magic word himself to become Billy again.
Captain Marvel's first battle was with the mad scientist Doctor Sivana, who becomes Captain Marvel's arch-enemy. Billy Batson becomes a reporter and host for WHIZ Radio, his career allowing him to travel and investigate criminal activity. An adult daughter of Sivana's, Beautia, becomes an unwitting love interest for the shy Captain Marvel, despite her wavering allegiance to her evil father.
While the majority of Billy's adventures feature him as a solo hero, he also fought evil on a regular basis accompanied by several other kids who share his powers to make up a superhero team called the Marvel Family (later referred to as the Shazam Family owing to the issues DC Comics faced over the "Marvel" and "Captain Marvel" trademarks). The first members of the family, introduced in Whiz Comics #21 (Sept. 1941) and used sparingly afterwards, were the Lieutenant Marvels: three other boys from various parts of the United States who are also named "Billy Batson" and discover that, if they all say "Shazam!" in unison, they can become adult superheroes as well.
In Whiz Comics #25 (Dec. 1941), Captain Marvel saves Freddy Freeman, a boy who had been left for dead by the evil Captain Nazi, and does for Freddy what the wizard did for him. By speaking the name "Captain Marvel," Freddy can become the superpowered Captain Marvel Jr. Unlike Billy, Freddy retains his 14-year-old appearance as a superhero. Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (Dec. 1942) introduced Billy and Freddy to Mary Bromfield, a rich girl who turns out to be Billy's long-lost twin sister. By saying the magic word "Shazam," Mary Bromfield becomes Mary Marvel. In the Fawcett and pre-1986 DC stories, Mary remained a teenager as Freddy did in Marvel form; Ordway's 1990s Power of Shazam! series made her superpowered form an adult like Billy's. The Marvel Family also included non-powered honorary members such as Uncle Marvel, an old con man who pretended to be Mary's uncle, and Freckles Marvel, an honorary cousin.
Later DC origins
The basic elements of Billy Batson's and Captain Marvel's origin story remained more or less intact through 2012, with minor alterations over the years. Roy & Dann Thomas's 1987 miniseries Shazam! The New Beginning had a 15-year-old Billy being forced to move in with Doctor Sivana, who in this version is the cruel uncle who throws Billy out into the street. Jerry Ordway's 1994 Power of Shazam! graphic novel, which became the character's definite origin through 2011, featured a ten-year-old Billy being chosen as the Wizard Shazam's champion, because of the influence of his archaeologist parents; the mysterious stranger from magic subway car is the ghost of Billy's father in this version. Both the Thomases' and Ordway's retellings of the origin directly tie the need for the Wizard Shazam to draft a younger replacement to the coming re-emergence of Black Adam, the wizard's first champion from the days of ancient Egypt who became evil and was due to escape thousands of years of banishment.
Ordway's origin added the extra element of Black Adam's alter ego/descendant Theo Adam being the murderer of Billy's parents. The subsequent Power of Shazam! ongoing series features Billy, now 14, meeting his long-lost sister Mary and best friend Freddy Freeman and establishing the Marvel Family as in the Fawcett comics. The Marvels' home base of Fawcett City is depicted as a city full of old-fashioned traditions and architecture, later establishing that the Wizard Shazam placed a spell on the city (broken in later issues) that slowed time to a crawl in 1955. This phenomenon was used to explain the Marvel Family's sometimes anachronistic approaches to life and heroism compared to many of their contemporary heroes in the DC Universe.
In 2012, writer and then-DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns revised Billy Batson's origin for DC's New 52 universe, also renaming the character's alter-ego as "Shazam" at this time. In his new origin story, Billy Batson is a moody and troubled 15-year-old foster child living in Philadelphia who has gone through several foster homes. At his newest foster home under Victor and Rosa Vázquez, Billy gains five foster siblings: "den mother" Mary Bromfield, trickster and pick-pocket Freddy Freeman, shy and quiet Pedro Peña, brainy Eugene Choi, and energetic Darla Dudley. When the evil Dr. Sivana unleashes the ancient magical warrior Black Adam from his tomb, the Wizard of the Rock of Eternity—the last of a council of beings who once controlled magic—begins abducting candidates to assess them for the job of being his champion. He dismisses each of them for not being pure of heart.
Eventually, the Wizard summons Billy, who is another unsuitable candidate, but Billy persuades the Wizard that perfectly good people "really don't exist," and that, while he himself tried to be good, the world dragged Billy down to its level. In desperation and seeing the "embers of good" within Billy, the dying Wizard passes on his powers and teaches Billy they can be accessed through the magic word "Shazam" when spoken with good intentions. After saying the magic word, Billy is struck by a bolt of lightning which transforms him into Shazam, a super-powered adult possessing super-strength, flight, and vast magical powers. The Wizard dies and Shazam is transported back to Earth, where Billy reveals his new secret to Freddy. The two scheme to make money and score beer with Shazam's new powers, but Shazam is instead led to crime scenes where he is needed as a hero. Shazam and Freddy have a falling out when Shazam refuses to change back into Billy, and as soon as Freddy heads back home, Shazam is attacked by Black Adam. Billy is saved only by mending his relationships with Freddy, Mary, Eugene, Pedro, and Darla. When Adam again attacks, unleashing the Seven Deadly Sins on downtown Philadelphia and threatening to kill the other kids, Billy shares his powers with them, who all become magic-powered adult superheroes (except for Darla, who remains a child). Ultimately, Billy goads Adam into saying the magic word and transforming into his human form, at which point he promptly turns to dust. Although he had contemplated running away, Billy decides to stay with his new family, having learned to be a better and more open person.
Commencing the "Trinity War" story line, Billy flies to Black Adam's home nation of Kahndaq to bury Adam's remains. Shazam's entry into the country is interpreted by the locals as illegal US entry into their territory. This leads to run-ins with both the independent Justice League and the US-sponsored Justice League of America (JLA), and a series of events that see the opening of Pandora's Box, a portal to Earth-3 which brings the evil Justice League analogues of the Crime Syndicate to Earth-0. Following the successful defeat of the Crime Syndicate, Shazam is inducted into the League. While still a newcomer to the league, Billy has a number of new adventures while under the mentorship of Cyborg, who becomes one of his best friends.
After a year of living in the Vázquez home, Billy and his foster siblings have taken to having fun fighting crime around Philadelphia as the Shazam Family. While exploring the Rock of Eternity, Eugene finds a formerly sealed-off area of the Rock: an abandoned train station leading to the seven realms of an unexplored world known as the Magic Lands.
Powers and abilities
Powers of Shazam / Living Lightning
While normally having no special abilities in his human persona as Billy Batson, once he says the magic word "Shazam!", he transforms into a full-grown man in peak physical condition endowed with multiple superpowers that rank him amongst the most powerful entities in the DC Universe. Billy is also able to share a portion his powers with others. Jerry Ordway's 1990s The Power of Shazam! series also gave Billy the added ability to alter Captain Marvel's appearance to his will by visualizing alterations and then saying "Shazam!" Billy uses this ability to disguise himself as his "uncle" to work and cash checks, and to turn his Captain Marvel costume into a spacesuit for a mission in space. With the New 52 reboot, the Powers of Shazam started being referred to as the "Living Lightning", which refers to the combination of gods and mythological figures associated with it, whose distilled essence empowers a chosen "Champion of Magic" through a pact facilitated by the Wizard.
Traditional combination
Powers of the Wizard
At several points in time, Billy possessed the sorcerous abilities held by the Wizard Shazam, granting him formidable mystical powers. As Marvel in the aftermath of Day of Vengeance, he had the capacity to manipulate and command magical energies, and possessed a deep understanding of the supernatural, particularly during a period of shifting magical rules. However, due to the immense accumulation of magic within the Rock of Eternity, he was required to remain within its confines to maintain control over the abundance of magic. Billy could only venture outside the Rock of Eternity for a maximum of 24 hours at a time.
In the Lazarus Planet storyline, Billy becomes tethered to the Rock of Eternity once more, gaining access to its vast magical energies and spells. This connection enables him to manipulate various magical powers, similar to those possessed by the Wizard Shazam. However, as a consequence, Billy is forcibly bound to the Rock of Eternity for a period of time. Later on, Billy takes a step further by binding the Rock of Eternity to himself, allowing him to control both his former powers and the magic within the Rock through his empowered form. Thus far, he has only been shown to generate duplicates of his empowered form, each possessing his abilities and has capability to summon Mamaragan, the ancient being associated with his powers, at his own volition.
Weaknesses
Captain Marvel is not completely invulnerable. In several stories, he is shown to be susceptible to high-powered magic, which can weaken or de-power him, and, in some older stories, to significantly high voltages of lightning or electricity, which would make him revert to Billy Batson form. Despite possessing the courage of Achilles, the Fawcett Captain Marvel was extremely bashful and shy around attractive women, a weakness some villains came to exploit. Most depictions following the Crisis on Infinite Earths also show his childlike innocence and immaturity to be a significant weakness.
In classic stories, simply saying the word "Shazam!" transformed Billy into Captain Marvel and back again; this extended to accidental utterances, recorded playbacks, and so forth. When Captain Marvel shared his powers with his Marvel Family teammates in 1990s and 2000s DC publications (from The Power of Shazam! in 1995 through 2011's Flashpoint), the Shazam power was depicted as a finite source which would be divided into halves, thirds, or further depending upon how many Marvels were super-powered at one time, and weakening them accordingly. The 2011 reboot changed the rules so that Captain Marvel could speak the magic word "Shazam" without causing a transformation. This lasted until the 2023 comic event Lazarus Planet, when the rule once again became that speaking the word in any fashion would trigger the lightning.
Other versions
A significant number of "alternate" depictions of Shazam/Captain Marvel have appeared in DC publications since the 1970s.
Captain Thunder (1974)
In "Make Way for Captain Thunder" from Superman #276 (June 1974), Superman found himself at odds with "Captain Thunder", a superhero displaced from another Earth and another time. Thunder had been magically tricked by his archenemies in the Monster League of Evil into committing evil himself, which led to his doing battle with Superman. Captain Thunder, whose name was derived from Captain Marvel's original moniker, was a thinly veiled pastiche of Marvel—down to his similar costume, his young alter ego named "Willie Fawcett" (a reference to Fawcett Comics), and a magic word ("Thunder!"), which was an acronym for seven entities and their respective powers. He got his power from rubbing a magic belt buckle with a thunder symbol on it and saying "Thunder". His powers came from Tornado (power), Hare (speed), Uncas (bravery), Nature (wisdom), Diamond (toughness), Eagle (flight), and Ram (tenacity). Superman held him while he used his wisdom to escape the effects of the spell.
"Make Way for Captain Thunder" was written by Elliot S! Maggin and illustrated by Curt Swan and Bob Oskner. At the time of its publication, DC had been printing Shazam! comics for 18 months, but had kept that universe separate from those of its other publications. The real Captain Marvel would finally meet Superman in Justice League of America #137, two years later (although he met Lex Luthor in Shazam! #15, November/December 1974).
Captain Thunder (1982)
In 1983, a proposal for an updated Captain Marvel was submitted to DC by Roy Thomas, Don Newton, and Jerry Ordway. This version of the character, to be an inhabitant of DC's main Earth-One universe, rather than the Fawcett-based Earth-S universe, would have featured an African-American version of Billy Batson named "Willie Fawcett" (as in the 1974 story), who spoke the magic word "Shazam!" to become Captain Thunder, Earth-One's Mightiest Mortal. This alternate version of the character was never used.
Elseworld's Finest (1998)
In the alternate universe Elseworlds one-shot comic Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl (1998) by Tom Simmons, Matt Haley and Barbara Kesel, the current Captain Marvel is depicted as a bald African-American man. A flashback to the older Justice Society features the traditional Caucasian Captain Marvel, leading to the conclusion that there were two Captain Marvels.
Superman: Distant Fires (1998)
In the dark alternate future of the Elseworlds comic Superman: Distant Fires (1998) by Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, Kevin Nowlan, and Matt Hollingsworth, most of humanity has been destroyed in nuclear war. An adult Billy Batson becomes obsessed with Wonder Woman when they become part of a small community of survivors of the holocaust, with most of the surviving superhumans having lost their powers or dealing with altered abilities. When the now-powerless Clark Kent joins their community, starting a relationship with Wonder Woman that includes them having a child together, Batson's resentment of Superman becomes insanity, as he provokes his transformation into Captain Marvel despite use of this power causing damage to Earth.
The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001–2002)
In the dark alternate future shown in Frank Miller's 2001–2002 comic miniseries The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Captain Marvel is visibly aged, with receding white hair and glasses. Lex Luthor, who has captured Mary Marvel, coerces him into working for him by threatening to kill her. During an alien attack on Metropolis, Marvel is trapped underneath a collapsing building with no way out, and admits that Billy Batson—here, clearly defined as a separate person from Marvel, rather than simply transforming into him—died eight years ago of unspecified health problems. As a result, when he next speaks his word, he will cease to exist like any dream when there is nobody left to remember it. His last words to Wonder Woman are to give everyone his best, noting that it was nice existing, before he calls down his lightning and destroys himself.
Kingdom Come
The 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come, written by Mark Waid with painted art by Alex Ross, depicts a possible future of the DC characters. In this version, Billy Batson is an adult who now matches the appearance of his superhero identity. The human hostility towards superheroes has made him uneasy, and he has not transformed into Captain Marvel for several years. Batson has become the brainwashed servant of Lex Luthor, who uses Mister Mind's mind-controlling worm offspring to keep him in check and bend him to his will. Nevertheless, Batson's potential as a being powerful enough to rival Superman causes many others to react in fear and unease when he mingles with them, believing it is a non-costumed Captain Marvel that serves Luthor.
Events finally cause him to transform into Captain Marvel, and he unleashes a force that could destroy the world. When the authorities try to stop it by dropping a nuclear bomb, Captain Marvel—spurred by Superman telling him that, owing to his ties to both humanity and the superhuman community, he is the only one capable of choosing which one to save—intercepts the bomb and summons his lightning to detonate it while it is still airborne, sacrificing himself to save as many lives as possible, both human and metahuman. The nuclear blast still kills a large number of heroes, but does cool the war-like attitudes of the survivors. Superman uses Marvel's cape as the symbol of a new world order in which humans and superhumans will now live in harmony.
Earth-5
In 52 #52 (May 2, 2007), a new Multiverse is revealed, originally consisting of 52 identical realities, one of which is designated Earth-5. As a result of Marvel Family foe Mister Mind "eating" aspects of this reality, it takes on visual aspects similar to the pre-Crisis Earth-S, including the Marvel Family characters.
The Earth-5 Captain Marvel and Billy Batson appeared, assisting Superman, in the Final Crisis: Superman Beyond miniseries. The miniseries established that these versions of Captain Marvel and Billy are two separate beings, and that Billy is a reporter for WHIZ Media, rather than a radio broadcaster. The Earth-5 Captain Marvel reappeared in Final Crisis #7, along with an army of Supermen from across the Multiverse to prevent its destruction by Darkseid. Following The New 52 Multiverse reboot, Earth-5 remains a Fawcett Comics–inspired setting, and is spotlighted in the comic book The Multiversity: Thunderworld #1 (Feb 2015), a modernized take on the classic Fawcett Captain Marvel stories from writer Grant Morrison and artist Cameron Stewart.
Shazam (2001): Just Imagine...
A one-shot alternate take on Shazam! was published as part of the Just Imagine... comics line in 2001, which saw Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee reimagining various DC characters.
Lee reimagined the original Shazam! premise by having the hero be a mild mannered Interpol agent, Robert Rogers. Teamed with the beautiful, and much tougher, fellow agent, Carla Noral, the two of them are in India searching for the megalomaniac master criminal Gunga Kahn. Rogers is given the ability to transform into a large, winged being by saying the magic word "Shazam!" This version is co-created with Gary Frank, and is based on the Bill Parker–C. C. Beck character.
In a backup story plotted by Michael Uslan, scripted by Lee and Uslan, and drawn by Kano, an orphaned American boy in India at the same time as the adventures of Shazam heroically saves a village from starvation with the help of a local boy named Zubin Navotny. The boy's name is Billy Marvel, and he and Zubin are made honorary captains in the U.S. Peace Corps by an Ambassador named Batson, making the boy "Captain Marvel."
Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil (2007)
A Captain Marvel miniseries, Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil, written and illustrated by Jeff Smith (creator of Bone), was published in four 48-page installments between February and July 2007. Smith's Shazam! miniseries, in the works since 2003, is a more traditional take on the character, which updates and reimagines Captain Marvel's origin. Smith's story features a younger-looking Billy Batson and Captain Marvel as separate personalities, as they were in the pre-1985 stories, and features a prepubescent Mary Marvel as Captain Marvel's sidekick, instead of the traditional teen-aged or adult versions. Dr. Sivana is Attorney General of the United States, and Mister Mind looks more like a snake than a caterpillar.
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! (2008–2010)
An all-ages Captain Marvel comic, Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!, debuted in July 2008 under DC's Johnny DC youth-oriented imprint, and was published monthly through December 2010. Following the lead and continuity of Smith's Monster Society of Evil miniseries, it was initially written and drawn by Mike Kunkel, creator of Herobear. Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, of Tiny Titans, took over as writers with issue #5, with Byron Vaughns as main artist until issue #13, when Mike Norton assumed his place for the remainder of the series. Kunkel's version returns to the modern concept of having Captain Marvel retain Billy's personality, and also introduces new versions of Black Adam (whose alter ego, Theo Adam, is a child like Billy Batson in this version), King Kull, the Arson Fiend, and Freddy Freeman/Captain Marvel Jr.
Justice League: Generation Lost (2010)
A female version of Captain Marvel is shown as a member of an alternate-future Justice League in Justice League: Generation Lost, a 2010 comics maxiseries written by Judd Winick and Keith Giffen. Little is revealed about her, other than the fact that her civilian name is Sahar Shazeen, and she is shown wielding a pair of swords during battle. She and her teammates are ultimately killed by an army of Omni Mind And Community (OMACs).
Captain Thunder (2011): Flashpoint
The 2011 Flashpoint comics miniseries, written by Geoff Johns with art by Andy Kubert, featured an alternate timeline accidentally created by the Flash, who then helped the heroes of this timeline to restore history. One of those heroes is Captain Thunder—an alternative version of Captain Marvel who has six alter-egos, rather than one, and a scarred face as the result of a fight with Wonder Woman, who in this timeline is a villain.
The six children, collectively known as "S.H.A.Z.A.M.", each possess one of the six attributes of the power of Shazam, and must say the magic word together to become Captain Thunder. They are: Eugene Choi, who possesses the wisdom of Solomon; Pedro Peña, who possesses the strength of Hercules; Mary Batson, Freddy Freeman and Billy Batson, who possess the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, and the courage of Achilles, respectively; and Darla Dudley who possesses the speed of Mercury. Pedro's pet tiger Tawny also transforms into a more powerful version of himself via the magic lightning.
The six children later transform into Captain Thunder to help Flash and his allies stop the war between Aquaman's Atlantean army and Wonder Woman's Amazonian forces. Captain Thunder briefly fights Wonder Woman to a draw before being transformed back into the six children by Flash's accomplice Enchantress, who is revealed to be a traitor. Before the kids can re-form Captain Thunder, Billy is stabbed by the Amazon Penthesileia and killed.
After the conclusion of the miniseries, the three new children from the Flashpoint timeline—Eugene, Pedro, and Darla—were incorporated into the DC Universe via the Shazam! backup strip in Justice League, appearing as Billy, Mary, and Freddy's foster siblings.
Mazahs (2013): Forever Evil
Mazahs is a corrupted alternate-universe version of Shazam, introduced in the 2013–14 Forever Evil DC Comics crossover event series written by Geoff Johns. He is the super-powered alter-ego of Alexander Luthor of Earth-3. In the story, the Crime Syndicate (evil Earth-3 analogues of the Justice League) have brought Alexander Luthor, their prisoner, with them to the Prime Earth where the Justice League and other heroes reside. Prime Earth's Lex Luthor and his team sneak in to the Justice League Watchtower where the Syndicate has Alexander hostage, and remove the duct tape over his mouth, allowing Alexander to speak the magic word "Mazahs!" and transform into his muscular, highly powerful alter-ego. While Prime Earth's Shazam is known for sharing his powers with others, Mazahs kills other superbeings and takes their powers for his own, as when he kills the Syndicate's speedster Johnny Quick. It is implied that the power of Mazahs previously belonged to Earth-3's Will Batson, before he was killed by Alexander. In the final issue of the series, it is revealed that Earth-3's Wonder Woman analogue, Superwoman, is in a relationship with Alexander and tricked her teammates into bringing him with them. She also reveals she is carrying his child, who is prophesied to bring an end to the world. Exploiting his ability to use the powers of those he has killed, Mazahs easily takes down both the Syndicate and Luthor's team, but Prime Earth Lex Luthor (having the same voice as Mazahs) manages to call down the lightning, using a lightning-rod that Batman had retrieved to try and use against Johnny Quick based on his planned defense against the Flash, and transform Mazahs into his human form. Sealing Alexander's mouth, Lex stabs him with a knife, killing him.
Superwoman later gives birth to Mazahs's child in Justice League #50, and uses the baby's power-stealing abilities, inherited from his father and activated when she says the magic word, to remove abilities the members the Prime-Earth Justice League had inherited from their time on Apokolips after the death of Darkseid. The story ends with the orphaned baby having absorbed both the Omega Effect from Lex Luthor as well as the Anti-Life Equation from Justice League associate Steve Trevor, transforming him into a resurrected—yet still infantile—Darkseid.
Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013–2016)
In the prequel comic to the 2013 video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, Shazam joins Superman's Regime in establishing a new approach to ending crime. Similar to the Golden Age version, this Shazam is suggested to have two personalities: Billy Batson is a separate person from Shazam. In Year One he, like the Flash, is somewhat skeptical of Superman's intentions, as his actions are often immoral. Ultimately, Shazam decides to stay and support the Regime, devoted to its cause. He becomes the object of Harley Quinn's affection, being bound and gagged by her in Year Four. He is freed by Ares to join the Regime in combating the Amazon army and Greek gods, but just when they seem to be winning Zeus strips him of his powers, reverting him to Billy permanently. He, Harley (for trying to help him), and Wonder Woman's mother Hippolyta are sent to the abyss of Tartarus as punishment, though they escape and Billy is left out of the conflict without his powers. Eventually, Zeus is forced to return Billy's power after the Highfather of New Genesis intervenes in the conflict. In Year Five, Shazam's relationship with Harley is complicated when she confronts him about being in the Regime despite their growing tyranny. (See the video games section for the continuation of his story in this universe.)
Shazam! Thundercrack
On May 27, 2021, it was announced that cartoonist Yehudi Mercado would write and draw a middle-grade graphic novel titled Shazam! Thundercrack, which will take place within the storyline of the 2019 Shazam! movie. It is set for both online and print release on June 7, 2022.
Supporting cast
In the traditional Shazam! stories, Captain Marvel often fights evil as a member of a superhero team known as the Marvel Family, made up of himself and several other heroes empowered by the wizard Shazam. The main core of the Marvel Family were Captain Marvel's sister Mary Marvel, the alter-ego of Billy Batson's twin sister Mary Batson (adopted as Mary Bromfield), and Marvel's protégé, Captain Marvel Jr., who was the alter-ego of Billy and Mary's best friend, the disabled newsboy Freddy Freeman. Before DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths comic book miniseries in 1985, the Marvel Family also included part-time members such as Mary's non-powered friend "Uncle" Dudley (Uncle Marvel) and three other protégés (all of whose alter egos are named "Billy Batson") known as the Lieutenant Marvels. A pink rabbit version of Captain Marvel, Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, appeared in his own stories.
Among the key supporting characters was Mr. Sterling Morris, president of Amalgamated Broadcasting, owners of Station WHIZ, the radio (and later TV) station for which Billy worked as a reporter. Billy also had his own love interest, Cissie Sommerly, who was also Sterling Morris' niece and had a recurring role in the comics. In the early Fawcett stories, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel had a sidekick named Steamboat, an African-American valet character who was removed from the comics by 1945 because of protests over racial stereotyping. From 1947 forward, Billy/Marvel's sidekick was Mr. Tawky Tawny, an anthropomorphic talking tiger who works as a museum curator and seeks integration into human society.
The current-continuity version of Shazam has a Shazam Family made up of his five foster siblings, with whom he shares his powers: Mary Bromfield, Freddy Freeman, Pedro Peña, Eugene Choi, and Darla Dudley. The latter three children were introduced in the Flashpoint miniseries as three of the six children sharing the powers of "Captain Thunder", and introduced into regular DC continuity with Justice League (vol. 2) #8 in 2012. Tawny was initially depicted as a magically-charged zoo tiger in the Justice League backup stories. In the 2018–present ongoing Shazam! series, a more traditional version of Tawny is a resident of The Wildlands, a magical realm inhabited by anthropomorphic animals.
The Marvel Family's other non-powered allies have traditionally included Dr. Sivana's good-natured adult offspring, Beautia and Magnificus Sivana. The 1970s Shazam! series also included Sunny Sparkle, the "nicest boy in the world." Jerry Ordway's 1990s Power of Shazam! series also introduced Billy's school principal, Miss Wormwood, and Mary's adoptive parents, Nick and Nora Bromfield. The New 52 reboot of Shazam! introduced the Shazam kids' foster parents, Victor and Rosa Vázquez.
Collected editions
Many of the character's appearances have been collected into several volumes:
In other media
Live-action films
Film serial
The first filmed adaptation of Captain Marvel was produced in 1941. Adventures of Captain Marvel, starring Tom Tyler in the title role and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson, was a 12-part film serial produced by Republic Pictures. This production made Captain Marvel the first superhero to be depicted in film. The Adventures of Captain Marvel (for which the man-in-flight effects techniques were originally developed for a Superman film serial that Republic never produced) predated Fleischer Studios' Superman cartoons by six months.
Feature films
In 1950, Columbia Pictures released the comedy/mystery feature film The Good Humor Man with Jack Carson, Lola Albright, and George Reeves. The storyline has Carson as an ice cream vendor who also belongs to a home-grown Captain Marvel Club with some of the kids in the neighborhood. Fawcett released a tie-in one-shot the same year the movie appeared, Captain Marvel and the Good Humor Man.
Following DC's acquisition of the property, development of a Shazam! feature film began at New Line Cinema in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The project remained in development through New Line's absorption into Warner Bros. Pictures in 2009. In 2014, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson signed on to executive produce and co-star as the villain Black Adam. In early 2017, New Line and Johnson decided to split the Shazam! films into one film for Shazam! - which would instead feature Doctor Sivana as the main villain - and a solo Black Adam film.
New Line's Shazam! film was released in 2019 by Warner Bros., and is set within Warners' DC Extended Universe film franchise. Directed by David F. Sandberg and written by Henry Gayden, the film stars Zachary Levi as Shazam!, Mark Strong as Doctor Sivana, Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, and Djimon Hounsou as the Wizard Shazam. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's New 52 Shazam! comic reboot served as the main source of inspiration for the film's plot.
Shazam! follows disaffected foster teen Billy Batson as he simultaneously deals with the responsibility of his new power to become Shazam (with Freddy's help as his "manager") and his ongoing search for his birth mother. The film also introduced Billy and Freddy's foster siblings Darla (portrayed by Faithe Herman), Mary (Grace Fulton), Eugene (Ian Chen), and Pedro (Jovan Armand). The other five kids become the Shazam Family at the end of the film to help Shazam battle Doctor Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins, with Adam Brody as Super Hero Freddy, Meagan Good as Super Hero Darla, Michelle Borth as Super Hero Mary, Ross Butler as Super Hero Eugene, and D. J. Cotrona as Super Hero Pedro.
Produced for $98 million, the film grossed $364 million worldwide. The cast (minus Michelle Borth, with Grace Fulton playing both versions of Mary), Sandberg, and Gayden all returned to make a sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The film, which also co-stars Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler, was filmed in the Atlanta, GA area during the summer of 2021 and released in March 2023.
The Shazam! sequel was produced concurrently with Dwayne Johnson's spinoff Black Adam film, which filmed in Atlanta at the same time. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra with Adam Sztykiel as screenwriter, Black Adam is set for an October 2022 release by Warner Bros. Shazam makes a non-speaking appearance in the 2018 animated feature film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, adapted from Cartoon Network's Teen Titans Go! animated TV series.
Direct-to-video animated films
Captain Marvel's first appearance in Warner Bros. Animation's line of DC Universe Animated Original Movies direct-to-video films was a brief cameo in 2008's Justice League: The New Frontier. The character had a more substantial role in the 2009 animated film Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, based on a Superman/Batman comic book arc in which Marvel battles Superman under orders from United States President Lex Luthor. Captain Marvel was voiced by Corey Burton, while Billy Batson was voiced by an uncredited Rachael MacFarlane.
Captain Super, an alternate universe version of Captain Marvel who is a member of the Crime Syndicate, appears in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, voiced by Jim Meskimen.
Captain Marvel appears in the 2010 animated short film Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam, released on the DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection DVD compilation as part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Jerry O'Connell returns from Justice League Unlimited as the voice of Captain Marvel, while Billy Batson is voiced by Zach Callison.
The Flashpoint timeline counterparts of the Shazam family appears in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, with Billy Batson voiced by Jennifer Hale, Pedro Peña by Candi Milo, and Captain Thunder by Steve Blum.
Shazam appears in films set in the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU), voiced by Sean Astin, while Billy Batson is voiced again by Zach Callison:
The character is introduced in Justice League: War, where he becomes a founding member of the Justice League as they fight Darkseid.
Shazam appears in Justice League: Throne of Atlantis.
Shazam appears in Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. Here, he is revealed to have lost a leg during a battle on Apokolips, and replaced it with a magical one. He is later killed sacrificing himself to fend off a horde of Paradooms.
Shazam appears in the film Lego DC: Shazam!: Magic and Monsters, voiced again by Sean Astin, while Billy Batson is voiced again by Zach Callison.
Shazam appears in the animated film Injustice, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.
Television
1970s–1990s
Captain Marvel first came to television in 1974. Filmation produced Shazam!, a live-action television show, which ran from 1974 to 1976 on CBS. From 1975 until the end of its run, it aired as one-half of The Shazam!/Isis Hour, featuring Filmation's own The Secrets of Isis as a companion program.
Instead of directly following the lead of the comics, the Shazam! TV show took a more indirect approach to the character: Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, accompanied by an older man known simply as Mentor (Les Tremayne), traveled in a motor home across the U.S., interacting with people in different towns in which they stopped to save the citizens from some form of danger or to help them combat some form of evil. With the wizard Shazam absent from this series, Billy received his powers and counsel directly from the six "immortal elders" represented in the "Shazam" name, who were depicted via animation: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. Shazam! starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson, with both Jackson Bostwick (season 1) and John Davey (seasons 2 and 3) as Captain Marvel. An adapted version of Isis, the heroine of The Secrets of Isis, was introduced into DC Comics in 2006 as Black Adam's wife in the weekly comic book series 52.
Shortly after the Shazam! show ended its network run, Captain Marvel (played by Garrett Craig) appeared as a character in a pair of low-budget, live-action comedy specials, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions under the name Legends of the Superheroes in 1979. The specials also featured Howard Morris as Doctor Sivana, and Ruth Buzzi as Aunt Minerva, marking the first appearance of those characters in film or television. Although Captain Marvel did not appear in Hanna-Barbera's long-running concurrent Saturday morning cartoon series Super Friends (which featured many of the other DC superheroes), he did appear in some of the merchandise associated with the show.
Filmation revisited the character three years later for an animated Shazam! cartoon program, which ran on NBC from 1981 to 1982 as part of The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam! accompanied by Hero High. Captain Marvel and Billy Batson were both voiced by Burr Middleton. The rest of the Marvel Family joined Captain Marvel on his adventures in this series, which were more similar to his comic-book adventures than the 1970s TV show. Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Black Adam, and other familiar Captain Marvel foes appeared as enemies.
Captain Marvel and/or Billy Batson made brief "cameo" appearances in two 1990s TV series. Billy has a non-speaking cameo in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Obsession", while live actors portraying Captain Marvel make "cameo" appearances in both a dream-sequence within an episode of The Drew Carey Show, and in the Beastie Boys' music video for "Alive".
2000s–present
Because of licensing issues and the development of the Shazam! feature film at New Line Cinema, Captain Marvel and characters related to him could not appear in the DC Animated Universe. A planned appearance in Superman: The Animated Series went unproduced, as did a proposed Shazam! series for Cartoon Network pitched by Paul Dini and Alex Ross around the same time.
Captain Marvel appears in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Clash", voiced by Jerry O'Connell, while Billy Batson is voiced by Shane Haboucha. This version is initially a member of the Justice League, before leaving after his conflicting opinions with Superman cause them to fight and destroy Lex Luthor's Lexor City. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that the clash between the two superheroes was part of a plot organized by Lex Luthor and Amanda Waller to discredit Superman.
Captain Marvel appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, with Captain Marvel voiced by Jeff Bennett and Billy Batson by Tara Strong.
Captain Marvel appears in Young Justice, voiced by Rob Lowe and later by Chad Lowe, while Billy Batson is voiced by Robert Ochoa. This version is a member of the Justice League, Marvel is introduced as the team's new "den mother" in the episode "Alpha Male" after Red Tornado's disappearance. At various times, he sometimes joins the teenage heroes of Young Justice on their missions.
Captain Marvel appears in Mad.
Shazam appears in a self-titled series of DC Nation Shorts, voiced by David Kaye, while Billy Batson is voiced by Tara Strong.
Shazam appears as a recurring character in Justice League Action, with Shazam and Billy Batson both voiced by Sean Astin. The series premiere, "Shazam Slam", sees Billy recruited by the Wizard and becoming Shazam for the first time to help him stop Black Adam. Subsequently, he appears throughout the series as a member of the Justice League.
Shazam appears in Teen Titans Go!, voiced by John DiMaggio, with Tara Strong again voicing Billy Batson.
The DC Extended Universe version of Shazam makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the Titans episode "Dude, Where's My Gar?".
Video games
Captain Marvel was a playable character alongside Superman (as the second player option) in the 1980s coin-op of Superman.
Captain Marvel was featured in the crossover fighting game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, voiced by Kevin Delaney, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles. In the story, Captain Marvel is among several DC superheroes teleported to the Mortal Kombat video game universe when the two universes merge, and characters from each franchise are forced to do battle.
Captain Marvel appears in the online role-playing game DC Universe Online (voiced by Shannon McCormick).
Captain Marvel appears as a "jump-in" hero character in the Wii/Nintendo DS adaptations of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Jeff Bennett.
Captain Marvel was a playable character in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (voiced by Travis Willingham).
Captain Marvel appears as a playable character in Infinite Crisis (voiced by Jerry O'Connell).
Shazam appears in Injustice: Gods Among Us, voiced by Joey Naber. The video game's story depicts Superman becoming a tyrant, with his own Regime of heroes against an Insurgency led by Batman. Shazam is shown as a member of Superman's Regime, but ultimately is murdered by Superman when he questions the Man of Steel's plan to destroy Metropolis and Gotham to 'prove' to the world that his authority is needed. His death prompts the Flash to defect to the Insurgency, which gives the opposing heroes the information they need to stop the Regime. He is mentioned, but does not appear in, the sequel, Injustice 2 on the PC and the console versions, but the movie version of Shazam is playable in the mobile version.
Shazam reappears as a playable character in LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham voiced by Josh Keaton.
Shazam appears as a playable character in DC Unchained.
Shazam appears in Lego DC Super Villains, voiced by Brandon Routh, while Billy Batson is voiced by Zach Callison. His Earth-3 counterpart Mazahs is also a playable character as well, voiced by Lex Lang. In the DLC add-on based on the 2019 film, Shazam is voiced by Zachary Levi.
Radio
In about 1943, a radio serial of Captain Marvel was briefly broadcast (possibly by either Mutual or NBC) initially with Burt Boyar as Billy Batson. According to Boyar's faint memories in a 2011 interview, the show was initially produced in New York but after about a month relocated to Chicago; no further details about the show or transcripts of it survived. Existence of the show was confirmed by historian Jim Harmon via recollections of old-time radio fans who recalled hearing it during original broadcasts, plus locating period program listings.
Comic strips
In 1943, C. C. Beck and writer Rod Reed prepared seven sample installments of a comic strip, but syndicates expressed no interest in it. Reed suspected that the DC lawsuit was the syndicates' reason, for fear of becoming parties in the ongoing litigation.
Cultural impact and legacy
Captain Marvel vs. Superman in fiction
Captain Marvel's adventures have contributed a number of elements to both comic book culture and pop culture in general. The most notable contribution is the regular use of Superman and Captain Marvel as adversaries in Modern Age comic book stories. The two are often portrayed as equally matched and, while Marvel does not possess Superman's heat vision, X-ray vision or superhuman breath powers, the magic-based nature of his own powers are a weakness for Superman.
The National Comics/Fawcett Comics rivalry was parodied in "Superduperman", a satirical comic book story by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood in the fourth issue of Mad (April/May 1953). Superduperman, endowed with muscles on muscles, does battle with Captain Marbles, a Captain Marvel caricature. Marbles' magic word is "SHAZOOM", which stands for Strength, Health, Aptitude, Zeal, Ox (power of), Ox (power of another), and Money. In contrast to Captain Marvel's perceived innocence and goodness, Marbles is greedy and money-grubbing, and a master criminal. Superduperman defeats Marbles by tricking him into hitting himself.
While publishing its Shazam! revival in the 1970s, DC Comics published a story in Superman #276 (June 1974) featuring a battle between the Man of Steel and a thinly disguised version of Captain Marvel called Captain Thunder, a reference to the character's original name. He apparently battles against a Monster League, who cast a spell to make him evil, but Superman helps him break free. Two years later, Justice League of America #135–137 presented a story arc which featured the heroes of Earth-1, Earth-2, and Earth-S teaming together against their enemies. It is in this story that Superman and Captain Marvel first meet, albeit briefly. King Kull has caused Superman to go mad using red kryptonite, compelling Marvel to battle him at first and subsequently restore Superman's mind with the help of lightning.
In Shazam! #30 (1977), Dr. Sivana creates several steel creatures to destroy Pittsburgh's steel mills, after getting the idea from reading an issue of Action Comics. He finally creates a Superman robot made of a super-steel to destroy Captain Marvel. They both hit each other at the same moment, and the robot is destroyed.
Notable later Superman/Captain Marvel battles in DC Comics include All-New Collectors' Edition #C-58 (1978), All-Star Squadron #36–37 (1984), and Superman vol. 2, #102 (1995). The Superman/Captain Marvel battle depicted in Kingdom Come #4 (1996) serves as the climax of that miniseries, with Marvel having been brainwashed by Lex Luthor and Mister Mind to turn against the other heroes. The "Clash" episode of Justice League Unlimited, which includes Captain Marvel as a guest character, features a Superman/Captain Marvel fight as its centerpiece, Lex Luthor manipulating events so that Captain Marvel will perceive Superman as being prejudiced against Luthor's criminal past and attacking him without provokation or evidence that Luthor has actually done anything wrong. By contrast, the depiction of the pair's first meeting in the Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder miniseries establishes them as firm friends and allies to the point of Superman volunteering to be Billy's mentor when he learns the boy's true age.
In popular culture
The television character Gomer Pyle is known for uttering the catchphrase "Shazam!" on The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C..
Al McCoy, longtime radio and TV voice of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, would shout "Shazam!" every time the Suns made a three-point shot.
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
Carlinsky, Dan (January 7, 1973). "Return of the World's Mightiest Mortal". New York Sunday News pp. 10–11, 44. On DC's revival of Captain Marvel.
External links
Captain Marvel at Don Markstein's Toonopedia Archived from the original on April 9, 2012.
Captain Marvel (1941), the Republic Pictures serial
American comics characters
Characters created by Bill Parker (comics)
Characters created by C. C. Beck
Comics characters introduced in 1939
DC Comics adapted into films
DC Comics superheroes
DC Comics male superheroes
DC Comics American superheroes
DC Comics characters who use magic
DC Comics characters who are shapeshifters
DC Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
DC Comics characters who can teleport
DC Comics characters with accelerated healing
DC Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
DC Comics characters with superhuman senses
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics child superheroes
DC Comics fantasy characters
DC Comics film characters
DC Comics orphans
Fictional characters granted magic or power through dealings
Fictional characters with electric or magnetic abilities
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional characters with eidetic memory
Fictional characters who can manipulate time
Fictional characters with dimensional travel abilities
Fictional characters with absorption or parasitic abilities
Fictional radio personalities
Twin characters in comics
Film serial characters
Golden Age superheroes
Magical superheroes
Male characters in film
Marvel Family
Rapid human age change in fiction
Superheroes who are adopted
Superheroes with alter egos
Time travelers
Solomon
Heracles in fiction
Zeus
Achilles
Mercury (mythology)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poco
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Poco
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Poco was an American country rock band originally formed in 1968 after the demise of Buffalo Springfield. Guitarists Richie Furay and Jim Messina, former members of Buffalo Springfield, were joined by multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young, bassist Randy Meisner, and drummer George Grantham. Meisner quit the band whilst they were recording their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, though his bass and backing vocal parts were kept in the final mix. He was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit in 1969, and Messina left in 1970 to be replaced by Paul Cotton. The line-up would change numerous times over the next several decades, with Rusty Young being the only constant member. A reunion of the founding members occurred in the late 1980s-early 1990s, and the band has continued in some form through 2021, though they retired from active touring in 2013, with Young citing health concerns as the primary cause of his retirement. Young died from a heart attack in April 2021.
To date, the band has released 19 studio albums, the most successful of which was 1978's Legend, which featured the Billboard Hot 100 #17 and Adult Contemporary #1 hit "Crazy Love". The band's most recent album was 2013's All Fired Up.
Poco are considered one of the founders of the Southern California country rock sound, and three of the members of the band have been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as members of other bands (Furay with Buffalo Springfield, Meisner and Schmit with the Eagles). However, the band has yet to receive a nomination since entering eligibility in 1995.
History
Inception
During recording of Buffalo Springfield's third and final album, Last Time Around, lead singers Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay each recorded songs without the other members present. One of Furay's solo efforts was the country-influenced ballad "Kind Woman", which he recorded with the help of producer/engineer/bassist Jim Messina and pedal steel guitarist Rusty Young.
When Buffalo Springfield split up, Furay, Messina and Rusty Young decided to start their own group oriented toward such songs. Its original line-up was Furay (vocals and rhythm guitar), Messina (lead guitar, vocals, producer), Rusty Young (pedal steel guitar, banjo, dobro, guitar, mandolin and vocals), George Grantham (drums and vocals) and Randy Meisner (bass and vocals). The group was signed to a recording contract with Epic Records, which acquired the rights to Furay from the Springfield's Atlantic Records subsidiary Atco label in return for those to Graham Nash of The Hollies (who was moving to Atlantic as part of forming Crosby, Stills & Nash). Originally, the new group was named "Pogo", after the Pogo comic strip character, but was changed when its creator, Walt Kelly, objected and threatened to sue.
Furay era (1969–1973)
Their debut, Pickin' Up the Pieces (1969), is considered a pioneering album of the country rock genre. The first edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide edited by Dave Marsh and John Swenson, gave the release 5 stars, its highest rating, as an essential album. However, the album performed weakly, peaking at No. 63 on Billboard album chart.
The band's line-up proved to be a problem throughout its career. During the recording of the debut album, Meisner left the group as a result of a conflict with Furay (reportedly, Meisner had objected after Furay barred all but himself and Messina from the first album's final mix playback sessions). After a stint playing with Ricky Nelson's Stone Canyon Band, Meisner later became a founding member of the Eagles. Messina briefly took over on bass until Timothy B. Schmit joined the band in September 1969.
Their second studio album Poco (1970) again resulted in low sales, peaking at No. 58. However, the band's next album, the live set Deliverin' (or DeLIVErin as it is sometimes represented), picked up moderate airplay, Furay's "C'mon" hitting No. 69. Deliverin’ became Poco's first album to reach the Top 40 on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 26.
Messina chose to leave the band in October 1970, feeling Furay exerted too much control over the group's sound. He returned to studio production, and ultimately on to Loggins & Messina. At the recommendation of Peter Cetera of Chicago, Messina selected guitarist/singer Paul Cotton, a one-time member of the Illinois Speed Press, to replace him.
The realigned Poco, now on its third line-up on just its fourth album, hired Steve Cropper as producer and released From the Inside (1971). Again, poor sales were the result as the release landed at No. 52.
The band and its management were dissatisfied with Cropper's production and hired Canadian Jack Richardson, who'd had big success with The Guess Who and oversaw the next three albums, beginning with A Good Feelin' to Know (1972). The band built the LP around the title track, a popular concert tune, but the single failed to chart. The album itself peaked at No. 69. As a result, Furay became increasingly discouraged with Poco's prospects, especially since ex-bandmates Stills, Young, Meisner and Messina were so successful with their respective groups. In an April 26, 1973 Rolling Stone magazine interview with Cameron Crowe, he vented that Poco was still a second-billed act and had not increased its audience.
The next album, Crazy Eyes (1973), reached No. 38 but Furay departed at its release and joined with J. D. Souther and Chris Hillman to create the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band on Asylum Records. Poco decided not to replace Furay and continued as a quartet.
Post-Furay era (1973–1977)
After Furay's departure, the band released their last two albums with Epic; Seven (1974) and Cantamos (1974). The albums charted at No. 68 and No. 76 respectively. Poco left Epic after Cantamos and signed with ABC-Dunhill Records.
Head Over Heels was their first ABC release, featuring Schmit's acoustic "Keep On Tryin" which became the group's most successful single to date, charting at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. Around the time of the release of Head Over Heels, The Very Best of Poco was released as a compilation album that documented the group's years with Epic. Epic's release fought with Head Over Heels for attention though neither charted very well, hitting No. 43 and No. 90, respectively.
The group's next ABC album was Rose Of Cimarron which also failed to generate much enthusiasm and peaked at No. 89. Another Epic release also came out in 1976, the live album Live.
Al Garth (ex-Loggins and Messina), who guested on Head Over Heels and Rose of Cimarron, was added to the group's 1976 touring line up on sax and violin, but was gone by the end of that year.
In the summer of 1976, the group was on the bill with the Stills-Young Band teaming but was left high and dry when Neil Young pulled out of the tour, which was then canceled.
Indian Summer was released the following spring, peaking at No. 57, while the title track reached No. 50.
Success (1977–1980)
In August 1977 Schmit quit to join the Eagles, coincidentally replacing former Poco member Meisner yet again. As a result, a fully produced live album recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles in July 1977 was shelved by ABC. After languishing in storage for many years, the album was eventually released by John Thaler and Futuredge Music in partnership with Universal Special Projects as The Last Roundup in 2004.
After Schmit's departure, Poco decided to take a break. Grantham took some time off, while Young and Cotton decided to continue as the Cotton-Young Band and redoubled their efforts to succeed. They selected the Britons Steve Chapman (drums) and Charlie Harrison (bass, backing vocals; formerly of Judas Jump), both of whom had played together with Leo Sayer and Al Stewart, to round out their new quartet. However, ABC decided to pick up the Cotton-Young album — as long as they continued under the Poco name. Thus, although Grantham had never quit Poco, he found himself bought out of the group after he was not happy with the changes in its business setup, including the group's publishing no longer being divided evenly. After a stint with McGuinn, Clark & Hillman, he subsequently landed a job as drummer for Ricky Skaggs.
Legend (1978), the Cotton-Young album with cover art by graphic artist (and later comedy actor) Phil Hartman, subsequently became the group's most commercially successful LP, containing two Top 20 hits, "Crazy Love" written and sung by Rusty Young (which also had a seven-week run at Number 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart in early 1979, the biggest hit on the AC chart that year) and Cotton's "Heart of the Night". The album was certified gold, Poco's first album to achieve this distinction in original distribution.
Kim Bullard (keyboards, backing vocals) joined the band in December 1978 just after Legend was released. While "Crazy Love" was riding up the charts in early 1979, ABC Records was sold to MCA Records. Poco was retained by MCA and the Legend album was reissued on the MCA label.
With the momentum built up from Legends success, Poco were invited by the Musicians United for Safe Energy collective to play during their concerts at Madison Square Garden in September 1979. And their new hit "Heart of the Night" appeared on the resulting live album No Nukes, the concerts and album all being in support of nuclear-free energy. Both the concerts and the album also featured several other big artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne.
1980–1999
During the first half of the 1980s, the group released five more albums: Under the Gun (1980), Blue And Gray (1981), Cowboys & Englishmen (1982) on MCA and, moving over to Atlantic Records, Ghost Town (1982) and Inamorata (1984). Poco failed to duplicate the success achieved by Legend, with each album performing more poorly than its predecessor.
Poco also contributed the song "I'll Leave it Up to You" to Fast Times at Ridgemont High'''s soundtrack in 1982.
On Inamorata the band mostly played down their "country rock" sound to adopt more of an "80s style" with more keyboards and glossy synth sounds as well as electronic drums. The album also featured guest spots by former members Timothy B. Schmit, Richie Furay and George Grantham.
The group lost its recording contract with Atlantic due to the slow sales of Inamorata but continued to tour, mostly in small clubs. Bullard left to rejoin Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1983 (but still appeared on the sessions for Inamorata) and Harrison (who had not played on Inamorata) departed in mid-1984. New members Jeff Steele (bass) and Rick Seratte (keyboards, backing vocals) came in for Poco's 1984 tour dates, but they departed, along with drummer Chapman, to be replaced in 1985 by future Great Plains front man Jack Sundrud (vocals, bass, guitar) and the returning Grantham. Grantham's reunion with Poco was brief, though; In late 1985, Ricky Skaggs asked him to rejoin his band. Chapman came back to take over drums again. During this period, the band relocated to Nashville and recorded some demos, though no record deal resulted. And after a few scattered live dates for the group in 1986 and 1987, Paul Cotton did not perform with Poco again until 1992.
After a lengthy recording hiatus, at the urging of Richard Marx and his manager Allen Kovac who took on Poco, the band re-emerged on the RCA label with the successful Legacy (1989), reuniting original members Young, Furay, Messina, Grantham and Meisner twenty years after Poco's debut. Though Timothy B. Schmit and Paul Cotton were also approached to appear on the project, Schmit declined and Cotton, who was busy with his solo career, was bought out of the group and it ended up being only the five originals. The album produced a Top 20 hit, "Call It Love," in the fall of 1989 and another Top 40 hit, "Nothing to Hide," in early 1990, earning Poco its second gold album (in its 19th release).
The group (having added a keyboardist, Dave Vanacore) toured in early 1990 opening for Marx. Furay, now a church minister in Colorado, then had to bow out due to his commitments and Poco toured as a headliner in the summer of 1990 with Sundrud returning to take over rhythm guitar from Furay.
Despite Legacys gold status and the two hit singles, the band did not make much money on their 1990 tour, one of the problems being their booking into military bases that turned out to be mostly empty, as the troops were all deployed for the Desert Shield operation in the Persian Gulf. RCA ended up dropping them from their roster and recordings for a proposed follow up to Legacy were abandoned.
In 1991, Poco toured as an acoustic trio with Young, Messina and Meisner (drummer Gary Mallaber joined them for dates in Japan that July). But by the end of 1991, Messina and Meisner had returned to their individual careers.
After Messina and Meisner left, Young formed a side project, Four Wheel Drive, with John Cowan (from New Grass Revival), Bill Lloyd (from Foster & Lloyd) and Patrick Simmons (of Doobie Brothers). They were signed to a recording deal with RCA Nashville and completed an album which was never released. Warner Bros. Records then picked up the group in 1993, but when they were threatened with lawsuits from bands who had already copyrighted the name Four Wheel Drive, they changed the band's name to The Sky Kings. But their one and only album, completed in 1997, was not released until 2000, three years after the group disbanded.
In the meantime, Rusty Young was the sole owner of the Poco name by early 1992 and, though they had not officially disbanded, the band seemed to be quietly fading away. Despite this, Young once again teamed with Cotton, brought in new members Richard Neville (vocals, bass) and Tim Smith (drums) and toured through the end of the decade, although on a very limited schedule. Young and Cotton also occasionally appeared as Poco as an acoustic duo.
2000–2013
Poco again became more active as a touring unit after Grantham and Sundrud re-joined in 2000, reuniting the group's 1985 line-up.Running Horse (2002) found the band in the studio for the first time in thirteen years. The CD was released through the band's website. Furay, who had continued to make guest appearances at their shows over the years when they played in his adopted home-state of Colorado, reunited with the band again for a sold-out show in Nashville in May 2004, resulting in the CD–DVD release Keeping the Legend Alive (2004).
On July 29 of that same year, during a show at Stearns Square in Springfield, Massachusetts, Grantham suffered a stroke during the performance. For their gig the following night at Barnstable County Fair in East Falmouth, MA, Poco brought in local drummer Chuck Woodhams, then called Muscle Shoals Sound Studio drummer George Lawrence (who had earlier stood in for Tim Smith at a Poco concert in 1999) to sub on drums for Grantham for the rest of 2004. He became a permanent member in 2005. Grantham's recovery was slow and expensive and the group created a donor fund on its official website, Poconut.org, to offset some of his considerable medical expenses.
Poco continued to write and record while performing at festivals, performing arts centers, theaters and clubs. In 2005 they played a short tour in Europe, but Cotton was hospitalized in Norway with health issues and missed the last two shows of the tour. Guitarist and singer Bill Lloyd, of duo Foster & Lloyd, substituted for Cotton for several subsequent shows in the US.
Cotton returned in 2006, stabilizing the line-up of Young, Cotton, Sundrud and drummer George Lawrence. Cotton and Sundrud released solo albums and Young started writing an autobiographical history of the band. Poco alumni continued to periodically reunite in concert with this line-up.
Beginning in 2009, Grantham occasionally appeared with the band again but limited his contributions to vocals only. Richie Furay and Jim Messina returned for several 2008 Poco performances at the Wildwood Lodge in Steelville, Missouri, a tour of California in 2009 ending at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio (where they were joined by Grantham and Timothy B. Schmit) and several dates opening for Loggins and Messina featuring Furay, Messina and Grantham.Bareback at Big Sky (2005) and The Wildwood Sessions (2006) captured live acoustic versions of songs both new and familiar from their 40-plus year career. Live at Columbia Studios, Hollywood 9/30/71 (2010) unearthed an unreleased 1971 live performance by Furay, Young, Schmit, Grantham and the then recently recruited Cotton in front of a private audience of family and friends.
In early 2010, Paul Cotton left Poco abruptly, publicly citing a financial dispute with Young. On his official website he announced he would not be appearing with Poco at the Wildwood concerts, stating "It was not all that shocking when Rusty told me on February 27 that he would not honor the contract that I had been requesting for over 15 years and that this was goodbye..." On March 12, 2010, Young responded on Poco's official website: "It was a sad day when I read on Paul's website that he wasn't coming to Wildwood and I guess that means he's leaving the band." Poco immediately reformed with Young, Sundrud, Lawrence and new keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist/singer Michael Webb of Nashville, Tennessee.
The band's new incarnation continued to tour and record. In early 2012, a live video of a new song, "Neil Young", was released on YouTube as a teaser for a new studio album, All Fired Up, that was recorded in Nashville and released in March 2013. Selling on iTunes, the band's website and through a distributor in Europe, Young, Sundrud and Webb penned all the songs on the self-produced album.
In its 45th year, Rusty Young was the only original member in the band and remained the leader and front man on stage. He has been the only member of Poco to have performed at every gig and played on every recording since the band's inception in 1968.
Retirement
At the end of 2013, Rusty Young announced his retirement. At the age of 68, he said he had spent 45 years on the road in the same band and needed a break. A few shows were booked into 2014, including three farewell shows in Florida. One of those shows was a performance in a recording studio in front of a live audience for a DVD documentary of the band's live show. Young said there could be some one-offs in the future after that, but the band would not be actively touring as before. Young was finishing his memoirs for a book to be published. He and Sundrud wrote and recorded music for children's story videos as the "Session Cats". Lawrence, Sundrud and Webb continued to write, record and play in their own projects, and to do freelance work with other artists in Nashville, where they live. Young continued to do guest performances with former members of Poco and other country rock artists.
Poco was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame (CMHOF) with the CMHOF induction ceremony which took place at the Paramount Theatre (Denver, Colorado) on January 9, 2015, and included a performance by the following line-up of band members: Paul Cotton, Richie Furay, Timothy B. Schmit, and Rusty Young. Also inducted into the CMHOF along with Poco were Firefall, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Stephen Stills and Manassas.
From 2015 through 2021, though not touring full-time, Poco continued to play isolated dates around the US. In 2016 drummer Lawrence was replaced by Rick Lonow (formerly of The Flying Burrito Brothers). Lex Browning, Jack Sundrud's former bandmate in Great Plains, replaced Michael Webb on guitar in the fall of 2018.
In early 2020, Poco friend and fan Tom Hampton was brought in by Sundrud to replace Browning for tour dates, but touring was suddenly halted in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rusty Young died April 14, 2021, at his home in Davisville, Missouri, from a heart attack. He was 75. His death marked the end for Poco.
Three and a half months after Rusty Young's April 2021 death, his former partner in the band, Paul Cotton, died at his summer home in Eugene, Oregon at age 78 on August 1, 2021.
Fans and surviving band members have released the tribute album 'My Friend: A Tribute To Rusty Young' in March 2022 and there was a reunion/tribute "Poconut" concert on October 8, 2022, in Steelville, Missouri, near Young's home, where the surviving members of the band's final lineup, Jack Sundrud, Tom Hampton and Rick Lonow, were joined by original drummer George Grantham, who guested on harmony vocals.
Selected studio reissues
In 1997, From the Inside and A Good Feelin' to Know were reissued on CD by BGO, a British label. However, the reissue had some problems, as it appeared the tape used to remaster From the Inside had significant damage to it. Pickin' Up the Pieces and Poco, the band's first and second albums, were also reissued during this time, with no noticeable damage to the master tapes. The notes give a brief history of the band and the recording of each album.
In 2006, BGO reissued four more albums, with two albums on each CD: Seven with Cantamos, the band's seventh and eighth albums, and Deliverin', the band's first live album, with Crazy Eyes. Neither set had any bonus tracks as part of the reissue, although there are extensive sleeve notes about Poco's history and the making of the album. The reissues were remastered by Jack Thompson, although it does not note whether or not these were remastered from the original master tapes or the safety masters as previous CDs were.
In 2011, BGO licensed and reissued remastered editions of four of Poco's ABC/MCA titles, again remastered by Thompson, putting two albums on each CD, with extensive liner notes written by John Tobler. The pairings were Head over Heels with Rose of Cimarron, and Under the Gun with Blue and Gray. No bonus tracks or outtakes were included.
Discography
Studio albums
Pickin' Up the Pieces (1969)
Poco (1970)
From the Inside (1971)
A Good Feelin' to Know (1972)
Crazy Eyes (1973)
Seven (1974)
Cantamos (1974)
Head over Heels (1975)
Rose of Cimarron (1976)
Indian Summer (1977)
Legend (1978)
Under the Gun (1980)
Blue and Gray (1981)
Cowboys & Englishmen (1982)
Ghost Town (1982)
Inamorata (1984)
Legacy (1989)
Running Horse'' (2002)
All Fired Up (2013)
MembersFinal members'
Rusty Young – steel and rhythm guitars, dobro, banjo, mandolin, percussion, vocals
Jack Sundrud – bass, rhythm guitar, vocals
Rick Lonow – drums, percussion
Tom Hampton – lead guitar, vocals
References
External links
Official band site
Interview with Rusty Young on Yuzu Melodies
American country rock groups
Country music groups from California
American soft rock music groups
Epic Records artists
Musical groups established in 1968
Musical groups disestablished in 2021
1968 establishments in California
2021 disestablishments in California
Musical groups from Los Angeles
Rock music groups from California
Musical quartets from California
ABC Records artists
MCA Records artists
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Parable of the Prodigal Son
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The Parable of the Prodigal Son (also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father) is one of the parables of Jesus in the Bible, appearing in Luke 15:11–32. Jesus shares the parable with his disciples, the Pharisees, and others.
In the story, a father has two sons. The younger son asks for his portion of inheritance from his father, who grants his son's request. This son, however, is (i.e., wasteful and extravagant), thus squandering his fortune and eventually becoming destitute. As consequence, he now must return home empty-handed and intend to beg his father to accept him back as a servant. To the son's surprise, he is not scorned by his father but is welcomed back with celebration and a welcoming party. Envious, the older son refuses to participate in the festivities. The father tells the older son: "you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours, but your younger brother was lost and now he is found."
The Prodigal Son is the third and final parable of a cycle on redemption, following the parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost Coin. In Revised Common Lectionary and Roman Rite Catholic Lectionary, this parable is read on the fourth Sunday of Lent (in Year C); in the latter it is also included in the long form of the Gospel on the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year C, along with the preceding two parables of the cycle. In the Eastern Orthodox Church it is read on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son.
Narrative
The parable begins with a man who had two sons, and the younger of them asks his father to give him his share of the estate. The implication is the son could not wait for his father's death for his inheritance, he wanted it immediately. The father agrees and divides his estate between both sons.
Upon receiving his portion of the inheritance, the younger son travels to a distant country, where he indulges in extravagant living. It is implied that he drinks, gambles, and sleeps with prostitutes, during this time. However, it is not long before he has exhausted all his money, and immediately thereafter, a permanent famine strikes the land. This leaves him desperately poor, as his possessions (which he bought with his money) were sold to pay his debts. He is forced to take work as a swineherd (which would have been abhorrent to Jesus' Jewish audience, who considered swine unclean animals) where he reaches the point of envying the food of the pigs he is tending to. At this time, he finally comes to his senses:
This implies the father was watching hopefully for the son's return.
The son starts his rehearsed speech, admitting his sins, and declaring himself unworthy of being his father's son, but in most versions of Luke, the son does not even finish, before his father accepts him back wholeheartedly without hesitation as the father calls for his servants to dress the son in the finest robe available, get a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet, and to slaughter the "fatted calf" for a celebratory meal (dinner party).
The older son, who was at work in the fields, hears the sound of celebration, and is told by a fellow servant about the return of his younger brother. He is not impressed, and becomes angry. He also has a speech for his father:
The parable concludes with the father explaining that while the older son has always been present, and everything the father owns also belongs to the older son, because the younger son had returned, in a sense, from the dead, celebration was necessary:
Interpretation
The opening, "A man had two sons" is a storyteller's trope and would immediately bring to mind Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob and Esau. Jesus then confounds the listeners' expectations when the younger son is shown to be foolish.
While a number of commentators see the request of the younger son for his share of the inheritance as "brash, even insolent" and "tantamount to wishing that the father was dead," Jewish legal scholar Bernard Jackson says "Jewish sources give no support to [the idea] that the prodigal, in seeking the advance, wishes his father dead."
The young man's actions do not lead to success; he squanders his inheritance and he eventually becomes an indentured servant, with the degrading job of looking after pigs, and even envying them for the carob pods they eat. This recalls Proverbs 29:3: "Whoever loves wisdom gives joy to his father, but whoever consorts with harlots squanders his wealth."
Upon his return, his father treats the young man with a generosity far more than he has a right to expect. He is given the best robe, a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet. Jewish philosopher Philo observes:
The Pesikta Rabbati has a similar story:
The older son, in contrast, seems to think in terms of "law, merit, and reward," rather than "love and graciousness." He may represent the Pharisees who were criticizing Jesus.
Leviticus Rabbah 13:4 also contains a short saying that matches the character of the parable:
The last few verses of the parable summarize the tale in accordance with the Jewish teaching of the two ways of acting: the way of life (obedience) and the way of death (sin). God, according to Judaism, rejoices over and grants more graces to repentant sinners than righteous souls who do not need repentance.
Following the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin, this is the last of three parables about loss and redemption that Jesus tells after the Pharisees and religious leaders accuse him of welcoming and eating with "sinners." The father's joy described in the parable reflects divine love: the "boundless mercy of God," and "God's refusal to limit the measure of his grace."
Catholic
Justus Knecht, like others, breaks this parable into three parts noting that, "The father in the parable signifies God; the elder son, the just; and the younger son, the sinner." In the first part:
Roger Baxter in his Meditations describes the second part:
Commemoration and use
Orthodox
The Eastern Orthodox Church traditionally reads this story on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, which in their liturgical year is the Sunday before Meatfare Sunday and about two weeks before the beginning of Great Lent. One common hymn of the occasion reads:
Catholic
In his 1984 apostolic exhortation titled, in Latin, ('Reconciliation and Penance'), Pope John Paul II used this parable to explain the process of conversion and reconciliation. Emphasizing that God the Father is "rich in mercy" and always ready to forgive, he stated that reconciliation is a "gift on his part". He stated that for the Church her "mission of reconciliation is the initiative, full of compassionate love and mercy, of that God who is love." He also explored the issues raised by this parable in his second encyclical, ('Rich in Mercy'), issued in 1980.
In the arts
Art
Of the roughly 30 parables in the canonical Gospels, the Parable of the Prodigal Son was one of four that were shown in medieval art—along with that of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, the Dives and Lazarus, and the Good Samaritan—almost to the exclusion of the others, though not mixed in with the narrative scenes of the Life of Christ. (The Labourers in the Vineyard also appears in Early Medieval works.)
From the Renaissance, the numbers shown widened slightly, and the various scenes of the Prodigal Son—the high living, herding the pigs, and the return—became the clear favourite. Albrecht Dürer made a famous engraving, the Prodigal Son amongst the Pigs (1496), a popular subject in the Northern Renaissance. Rembrandt depicted several scenes from the parable, especially the final episode, which he etched, drew, or painted on several occasions during his career. At least one of his works—i.e., The Prodigal Son in the Tavern, a portrait of himself as the Son revelling with his wife—is, like many artists' depictions, a way of dignifying a genre tavern scene (if the title was indeed the original intention of the artist). His late Return of the Prodigal Son (1662–1669) is one of his most popular works.
The Prodigal Son is a sculpture in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by George Grey Barnard that depicts the loving reunion of the father and son from the "Parable of the Prodigal Son."
Stage
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the theme was such a sufficiently popular subject that the 'Prodigal Son play' can be seen as a subgenre of the English morality play. Examples include The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, The Disobedient Child, and Acolastus.
Notable adaptations for performance
Many of these adaptations added to the original Biblical material to lengthen the story. For example, The Prodigal (1955) film took considerable liberties, such as adding a temptress priestess of Astarte to the tale.
Music
An 1680 Filius prodigus, H.399 & H.399 a, oratorio by Marc-Antoine Charpentier
An 1869 oratorio by Arthur Sullivan;
An 1880 opera by Amilcare Ponchielli;
A 1884 cantata by Claude Debussy;
A 1929 ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Sergei Prokofiev;
A 1957 ballet by Hugo Alfvén; and
A 1968 opera by Benjamin Britten.
Popular music
The parable is referenced in the last verse of the traditional Irish folk tune "The Wild Rover":
"Jump Around" by the Los Angeles rap group House of Pain (1992) includes a verse by member Everlast, who references the parable as well as the Bible itself:
Other references and semi-adaptations include
"Prodigal Son" by Reverend Robert Wilkins, which tells the story of the parable, is probably better known by the Rolling Stones cover version, which is featured on Beggars Banquet (1968).
"Prodigal Man", written by Ted Nugent, was performed by The Amboy Dukes as the second track of their third album Migration (1969)
"Let Me In" by The Osmonds presents a version of the parable as part of their Mormon concept album The Plan (1973), and was a hit song in its time.
"Prodigal Son" by Steel Pulse, featured on the British Reggae band's debut album Handsworth Revolution (1979), recreates the Biblical story as a Rastafarian parable.
"Prodigal Son" by British heavy-metal band Iron Maiden appears on their second album Killers (1981).
"The First Time" by U2, featured on Zooropa (1993), is based on the parable but suggests an alternate ending to the story.
"Make Me A Servant" by Kelly Willard (1982) could be argued as being based on what the son says to his father when he returns home.
"The Prodigal Son Suite" by Keith Green is featured on his The Prodigal Son (1983) album and is one of the first posthumous releases by the late piano player and gospel singer.
"When God Ran" by Benny Hester (1985), which is based on the parable, is another such song from the 1980s Christian music scene.
"Who Cares?" by Extreme was influenced by the parable and appears on the album III Sides to Every Story (1992).
"Prodigal Son" by Kid Rock appears on his second album The Polyfuze Method (1993). The Detroit musician later re-recorded the track for his History of Rock (2000) compilation album.
"She Walked Away" by BarlowGirl was influenced by the parable and is featured on the Christian rock trio's 2004 self-titled album.
"One" a progressive rock concept album released by Neal Morse in 2004 is based on the prodigal son story.
"The Prodigal Son" by the "Indie" rock band, Two Gallants, as part of their What the Toll Tells (2006) album.
"The Prodigal Son's Prayer" by country artist Dierks Bentley, featured on the album Long Trip Alone (2006), is based on the son's perspective of coming home after he's ruined himself in the world.
"Please Come Home" by Dustin Kensrue is the titular song of the album of the same name released in 2007.
"Prodigal Son" by Bad Religion is featured on New Maps of Hell (2007).
"Prodigal Son" by rock band Sevendust is featured on Chapter VII: Hope and Sorrow (2008).
"Modern Day Prodigal Son" by Brantley Gilbert is featured on the album of the same name from 2009.
"Prodigal Son" by Gideon appears on the post-hardcore band's second album Milestone (2012).
The parable is used as inspiration for several songs in The Oh Hellos' album 'Through the Deep Dark Valley'.
"Prodigal Son" by Jamie's Elsewhere, a post-hardcore band.
"Left Hand Free" by English indie rock band alt-J (2014) references the parable in the first verse.
"Prodigal" by Sidewalk Prophets is included in the Christian band's Something Different (2015) album. The song is uplifting, with lyrics that are directed towards the titular Son from the parable, or any person who is or has felt like they are in a similar situation.
"When the Prodigal Comes Home" by gospel artists Tribute Quartet (2016).
"Fire in Bone" is a retelling of the parable by the rock band the Killers, featured on their album Imploding the Mirage (2020).
"Prodigal" by Texas southern rock band Blacktop Mojo on their album "Burn The Ships" (2017).
Literature
Another literary tribute to this parable is Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen's 1992 book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, in which he describes his own spiritual journey infused with understanding, based on an encounter with Rembrandt's painting that depicts the son's return. The book deals with three personages: the younger, prodigal son; the self-righteous, resentful older son; and the compassionate father—all of whom the author identifies with personally. An earlier work with similarities to the parable is "Le retour de l'enfant prodigue" ('The Return of the Prodigal Son'), a short story by André Gide.
Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem giving an interpretation of the younger brother's perspective. The poem appears as the heading to the fifth chapter, titled "The Prodigal Son", of his 1901 novel Kim.
The Parable is a recurring theme in the works of Rainer Maria Rilke, who interpreted it in a different way to the conventional reading. Rilke's version is not so concerned with redemption and the forgiveness of family: the love of the family, and human love in general, was seen as less worthy than unreciprocated love, which is the purest form of love. In loving the family less, the Son can love God more, even if this love is not returned.
The theme of the Prodigal Son plays a major role in Anne Tyler's novel A Spool of Blue Thread.
The parable is also referred to in two comedies by William Shakespeare, specifically The Merchant Of Venice and As You Like It, as well as in Shakespeare's romance, The Winter's Tale.
In one of his clemency petitions to the Bombay Presidency in 1913, the Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar described himself as a "prodigal son" longing to return to the "parental doors of the government".
Similar parable in Mahayana Buddhism
A parable of a lost son can also be found in the Mahayana Buddhist Lotus Sutra. The two parables are so similar in their outline and many details that several scholars have assumed that one version has influenced the other or that both texts share a common origin. However, an influence of the biblical story on the Lotus sutra is regarded as unlikely given the early dating of the stratum of the sutra containing the Buddhist parable.
Despite their similarities, both parables continue differently after the father and son meet for the first time at the son's return. In the biblical story, there is an immediate reunion of the two. In contrast, in the Lotus sutra, the poor son does not recognize the rich man as his father. When the father sends out some attendants to welcome the son, the son panics, fearing some kind of retribution. The father then lets the son leave without telling him of their kinship. However, he gradually draws the son closer to him by employing him in successively higher positions, only to tell him of their kinship in the end. In the Buddhist parable, the father symbolises the Buddha, and the son symbolises any human being. Their kinship symbolises that any being has Buddha nature. The concealment of the kinship of the father to his son is regarded as a skillful means (Sanskrit: upāya).
See also
Ministry of Jesus
Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard regarding the theme of God's unmerited grace, as distinguished from the idea of "earning" God's favour.
References
Verses
Citations
Further reading
Brooks, David. 17 February 2014. "The Prodigal Sons." The New York Times.
Cantalamessa, Raniero. 17 March 2007. "Comments on Fourth Sunday of Lent Readings." Zenit News Agency.
Dimopoulos, George. 24 February 2008. "The Prodigal Son." Orthodoxy and the World.
Holgate, David A. 1999. Prodigality, liberality and meanness in the parable of the prodigal son: a Greco-Roman perspective on Luke 15.11-32. Continuum. .
Horbury, Ezra. 2019. Prodigality in Early Modern Drama. Boydell & Brewer.
Morgan, G. Campbell. The Parable of the Father's Heart.
Keller, Timothy. 2011. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. .
Di Rocco, E., ed. 2013. "." Studium 4(109).
— 2013. "." Studium 4(109).
— 2014. "." Studium 2(110).
— 2014. "Heimkehr: wohin?, Auszug: wohin?: ." Studium 2(110).
External links
Eastern Orthodox liturgical days
Gospel of Luke
Parables of Jesus
Animals in the Bible
Pigs in literature
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Lisa Gerrard
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Lisa Germaine Gerrard ( ; born 12 April 1961) is an Australian musician, singer and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with music partner Brendan Perry. She is known for her unique singing style technique (glossolalia), influenced by her childhood spent in multicultural areas of Melbourne. She has a dramatic contralto voice and has a vocal range of three octaves.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Gerrard played a pivotal role in the city's Little Band scene and fronted post-punk group Microfilm before co-founding Dead Can Dance in 1981. With Perry, she explored numerous traditional and modern styles, laying the foundations for what became known as neoclassical dark wave. She sings sometimes in English and often in a unique language that she invented. In addition to singing, she is an instrumentalist for much of her work, most prolifically using the yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer). Gerrard's first solo album, The Mirror Pool, was released in 1995. She has been involved in a wide range of projects, starting her first collaborative album in 1998 with Pieter Bourke, and then with various artists throughout her career, who comprised Patrick Cassidy, Klaus Schulze, Hans Zimmer, among others. She has scored numerous award-winning motion picture soundtracks.
As of 2020, Gerrard has released four solo albums and collaborated on sixteen albums. She composed and contributed the scores to more than 48 movies. She received a Golden Globe Award for the music score to the 2000 film Gladiator, on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer. She wrote the score of Balibo which went on to win an ARIA award for Best Original Soundtrack and an APRA Screen music award for Best feature film score. Overall she has won 11 awards receiving 23 nominations. Gerrard has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice. Gerrard is often affiliated with the "wailing woman" music phenomena, popularized in Gladiator.
Early life
Lisa Gerrard was born in Melbourne to Irish immigrant parents, and grew up in Prahran, an inner suburb with a substantial Greek population. She recalled growing up with "Mediterranean music blaring out of the houses" and said that this influenced her music, particularly on later Dead Can Dance albums and in her solo and collaborative works.
Gerrard first began forming bands and creating original music as a member of Melbourne's Little Band scene, an experimental post-punk scene which flourished from 1978 until 1981. It was in this scene that she first met Dead Can Dance co-founder Brendan Perry. Perry recalls, "It never occurred to me that we would one day collaborate musically together because at the time I thought her music was too avant-garde. I particularly remember one song that she sang about finding a man in the park and asking her mother if she could bring him home to keep in her wardrobe as she attacked this chinese dulcimer with two bamboo sticks". Around this time, Gerrard became the lead vocalist of Microfilm, which released "Window", and one single, "Centrefold", in 1980, via Unforgettable Music label. The group issued a third song, "Summer House", on Ron Rude's From Belgrave With Love compilation, which was released by Cleopatra Records in 1981.
Career
Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance originally formed as a quartet in 1981 in Melbourne, with members Gerrard, Perry, bassist Paul Erikson, and drummer Simon Monroe. By 1982, Gerrard, Perry and Erikson decided to relocate to London, but Monroe decided to stay in Australia, leaving the band as a trio.
The band split in 1998, but reunited in 2005 for a world tour.
In 2012, the band announced a new world tour to coincide with the release of their new album, Anastasis. Dead Can Dance's albums Spiritchaser (1996) and Anastasis (2012) both reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top World Music Albums Chart.
Dead Can Dance recorded seven studio albums on the 4AD Records recording label—beginning with the self-titled Dead Can Dance LP in 1984, and two studio albums released by PIAS Recordings.
Solo and collaborative career
In 1995, Gerrard recorded and released her first solo album, The Mirror Pool, accompanied by the Victorian Philharmonic Orchestra. The album peaked at No. 38 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart on 9 September 1995, and was on that chart for one week.
In 1998 she recorded Duality in collaboration with composer Pieter Bourke. The album went to No. 23 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart on 2 May 1998; it was present on the chart for two weeks. Duality would mark the beginning of an extensive collaboration for a number of film scores, including The Insider and Ali.
Gerrard began a new collaboration with composer Patrick Cassidy in 2004 with the release of Immortal Memory. Again, this collaboration was furthered in film work, including Salem's Lot.
The following year in 2005, Gerrard contributed to the Ashes and Snow Soundtrack. For the songs "Womb" and "Wisdom", she and Patrick Cassidy wrote and performed together. Her collaboration with Cassidy extended to include work with conductor Julie Rogers on the songs "Devota" and "Vespers".
In 2006, Sanctuary, a documentary about the life and work of Gerrard, was recorded and released in September. It is the work of producer and director Clive Collier and features extensive interviews with Gerrard and various people who have collaborated with her in the past, including Michael Mann, Russell Crowe, Hans Zimmer and Niki Caro. The documentary was released on DVD by Milan Entertainment on 24 April 2007. Sanctuary debuted at the Raindance Film Festival in London, on 27 September 2006. On 20 November 2006, Gerrard released her second solo album, The Silver Tree. The album climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard New Age Albums Chart on 26 May 2007, spending nine weeks on the chart. This album was markedly different from her previous work and was also her first album released outside 4AD Records. The Silver Tree was first released on iTunes, with a wider physical release planned at a future date. The album was nominated for the Australian Music Prize for 2006.
In 2007 a retrospective album,The Best of Lisa Gerrard, a compilation of fifteen songs, was released covering her career in Dead Can Dance, solo work and film work. It was released on 12 February 2007 in the UK and 7 November 2007 in the US. The album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard New Age albums chart on 16 February 2008 and stayed in the chart for ten weeks. A world tour was undertaken in 2007 beginning in April in Melbourne, Australia. The tour marked the first time that Gerrard toured in Australia, with a performance in three cities. The tour was followed by performances in Europe and North America. More performances took place in Europe and Russia from 30 October to 22 November 2007. In November 2007, Gerrard collaborated with German electronic musician Klaus Schulze on the double-album Farscape. The album was released on 4 July 2008, followed by a European tour, and the release of a DVD, Klaus Schulze featuring Lisa Gerrard: Rheingold, Live at Loreley, recorded during the Night Of The Prog Festival III in Loreley, Germany on the 18 July 2008.
In 2009, Gerrard completed work on the documentary by Australian adventurer Tim Cope called On the Trail of Genghis Khan and contributed her voice to the soundtrack, which began airing in 2010, of the Japanese NHK taiga drama Ryōmaden, a story based on the life of Sakamoto Ryōma. Furthermore, in 2009, Gerrard created her own record label, Gerrard Records, which, aside from being a conduit for the release of Gerrard's future works, will also act to promote and support unrecognised artists of all genres. This tour coincided with the release of Come Quietly, a joint project between Gerrard and Schulze that was released exclusively during the tour. In September 2009, Gerrard and Schulze performed another tour in six European cities – Warsaw, Berlin, Amsterdam, Essen, Paris, and Brussels. In October 2009, Gerrard released her third solo album, The Black Opal. The album included collaborations with Patrick Cassidy, Michael Edwards, Pieter Bourke and James Orr and was the first release to come from Gerrard Records.
In 2010, Gerrard released a new album entitled Departum from Gerrard Records, with composer Marcello De Francisci, which was followed by the singles "Coming Home" (as featured in Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole), "Come This Way" and "Entry". Gerrard also collaborated with multi-instrumentalist Prash Mistry, from UK based live dubstep collective Engine Earz Experiment, on a track titled "Spirit Guide", which appeared on his 2011 album. On 1 December 2010, Gerrard released the soundtrack album with Cye Wood titled The Trail of Genghis Khan which contains music from the Gerrard and Wood score to the documentary TV series by Tim Cope.
In July 2014, Gerrard released a new solo album entitled Twilight Kingdom through her own record label, Gerrard Records. The album was recorded in collaboration with Daniel Johns, Astrid Williamson, Patrick Cassidy, and words by Russell Crowe. The album was on the Billboard New Age Albums Chart for one week, peaking at No. 5 on 6 September 2014. In 2014, Gerrard collaborated with British composer, songwriter and producer, Chicane, on the album The Sum of Its Parts, released on 25 January 2015 by Modena Records.
Gerrard's vocals are featured in the video game Armello launched on 1 September 2015, titled "Wyld's Call"; her vocals feature towards a Celtic theme of the soundtracks, released on 2 September 2015, on the music composed by Michael Allen and Gerrard.
On 14 March 2018, Gerrard performed a concert at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia with Genesis Orchestra, conducted by Yordan Kamdzhalov, entitled Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk Górecki. During the concert, she also sang her own songs from both her solo career and those of Dead Can Dance. Kamdzhalov said of the event, "for me personally, this is more than a dream come true. I cannot think of a better combination than Gerrard-Gorecki-Kamdzhalov in Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs". In 2018, she appeared on BooCheeMish, a collaborative album with the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices, with whom she co-wrote some of the songs. Gerrard emphasized that she—and her collaborators—had strived not to impair the women's essential sound, she said "we're walking toward them, not the other way around"—adding, "if anybody is changed by this, it's me'. The album, that combines the choir's folkloric harmonies and a multitude of instruments, was arranged and produced by Petar Dundakov. Also in 2018, Gerrard teamed with solo percussionist David Kuckhermann to compose and record an album, Hiraeth, released on 6 August 2018.
Hiraeth was nominated in the Best New Age Album category during the 61st Annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center, held on 10 February 2019. Gerrard toured as a special guest with the eighteen choir members of the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices, performing fifteen select dates across Europe from 12 March to 20 October 2019. In 2019, she collaborated again with Yordan Kamdzhalov and Genesis Orchestra, for a reworked and rearranged recording of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, captured in Sofia at the Bulgarian National Radio Studio, which was released on 17 January 2020.
Film career
Gerrard's first experience in composing music for a film came with the 1989 Spanish film El Niño de la Luna, directed by Agustí Villaronga. The film score was composed by Dead Can Dance and the film featured Lisa Gerrard in her first acting role. El Niño de la Luna describes the story of David, a young orphan with special powers, escaping an institution with the help of a fellow institute inmate, Georgina, played by Lisa Gerrard.
Gerrard participated in a number of musical scores but came to fame as a film composer after recording The Insider in 1999, with Pieter Bourke, and Gladiator in 2000, with Hans Zimmer, which received an Academy Award nomination for best music score, although only Zimmer was nominated. It did, however, win a Golden Globe Award for both composers. Gerrard's score for the New Zealand independent film Whale Rider consisted entirely of solo material; a soundtrack album was released by 4AD.
In 2005, Gerrard collaborated with Ennio Morricone for Fateless, followed by a collaboration with Jeff Rona on the score for the feature film A Thousand Roads and the song '"On an Ocean" for the Henry Poole Is Here score. With Dead Can Dance, she provided several contributions to the soundtrack of Baraka, a visual journey showcasing mankind's impact on the planet. She was invited by Denez Prigent to collaborate with him on his piece "Gortoz a ran – J'attends" (meaning "I await"), a piece that was later used in the soundtrack of Ridley Scott's film Black Hawk Down.
In 2009, Gerrard wrote the score for Balibo, for which she won a Best Feature Film Score award at the 2009 APRA Screen Music Awards and an Aria Award for Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album at the 2009 Aria Awards. She finished 2009 by contributing her voice to the theme song for the Japanese NHK taiga drama Ryōmaden, which began airing in 2010.
In 2010, Gerrard completed the score for Tears of Gaza with Marcello De Francisci which was well received despite its controversial theme. She scored the Jim Loach-directed Oranges and Sunshine, starring Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving, released in April 2011, which gained her another nomination at the 2011 IF Awards for Best Music Score.
In November 2010, Gerrard provided vocals and additional music for the post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Priest, scored by Christopher Young, which was released in 2011.
On 28 May 2011, the song "Now We Are Free", part of the Gladiator original soundtrack, composed by Hans Zimmer and Gerrard, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and remained in the chart for 460 weeks. In November 2011 Gerrard completed the score for Burning Man, which won her Best Music Score at the 2012 Film Critics Circle of Australia awards, beating scores for Snowtown, The Hunter and Red Dog.
Vocal ability
Gerrard possesses the vocal range of a contralto but can also reach upward into the dramatic mezzo-soprano range. She has a vocal range from A2 to F♯5. Her vocal timbre has been described as "rich, deep" which creates a "mournful sound", and her voice is regarded by critics as "simply not of this world". More predominantly, Gerrard's vocal range spans from contralto to dramatic contralto, displayed for examples in "Sanvean", "Sacrifice", "Largo", and "Not Yet"; — to the dramatic mezzo-soprano voice in her other songs, such as "The Host of Seraphim", "Elegy", "Space Weaver", and "Come this Way".
Jon Pareles of The New York Times describes that she uses "distinct voices that drew on far-flung traditions: an opalescent tone from Baroque opera, a reedy hint of Celtic folk style, the sharp and quavering approach of Balkan women's music, blue notes bent like Billie Holiday's...".
Gerrard sings many of her songs, such as "Now We Are Free", "Come Tenderness", "Serenity", "The Valley of the Moon", "Tempest", "Pilgrimage of Lost Children", "Coming Home" and "Sanvean" in idioglossia — although she also sings in English. With respect to such work she has said, "I sing in the language of the Heart. [...] It's an invented language that I've had for a very long time. I believe I started singing in it when I was about 12. Roughly that time. And I believed that I was speaking to God when I sang in that language."
Gerrard's early and formative singing experience was influenced by the Bulgarian choir's technique. Gerrard's influences on the language she sings since her youth has been exerted mainly by the conversations and the music she heard in the Melbourne area where she had grown up, where a large Greco-Turkish community lived. Gerrard's first musical influences came from her father, as she grew up listening to sean-nós songs in an Irish family, and also the "abstract forms" with which Antonin Artaud worked that she heard on radio documentaries.
Gerrard commented in a 2012 interview:
Awards and nominations
Discography
The Mirror Pool (1995)
Duality (1998) (with Pieter Bourke)
The Silver Tree (2006)
The Black Opal (2009)
Twilight Kingdom (2014)
BooCheeMish, collaboration with the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices (2018)
Hiraeth, Lisa Gerrard & David Kuckhermann (2018)
Górecki Symphony No. 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, with Genesis Orchestra & Yordan Kamdzhalov (2020)
Filmography
1989 – Moon Child
1994 – Toward the Within
1999 – The Insider
2000 – Gladiator
2000 – Mission: Impossible 2
2001 – Ali
2002 – Whale Rider
2004 – Man on Fire
2006 – Sanctuary
2011 – InSight
2015 – Tanna
2017 – 2:22
2021 – Man of God
References
External links
Air-Edel Associates
Living people
4AD artists
APRA Award winners
Australian contraltos
Australian women composers
Australian film score composers
Australian people of Irish descent
Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
Constructed language creators
Women film score composers
Golden Globe Award-winning musicians
Gothic rock musicians
Singers from Melbourne
Zither players
21st-century Australian women singers
Dead Can Dance members
21st-century accordionists
1961 births
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual%20stimulation
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Sexual stimulation
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Sexual stimulation is any stimulus (including bodily contact) that leads to, enhances and maintains sexual arousal, and may lead to orgasm. Although sexual arousal may arise without physical stimulation, achieving orgasm usually requires it.
The term sexual stimulation implies stimulation of the genitals, but may also include stimulation of other areas of the body, stimulation of the senses (such as sight or hearing) and mental stimulation (e.g., reading or fantasizing). Sufficient stimulation of the penis or clitoris usually results in an orgasm. Stimulation can be by self (e.g., masturbation) or by a sexual partner (sexual intercourse or other sexual activity), by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods.
Some people practice orgasm control, whereby a person or their partner controls the level of stimulation to prolong the experience leading up to orgasm.
Physical sexual stimulation
Physical sexual stimulation consists of touching the genitals or other erogenous zones.
Genital
Masturbation, erotic massage, and manual sex are types of physical stimulation involving the genitals. Arousal is triggered through sensitive nerves in these body parts, which cause the release of pleasure-causing chemicals (endorphins) that act as mental rewards to pursue such stimulation. A person may also become aroused by simply touching another person, though the bulbocavernosus reflex itself is triggered by stimulation of the glans penis or clitoris.
One study found that women benefit more from pleasurable sex with a committed partner, while gender did not impact the relationship with masturbation.
The purpose of sex toys is to provide pleasure and stimulation through an alternative route than just using people's bodies. They can be used by someone on their own, with partnered sex, or group sex. They can be exciting and provide new types of stimulation that the body cannot produce, such as vibrations.
Sex toys have been used as a source of sexual stimulation for thousands of years. There have been dildos found from the Palaeolithic era, made of Siltstone and polished to a high gloss. Dildos were also made of camel dung and coated with resin. Historians are uncertain whether these have been used for religious rituals or for personal pleasure. It is known that dildos were used for fertility rituals, however. The ancient Greeks created their dildos from a carved penis covered in leather or animal intestines to create a more natural feel. The Romans created double-ended dildos for use with a partner. Ancient Chinese dildos were made of bronze or other metals and some were hollow allowing them to be filled with liquid to simulate an ejaculation. These were used because wealthy Chinese men would often have too many wives to please. In Persia, it was thought that the blood of the hymen was unclean, and should be avoided by husbands. On the night before a lady's wedding, a local holy-man would come and break her hymen with a large stone dildo, a ritual also used to confirm the virginity of the bride.
Non-genital
There are many areas through which a person can be sexually stimulated, other than the genitals. The nipples, thighs, lips, and neck can all provide sexual stimulation when touched.
Nipples
One study administered a questionnaire about sexual activity to 301 participants and found that 81.5% of women reported that stimulating their nipples caused or enhanced sexual arousal and that 59.1% of them asked to have their nipples stimulated during sex. Furthermore, 51.7% of men reported that nipple stimulation caused sexual arousal, and 39% said that it enhanced their existing arousal. Research using brain-scanning technology found that stimulating nipples in women resulted in the activation of the genital area of the sensory cortex. The research suggests the sensations are genital orgasms caused by nipple stimulation, and may also be directly linked to "the genital area of the brain". In women, one study indicated that sensation from the nipples travels to the same part of the brain as sensations from the vagina, clitoris and cervix. Nipple stimulation may trigger uterine contractions, which then produce a sensation in the genital area of the brain.
Thighs
In 2012, the California Institute of Technology measured brain responses in heterosexual males as they were having their inner thighs touched whilst being MRI scanned. They were either watching a video of a woman touching their thigh or a man touching their thigh. They reported more sexual pleasure when they thought it was the woman touching them than the man, and this was reflected in their MRI scans with greater arousal of their somatosensory cortex. It can be therefore concluded that the thighs are an area that can cause sexual stimulation when touched.
Lips
Lips contain a huge number of nerve endings and are considered to be an erogenous zone. Women report experiencing more pleasure from the stimulation of their lips than men do (see below for sex differences in stimulation). In addition to stimulation of the lips by touching, men can be visually stimulated by looking at a woman's lips. It has also been reported that men prefer women with fuller lips because they are an indicator of youth.
Neck
A sample of 800 participants rated 41 different body parts on their erogenous intensity on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most arousing). Females reported neck stimulation as being more arousing than men did.
Sex differences in erogenous zones
This table shows the sex differences in erogenous zones and includes the top ten most arousing areas for both sexes. Each body part was rated out of ten for how arousing it is when touched. Apart from body parts exclusive to one gender such as the penis or clitoris, many of the erogenous zones are similar and contain many nerve endings.
Internal stimulation
The excitation-transfer theory states that existing arousal in the body can be transformed into another type of arousal. For example, sometimes people can be sexually stimulated from residual arousal arising from something such as exercise, being transformed into another type of arousal such as sexual arousal. In one study participants performed some physical exercise and at different stages of recovery had to watch an erotic film and rate how aroused it made them feel. They found that participants who were still experiencing excitatory residues from the exercise rated the film as more arousing than those who had fully recovered from the exercise. This suggests that the remaining arousal from the exercise was being transformed into sexual arousal without any external stimulation.
Alternative routes
The human sexual response is a dynamic combination of cognitive, emotional, and physiological processes. Whilst the most common forms of sexual stimulation discussed are fantasy or physical stimulation of the genitals and other erogenous areas, sexual arousal may also be mediated through alternative routes such as visual, olfactory and auditory means.
Visual
Perhaps the most researched non-tactile form of sexual stimulation is visual sexual stimulation. An apparent example is the act of voyeurisma practice where an individual covertly watches another undress or engage in sexual behaviour. Although seen socio-historically as an unacceptable form of 'sexual deviation', it highlights the human tendency to find sexual stimulation through purely visual routes. The multibillion-dollar porn industry is another example. A common presumption is that men respond more strongly to visual sexual stimuli ("male gaze") than do women. This is perhaps best exemplified by the Kinsey hypothesis that men are more prone to sexual arousal from visual stimulation than are women. Nonetheless, both sexes can be sexually aroused through visual stimulation. In one study, visual stimulation was tested by means of an erotic video. Although significantly higher in the male group, sexual arousal was the main emotional reaction reported by both sexes. Their physiological responses to the video also showed characteristics of sexual arousal, such as increased urinary excretions of adrenaline. A subsequent study investigating male arousal showed that men were able to achieve rigid erections through visual stimulation of an erotic film alone.
Studies that use visual stimulation as a means for sexual stimulation find that sexual arousal is predominantly correlated with an activation in limbic and paralimbic cortex and in subcortical structures, along with a deactivation in several parts of the temporal cortex. These same areas are activated during physical sexual stimulation, highlighting how powerful visual stimulation can be as a means of sexual arousal.
Olfactory
Olfactory information is critical to human sexual behavior. One study investigating olfactory sexual stimulation found that heterosexual men experience sexual arousal in response to a female perfume. Individuals rated odourant stimulation and perceived sexual arousal. They also had functional MRI scans taken during the experiment. The results showed that olfactory stimulation with women's perfume produces activation of specific brain areas associated with sexual arousal in men. Another study found that homosexual men displayed similar hypothalamic activation to that of heterosexual women when smelling a testosterone derivate present in male sweat, suggesting that sexual orientation plays a role in how humans experience olfactory sexual stimulation.
Evolutionary analysis of sex differences in reproductive strategies can help explain the importance of smell in sexual arousal due to its link to immunological profile and offspring viability. This is because olfactory cues may be able to trigger an incest avoidance mechanism by reflecting parts of an individual's genetic equipment. In one study, males rated visual and olfactory information as being equally important for selecting a lover, while females considered olfactory information to be the single most important variable in mate choice. Additionally, when considering sexual activity, females singled out body odour from all other sensory experiences as most able to negatively affect desire.
Auditory
Auditory stimulants may also serve to intensify sexual arousal and the experience of pleasure. Making sounds during sexual arousal and sexual activity is widespread among primates and humans. These include sighs, moans, strong expirations and inspirations, increased breathing rate and occasionally, at orgasm, screams of ecstasy. Many of these sounds are highly exciting to people, and act as strong reinforcers of sexual arousal, creating a powerful positive feedback effect. Thus, copulatory vocalisations are likely to serve mutual sexual stimulation for mating partners.
Even when not coupled with "touching", sounds can be highly sexually arousing. Commercial erotic material (mainly produced for the male market) uses such sounds extensively. As early as the 1920s and 30s, several genres of singers turned to "low moans" for erotic effect. Vaudeville Jazz singers often incorporated sex sounds into the narrative of the lyrics. Even contemporary music such as Prince's "Orgasm" or Marvin Gaye's "You Sure Love to Ball" includes sounds of the female orgasm. Research has shown music to be an auditory sexual stimulant. In one mood induction study, exposure to certain music resulted in significantly greater penile tumescence and subjective sexual arousal for men. In a similar experiment, women did not show significant physiological responses to certain types of music but did report higher levels of sexual arousal. Further studies have looked at the connection between auditory stimulation and the experience of sexual pleasure. Whilst the highest levels of physiological and subjective arousal were found for visual stimuli, spoken-text was found to elicit sexual arousal in men, implicating sounds as a means of sexual stimulation. Phone sex is one type of arousal inducer that makes use of this effect.
Mental stimulation
Sexual arousal includes feelings, attractions and desires, as well as physiological changes. These can be elicited not only by physical but also mental stimulations, such as fantasy, erotic literature, dreams, role-play, and imagination.
Fantasy
Sexual fantasy is a form of mental sexual stimulation which many people engage in. It is where a person imagines a sexual experience while they are awake. Fantasy has less social or safety limits than in real life situations. It gives people more freedom to experiment or think of things they could not necessarily try in real life and can be anything from imagining your spouse naked, to imagining a sexual experience with a mythical creature. Common sexual fantasies include imagining activities with a loved partner, reliving past experiences and experiences with multiple partners of the opposite gender. It is also common to have fantasies about things you would not do in real life and about taboo or illegal activities, such as forcing another, or being forced by another to have sex, intercourse with a stranger and sex with a boy or girl or older partner.
It is useful for research because it makes differences between male and female heterosexual preferences clearer than studies of behaviour. Many sexual fantasies are shared between men and women, possibly because of cultural influence. However, there are still gender differences that have been found. Men are more likely than women to imagine being in a dominant or active role, whereas women are more likely to imagine themselves as passive participants. Women's fantasies have significantly more affection and commitment, whereas men are more likely to fantasise using visual imagery and explicit detail. One explanation of this difference comes from the evolutionary perspective. Women have a higher minimum parental investment than males (they have 9 months of gestation prior birth and are then the main care givers, whereas men only have to provide sperm to ensure their genes are passed on) and are therefore more likely to want commitment from their partner in order to gain resources to improve their offspring's chance of survival.
Fantasies can have benefits, such as increasing arousal more than other forms of sexual stimuli (such as an erotic story) and increasing sexual desire. Individuals who disclose their sexual fantasies to their partners also have a higher sexual satisfaction. However, whether people are willing to open up to their partner generally depends on the content of such fantasies. A more negative effect of sexual fantasy is that it has been linked with sexual crimes, and indeed sexual offenders often report that they have had fantasies related to their offense. However, such fantasies are also common among those who have not been involved in such criminal acts and non-offenders do not use their fantasies to guide their behaviour. Therefore, fantasy alone cannot be used as a sign that someone will become an offender.
Dreams
Nocturnal emission orgasms or "wet dreams" or "erotic dreams" are when people ejaculate or orgasm during sleep. These occur during REM (rapid eye movement) phases of sleep, which is the main stage when humans dream. This implies that erotic dreams alone are enough to stimulate men, but erections accompany all REM phases. According to self-report data, as many as 22% of young women may also experience orgasm during sleep, with such dreams being more common in college students in higher school years than younger students. The orgasms experienced were positively correlated with high emotionality, including sexual excitement, but also anxiety.
Sexual role-play
Sexual role-play is when people act out characters or scenarios which may sexually stimulate each other. This can include fantasies (discussed above) and fetishes, such as BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism) or age-play. It has been described by some as an adult form of L.A.R.P (live action role-play). Role-play can also be carried out online, by typing stories to each other or pretending to be a character, and is therefore a form of mental stimulation you can engage in with another person without them being physically present. Many adolescents find online role-play pleasurable and arousing.
Role-play can also include sexual fanfiction, where characters from well-known stories, that were not sexually or romantically together in the original story, are written into sexual scenes. Slash fiction is a type of fan fiction where the characters of the same sex (originally male-male) engage in romantic or sexual activities. Slash fiction allows people the freedom to share stimulating things that can be counter-cultural.
See also
Ejaculation
Neuroanatomy of intimacy
Stimulation of the clitoral hood
References
Further reading
Sexology
Human sexuality
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International%20Pentecostal%20Holiness%20Church
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International Pentecostal Holiness Church
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The International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) or simply Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) is an international Holiness-Pentecostal Christian denomination founded in 1911 with the merger of two older denominations. Historically centered in the Southeastern United States, particularly the Carolinas and Georgia, the Pentecostal Holiness Church now has an international presence. In 2000, the church reported a worldwide membership of over one million—over three million including affiliates.
Heavily influenced by two major American revival movements—the holiness movement of the late 19th century and the Pentecostal revival of the early 20th century—the church's theological roots derive from John Wesley's teachings on sanctification.
History
Origins
While certain elements in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South supported the holiness movement in the church, others did not favor it, which led to controversy in 1894. Within a decade about 25 new Holiness Methodist groups, including the Pentecostal Holiness Church, came into existence.
Fire-Baptized Holiness
The oldest group that is part of the foundation of the Pentecostal Holiness Church originated in 1895 as the Fire-Baptized Holiness Association in Olmitz, Iowa. The leader, Benjamin H. Irwin of Lincoln, Nebraska, a former Baptist preacher, organized the body into the national Fire-Baptized Holiness Church at Anderson, South Carolina, in August 1898. By this time, Irwin's group had organized churches in eight U. S. states and two Canadian provinces. In 1898, the Southeastern Kansas Fire Baptized Holiness Association dissolved its relationship with the rest of the denomination over differences in doctrine (chiefly the rejection of a third work of grace) and this faction is known today as the Bible Holiness Church.
Pentecostal Holiness of North Carolina
The first congregation to carry the name Pentecostal Holiness Church was formed in Goldsboro, North Carolina in 1898. This church was founded as a result of the evangelistic ministry of Abner Blackmon Crumpler, a Methodist evangelist. A year earlier, Crumpler had founded the inter-denominational North Carolina Holiness Association. After his trial and acquittal by a Methodist ecclesiastical court for preaching interpretations of holiness doctrines that differed from the rest of the Methodist Church, Crumpler and several of his followers left the Methodist Church and formed a new denomination known as the Pentecostal Holiness Church ("Pentecostal" being a common name for holiness believers at the time).
The first convention was held at Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1900. The convention adopted a denominational discipline, and Crumpler was elected president. In 1901 at a meeting in Magnolia, North Carolina, the word "Pentecostal" was dropped from the name to more fully associate the church with the holiness movement. For the next eight years, the church would be known as "The Holiness Church of North Carolina". The church had congregations outside of North Carolina as well, principally in South Carolina and Virginia.
Gaston B. Cashwell, a minister of the Methodist Church, joined Crumpler's group in 1903. He became a leading figure in the church and the Pentecostal movement on the east coast. In 1906, he traveled to Los Angeles to visit the Pentecostal revival at the Azusa Street mission. While there he professed having received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the evidence of speaking in tongues. Upon returning to Dunn, North Carolina, in December 1906, Cashwell preached the Pentecost experience in the local holiness church.
The influence of the Pentecostal renewal grew while, at the same time, the leader and founder of the church, Abner Crumpler, though willing to accept speaking in tongues, did not accept the idea that it was the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. At the annual conference of 1908, Crumpler was re-elected president of the body; however, with a majority of the delegates having experienced tongues, he permanently disaffiliated himself from the church. After Crumpler's departure, the conference added an article to the statement of faith, recognizing tongues as the initial evidence:
The PHC Foreign Mission Board was formed in 1904, and its members were all women. In 1907, Tom J. McIntosh, a PHC member, traveled to China and may have been the first Pentecostal missionary to reach that nation.
Mergers and schisms
The Fire-Baptized Holiness Association also embraced Pentecostalism around the same time, taking the line that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was the "baptism of fire" that it had been seeking. Given the similarities in doctrine and geographic reach with the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the two groups began talks on a merger. The two groups merged on January 30, 1911, at the Falcon Tabernacle in Falcon, North Carolina. The new denomination took the name of the smaller of the two, Pentecostal Holiness Church. S.D. Page was elected the first General Superintendent.
Following the 1911 merger, the Tabernacle Pentecostal Church, originally the Brewerton Presbyterian Church, merged with the Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1915. Having Presbyterian roots and located mostly in South Carolina, this group of around 15 congregations was affiliated with Nickles Holmes Bible College in Greenville. After the mergers, the new denomination, which continued to go by the name Pentecostal Holiness Church, had about 200 churches with approximately 5,000 members. Property for the denomination's first headquarters was purchased in 1918 for $9,000 in Franklin Springs, Georgia.
In 1918, several PHC members who wanted stricter standards concerning dress, amusements, tobacco, and association between the sexes withdrew to form the Pentecostal Fire-Baptized Holiness Church. In 1920, another schism came into the Pentecostal Holiness Church over divine healing and the use of medicine. Some pastors believed that while divine healing was provided in the atonement, Christians still had the right to turn to medicine and doctors. The majority of the church—as did many Pentecostals of the time—believed in trusting God for healing without turning to earthly means. The minority withdrew and formed the Congregational Holiness Church in 1921.
Further development
The Pentecostal Holiness Church was a charter member of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1943 and joined the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America in 1948. At the general conference a year later an attempt at merging with the mostly black United Holy Church failed when the United Holy Church asked if their members could attend the church's schools and colleges.
In the 1960s, the Pentecostal Holiness Church began to branch out beyond the United States by affiliating with sister Pentecostal bodies in other parts of the world. In 1967, an affiliation was formed with the Pentecostal Methodist Church of Chile, one of the largest national Pentecostal churches in the world and the largest non-Catholic church in Chile. At the time, the Jotabeche Pentecostal Methodist congregation was the largest church in the world with over 60,000 members. With over 150,000 members, it ranks second to the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea. This denomination claims 1.7 million adherents. A similar affiliation was forged in 1985 with the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Brazil. A Neo-Pentecostal body with roots in the Brazilian Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Church numbered some 50,000 members and adherents in 1995. The word International was added to the church's name in 1975.
Recent history
The largest Pentecostal Holiness churches in the United States include The Gate Church in Oklahoma City, pastored by Jordan Roberts (founded by Tony Miller; Northwood Temple in Fayetteville, North Carolina, pastored by John Hedgepeth; SpiritLife Church (formerly known as Evangelistic Temple) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, pastored by Tommy McLaurin; Eastpointe Community Church in Oklahoma City, pastored by Shon and Rachel Burchett; All Nations Church in Tallassee, Florida, pastored by Steve Dow; and Tree of Life Ministries in Lynchburg, VA, pastored by Mike Dodson.
In 2000, the IPHC reported 10,463 churches and over a million members worldwide (over 3.4 million including affiliates). In 2006, membership in the United States was 308,510 in 1,965 churches. There were 28 regional conferences and missionaries in more than 90 nations. International offices were once located in Franklin Springs, Georgia, but are now located in Bethany, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City.
In January 2011, the PHC celebrated the 1911 merger centennial with special events at Falcon, North Carolina.
Doctrine
The doctrine of the Pentecostal Holiness Church is articulated in the Apostles' Creed and the Articles of Faith. The Articles were placed in their present form in 1945. The first four articles are essentially the same as the first four Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church.
The IPHC believes in common evangelical beliefs, including the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ, his crucifixion for the forgiving of sins, his resurrection and ascension to heaven, the inerrancy of the Bible, a literal belief in heaven and hell, and the responsibility of every believer to carry out the Great Commission. The church holds water baptism and communion (open communion observed quarterly) to be divine ordinances. Though not considered an ordinance, some of the churches also engage in the practice of feet washing.
Cardinal doctrines
Since the adoption of the article of faith on the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1908, the Pentecostal Holiness Church has taught the following beliefs as their five cardinal doctrines: justification by faith, entire sanctification, the baptism in the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues, Christ's atonement (including divine healing), and the premillennial second coming of Christ.
Justification by faith
The Pentecostal Holiness Church believes that no amount of good works can achieve justification or salvation. This is achieved only "on the basis of our faith in the shed blood, the resurrection, and the justifying righteousness" of Christ. Good works, however, are a product of salvation. "When we believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior, our sins are pardoned, we are justified, and we enter a state of righteousness, not our own, but His, both imputed and imparted".
Sanctification
As a holiness church, the PHC believes that for the Christian there is not only justification and forgiveness for actual transgressions but also "complete cleansing of the justified believer from all indwelling sin and from its pollution." This cleansing is not "maturity" but a "crisis experience" and a "definite, instantaneous work of grace, obtainable by faith." The church recognizes that there is maturity and growth in the life of the believer, but states that "we must get into this grace before we can grow in it." The sanctified life is described as "one of separation from the world, a selfless life, a life of devotion to all the will of God, a life of holiness ... a life controlled by 'perfect love' which 'casteth out fear.'" The Pentecostal Holiness Church specifically rejects absolute perfection, angelic perfection, and sinless perfection—terms that imply that it is impossible for a sanctified believer to commit sin.
Baptism with the Holy Spirit
As a Pentecostal church, the PHC believes the "baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire is obtainable by a definite act of appropriating faith on the part of the fully cleansed believer." Spirit baptism is available to all believers and provides empowerment to witness for Christ. To receive the baptism, a person must have a "clean heart and life" and to "live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit's power and possession, one must continue to live a clean and consecrated life, free from sin, strife, worldliness, and pride, and must avoid attitudes and actions that tend to 'grieve' or 'quench' the Holy Spirit."
The Pentecostal Holiness Church distinguishes the initial evidence of Spirit baptism - which all believers experience when Spirit baptized - from the gift of tongues, which is not given to every Spirit-filled believer. Speaking in tongues is only the first sign of Spirit baptism. Other evidence that will follow Spirit baptism include: the fruit of the Spirit, power to witness for Christ, and power to endure the testings of faith and the oppositions of the world. Besides speaking in tongues, other spiritual gifts recorded in the Bible (specifically in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14) are encouraged to operate in Pentecostal Holiness congregations for the edification of the Body of Christ.
Divine healing
The PHC believes that "provision was made in the atonement for the healing of our bodies". Congregations will pray for the healing of sick people and church elders will lay hands on and anoint the person being prayed over. While in its early years the Pentecostal Holiness were against receiving medical care, emphasizing divine healing, that is not the case today. The church teaches that Christians should believe in divine healing but also teaches that medical knowledge comes to humanity through God's grace.
Second Coming
The PHC believes in the imminent, personal, premillennial second coming of Jesus Christ. It will occur in two stages: the first stage will be the rapture of the saints before the Tribulation, and the second stage will be at the end of the Tribulation when Christ will return to defeat the Antichrist, judge the nations of the world, and begin his millennial reign.
Structure
Reflecting its Methodist heritage, the IPHC is governed under the principles of connectionalism, a mixed system of episcopal and congregational polity. Authority in the church is shared between local churches, quadrennial conferences, and the General Conference.
Pentecostal Holiness congregations are self-governing in local affairs and are led by pastors. The pastor preaches, administers the ordinances, and promotes the "spiritual welfare" of congregants. Furthermore, the pastor is the chairman of the church board. Other than the pastor, the church board consists of deacons and a secretary/treasurer elected by the church members. The board is accountable to the pastor and church members, and pastors are accountable to the quadrennial conferences.
Geographically, churches are organized into conferences led by conference superintendents. In their spiritual roles, superintendents function as bishops, and in their administrative roles they act as chief executive officers of their conference. All conference leaders are elected by their local conference but are accountable to the General Superintendent.
The General Conference is the highest administrative body in the church. Under it are regional, annual, district, and missionary conferences. When the General Conference is out of session, the Council of Bishops acts as the church's governing body. In the IPHC, the terms "bishop" and "superintendent" are used interchangeably. The church recognizes the biblical office of bishop but does not believe in an historical episcopate or adhere to the doctrine of apostolic succession. The General Superintendent and Presiding Bishop, Dr. A. Doug Beacham Jr., was elected in 2012.
Educational institutions
The IPHC has five affiliated institutions of higher education. The IPHC colleges are Emmanuel University in Franklin Springs, Georgia; Holmes Bible College in Greenville, South Carolina; Southwestern Christian University in Bethany, Oklahoma; and Advantage College in San Jose, California.
Charitable institutions
Charitable organizations include the Falcon Children's Home, Alternative to Abortion Ministries, New Life Adoption Agency, and Bethany Children's Health Center.
Notable clergy
Oral Roberts, an internationally known charismatic evangelist (1936-1947)
C.M. Ward, a former Assemblies of God radio preacher.
References
Further reading
Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton, editor
Handbook of Denominations in the United States, by Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood
External links
Pentecostal denominations
Christian organizations established in 1911
Pentecostal denominations established in the 20th century
Members of the National Association of Evangelicals
Evangelical denominations in North America
Holiness Pentecostals
Evangelicalism in Oklahoma
Pentecostalism in Oklahoma
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture
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Gesture
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A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messages, such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint attention. Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to words when they speak. Gesticulation and speech work independently of each other, but join to provide emphasis and meaning.
Gesture processing takes place in areas of the brain such as Broca's and Wernicke's areas, which are used by speech and sign language. In fact, language is thought by some scholars to have evolved in Homo sapiens from an earlier system consisting of manual gestures. The theory that language evolved from manual gestures, termed Gestural Theory, dates back to the work of 18th-century philosopher and priest Abbé de Condillac, and has been revived by contemporary anthropologist Gordon W. Hewes, in 1973, as part of a discussion on the origin of language.
Research throughout the ages
Gestures have been studied throughout time from different philosophers. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman Rhetorician who studied in his Institutio Oratoria on how gesture can be used on rhetorical discourses. One of his greatest works and foundation for communication was the "Institutio Oratoria" where he explains his observations and nature of different oratories.
A study done in 1644, by John Bulwer an English physician and early Baconian natural philosopher wrote five works exploring human communications pertaining to gestures. Bulwer analyzed dozens of gestures and provided a guide under his book named Chirologia which focused on hand gestures. In the 19th century, Andrea De Jorio an Italian antiquarian who considered a lot of research about body language published an extensive account of gesture expressions.
Andrew N. Meltzoff an American psychologist internationally renown for infant and child development conducted a study in 1977 on the imitation of facial and manual gestures by newborns. The study concluded that "infants between 12 and 21 days of age can imitate the facial and manual gestures of parents". In 1992, David Mcneill, a professor of linguistics and psychology at the University of Chicago, wrote a book based on his ten years of research and concluded that "gestures do not simply form a part of what is said, but have an impact on thought itself." Meltzoff argues that gestures directly transfer thoughts into visible forms, showing that ideas and language cannot always be express. A peer-reviewed journal Gesture has been published since 2001, and was founded by Adam Kendon and Cornelia Müller. The International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS) was founded in 2002.
Gesture has frequently been taken up by researchers in the field of dance studies and performance studies in ways that emphasize the ways they are culturally and contextually inflected. Performance scholar Carrie Noland describes gestures as "learned techniques of the body" and stresses the way gestures are embodied corporeal forms of cultural communication. But rather than just residing within one cultural context, she describes how gestures migrate across bodies and locations to create new cultural meanings and associations. She also posits how they might function as a form of "resistance to homogenization" because they are so dependent on the specification of the bodies that perform them.
Gesture has also been taken up within queer theory, ethnic studies and their intersections in performance studies, as a way to think about how the moving body gains social meaning. José Esteban Muñoz uses the idea of gesture to mark a kind of refusal of finitude and certainty and links gesture to his ideas of ephemera. Muñoz specifically draws on the African-American dancer and drag queen performer Kevin Aviance to articulate his interest not in what queer gestures might mean, but what they might perform. Juana María Rodríguez borrows ideas of phenomenology and draws on Noland and Muñoz to investigate how gesture functions in queer sexual practices as a way to rewrite gender and negotiate power relations. She also connects gesture to Giorgio Agamben's idea of "means without ends" to think about political projects of social justice that are incomplete, partial, and legibile within culturally and socially defined spheres of meaning.
Within the field of linguistics, the most hotly contested aspect of gesture revolves around the subcategory of Lexical or Iconic Co-Speech Gestures. Adam Kendon was the first to hypothesize on their purpose when he argued that Lexical gestures do work to amplify or modulate the lexico-semantic content of the verbal speech with which they co-occur. However, since the late 1990s, most research has revolved around the contrasting hypothesis that Lexical gestures serve a primarily cognitive purpose in aiding the process of speech production. As of 2012, there is research to suggest that Lexical Gesture does indeed serve a primarily communicative purpose and cognitive only secondary, but in the realm of socio-pragmatic communication, rather than lexico-semantic modification.
Typology (categories)
Humans have the ability to communicate through language, but they can also express through gestures. In particular, gestures can be transmitted through movements of body parts, face, and body expressions. Researchers Goldin Meadow and Brentari D. conducted research in 2015 and concluded that communicating through sign language is no different from spoken language.
Communicative vs. informative
The first way to distinguish between categories of gesture is to differentiate between communicative gesture and informative gesture. While most gestures can be defined as possibly happening during the course of spoken utterances, the informative-communicative dichotomy focuses on intentionality of meaning and communication in co-speech gesture.
Informative (Passive Gestures)
Informative gestures are passive gestures that provide information about the speaker as a person and not about what the speaker is trying to communicate. Some movements are not purely considered gestures, however a person could perform these adapters in such way like scratching, adjusting clothing, and tapping.
These gestures can occur during speech, but they may also occur independently of communication, as they are not a part of active communication. While informative gestures may communicate information about the person speaking (e.g. itchy, uncomfortable, etc.), this communication is not engaged with any language being produced by the person gesturing.
Communicative (Active Gestures)
Communicative gestures are gestures that are produced intentionally and meaningfully by a person as a way of intensifying or modifying speech produced in the vocal tract (or with the hands in the case of sign languages), even though a speaker may not be actively aware that they are producing communicative gestures. For instance, on the picture above of Uncle Sam, he is pointing and sending a non-verbal form of gesture by implying he wants you to join the U.S. Army. This is a form of symbolic gesture, usually used in the absence of speech.
Body language relating to gestures
Body language is a form of nonverbal communication that allows visual cues that transmit messages without speaking. Gestures are movement that are made with the body: arms, hands, facial, etc. Authors Barbara Pease and Allan Pease, of "The Definitive Book of Body Language" concluded that everyone does a shoulder shrug, a gesture signifying that the person is not comprehending what they are supposed to be understanding. Also, that showing the palms of both hands to show a person is not hiding anything, and raising the eyebrows to indicate a greeting.
Finger gestures are commonly used in a variety of ways, from point at something to indicate that you want to show a person something to indicating a thumbs up to show everything is good.
Some gestures are near universals, i.e., found all over the world with only some exceptions. An example is the head shake to signify "no". Also, in most cultures nodding your head signifies "Yes", which the book "The Definitive Book of Body Language" describes as submissive gesture to representing the conversation is going the direction of the person speaking. The book explains that people who are born deaf can show a form of submissive gesture to signify "Yes".
Manual vs. non-manual communicative gestures
Within the realm of communicative gestures, the first distinction to be made is between gestures made with the hands and arms, and gestures made with other parts of the body. Examples of Non-manual gestures may include head nodding and shaking, shoulder shrugging, and facial expression, among others. Non-manual gestures are attested in languages all around the world, but have not been the primary focus of most research regarding co-speech gesture.
Manual gestures
A gesture that is a form of communication in which bodily actions communicate particular messages. Manual gestures are most commonly broken down into four distinct categories: Symbolic (Emblematic), Deictic (Indexical), Motor (Beat), and Lexical (Iconic) It is important to note that manual gesture in the sense of communicative co-speech gesture does not include the gesture-signs of Sign Languages, even though sign language is communicative and primarily produced using the hands, because the gestures in Sign Language are not used to intensify or modify the speech produced by the vocal tract, rather they communicate fully productive language through a method alternative to the vocal tract.
Symbolic (emblematic)
The most familiar are the so-called emblems or quotable gestures. These are conventional, culture-specific gestures that can be used as replacement for words, such as the handwave used in the US for "hello" and "goodbye". A single emblematic gesture can have a very different significance in different cultural contexts, ranging from complimentary to highly offensive. The page List of gestures discusses emblematic gestures made with one hand, two hands, hand and other body parts, and body and facial gestures.
Symbolic gestures can occur either concurrently or independently of vocal speech. Symbolic gestures are iconic gestures that are widely recognized, fixed, and have conventionalized meanings.
Deictic (indexical)
Deictic gestures can occur simultaneously with vocal speech or in place of it. Deictic gestures are gestures that consist of indicative or pointing motions. These gestures often work in the same way as demonstrative words and pronouns like "this" or "that".
Deictic gestures can refer to concrete or intangible objects or people.
Motor (beat)
Motor or beat gestures usually consist of short, repetitive, rhythmic movements that are closely tied with prosody in verbal speech. Unlike symbolic and deictic gestures, beat gestures cannot occur independently of verbal speech and convey no semantic information. For example, some people wave their hands as they speak to emphasize a certain word or phrase.
These gestures are closely coordinated with speech. The so-called beat gestures are used in conjunction with speech and keep time with the rhythm of speech to emphasize certain words or phrases. These types of gestures are integrally connected to speech and thought processes.
Lexical (iconic)
Other spontaneous gestures used during speech production known as iconic gestures are more full of content, and may echo, or elaborate, the meaning of the co-occurring speech. They depict aspects of spatial images, actions, people, or objects. For example, a gesture that depicts the act of throwing may be synchronous with the utterance, "He threw the ball right into the window." Such gestures that are used along with speech tend to be universal. For example, one describing that he/she is feeling cold due to a lack of proper clothing and/or a cold weather can accompany his/her verbal description with a visual one. This can be achieved through various gestures such as by demonstrating a shiver and/or by rubbing the hands together. In such cases, the language or verbal description of the person does not necessarily need to be understood as someone could at least take a hint at what's being communicated through the observation and interpretation of body language which serves as a gesture equivalent in meaning to what's being said through communicative speech.
The elaboration of lexical gestures falls on a spectrum of iconic-metaphorical in how closely tied they are to the lexico-semantic content of the verbal speech they coordinate with. More iconic gesture very obviously mirrors the words being spoken (such as drawing a jagged horizontal line in the air to describe mountains) whereas more metaphorical gestures clearly contain some spatial relation to the semantic content of the co-occurring verbal speech, but the relationship between the gesture and the speech might be more ambiguous.
Lexical gestures, like motor gestures, cannot occur independently of verbal speech. The purpose of lexical gestures is still widely contested in the literature with some linguists arguing that lexical gestures serve to amplify or modulate the semantic content of lexical speech, or that it serves a cognitive purpose in aiding in lexical access and retrieval or verbal working memory. Most recent research suggests that lexical gestures serve a primarily socio-pragmatic role.
Language development
Studies affirm a strong link between gesture typology and language development. Young children under the age of two seem to rely on pointing gestures to refer to objects that they do not know the names of. Once the words are learned, they eschewed those referential (pointing) gestures. One would think that the use of gesture would decrease as the child develops spoken language, but results reveal that gesture frequency increased as speaking frequency increased with age. There is, however, a change in gesture typology at different ages, suggesting a connection between gestures and language development. Children most often use pointing and adults rely more on iconic and beat gestures. As children begin producing sentence-like utterances, they also begin producing new kinds of gestures that adults use when speaking (iconics and beats). Evidence of this systematic organization of gesture is indicative of its association to language development.
Gestural languages such as American Sign Language and its regional siblings operate as complete natural languages that are gestural in modality. They should not be confused with finger spelling, in which a set of emblematic gestures are used to represent a written alphabet. American sign language is different from gesturing in that concepts are modeled by certain hand motions or expressions and has a specific established structure while gesturing is more malleable and has no specific structure rather it supplements speech. Before an established sign language was created in Nicaragua after the 1970s, deaf communities would use "home signs" in order to communicate with each other. These home signs were not part of a unified language but were still used as familiar motions and expressions used within their family—still closely related to language rather than gestures with no specific structure. This is similar to what has been observed in the gestural actions of chimpanzees. Gestures are used by these animals in place of verbal language, which is restricted in animals due to their lacking certain physiological and articulation abilities that humans have for speech. Corballis (2009) asserts that "our hominid ancestors were better pre-adapted to acquire language-like competence using manual gestures than using vocal sounds." This leads to a debate about whether humans, too, looked to gestures first as their modality of language in the early existence of the species. The function of gestures may have been a significant player in the evolution of language.
Social significance
Gesturing is probably universal; there has been no report of a community that does not gesture. Gestures are a crucial part of everyday conversation such as chatting, describing a route, negotiating prices on a market; they are ubiquitous. Gestures are learned embodied cultural practices that can function as a way to interpret ethnic, gender, and sexual identity.
Gestures, commonly referred to as "body language," play an important role in industry. Proper body language etiquette in business dealings can be crucial for success. However, gestures can have different meanings according to the country in which they are expressed. In an age of global business, diplomatic cultural sensitivity has become a necessity. Gestures that we take as innocent may be seen by someone else as deeply insulting.
The following gestures are examples of proper etiquette with respect to different countries' customs on salutations:
In the United States, "a firm handshake, accompanied by direct eye contact, is the standard greeting. Direct eye contact in both social and business situations is very important."
In the People's Republic of China, "the Western custom of shaking a person's hand upon introduction has become widespread throughout the country. However, oftentimes a nod of the head or a slight bow will suffice."
In Japan, "the act of presenting business cards is very important. When presenting, one holds the business card with both hands, grasping it between the thumbs and forefingers. The presentation is to be accompanied by a slight bow. The print on the card should point towards the person to which one is giving the card."
In Germany, "it is impolite to shake someone's hand with your other hand in your pocket. This is seen as a sign of disrespect".
In France, "a light, quick handshake is common. To offer a strong, pumping handshake would be considered uncultured. When one enters a room, be sure to greet each person present. A woman in France will offer her hand first."
In Hinduism and Buddhism, a mudra (Sanskrit, literally "seal") is a symbolic gesture made with the hand or fingers. Each mudra has a specific meaning, playing a central role in Hindu and Buddhist iconography.
A common religious gesture include crossing oneself in a number of religions as a sign of respect, typically by kneeling before a sacred object in many. Gestures play a central role in religious or spiritual rituals such as the Christian sign of the cross.
Gestures are also a means to initiate a mating ritual. This may include elaborate dances and other movements. Gestures play a major role in many aspects of human life.
Additionally, when people use gestures, there is a certain shared background knowledge. Different cultures use similar gestures when talking about a specific action such as how we gesture the idea of drinking out of a cup.
When an individual makes a gesture, another person can understand because of recognition of the actions/shapes.
Gestures have been documented in the arts such as in Greek vase paintings, Indian Miniatures or European paintings.
An example, Vitarka Vicara, the gesture of discussion and transmission of Buddhist teaching. It is done by joining the tips of the thumb and the index together, while keeping the other fingers straight.
Neurology
Gestures are processed in the same areas of the brain as speech and sign language such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area) and the posterior middle temporal gyrus, posterior superior temporal sulcus and superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area). It has been suggested that these parts of the brain originally supported the pairing of gesture and meaning and then were adapted in human evolution "for the comparable pairing of sound and meaning as voluntary control over the vocal apparatus was established and spoken language evolved". As a result, it underlies both symbolic gesture and spoken language in the present human brain. Their common neurological basis also supports the idea that symbolic gesture and spoken language are two parts of a single fundamental semiotic system that underlies human discourse.
The linkage of hand and body gestures in conjunction with speech is further revealed by the nature of gesture use in blind individuals during conversation. This phenomenon uncovers a function of gesture that goes beyond portraying communicative content of language and extends David McNeill's view of the gesture-speech system. This suggests that gesture and speech work tightly together, and a disruption of one (speech or gesture) will cause a problem in the other. Studies have found strong evidence that speech and gesture are innately linked in the brain and work in an efficiently wired and choreographed system. McNeill's view of this linkage in the brain is just one of three currently up for debate; the others declaring gesture to be a "support system" of spoken language or a physical mechanism for lexical retrieval.
Because of this connection of co-speech gestures—a form of manual action—in language in the brain, Roel Willems and Peter Hagoort conclude that both gestures and language contribute to the understanding and decoding of a speaker's encoded message. Willems and Hagoort's research suggest that "processing evoked by gestures is qualitatively similar to that of words at the level of semantic processing." This conclusion is supported through findings from experiments by Skipper where the use of gestures led to "a division of labor between areas related to language or action (Broca's area and premotor/primary motor cortex respectively)", The use of gestures in combination with speech allowed the brain to decrease the need for "semantic control". Because gestures aided in understanding the relayed message, there was not as great a need for semantic selection or control that would otherwise be required of the listener through Broca's area. Gestures are a way to represent the thoughts of an individual, which are prompted in working memory. The results of an experiment revealed that adults have increased accuracy when they used pointing gestures as opposed to simply counting in their heads (without the use of pointing gestures) Furthermore, the results of a study conducted by Marstaller and Burianová suggest that the use of gestures affect working memory. The researchers found that those with low capacity of working memory who were able to use gestures actually recalled more terms than those with low capacity who were not able to use gestures.
Although there is an obvious connection in the aid of gestures in understanding a message, "the understanding of gestures is not the same as understanding spoken language." These two functions work together and gestures help facilitate understanding, but they only "partly drive the neural language system".
Electronic interface
The movement of gestures can be used to interact with technology like computers, using touch or multi-touch popularised by the iPhone, physical movement detection and visual motion capture, used in video game consoles.
It can be recorded using kinematic methodology.
Kendon's continuum
In order to better understand the linguistic values that gestures hold, Adam Kendon, a pioneer in gesture research has proposed to look at it as a continuum from less linguistic to fully linguistic. Using the continuum, speech declines as "the language-like properties of gestural behaviors increase and idiosyncratic gestures are replaced by socially regulated signs".
Gestures of different kinds fall within this continuum and include spontaneous gesticulations, language-like gestures, pantomime, emblems, and sign language. Spontaneous gesticulations are not evident without the presence of speech, assisting in the process of vocalization, whereas language-like gestures are "iconic and metaphoric, but lack consistency and are context-dependent". "Language-like gesture" implies that the gesture is assuming something linguistic (Loncke, 2013). Pantomime falls in the middle of the continuum and requires shared conventions. This kind of gesture helps convey information or describe an event.
Following pantomime are emblems, which have specific meanings to denote "feelings, obscenities, and insults" and are not required to be used in conjunction with speech. The most linguistic gesture on Kendon's continuum is sign language, where "single manual signs have specific meanings and are combined with other manual signs according to specific rules".
Philosophy
Giorgio Agamben, in the book Karman, says gesture is a pure means without purpose, as an intermediate form between the doing of praxis and that of poiesis. In an opposite spirit, Giovanni Maddalena introduced The philosophy of gesture where gesture is defined as any performed act with a beginning and an end that carries on a meaning (from the latin gero = to bear, to carry on). According to this philosophy, gesture is our normal procedure to embody vague ideas in singular actions with a general meaning. Gesture is forged by a dense blending of icons, indices, and symbols and by a complexity of phenomenological characteristics, such as feelings, actual actions, general concepts, and habits (firstness, secondness, and thirdness in Charles S. Peirce’s phenomenology).
See also
Chironomia
Growth point
Haptic communication
Kinesics
List of gestures
Musical gesture
Posture (psychology)
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Sign language
Taunt
Orans
Salute
Enactment effect
References
Further reading
Bulwer, J (1644). Chirologia: or the Natural Language of the Hand.
Goldin-Meadow, S (2003). Hearing gesture: How our hands help us think. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. .
Hoste, L. & Signer, B. (2014) "Criteria, Challenges and Opportunities for Gesture Programming Languages" In Proceedings of 1st International Workshop on Engineering Gestures for Multimodal Interfaces (EGMI 2014). Rome, Italy.
Kendon, A (2004). Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
Kita, S (2003). Pointing: Where Language, Culture and Cognition Meet. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. .
Lippit, Akira Mizuta (2008). "Digesture: Gesture and Inscription in Experimental Cinema." Migration of Gesture. Ed. Carrie Noland and Sally Ann Ness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Maddalena, Giovanni (2015). The Philosophy of Gesture, Montreal: McGill–Queen’s University Press.
McNeill, D (2005). Gesture and Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
Muñoz, Jose Esteban (2001). "Gesture, Ephemera and Queer Feeling: Approaching Kevin Aviance." Dancing Desires: Choreographing Sexualities on and off Stage. Ed. Jane Desmond. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 423–442.
Muñoz, José Esteban (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York: New York University Press.
Noland, Carrie (2009). Agency and Embodiment: Performing Gestures/Producing Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Noland, Carrie, and Sally Ann Ness, editors (2008). Migration of Gesture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Rodríguez, Juana María (2007). "Gesture and Utterance Fragments from a Butch-Femme Archive." A Companion to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies. Ed. George E. Haggerty and Molly McGarry. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2007. 282–291.
Rodríguez, Juana María (2014). Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings. New York: NYU Press.
External links
International Society for Gesture Studies devoted to the study of human gesture
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist%20Party%20of%20Nepal%20%28Maoist%20Centre%29
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Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)
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The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN Maoist Centre, or CPN (MC), is the third largest political party in Nepal and a member party of Socialist Front. It was founded in 1994 after breaking away from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre). The party launched an armed struggle in 1996 against the Nepalese government. In 2006, the party formally joined mainstream politics after signing a peace agreement following the 2006 Nepalese revolution.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal has served as the leader of the party since its foundation. The party holds 32 seats in the House of Representatives making them the third largest parliamentary group. Dahal is also currently serving as Prime Minister of Nepal as part of a ruling coalition following the 2022 general election. The party has also led three previous governments; in 2008 and 2016 under Dahal, and in 2013 under Baburam Bhattarai.
The party was formed in 1994 with same name as its parent party Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) and was named as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in 1996. After the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre–Masal) and its electoral front, Janamorcha Nepal merged with the party in 2009, the unified party came to be known as the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The party emerged in its current state in 2016 following the unification of various splinter groups with the party.
The party was dissolved on 17 May 2018, after merging with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) to create the Nepal Communist Party but was revived on 8 March 2021 following a Supreme Court ruling in favor of Rishi Kattel, who had claimed the Nepal Communist Party name. The party claimed to have 750,000 members as of December 2021, making them the third largest party in Nepal by membership.
History
Founding, 1994–1996
The party was formed in 1994 following a split in the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) into two factions, one led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the other led Nirmal Lama. The electoral front of the party, the United People's Front of Nepal, also split and the faction led by Baburam Bhattarai allied with the Pushpa Kamal Dahal led Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre). The two United People's Front of Nepal decided to register itself with the Election Commission, but the commission only recognized the Nirmal Lama backed party. Baburam Bhattarai responded by calling for a boycott of the 1994 mid-term elections.
Preparations for struggle, 1995–1996
The Unity Centre led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal went completely underground after the split to begin preparations for its next phase of struggle. The party held its Third Plenum in March 1995, where the party renamed itself to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). It also decided that the for "the true liberation of the people, all efforts must be concentrated for the development of a people's war that would usher in the new people's democratic form of government" and officially decided to give up its policy of taking part in parliamentary elections.
The March meeting was followed by six months of preparations to recast the old organizational structure into a fighting machine, and in September 1995, the 'Plan for the Historic Initiation of the People's War' was adopted by the Central Committee of the party. There then began a series of public meetings all over the country under the aegis of the United People's Front of Nepal as part of the final politico-ideological preparation. The party launched the 'Sija campaign' in Rolpa and Rukum, named after the Sisne and Jaljala mountains in the two districts, to propagate the ideology of Marxism–Leninism–Maoism.
In October 1995, during the Sija campaign, a fight broke out between supporters of the United People's Front of Nepal and other parties, mainly the Nepali Congress and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, at a village in the eastern part of Rukum. The newly formed government under Sher Bahadur Deuba moved swiftly to arrest the UPFN supporters, accusing them of creating public disorder. The police then launched 'Operation Romeo' in November 1995. Officially, Operation Romeo was labeled as an operation to control a rise in criminal activities in Rolpa. Operation Romeo resulted in gross violations of human rights, including the arbitrary arrest and detention of hundreds of members of left-of-center parties, rapes, executions and “disappearances.” In the light of this action, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the party met briefly in January 1996 and made the final decision on the historic initiation of the 'People's War' for 13 February 1996.
On 4 February 1996, Baburam Bhattarai led a three-member delegation of the United People's Front of Nepal to present a memorandum to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. The memorandum warned that unless the government took initiative to fulfill their 40-point demands by 17 February the UFPN would launch an armed revolution.
People's war, 1996–2001
On 13 February 1996, after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had left for a state visit to India two days before, the office of the Small Farmer's Development Programme run by the Agricultural Development Bank was overrun in Gorkha district and the loan papers were destroyed. This was followed in the evening by attacks on police posts in Aathbiskot-Rari in Rukum, Holeri in Rolpa and Sindhuligadhi in Sindhuli. The 'People's War' was formally launched.
After the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) came into government in 1997, violence between both sides stopped but the issue could not be resolved. The government formed a taskforce to look into the 'Maoist Activities and a Search for Solutions' in April 1997 under CPN (UML) MP Prem Singh Dhami but the commission report was ultimately shelved in August of the same year. A local election was called in May 1997, but polls could not be held in 87 village development committees due to intimidation by the Maoists. The government in response attempted to introduce the Terrorist and Destructive Activities (Control and Punishment) Act in July 1997 at the initiative of deputy prime minister and home minister Bam Dev Gautam. The act would give the police wide-ranging powers against perceived 'terrorists'. But the government was forced to backtrack on the law before it was placed in front of the parliament owing to mass protests from the civil society, the media, and international organizations.
On 13 February 1998, the second anniversary of the 'people's war', the Maoists announced the existence of a Central Military Commission under Prachanda. By May 1998, 51 village development committees in Rolpa district and western Nepal were under Maoist control and they were operating a parallel administration called the 'People's Government'. When the new Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala went on tour of the Maoist influenced area he realized that the situation was getting out of hand. After an attack on Kalikatar in Tanahun, the home district of the home minister, Govinda Raj Joshi, the state launched a moved swiftly and launched the 'Kilo Serra II'. The operation was meant to be a 'search and kill' operation to prevent Maoist movement from gaining strength. Unlike Operation Romeo, which was concentrated on the western hills, 'Kilo Serra Two' was spread out across all the Maoist controlled regions of the country. From mid-1998 an unprecedented number of Maoists and their supporters—as well as civilians caught in the middle—were killed. Almost five hundred people were killed under 'Kilo Serra Two'.
During the elections in 1999, the Maoists simply called for a boycott and did not disrupt the polls. In December 1999, the Krishna Prasad Bhattarai government formed the 'High-Level Committee to Provide Suggestions to Solve the Maoist Problem' under Sher Bahadur Deuba, and two months later authorised it to hold talks with the Maoists. Contact was established with the Maoist leadership, and the response was positive. A letter by Prachanda to a government intermediary stated that three minimum conditions need to fulfilled before any high level negotiations and that they would cease all operations during this time. The conditions were, reveal the whereabouts of a central committee member of the CPN-Maoist along with others who had 'disappeared', initiate moves to release arrested workers and sympathizers; and end state terrorism and begin process to investigate the incident of arson and killing in Rukum district. After Krishna Prasad Bhattarai resigned and was replaced by Girija Prasad Koirala, the new prime minister declared: 'The first priority of the government will be to restore law and order in the country to protect lives of the people.'
Following this an 'Armed Nepal Bandh' was announced for 6 April 2000 and attacks on the police resumed. In late September, the Maoists overran Dunai, the district headquarters of Dolpa. Following this attack the Royal Nepal Army was mobilized for security duty in 16 districts. The army could not be brought to the fight against the Maoists however due to disagreements between the Prime Minister and the King of Nepal, the supreme commander of the Royal Nepal Army.
Girija Prasad Koirala came in contact with the Maoist leadership during this time and the deputy prime minister, Ram Chandra Paudel, met with a Central Committee member of the CPN-Maoist. The breakthrough came to be a naught in the end as the government released a top Maoist leader after having him renounce his party at a press conference. In February 2001, informal talks with the government and the Maoists almost began but the Maoists backed out, asking for a postponement. Then on February 26, they announced that they had just conducted their second national conference and Pushpa Kamal Dahal was elected chairman. Furthermore, it was announced that the guiding ideology of the party will become Marxism–Leninism–Maoism–Prachanda Path.
In March 2001, the government published the names of 294 individuals who were in police custody charged with being sympathizers and members of the CPN-Maoist. Then in early April 2001, without any warnings, the Maoists carried out devastating attacks in police posts in Rukum and Dailekh districts within a week of each other, killing 70 policemen. The Maoists also announced that no negotiations would be held with the government until Girija Prasad Koirala stepped down. On 7 July 2001, the birthday of the new king Gyanendra, 41 policemen were killed by the Maoists in Gulmi, Lamjung and Nuwakot districts. Later that month, they attacked a police post in Rolpa and took 69 policemen hostage. The Koirala government immediately mobilized the army but when the soldiers failed to engage with the Maoists, Koirala resigned as Prime Minister. Sher Bahadur Deuba followed him as prime minister and immediately announced a ceasefire, which was reciprocated by the Maoist side with a ceasefire of their own.
People's Liberation Army, 2001–2002
In mid-August 2001, a meeting between the mainstream communist parties and the CPN-Maoist was arranged by the Communist Party of Nepal (Masal) near Siliguri, but nothing significant emerged from this meeting since Prachanda's request for support on the Maoist call for a republic was turned down. The first official meeting between the government and the Maoists were held on August 30, 2001, led by deputy prime minister Chiranjibi Wagle and Krishna Bahadur Mahara from the Maoist side. Nothing substantial happened during this meeting except for mutual commitment to hold talks again. Two weeks later, the second was held in western Nepal and the Maoists placed a full range of demand on the table. These demands were of three categories. The first was calls for a constituent assembly, an interim government and a republic. The second dealt with treaties with India and policies regarding India. The third was going public with details of arrested Maoists and a rollback of police operations.
The parliament passed the Armed Police Force Act, 2001 in August 2001 for the formation of an Armed Police Force to counter the Maoists as the Royal Nepal Army could only be mobilized by the king, who was the supreme commander of the army. In September 2001, the 'people's army' was restructured into the 'People's Liberation Army' and was under the supreme command of Prachanda. The PLA consisted of the bulk of the Maoist guerrilla fighting force, which was estimated anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 strong. The Maoists also had a militia, who were assigned guard duty in Maoist-controlled village development committees.
Before the third round of talks were going to held, the government scrapped the Public Security Regulations and freed 68 prisoners, while the Maoist side gave up their calls for a republic and an interim government. The third round of talks were held on 13 November 2001 but was inconclusive as demands for a constituent assembly was rejected by the government, a call backed by other political parties.
The Maoists ended the four month-long ceasefire on 23 November 2001 by attacking government and private installations throughout the country after a statement two days earlier by Prachanda which signaled that talks were about to break down. The Maoists also attacked army barracks for the first time. The Maoists attacked Ghorahi in Dang and briefly took control of the district headquarters. They killed more than two dozen police and army personnel, blew up government offices, freed prisoners from the local jail and stole NPR 64.8 million worth of gold and silver from local banks. This coincided with attacks all over the country the most serious of which was in Syangja where 14 policemen were killed. This was followed two days later by an attack on the headquarters and army barracks in Solukhumbu District. The attack on the headquarters was unsuccessful but they made out with a substantial amount of ammunition and sophisticated weapons from their attack on the army barracks. The party also announced the formation of a 37-member United Revolutionary People's Council of Nepal and was headed by Baburam Bhattarai.
Following this the prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, imposed a state of emergency and promulgated an anti-terrorist ordinance that labeled the CPN (Maoist) a terrorist organization. After failure to increase the time period for the state of emergency, King Gyanendra on the recommendation of the prime minister dissolved the parliament in May 2002 and buoyed by the success against the Maoist insurgents, decided to call for elections in November of the same year. But following a surprise attack in Sandhikharka in Arghakhanchi District which killed 65 security personnel, the prime minister asked for more time to conduct the polls. The king promptly removed Deuba in October 2002 for his 'incompetence' and assumed the country's executive authority.
King's rule, 2002–2006
On 26 January 2003, the Maoists killed the Inspector General of the Armed Police Force, Krishna Mohan Shrestha, his wife and a bodyguard during a morning walk. After the government decided to retract the terrorist label, bounties and a red corner notice against the Maoists, another ceasefire was announced on 29 January 2003. The peace talks between the government and the Maoists resumed on 27 April 2003, led by deputy prime minister Badri Prasad Mandal and Baburam Bhattarai from the Maoists. Another round of talks were held on 10 May 2003, following which the government decided to restrict army movement to five kilometres from their barracks, forming a code of conduct during the ceasefire and releasing some top Maoist leaders. After the government released key members of the Maoist party the third round of talks finally began on 17 August 2003. The ceasefire was broken on 27 August 2003 by Prachanda, after the two groups could not agree on the formation of a constituent assembly.
Although there were intermittent ceasefires, fighting was roughly continuous through 2005. In 2005, the CPN (Maoist) sought a different strategy of seeking permanent peace accords while forming a pro-democratic alliance with several other mainstream political parties in opposition to the monarchical dictatorship of King Gyanendra. Following massive popular uprisings and protests (some involving over a million people), a prolonged general strike in 2006, and several violent clashes between protesters and the Nepalese Army, the monarchy finally capitulated. The CPN (Maoist) gained international legitimacy as they agreed to lay down arms and participate in the new electoral process. In the aftermath of the conflict, several western European powers removed the CPN (Maoist) from their government's terrorist lists, . In 2012, the US State Department followed suit and delisted the CPN (Maoist) as a "terrorist organization", citing the party's "...credible commitment to pursuing peace and reconciliation...".
Comprehensive Peace Accord, 2006–2008
After waging the Civil War for ten years, the CPN (Maoist) sat down for peace talks after the success of the People's Movement in 2002/03. The Twelve-Point Agreement reached between the then seven-party alliance and the Maoist rebels in Delhi created a path for peaceful agitation against the direct rule of the king and to end autocracy in Nepal. The civil war conducted by the CPN (Maoist) created the foundation for the establishment of a republic in Nepal. It also created political consciousness among the people at the grassroots level and, to some extent, awareness of the need for national socio-economic transformation.
After the declaration of the king to reinstate the parliament, the CPN (Maoist) insisted that the declaration was a betrayal to the people. Instead the king should bring down his institution for his deeds. But there was no hearing from the other parties in the alliance. Maoist chairman Prachanda appeared at the prime minister's residence, Baluwatar for the peace talk and said that he was there to establish a new kind of democracy in Nepal, but he didn't reveal details.
After the peace talks held between the CPN (Maoist) and the Government of Nepal, the Maoist rebels were ready to put an end to the ten-year-long Civil War. Signing the Comprehensive Peace Accord, Maoist chairman Prachanda said that the Civil War had come to an end and a new revolution was to be waged by the reinstated parliament. The peace accord was signed on September 21, 2006, ending the Maoist revolution. However, Prachanda was able to provide legacy to the 19,000-member People's Liberation Army that was kept in the cantonment under the supervision of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN).
The interim constitution of Nepal 2063, gave a constitutional position to these Maoist cadres. There was a provision for providing monthly allowance for the Maoist armies staying at the cantonment. The Maoist leaders believe that the revolution has not ended here but only the form of struggle was changed.
First Constituent Assembly, 2008–2012
In the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections, the CPN (Maoist) won 220 seats and an additional 9 members were nominated from the party giving them a strength of 229 seats and making them the largest party in the 1st Constituent Assembly. Despite accusations of fraud from older parties like the Nepali Congress and CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist), international observers reported that the elections were held in a peaceful, orderly manner and were satisfying. The Maoists did not have a majority to form the government and had to form a coalition with CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum, Nepal. Chairman of the party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal was elected prime minister after getting 464 out of 577 votes against Nepali Congress candidate Sher Bahadur Deuba.
On 13 January 2009 the party merged with the CPN (Unity Centre–Masal) to form the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The election front of CPN (Unity Centre–Masal), Janamorcha Nepal also merged into the party and with its 8 seats took the Maoists' total strength to 237 in the Constituent Assembly. The Maoist government fell after its coalition partners withdrew support from the government after Dahal tried to sack the army chief, Rookmangud Katuwal. President Ram Baran Yadav rejected Dahal's proposal to sack the army chief and he resigned on 4 May 2009. After the Maoist government fell, a faction under Matrika Prasad Yadav split from the party and reformed the former CPN (Maoist). Matrika Prasad Yadav and Jagat Prasad Yadav also resigned from the Constituent Assembly and were replaced from among the party list.
In February 2011 the Maoists formed a coalition with the CPN (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and formed a government under UML's Jhala Nath Khanal. The government could not agree a deal to complete the integration of former Maoist combatants and Khanal resigned on 15 August 2011 to pave the way for a formation of a national consensus government. Almost two weeks later, Baburam Bhattarai was elected prime minister defeating Ram Chandra Paudel from the Nepali Congress 340–235. The government under Bhattarai was able to get finalize a deal to integrate the former Maoist guerrillas and a deal was signed with all major parties on 1 November 2011. Hardliner factions inside the party, like party vice-chairman Mohan Baidya, were however unsatisfied with the decision.
The government however failed to agree a consensus on the drafting of the new constitution and on 28 May 2012, Baburam Bhattarai requested President Ram Baran Yadav to dissolve the Constituent Assembly and call for fresh elections. On 18 June 2012, party vice-chairman Mohan Baidya split the party and formed the Communist Party of Nepal—Maoist. He accused the party of being filled with opportunists and the leadership of destroying the achievements of the People's War. He also termed accepting the line of "democratic republic" in 2005 and signing the Comprehensive Peace Accord in 2006 as major mistakes by the Maoist leadership. Baburam Bhattrai resigned as prime minister and on 14 March 2013, Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi was appointed as an interim prime minister to hold the elections.
Second Constituent Assembly, 2013–2015
In the 2013 Constituent Assembly election, held on 19 November 2013, the UCPN (Maoist) won just 80 seats and an additional 3 seats were nominated from the party to the 2nd Constituent Assembly compared to 237 in the 1st Constituent Assemby. The result meant that the Maoists were dropped to be the third largest party in the Constituent Assembly from first in past. The party rejected the results and blamed it on an "international and national" conspiracy and warned that the party would sit out of the newly elected Constituent Assembly.
The party later agreed to join the new constituent assembly and Onsari Gharti Magar from the party was elected as the vice-chairman of the Constituent Assembly on 26 February 2014. Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala became the new prime minister of Nepal but the Maoists did not join his government. The new Constituent Assembly was finally able to deliver a constitution and on 17 September 2015, the Constitution of Nepal, 2015 was approved by 507 members. Baburam Bhattarai resigned from the newly formed Legislature Parliament of Nepal and the party following the announcement of the constitution and formed Naya Shakti Party, Nepal.
Federal Republic and dissolution, 2016–2018
Pushpa Kamal Dahal became prime minister for the second time on 3 August 2016, before resigning on 25 May 2017 to make way for Sher Bahadur Deuba to become prime minister as per an agreement with Nepali Congress. On 19 May 2016, ten Maoist parties including pro-unity factions from the Communist Party of Nepal (Revolutionary Maoist) and Communist Party of Nepal and the Matrika Yadav-led Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) merged with the party. The party renamed itself to Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) following the merger.
In the 2017 local elections, the party won 5,411 seats including 106 mayor and chair positions of 753 becoming third largest. The party won the mayoral post in only one metropolitan city, Bharatpur with the support of Nepali Congress and Renu Dahal(Daughter of Puspa Kamal Dahal) became mayor.
The party announced an alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) before the start of the 2017 legislative and provincial elections but did not quit the government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba. The party won 53 seats and again emerged as the third largest party in the House of Representatives. The party also won 108 seats to provincial assemblies and formed coalition governments with the CPN (UML) in six out of the seven provinces. According to the power sharing agreement, Maoist Centre would lead the government in Karnali and Sudurpashchim. The party also formed a coalition government with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) to lead the federal government. In the National Assembly elections on 6 February 2018, the party won 12 of the 56 elected seats. Nanda Bahadur Pun was also re-elected as vice-president on 19 March 2018.
On 17 May 2018, the Party Unification Coordination Committee decided to dissolve both coalition parties in order to create a merger party, the Nepal Communist Party.
Revival, 2021–present
On 8 March 2021, Nepal's Supreme Court stated that the allocation of the name "Nepal Communist Party" upon the merger of the CPN(UML) and CPN (Maoist Centre), and by extension the merger itself, was void ab initio, as the name was already allotted to a party led by Rishiram Kattel, and that the NCP stood "dismissed". Upon the ruling, the two predecessor parties were revived in their original state immediately prior to the merger, although should the two wish to merge again with proper procedure being followed, it would be fully allowed.
2021 Split
The party faced a split when the MPs Prabhu Sah, Gauri Shankar Chaudhary, Lekhraj Bhatta, Deputy prime minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi) and two National Assembly members (including Ram Bhadur Thapa) split from the party and joined the CPN(UML), along with nine provincial assembly members. Two mayors and three rural municipality chairpersons also left the party and joined the CPN(UML).
Ideology
The Maoists announced a ‘People's War’ on 13 February 1996, under the slogan: "Let us march ahead on the path of struggle towards establishing the people's rule by wrecking the reactionary ruling system of state." Maoists strongly believe in the philosophy of Mao Zedong who proclaimed, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Maoists also draw inspiration from the ‘Revolutionary Internationalist Movement’, Peru's left wing guerrilla movement—the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), and from radical communist parties in different parts of the world.
The Maoists' aims in the ‘People's War’ were to establish a ‘People's Democracy’ in Nepal. The Maoists view it as an "historical revolt against feudalism, imperialism and reformists." The catalyst for declaring the ‘People's War’ was the failure of the Nepalese government to respond to a memorandum presented by its representatives to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on 4 February 1996. The memorandum listed 40 demands related to "nationalism, democracy and livelihood". These included the abolition of royal privileges, the promulgation of a new constitution, and the abrogation of the Mahakali Treaty with India, which regulated the distribution of water and electricity as well as the delineation of the border between the two countries.
In second conference of the CPN (Maoist), a post for chairman was created for the Maoist chief Prachanda. Until then, the chief of the organization had been its general secretary. A report titled “The great leap forward: An inevitable need of history” was presented by Prachanda. This report was in serious discussion in the central committee and the top leaders of the party. Based on this report, the CPN (Maoist) adopted Prachanda Path as its ideology. After five years of armed struggle, the party realized that none of the proletarian revolutions of the past could be carried out on Nepal's context. So having analyzed the serious challenges and growing changes in the global arena, and moving further ahead than Marxism, Leninism and Maoism, the party determined its own ideology, Prachanda Path.
Prachanda Path in essence is a different kind of uprising, which can be described as the fusion of a protracted people's war strategy which was adopted by Mao in China and the Russian model of armed revolution. Professor Lok Raj Baral, in his writing about Prachanda Path says that this doctrine doesn't apparently make an ideological break with Marxism and Leninism but finds that these doctrines' strategies aren't able to be replicated in Nepal as it was done in the past. Most of the Maoist leaders think that the adoption of Prachanda Path after the second national conference is what nudged the party into moving ahead with a clear vision ahead after five years of ‘people's war’.
Senior Maoist leader Mohan Vaidya alias Kiran says, ‘Just as Marxism was born in Germany, Leninism in Russia and Maoism in China, Prachanda Path is Nepal's identity of revolution. Just as Marxism has three facets- philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism, Prachanda Path is a combination of all three totally in Nepal's political context.’ The adoption of Prachanda Path was inspired truly from the Shining Path. In fact, the bringing up of new doctrine worked out with the concept of giving a new identity to Nepal's revolution. Talking about the party's philosophy, Maoist chairman Prachanda says, ‘The party considers Prachanda path as an enrichment of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism.’ After the party brought forward its new doctrine, the government was trying to comprehend the new ideology, Prachanda Path.
Women in the party
Women have been prominent in the recruiting profile. Available reports indicate that one-fifth to one-third of the cadre and the combatants during the Nepalese Civil War may be women. Reportedly, every village under Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) control had a revolutionary women's organization. According to a Jane's Intelligence Review report of October 2001, there were usually two women in each unit of 35–40 men, and they were used to gather intelligence and act as couriers. Baburam Bhattarai was quoted as saying in Spacetime on 18 April 2003, that fifty percent of cadres at the lower level, thirty percent of soldiers and ten percent of members of central committee of the outfit were women. Durgha Pokhrel, then Chairman of National Women's Commission, who visited more than 25 Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) controlled districts, stated on 3 July 2003, during a talk delivered at the Nepal Council of World Affairs that percentage of women cadres could be as high as forty. A women's group, the All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary), is alleged to be a front outfit of the CPN-M.
Criticism
Use of children
During the Nepalese Civil War, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) resorted to mass under-age recruitment, particularly of young students, usually between 12 and 16 years old. At the conclusion of the war, an estimated 12,000 Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) soldiers were below 18 years of age, and Human Rights Watch estimates that the majority of the current militia joined as minors. The United Nation Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has verified that there were nine thousand child soldiers in Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) cantonment training camps.
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) used children as soldiers, messengers, cooks, porters and suppliers. Regardless of role, all children received rudimentary military training concerning explosives, so they would be able to recognize and avoid land mines. The current Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre), however, continues to deny that any of its soldiers during the war were less than 18 years of age. They also claim that they have cared for orphans of adult soldiers killed in the war, and that these children were not placed in danger.
Links with fraternal parties
According to available information, the Maoists of Nepal have well-established linkages with Indian revolutionary communist organizations, primarily with the Communist Party of India (Maoist), currently leading a protracted "people's war" throughout the subcontinent. The first signs of contacts were reportedly registered during 1989–1990, when the two groups started collaborating in order to expand their influence. According to Indian government analysis, they began the process of laying a corridor, which is now widely referred to as the Revolutionary Corridor (RC) extending from Nepal to across six Indian States, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. This entire area has been identified in Maoist literature as the Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ). The CRZ was organized by the Nepal and Indian members of the Naxalite movement, in a meeting at Siliguri in the Indian State of West Bengal during August 2001. Indian Maoists are known as Naxalites (or Naxals) in reference to a popular uprising that began decades ago centered in the village of Naxalbari.
Nepalese Maoists had sent their delegates to the March 2001 Congress of PWG held at Abuz Marh in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The establishment of CRZ gave a wider space and platform for all the proscribed Nepal and Indian Naxalite organizations to strengthen their bases in both the countries.
The CPN (Maoist) is a participating organization of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), a global association of revolutionary communist parties. In July 2001, ten regional Maoist groups formed the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organization of South Asia (CCOMPOSA), in which the Nepalese Maoists, PWG, MCC, Purbo Banglar Sarbahara Party (Bangladesh), Communist Party of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and other Indian communist parties became members. The appearance of graffiti in remote villages in Naxalite-strongholds, in Rayakal and Mallapur mandals (administrative unit) of Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh, hailing CCOMPOSA points the spread of the idea of a common front of revolutionary communist groups in South Asia. Moreover, the Central Committee of the Maoists, in late-January 2002, passed a resolution stating that it would work together with the PWG and the MCC in fighting the ban imposed on the latter two organisations in India, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002. A year earlier, in 2001, the Maoists had sent a senior leader named Gaurav as a fraternal delegate to attend the 9th Congress of the PWG. Reports indicate that the Maoists and the PWG have also formed the Indo-Nepal Border Region Committee to coordinate their activities in North Bihar and along the India-Nepal border.
During the civil war, the Maoists also gathered a lot of support from organizations in South Asia, which was very important in carrying out the struggle with certain pace. Having visited several districts in India, Maoist chairman Prachanda studied the challenges of launching an armed struggle. Chairman Prachanda drafted war policies and tactics staying in India. Chairman Prachanda says, “First and foremost, there was the RIM Committee. There were important ideological and political exchanges. From the RIM committee we got the experience of the Communist Party of Peru, the two line struggle there, and also the experience in Turkey, the experience in Iran and the experience in the Philippines.” The CPN Maoist also participated in a South Asian Conference where they held discussions with the civil war group and Maoist communist Centre groups. The party believes in achieving a lot from this meet about conducting a civil war.
Having realized the necessity of spreading the party's message to the world, the party came up with a decision to host a website which was to spread the knowledge about Nepalese revolution. Thus, www.cpnm.org was hosted with the help of some of the fraternal Maoist organization in Europe. The CPN Maoist currently after the jump into the ‘mainstream’ politics played an initiative role in introducing a Maoist Communist Party in Bhutan as well. The new party in Bhutan is said to have greatly inspired from the Nepalese Civil War and want to have a same practice there.
MCC Compact
MCC compact entered Nepal during the premiership of Bhattarai while a committee was formed during second premiership of Dahal to rectify MCC. During premiership of Bhattarai, Barsaman Pun was the finance minister while Krishna Bahadur Mahara was the finance minister during premiership of Dahal. Maoist leaders Matrika Prasad Yadav, Bina Magar, Shakti Bahadur Basnet, Giriraj Mani Pokharel and Ram Bahadur Thapa were part of Second Oli cabinet which took MCC to parliament. At the time, they had given approval to table MCC.
Party president Prachanda publicly maintained that the Millennium Challenge Corporation's (MCC) Nepal Compact could not be ratified without amending certain clauses. It was found that he was in favor of ratification as it was. MCC later released the letter dated September 29, 2021, in which Prachanda and Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba assured MCC that the compact would be ratified within four to five months. Major national newspapers criticized Prachanda's move, saying it would deteriorate Nepal's diplomatic strength and virtue.
They reported that it was dual nature of the party to both stay in government and protest at the same time for personal profit and vote swing. This move was highly criticized by people and medias.
The party chairman had given approval to table MCC while several fellow politicians stood in opposition to the chairman's decision. They called for protests even on streets. Many police were attacked. Trees were broken, the blocks of footpath were removed to attack police as shown in picture. The branches of trees were broken. The Maoist cadets destroyed a boutique while the owner was saving police. Government had to pay for the loss. Leader of opposition and chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), KP Sharma Oli of condemned the decision of Maoists to stay in government while destroying public property at the same time. The Home Minister of Nepal, Bal Krishna Khan's and Prime minister asked the protesters to stay calm and not destroy public properties casing loss to the government and economy.
Splinter groups
Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha
In 2004, a small group split from the CPN (Maoist) to form Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha. This group has subsequently split up into more than five groups and said to have no specific ideological destiny. The group accused the CPN (Maoist) of not guaranteeing the autonomy of the Terai region. The name is in Nepalese which means "Terai Peoples Liberation Front" in English. The Jwala Singh faction of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM-J) was formed by Nagendra Kumar Paswan a.k.a. Jwala Singh in August 2006 after he broke away from the Jaya Krishna Goit led JTMM. Jwala Singh is a former CPN-Maoist cadre and had joined Goit when he floated the JTMM. Later, he developed differences with Goit over the strategies to be adopted for the liberation of the Terai and establishment of an independent Terai state.
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
In 2009, a faction under Matrika Yadav split from UCPN (Maoist) to reorganise the previous Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).
In June 2012 party suffered a vertical split. The hardliner faction formed a new party named Communist Party of Nepal—Maoist, later Communist Party of Nepal (Revolutionary Maoist), headed by Mohan Baidya. The Communist Party of Nepal—Maoist further split to form another Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which was later renamed to Nepal Communist Party, headed by Netra Bikram Chand.
Electoral performance
Legislative elections
Provincial elections
Province 1
Madhesh
Bagmati
Gandaki
Lumbini
Karnali
Sudurpashchim
Leadership
Chairmen
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, 2001–2018, 2021–present
General secretaries
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, 1994–2001
Post Bahadur Bogati, 2013–2014
Krishna Bahadur Mahara, 2014–2016
Ram Bahadur Thapa, 2016–2018
Dev Prasad Gurung, 2022–Present
Prime Ministers of Nepal
Chief Ministers
Bagmati Province
Lumbini Province
Karnali Province
Sudurpashchim Province
Sister organizations
Young Communist League, Nepal
All Nepal National Independent Students' Union (Revolutionary)
All Nepal Women's Association Revolutionary
Press Centre Nepal
All Nepal Trade Union Federation (Revolutionary)
Nepal National Civil Servants Employees Association
Newa Rastriya Mukti Morcha, Nepal
See also
Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist)
Socialist Front
Pir
2021 split in Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre)
Nepalese Civil War
People's Liberation Army, Nepal
References
External links
History and statements of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
L'Espresso Interview with Prachanda: Our Revolution Won November 2006
Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal's Maoist Army Directed by Robert Koenig
BBC news Video/Transcript Interview with Prachanda
Interview with Baburam Bhattarai Washington Times, December 14, 2002
Li Onesto, a journalist who has spent a great deal of time covering the Maoists
Nepal Maoists, live news feed
A critical view of the Maoists from Global Security
National Geographic Slideshow "Inside Nepals Revolution"
International Road-Building Brigades to Nepal official website
"From Jungle Fatigues to Sensible Suits: Nepal's Maoists Join Government" World Politics Watch, April 6, 2007
Waiting for Mao's Maya by Peter J Karthak, Republica, May 21, 2009
1994 establishments in Nepal
2018 disestablishments in Nepal
2021 establishments in Nepal
Communist parties in Nepal
Political parties disestablished in 2018
Political parties established in 1994
Political parties established in 2021
Politics of the Nepalese Civil War
Organizations formerly designated as terrorist
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space%20Shuttle%20Challenger%20disaster
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Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
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On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39a.m. EST (16:39UTC). It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight.
The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the tenth flight for the orbiter and the twenty-fifth flight of the Space Shuttle fleet. The crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking school teacher Christa McAuliffe into space. The latter resulted in a higher than usual media interest and coverage of the mission; the launch and subsequent disaster were seen live in many schools across the United States.
The cause of the disaster was the failure of the primary and secondary redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB). The record-low temperatures on the morning of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints. Shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached, and hot pressurized gas from within the SRB leaked through the joint and burned through the aft attachment strut connecting it to the external propellant tank (ET), then into the tank itself. The collapse of the ET's internal structures and the rotation of the SRB that followed threw the shuttle stack, traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92, into a direction which allowed aerodynamic forces to tear the orbiter apart. Both SRBs detached from the now-destroyed ET and continued to fly uncontrollably until the range safety officer destroyed them.
The crew compartment, human remains and many other fragments from the shuttle were recovered from the ocean floor after a three-month search-and-recovery operation. The exact timing of the deaths of the crew is unknown, but several crew members are thought to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. The orbiter had no escape system, and the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable.
The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program. President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident. The commission criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. Test data since 1977 had revealed a potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings. Neither NASA nor SRB manufacturer Morton Thiokol addressed the issue. NASA managers also disregarded engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in cold temperatures and did not report these technical concerns to their superiors.
As a result of the disaster, NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, and arranged for deployment of commercial satellites from expendable launch vehicles rather than from a crewed orbiter. To replace Challenger, the construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter,, was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992. Subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs and their crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry.
Background
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable spacecraft operated by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It flew for the first time in April 1981, and was used to conduct in-orbit research, and deploy commercial, military, and scientific payloads. At launch, it consisted of the orbiter, which contained the crew and payload, the external tank (ET), and the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The orbiter was a reusable, winged vehicle that launched vertically and landed as a glider. Five orbiters were built during the Space Shuttle program. Challenger (OV-099) was the second orbiter constructed after its conversion from a structural test article. The orbiter contained the crew compartment, where the crew predominantly lived and worked throughout a mission. Three Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were mounted at the aft end of the orbiter and provided thrust during launch. Once in space, the crew maneuvered using the two smaller, aft-mounted Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines.
When it launched, the orbiter was connected to the ET, which held the fuel for the SSMEs. The ET consisted of a larger tank for liquid hydrogen (LH2) and a smaller tank for liquid oxygen (LOX), both of which were required for the SSMEs to operate. After its fuel had been expended, the ET separated from the orbiter and reentered the atmosphere, where it would break apart during reentry and its pieces would land in the Indian or Pacific Ocean.
Two solid rocket boosters (SRBs), built by Morton Thiokol at the time of the disaster, provided the majority of thrust at liftoff. They were connected to the external tank, and burned for the first two minutes of flight. The SRBs separated from the orbiter once they had expended their fuel and fell into the Atlantic Ocean under a parachute. NASA retrieval teams recovered the SRBs and returned them to the Kennedy Space Center, where they were disassembled and their components were reused on future flights. Each SRB was constructed in four main sections at the factory in Utah and transported to Kennedy Space Center (KSC), then assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC with three tang-and-clevis field joints, each joint consisting of a tang from the upper segment fitting into the clevis of the lower segment. Each field joint was sealed with two Viton-rubber O-rings around the circumference of the SRB and had a cross-section diameter of . The O-rings were required to contain the hot, high-pressure gases produced by the burning solid propellant and allowed for the SRBs to be rated for crewed missions. The two O-rings were configured to create a double bore seal, and the gap between segments was filled with putty. When the motor was running, this configuration was designed to compress air in the gap against the upper O-ring, pressing it against the sealing surfaces of its seat. On the SRB Critical Items List, the O-rings were listed as Criticality 1R, which indicated that an O-ring failure could result in the destruction of the vehicle and loss of life, but it was considered a redundant system due to the secondary O-ring.
O-ring concerns
Evaluations of the proposed SRB design in the early 1970s and field joint testing showed that the wide tolerances between the mated parts allowed the O-rings to be extruded from their seats rather than compressed. This extrusion was judged to be acceptable by NASA and Morton Thiokol despite concerns of NASA's engineers. A 1977 test showed that up to of joint rotation occurred during the simulated internal pressure of a launch. Joint rotation, which occurred when the tang and clevis bent away from each other, reduced the pressure on the O-rings, which weakened their seals and made it possible for combustion gases to erode the O-rings. NASA engineers suggested that the field joints should be redesigned to include shims around the O-rings, but they received no response. In 1980, the NASA Verification/Certification Committee requested further tests on joint integrity to include testing in the temperature range of and with only a single O-ring installed. The NASA program managers decided that their current level of testing was sufficient and further testing was not required. In December1982, the Critical Items List was updated to indicate that the secondary O-ring could not provide a backup to the primary O-ring, as it would not necessarily form a seal in the event of joint rotation. The O-rings were redesignated as Criticality1, removing the "R" to indicate it was no longer considered a redundant system.
The first occurrence of in-flight O-ring erosion occurred on the right SRB on in November1981. In August1984, a post-flight inspection of the left SRB on revealed that soot had blown past the primary O-ring and was found in between the O-rings. Although there was no damage to the secondary O-ring, this indicated that the primary O-ring was not creating a reliable seal and was allowing hot gas to pass. The amount of O-ring erosion was insufficient to prevent the O-ring from sealing, and investigators concluded that the soot between the O-rings resulted from non-uniform pressure at the time of ignition. The January1985 launch of was the coldest Space Shuttle launch to date. The air temperature was at the time of launch, and the calculated O-ring temperature was . Post-flight analysis revealed erosion in primary O-rings in both SRBs. Morton Thiokol engineers determined that the cold temperatures caused a loss of flexibility in the O-rings that decreased their ability to seal the field joints, which allowed hot gas and soot to flow past the primary O-ring. O-ring erosion occurred on all but one () of the Space Shuttle flights in 1985, and erosion of both the primary and secondary O-rings occurred on .
To correct the issues with O-ring erosion, engineers at Morton Thiokol, led by Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly, proposed a redesigned field joint that introduced a metal lip to limit movement in the joint. They also recommended adding a spacer to provide additional thermal protection and using an O-ring with a larger cross section. In July1985, Morton Thiokol ordered redesigned SRB casings, with the intention of using already-manufactured casings for the upcoming launches until the redesigned cases were available the following year.
Mission
The Space Shuttle mission, named , was the twenty-fifth Space Shuttle flight and the tenth flight of. The crew was announced on January27,1985, and was commanded by Dick Scobee. Michael Smith was assigned as the pilot, and the mission specialists were Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair. The two payload specialists were Gregory Jarvis, who was assigned to conduct research for the Hughes Aircraft Company, and Christa McAuliffe, who flew as part of the Teacher in Space Project.
The primary mission of the Challenger crew was to use an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) to deploy a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), named TDRS-B, that would have been part of a constellation to enable constant communication with orbiting spacecraft. The crew also planned to study Halley's Comet as it passed near the Sun, and deploy and retrieve a SPARTAN satellite.
The mission was originally scheduled for July1985, but was delayed to November and then to January1986. The mission was scheduled to launch on January22, but was delayed until January 28.
Decision to launch
The air temperature on January 28 was predicted to be a record-low for a Space Shuttle launch. The air temperature was forecast to drop to overnight before rising to at 6:00a.m. and at the scheduled launch time of 9:38a.m. Based upon O-ring erosion that had occurred in warmer launches, Morton Thiokol engineers were concerned over the effect the record-cold temperatures would have on the seal provided by the SRB O-rings for the launch. Cecil Houston, the manager of the KSC office of the Marshall Space Flight Center, set up a conference call on the evening of January 27 to discuss the safety of the launch. Morton Thiokol engineers expressed their concerns about the effect of low temperatures on the resilience of the rubber O-rings. As the colder temperatures lowered the elasticity of the rubber O-rings, the engineers feared that the O-rings would not be extruded to form a seal at the time of launch. The engineers argued that they did not have enough data to determine whether the O-rings would seal at temperatures colder than , the coldest launch of the Space Shuttle to date. Morton Thiokol employees Robert Lund, the Vice President of Engineering, and Joe Kilminster, the Vice President of the Space Booster Programs, recommended against launching until the temperature was above .
The teleconference held a recess to allow for private discussion amongst Morton Thiokol management. When it resumed, Morton Thiokol leadership had changed their opinion and stated that the evidence presented on the failure of the O-rings was inconclusive and that there was a substantial margin in the event of a failure or erosion. They stated that their decision was to proceed with the launch. Morton Thiokol leadership submitted a recommendation for launch, and the teleconference ended. Lawrence Mulloy, the NASA SRB project manager, called Arnold Aldrich, the NASA Mission Management Team Leader, to discuss the launch decision and weather concerns, but did not mention the O-ring discussion; the two agreed to proceed with the launch.
An overnight measurement taken by the KSC Ice Team recorded the left SRB was and the right SRB was . These measurements were recorded for engineering data and not reported, because the temperature of the SRBs was not part of the Launch Commit Criteria. In addition to its effect on the O-rings, the cold temperatures caused ice to form on the fixed service structure. To keep pipes from freezing, water was slowly run from the system; it could not be entirely drained because of the upcoming launch. As a result, ice formed from down in the freezing temperatures. Engineers at Rockwell International, which manufactured the orbiter, were concerned that ice would be violently thrown during launch and could potentially damage the orbiter's thermal protection system or be aspirated into one of the engines. Rocco Petrone, the head of Rockwell's space transportation division, and his team determined that the potential damage from ice made the mission unsafe to fly. Arnold Aldrich consulted with engineers at KSC and the Johnson Space Center (JSC) who advised him that ice did not threaten the safety of the orbiter, and he decided to proceed with the launch. The launch was delayed for an additional hour to allow more ice to melt. The ice team performed an inspection at T–20 minutes which indicated that the ice was melting, and Challenger was cleared to launch at 11:38 a.m. EST, with an air temperature of .
Launch and failure
Liftoff and initial ascent
At T+0, Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) at 11:38:00a.m. Beginning at T+0.678 until T+3.375 seconds, nine puffs of dark gray smoke were recorded escaping from the right-hand SRB near the aft strut that attached the booster to the ET. It was later determined that these smoke puffs were caused by joint rotation in the aft field joint of the right-hand SRB at ignition. The cold temperature in the joint had prevented the O-rings from creating a seal. Rainfall from the preceding time on the launchpad had likely accumulated within the field joint, further compromising the sealing capability of the O-rings. As a result, hot gas was able to travel past the O-rings and erode them. Molten aluminum oxides from the burned propellant resealed the joint and created a temporary barrier against further hot gas and flame escaping through the field joint. The Space Shuttle main engines (SSMEs) were throttled down as scheduled for maximum dynamic pressure (max q). During its ascent, the Space Shuttle encountered wind shear conditions beginning at , but they were within design limits of the vehicle and were countered by the guidance system.
Plume
At , a tracking film camera captured the beginnings of a plume near the aft attach strut on the right SRB, right before the vehicle passed through max q at . The high aerodynamic forces and wind shear likely broke the aluminum oxide seal that had replaced eroded O-rings, allowing the flame to burn through the joint. Within 1 second from when it was first recorded, the plume became well-defined, and the enlarging hole caused a drop in internal pressure in the right SRB. A leak had begun in the liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank of the ET at , as indicated by the changing shape of the plume. The SSMEs pivoted to compensate for the booster burn-through, which was creating an unexpected thrust on the vehicle. The pressure in the external LH2 tank began to drop at indicating that the flame had burned from the SRB into the tank. The crew and flight controllers made no indication they were aware of the vehicle and flight anomalies. At , the CAPCOM, Richard O. Covey, told the crew that the SSMEs had throttled up to 104% thrust. In response to Covey, Scobee said, "Roger, go at throttle up"; this was the last communication from Challenger on the air-to-ground loop.
Vehicle breakup
At , the right SRB pulled away from the aft strut that attached it to the ET, causing lateral acceleration that was felt by the crew. At the same time, pressure in the LH2 tank began dropping. Pilot Mike Smith said "Uh-oh," which was the last speech recorded of the crew. At , white vapor was seen flowing away from the ET, after which the aft dome of the LH2 tank fell off. The resulting release of all liquid hydrogen in the tank pushed the LH2 tank forward into the liquid oxygen (LOX) tank with a force equating to roughly , while the right SRB collided with the intertank structure. These events resulted in an abrupt change to the shuttle stack's attitude and direction, which was shrouded from view by the vaporized contents of the now-destroyed ET. As it traveled at Mach 1.92, Challenger took aerodynamic forces it was not designed to withstand and broke into several large pieces: a wing, the (still firing) main engines, the crew cabin and hypergolic fuel leaking from the ruptured reaction control system were among the parts identified exiting the vapor cloud. The disaster unfolded at an altitude of . Both SRBs survived the breakup of the shuttle stack and continued flying, now unguided by the attitude and trajectory control of their mothership, until their flight termination systems were activated at .
Post-breakup flight controller dialogue
At , there was a burst of static on the air-to-ground loop as the vehicle broke up, which was later attributed to ground-based radios searching for a signal from the destroyed spacecraft. NASA Public Affairs Officer Steve Nesbitt was initially unaware of the explosion and continued to read out flight information. At , after video of the explosion was seen in Mission Control, the Ground Control Officer reported "negative contact (and) loss of downlink" as they were no longer receiving transmissions from Challenger.
Nesbitt stated, "Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction. We have no downlink." Soon afterwards, he said, "We have a report from the Flight Dynamics Officer that the vehicle has exploded. The flight director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point."
In Mission Control, flight director Jay Greene ordered that contingency procedures be put into effect, which included locking the doors, shutting down telephone communications, and freezing computer terminals to collect data from them.
Cause and time of death
The crew cabin, which was made of reinforced aluminum, separated in one piece from the rest of the orbiter. It then traveled in a ballistic arc, reaching the apogee of approximately 25 seconds after the explosion. At the time of separation, the maximum acceleration is estimated to have been between 12 and 20 times that of gravity (g). Within two seconds it had dropped below 4g, and within ten seconds the cabin was in free fall. The forces involved at this stage were probably insufficient to cause major injury to the crew.
At least some of the crew were alive and at least briefly conscious after the breakup, as the Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) were activated for Smith and two unidentified crewmembers, but not for Scobee. The PEAPs were not intended for in-flight use, and the astronauts never trained with them for an in-flight emergency. The location of Smith's activation switch, on the back side of his seat, indicated that either Resnik or Onizuka likely activated it for him. Investigators found their remaining unused air supply consistent with the expected consumption during the post-breakup trajectory.
While analyzing the wreckage, investigators discovered that several electrical system switches on Smith's right-hand panel had been moved from their usual launch positions. The switches had lever locks on top of them that must be pulled out before the switch could be moved. Later tests established that neither the force of the explosion nor the impact with the ocean could have moved them, indicating that Smith made the switch changes, presumably in a futile attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter.
On July 28, 1986, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Flight, former astronaut Richard H. Truly, released a report on the deaths of the crew from physician and Skylab 2 astronaut Joseph P. Kerwin.
According to the Kerwin Report:
Pressurization could have enabled consciousness for the entire fall until impact. The crew cabin hit the ocean surface at approximately two minutes and 45 seconds after breakup. The estimated deceleration was , far exceeding structural limits of the crew compartment or crew survivability levels. The mid-deck floor had not suffered buckling or tearing, as would result from a rapid decompression, but stowed equipment showed damage consistent with decompression, and debris was embedded between the two forward windows that may have caused a loss of pressure. Impact damage to the crew cabin was severe enough that it could not be determined whether the crew cabin had previously been damaged enough to lose pressurization.
Prospect of crew escape
Unlike other spacecraft, the Space Shuttle did not allow for crew escape during powered flight. Launch escape systems had been considered during development, but NASA's conclusion was that the Space Shuttle's expected high reliability would preclude the need for one. Modified SR-71 Blackbird ejection seats and full pressure suits were used for the two-person crews on the first four Space Shuttle orbital test flights, but they were disabled and later removed for the operational flights. Escape options for the operational flights were considered but not implemented due to their complexity, high cost, and heavy weight. After the disaster, a system was implemented to allow the crew to escape in gliding flight, but this system would not have been usable to escape an explosion during ascent.
Recovery of debris and crew
Immediately after the disaster, the NASA Launch Recovery Director launched the two SRB recovery ships, MV Freedom Star and MV Liberty Star, to proceed to the impact area to recover debris, and requested the support of US military aircraft and ships. Owing to falling debris from the explosion, the RSO kept recovery forces from the impact area until 12:37p.m. The size of the recovery operations increased to 12 aircraft and 8 ships by 7:00p.m. Surface operations recovered debris from the orbiter and ET. The surface recovery operations ended on February7.
On January31, the US Navy was tasked with submarine recovery operations. The search efforts prioritized the recovery of the right SRB, followed by the crew compartment, and then the remaining payload, orbiter pieces, and ET. The search for debris formally began on February8 with the rescue and salvage ship , and eventually grew to sixteen ships, of which three were managed by NASA, four by the US Navy, one by the US Air Force and eight by independent contractors. The surface ships used side-scan sonar to make the initial search for debris and covered at water depths between and . The sonar operations discovered 881 potential locations for debris, of which 187 pieces were later confirmed to be from the orbiter.
The debris from the SRBs was widely distributed due to the detonation of their linear shaped charges. The identification of SRB material was primarily conducted by crewed submarines and submersibles. The vehicles were dispatched to investigate potential debris located during the search phase. Surface ships lifted the SRB debris with the help of technical divers and underwater remotely operated vehicles to attach the necessary slings to raise the debris with cranes. The solid propellant in the SRBs posed a risk, as it became more volatile after being submerged. Recovered portions of the SRBs were kept wet during recovery, and their unused propellant was ignited once they were brought ashore. The failed joint on the right SRB was first located on sonar on March1. Subsequent dives to by the submarine on April5 and the SEA-LINK I submersible on April12 confirmed that it was the damaged field joint, and it was successfully recovered on April13. Of the of both SRB shells, was recovered, another was found but not recovered, and was never found.
On March 7, Air Force divers identified potential crew compartment debris, which was confirmed the next day by divers from the USS Preserver. The damage to the crew compartment indicated that it had remained largely intact during the initial explosion but was extensively damaged when it impacted the ocean. The remains of the crew were badly damaged from impact and submersion, and were not intact bodies. The USS Preserver made multiple trips to return debris and remains to port, and continued crew compartment recovery until April4. During the recovery of the remains of the crew, Jarvis's body floated away and was not located until April15, several weeks after the other remains had been positively identified. Once remains were brought to port, pathologists from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology worked to identify the human remains, but could not determine the exact cause of death for any of them. Medical examiners in Brevard County disputed the legality of transferring human remains to US military officials to conduct autopsies and refused to issue the death certificates; NASA officials ultimately released the death certificates of the crew members.
The IUS that would have been used to boost the orbit of the TDRS-B satellite was one of the first pieces of debris recovered. There was no indication that there had been premature ignition of the IUS, which had been one of the suspected causes for the disaster. Debris from the three SSMEs was recovered from February14 to28, and post-recovery analysis produced results consistent with functional engines suddenly losing their LH2 fuel supply. Deepwater recovery operations continued until April29, with smaller scale, shallow recovery operations continuing until August29. On December 17, 1996, two pieces of the orbiter were found at Cocoa Beach. On November 10, 2022, NASA announced that a 20-foot piece of the shuttle had been found near the site of a destroyed World War II-era aircraft off the coast of Florida. The discovery was aired on the History Channel on November 22, 2022. Almost all recovered non-organic debris from Challenger is buried in Cape Canaveral Space Force Station missile silos at LC-31 and LC-32.
Funeral ceremonies
On April 29, 1986, the astronauts' remains were transferred on a C-141 Starlifter aircraft from Kennedy Space Center to the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Their caskets were each draped with an American flag and carried past an honor guard and followed by an astronaut escort. After the remains arrived at Dover Air Force Base, they were transferred to the families of the crew members. Scobee and Smith were buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Onizuka was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. McNair was buried in Rest Lawn Memorial Park in Lake City, South Carolina, but his remains were later moved within the town to the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Memorial Park. McAuliffe was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. Jarvis was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean. Unidentified crew remains were buried at the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial in Arlington on May 20, 1986.
Public response
White House response
President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to give the 1986 State of the Union Address on January28,1986, the evening of the Challenger disaster. After a discussion with his aides, Reagan postponed the State of the Union, and instead addressed the nation about the disaster from the Oval Office. On January31, Ronald and Nancy Reagan traveled to the Johnson Space Center to speak at a memorial service honoring the crew members. During the ceremony, an Air Force band sang "God Bless America" as NASA T-38 Talon jets flew directly over the scene in the traditional missing-man formation.
Soon after the disaster, US politicians expressed concern that White House officials, including Chief of Staff Donald Regan and Communications Director Pat Buchanan, had pressured NASA to launch Challenger before the scheduled January 28 State of the Union address, because Reagan had planned to mention the launch in his remarks. In March 1986, the White House released a copy of the original State of the Union speech. In that speech, Reagan had intended to mention an X-ray experiment launched on Challenger and designed by a guest he had invited to the address, but he did not further discuss the Challenger launch. In the rescheduled State of the Union address on February 4, Reagan mentioned the deceased Challenger crew members and modified his remarks about the X-ray experiment as "launched and lost". In April1986, the White House released a report that concluded there had been no pressure from the White House for NASA to launch Challenger prior to the State of the Union.
Media coverage
Nationally televised coverage of the launch and explosion was provided by CNN. To promote the Teacher in Space program with McAuliffe as a crewmember, NASA had arranged for many students in the US to view the launch live at school with their teachers. Press interest in the disaster increased in the following days; the number of reporters at KSC increased from 535 on the day of the launch to 1,467 reporters three days later. In the aftermath of the accident, NASA was criticized for not making key personnel available to the press. In the absence of information, the press published articles suggesting the external tank was the cause of the explosion. Until 2010, CNN's live broadcast of the launch and disaster was the only known on-location video footage from within range of the launch site. Additional amateur and professional recordings have since become publicly available.
Engineering case study
The Challenger accident has been used as a case study for subjects such as engineering safety, the ethics of whistleblowing, communications and group decision-making, and the dangers of groupthink. Roger Boisjoly and Allan McDonald became speakers who advocated for responsible workplace decision making and engineering ethics. Information designer Edward Tufte has argued that the Challenger accident was the result of poor communications and overly complicated explanations on the part of engineers, and stated that showing the correlation of ambient air temperature and O-ring erosion amounts would have been sufficient to communicate the potential dangers of the cold-weather launch. Boisjoly contested this assertion and stated that the data presented by Tufte were not as simple or available as Tufte stated.
Reports
Rogers Commission report
The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, also known as the Rogers Commission after its chairman, was formed on February6. Its members were Chairman William P. Rogers, Vice Chairman Neil Armstrong, David Acheson, Eugene Covert, Richard Feynman, Robert Hotz, Donald Kutyna, Sally Ride, Robert Rummel, Joseph Sutter, Arthur Walker, Albert Wheelon, and Chuck Yeager.
The commission held hearings that discussed the NASA accident investigation, the Space Shuttle program, and the Morton Thiokol recommendation to launch despite O-ring safety issues. On February15, Rogers released a statement that established the commission's changing role to investigate the accident independent of NASA due to concerns of the failures of the internal processes at NASA. The commission created four investigative panels to research the different aspects of the mission. The Accident Analysis Panel, chaired by Kutyna, used data from salvage operations and testing to determine the exact cause behind the accident. The Development and Production Panel, chaired by Sutter, investigated the hardware contractors and how they interacted with NASA. The Pre-Launch Activities Panel, chaired by Acheson, focused on the final assembly processes and pre-launch activities conducted at KSC. The Mission Planning and Operations Panel, chaired by Ride, investigated the planning that went into mission development, along with potential concerns over crew safety and pressure to adhere to a schedule. Over a period of four months, the commission interviewed over 160 individuals, held at least 35 investigative sessions, and involved more than 6,000 NASA employees, contractors, and support personnel. The commission published its report on June 6, 1986.
The commission determined that the cause of the accident was hot gas blowing past the O-rings in the field joint on the right SRB, and found no other potential causes for the disaster. It attributed the accident to a faulty design of the field joint that was unacceptably sensitive to changes in temperature, dynamic loading, and the character of its materials. The report was critical of NASA and Morton Thiokol, and emphasized that both organizations had overlooked evidence that indicated the potential danger with the SRB field joints. It noted that NASA accepted the risk of O-ring erosion without evaluating how it could potentially affect the safety of a mission. The commission concluded that the safety culture and management structure at NASA were insufficient to properly report, analyze, and prevent flight issues. It stated that the pressure to increase the rate of flights negatively affected the amount of training, quality control, and repair work that was available for each mission.
The commission published a series of recommendations to improve the safety of the Space Shuttle program. It proposed a redesign of the joints in the SRB that would prevent gas from blowing past the O-rings. It also recommended that the program's management be restructured to keep project managers from being pressured to adhere to unsafe organizational deadlines, and should include astronauts to address crew safety concerns better. It proposed that an office for safety be established reporting directly to the NASA administrator to oversee all safety, reliability, and quality assurance functions in NASA programs. Additionally, the commission addressed issues with overall safety and maintenance for the orbiter, and it recommended the addition of the means for the crew to escape during controlled gliding flight.
During a televised hearing on February11, Feynman demonstrated the loss of rubber's elasticity in cold temperatures using a glass of cold water and a piece of rubber, for which he received media attention. Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, advocated for harsher criticism towards NASA in the report and repeatedly disagreed with Rogers. He threatened to remove his name from the report unless it included his personal observations on reliability, which appeared as Appendix F. In the appendix, he lauded the engineering and software accomplishments in the program's development, but he argued that multiple components, including the avionics and SSMEs in addition to the SRBs, were more dangerous and accident-prone than original NASA estimates had indicated.
US House Committee report
The US House Committee on Science and Technology conducted an investigation of the Challenger disaster and released a report on October29, 1986. The committee, which had authorized the funding for the Space Shuttle program, reviewed the findings of the Rogers Commission as part of its investigation. The committee agreed with the Rogers Commission that the failed SRB field joint was the cause of the accident, and that NASA and Morton Thiokol failed to act despite numerous warnings of the potential dangers of the SRB. The committee's report further emphasized safety considerations of other components and recommended a risk management review for all critical systems.
NASA response
SRB redesign
In response to the commission's recommendation, NASA initiated a redesign of the SRB, later named the redesigned solid rocket motor (RSRM), which was supervised by an independent oversight group. The redesigned joint included a capture feature on the tang around the interior wall of the clevis to prevent joint rotation. The space between the capture feature and the clevis was sealed with another O-ring. The capture feature reduced the potential of joint rotation to 15% of that which had occurred during the disaster. Should joint rotation occur, any rotation that reduced the O-ring seal on one side of the clevis wall would increase it on the other side. Additionally, heaters were installed to maintain consistent, higher temperatures of the O-rings. The RSRM was first tested on August 30, 1987. In April and August 1988, the RSRM was tested with intentional flaws that allowed hot gas to penetrate the field joint. These tests permitted the engineers to evaluate whether the improved field joint prevented joint rotation. Following the successful tests, the RSRM was certified to fly on the Space Shuttle.
Space Shuttle modifications
In addition to the SRBs, NASA increased the safety standards on other Space Shuttle program components. The critical items lists and failure modes for the SSMEs were updated, along with 18 hardware changes. The maximum thrust of the SSMEs was limited to 104%, with 109% only allowed in an abort scenario. The landing gear was updated to improve its steering and handling abilities while the Space Shuttle was landing. NASA implemented an escape option in which the astronauts would jettison the side hatch and extend a pole out of the orbiter; they would slide down the pole to avoid hitting the orbiter as bailed out before they activated their parachutes. The orbiter's software was modified to maintain stable flight while all of the flight crew left the controls to escape. This escape method would not have saved the crew in the Challenger disaster, but was added in the event of another emergency.
Safety office
NASA also created a new Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, headed as the commission had specified by a NASA associate administrator who reported directly to the NASA administrator. Former Challenger flight director Greene became chief of the Safety Division of the directorate. After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) concluded that NASA had not effectively set up an independent office for safety oversight. The CAIB concluded that the ineffective safety culture that had resulted in the Challenger accident was also responsible for the subsequent disaster.
Teacher in Space
The Teacher in Space program, which McAuliffe had been selected for, was canceled in 1990 as a result of the Challenger disaster. In 1998, NASA replaced Teacher in Space with the Educator Astronaut Project, which differed in that it required the teachers to become professional astronauts trained as mission specialists, rather than short-term payload specialists who would return to their classrooms following their spaceflight. Barbara Morgan, who had been the backup teacher for McAuliffe, was selected to be part of NASA Astronaut Group 17 and flew on STS-118.
Return to flight
The projected launch schedule of 24 per year was criticized by the Rogers Commission as an unrealistic goal that created unnecessary pressure on NASA to launch missions. In August 1986, President Reagan approved the construction of an orbiter, which would later be named , to replace Challenger. Construction of Endeavour began in 1987 and was completed in 1990, and it first flew on STS-49 in May 1992. He also announced that the program would no longer carry commercial satellite payloads, and that these would be launched using commercial expendable launch vehicles. These commercial payloads were reallocated from the Space Shuttle program to end the dependence on a single launch vehicle and limit the pressure on NASA to launch crewed missions to satisfy its customers.
The Space Shuttle fleet was grounded for two years and eight months while the program underwent investigation, redesign, and restructuring. On September 29, 1988, Discovery launched on STS-26 mission from LC-39B with a crew of five veteran astronauts. Its payload was TDRS-3, which was a substitute for the satellite lost with Challenger. The launch tested the redesigned boosters, and the crew wore pressure suits during the ascent and reentry. The mission was a success, and the program resumed flying.
Legacy
In 2004, President George W. Bush conferred posthumous Congressional Space Medals of Honor to all 14 crew members killed in the Challenger and Columbia accidents. An unpainted decorative oval in the Brumidi Corridors of the United States Capitol was finished with a portrait depicting the crew by Charles Schmidt in 1987. The scene was painted on canvas and then applied to the wall. The "Forever Remembered" exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex opened in July 2015 and includes a display of a section of Challengers recovered fuselage. The exhibit was opened by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden along with family members of the crew. A tree for each astronaut was planted in NASA's Astronaut Memorial Grove at the Johnson Space Center, along with trees for each astronaut from the Apollo 1 and Columbia disasters.
Seven asteroids were named after the crew members: , , , , , , and . The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on March 26, 1986 (). In 1988, seven craters on the far side of the Moon, within the Apollo Basin, were named after the astronauts by the IAU. The Soviet Union named two craters on Venus after McAuliffe and Resnik.
Several memorials have been established in honor of the Challenger disaster. The public Peers Park in Palo Alto, California, features the Challenger Memorial Grove including redwood trees grown from seeds carried aboard Challenger in 1985. Schools and streets have been renamed to include the names of the crew or Challenger. In 1990, a 1/10 scale replica of Challenger in liftoff position was erected in Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, California. Challenger Point is a mountain peak of the Sangre de Cristo Range. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, a science museum and planetarium in Concord, New Hampshire, is named in honor of McAuliffe, a Concord High School teacher, and Alan Shepard, who was from Derry, New Hampshire.
The crew's families established the Challenger Center for Space Science Education as an educational non-profit organization.
An American flag, later named the Challenger flag, was carried aboard the Challenger. It was sponsored by Boy Scout Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado, and was recovered intact, still sealed in its plastic container. Onizuka had included a soccer ball with his personal effects that was recovered and later flown to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz Expedition 49 by American astronaut Shane Kimbrough. It is on display at Clear Lake High School in Houston, which was attended by Onizuka's children.
The 1986 motion picture Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was dedicated to the crew of the Challenger with an opening message which stated "The cast and crew of Star Trek wish to dedicate this film to the men and women of the spaceship Challenger whose courageous spirit shall live to the 23rd century and beyond..."
In media
Books
In the years immediately after the Challenger disaster, several books were published describing the factors and causes of the accident and the subsequent investigation and changes. In 1987, Malcolm McConnell, a journalist and a witness of the disaster, published Challenger–A Major Malfunction: A True Story of Politics, Greed, and the Wrong Stuff. McConnell's book was criticized for arguing for a conspiracy involving NASA Administrator Fletcher awarding the contract to Morton Thiokol because it was from his home state of Utah. The book Prescription for Disaster: From the Glory of Apollo to the Betrayal of the Shuttle by Joseph Trento was also published in 1987, arguing that the Space Shuttle program had been a flawed and politicized program from its inception. In 1988, Feynman's memoir, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character, was published. The latter half of the book discusses his involvement in the Rogers Commission and his relationship with Kutyna.
Books were published long after the disaster. In 1996, Diane Vaughan published The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, which argues that NASA's structure and mission, rather than just Space Shuttle program management, created a climate of risk acceptance that resulted in the disaster. Also in 1996, Claus Jensen published No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time that primarily discusses the development of rocketry prior to the disaster, and was criticized for its reliance on secondary sources with little original research conducted for the book. In 2009, Allan McDonald published his memoir written with space historian James Hansen, Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, which focuses on his personal involvement in the launch, disaster, investigation, and return to flight, and is critical of NASA and Morton Thiokol leadership for agreeing to launch Challenger despite engineers' warnings about the O-rings.
Film and television
The ABC television movie titled Challenger was broadcast on February 25, 1990. It stars Barry Bostwick as Scobee and Karen Allen as McAuliffe. The movie is critical of NASA and positively portrays the engineers who argued against launching. The movie was criticized by the widows of Smith, McNair, and Onizuka as an inaccurate portrayal of events. A BBC docudrama titled The Challenger Disaster was broadcast on March 18, 2013. It starred William Hurt as Feynman and portrayed the investigation into the causes of the disaster. A film directed by Nathan VonMinden, The Challenger Disaster, was released on January 25, 2019, depicts fictional characters participating in the decision process to launch.
The four-part docuseries Challenger: The Final Flight, created by Steven Leckart and Glen Zipper, was released by Netflix on September 16, 2020. It uses interviews with NASA and Morton Thiokol personnel to argue against their flawed decision-making which produced a preventable disaster.
The first episode of the Australian television drama The Newsreader, broadcast on August 15, 2021, depicts the disaster from the perspective of the television industry, specifically the journalists and crew within, and of, an Australian television newsroom at the time; a co-lead character's hosting of a newsflash weaving in with an overarching background storyline about the shift in news presentation from serious to that of allowing emotion into its delivery.
The first episode of Season 6 of the television drama series This Is Us, titled “The Challenger” features the incident of the explosion in 1986 in the flashback scenes.
See also
Criticism of the Space Shuttle program
Normalization of deviance
Engineering disasters
List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents
Notes
References
External links
Rogers Commission Report NASA webpage (crew tribute, five report volumes and appendices)
Complete text and audio and video of Ronald Reagan's Shuttle Challenger Address to the Nation
Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy – video of shuttle launch and Reagan's address – YouTube
Challenger: A Rush to Launch, an Emmy Award-winning documentary about flight STS-51-L and what caused the Challenger explosion
CBS Radio news bulletin of the Challenger disaster anchored by Christopher Glenn from January 28, 1986: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
Videos of the disaster
NASA video recording showing the breakup
video from Winter Haven, Florida
from a plane leaving from Orlando International Airport
8 film recorded at the Kennedy Space Center
at the Kennedy Space Center
1986 disasters in the United States
Articles containing video clips
1986 in spaceflight
1986 in Florida
Death in Florida
Disasters in Florida
History of Brevard County, Florida
Presidency of Ronald Reagan
C
Space Shuttle program
Destroyed spacecraft
Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1986
1986 industrial disasters
Explosions in 1986
Marine salvage operations
January 1986 events in the United States
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music%20of%20Serbia
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Music of Serbia
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Music of Serbia represents the musical heritage of Serbia, both historical and modern. It has a variety of traditional music styles, which are part of the wider Balkan musical tradition, with its own distinctive sound and characteristics.
Music of the Middle Ages
Church music was performed throughout medieval Serbia by choirs or individual singers. The songs performed at the time were derived from the Octoechos (Osmoglasnik), a collection of religious songs dedicated to Jesus. Composers from this era include nun Jefimija, monks Kir Stefan the Serb, Isaiah the Serb, and Nikola the Serb, who together belong to the "Serbo-Byzantine school".
Aside from church music, the medieval era in Serbia included traditional music, about which little is known, and court music. During the Nemanjić dynasty era musicians played an important role at the royal court, and were known as sviralnici, glumci and praskavnici. The rulers known for the musical patronage included Emperor Stefan Dušan and Despot Đurađ Branković. Medieval musical instruments included horns, trumpets, lutes, psalteries, drums and cymbals. Traditional folk instruments include the gajde, kaval, dajre, diple, tamburitza, gusle, tapan (davul), sargija, ćemane (kemenche), zurla (zurna), and frula among others.
Sung Serbian epic poetry has been an integral part of Serbian and Balkan music for centuries. In the highlands of Serbia and Montenegro these long poems are typically accompanied on a one-string fiddle called the gusle, and concern themselves with themes from history and mythology. After the Ottoman conquest of Serbia, music was enriched with oriental influences at the expense of Serbian folk music. During Ottoman rule, Serbian faith and folk music went underground so to speak since the people were forbidden to own their property, to learn to write and read and were also denied the use of musical instruments. The Serbs however were stubbornly tenacious enough to maintain an oral history through folk poems and songs recited with the accompaniment of the Gusle. These brave defenders of Serbian art and culture in these arduous and treacherous times were the peasants who played the Gusle, a one-stringed instrument in the shape of a lute. As their punishment for playing a musical instrument, many of these musicians were blinded by their oppressors. Denied music or dance, the Serbs invented a silent kolo (dance) in which the syncopation of the pounding of the feet became an instantaneous musical accompaniment to the folk dancers. This particular dance is still being performed today. The German poet Goethe so admired Serbian poetry and folklore that he learned to speak Slavonic-Serbian, the common language then spoken by Slavs in the Balkans and northern regions of the Austrian Empire. Goethe and Grimm's works were also the major inspiration in encouraging Brahms, Carl Loewe, Tor Aulin, Anton Dvorak, Leos Janacek, Josef Suk, Peter Tchaikovsky and Josef Maria Wolfram (1789–1839) to create compositions based on Serbian folk poetry and literature. Brahms' famous lullaby is derived from a Serbian folk poem. When the Jews fled Spain the Serbs provided a hospitable environment in which they could resettle and prosper, particularly in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. The oldest Jewish Choir in the modern world is located in Belgrade. The formation of the Pančevo Church Choral Society in 1838 and the Belgrade Choral Society in 1853 resulted in each becoming centers for nurturing young talent. The first music schools were founded through the efforts of these choral societies.
From the Habsburg rule, Serbia was enriched by Western music.
Classical music
Composer and musicologist Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac is considered one of the most important founders of modern Serbian music. Born in 1856, Mokranjac taught music, collected Serbian traditional songs and did the first scholarly research on Serbian music. He was also the director of the first Serbian music school and one of the founders of the Union of Singing Societies. His most famous works are the Song Wreaths, also known as Garlands.
During the 19th and 20th centuries numerous bands, both military and civilian, contributed to the development of music culture in Belgrade and other Serbian cities and towns. Prior to Mokranjac's era, Serbia's representatives of the Romantic period were world-renowned violinist Dragomir Krančević, pianist Sidonija Ilić, pianist and composer Jovanka Stojković and opera singer Sofija Sedmakov who achieved success performing in opera houses of Germany in the 1890s. For example, the promenade concert tradition was first established by The Serbian Prince Band founded in 1831, and its first conductor was Joseph Shlezinger, who composed music for the band based on traditional Serbian songs. This was a period when the first choral societies, then mostly sung in German and Italian language, were being organized. Later, the first Serbian language works for choirs were written by Kornelije Stanković.
The Serbian composers Petar Konjović, Stevan Hristić and Miloje Milojević, all born in the 1880s, were the most eminent composers of their generation. They maintained the national expression and modernized romanticism in the direction of impressionism.
The best-known composers born around 1910 studied in Europe, mostly in Prague. Ljubica Marić, Stanojlo Rajičić, Milan Ristić took influence from Schoenberg, Hindemith and Haba, rejecting the "conservative" work of prior Serbian composers, seeing it as outdated and the wish for national expression was outside their interest.
Other famous classical Serbian composers include Isidor Bajić, Stanislav Binički and Josif Marinković.
Several notable composers used motifs from Serbian folk music and composed works inspired by Serbian history or culture, such as: Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Arthur Rubinstein, Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Schubert, Hans Huber and others. In 1788, just before the start of the Habsburg–Ottoman War, a classical period composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the La Bataille K. 535 (also known as “Die Belagerung Belgrads” – “The Siege of Belgrade”), which was most likely inspired by previous sieges of Belgrade, while some scholars state that the composition was used to support the war effort. Thanks to Miloš Obrenović's good contacts during his stay in Vienna, Johann Strauss II composed the Serben-Quadrille intended for Serbian balls. During the Serbian–Turkish Wars, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed the Marche slave, which was based on several Serbian folk songs. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov used some Serbian folk tunes to compose the Fantasy on Serbian Themes (1867).
Serbian folk music
Ethno music
The ethno genre encompasses both vocal and non-vocal (instrumental) music. Instruments include bagpipes, flutes, horns, trumpets, lutes, psalteries, drums and cymbals such as: Frula (woodwind), Diple (dvojanka, woodwind), Gajde (bagpipe), Zurna (woodwind), Duduk (woodwind), Tambura (lute), Tamburitza (lute), Gusle (lute), Kaval (šupeljka, lute), Davul (tapan, goč, drum), Bouzouki (šargija, lute), Tarambuke (drum). Balkanika, Balkanopolis, Dvig, Slobodan Trkulja, Belo Platno, Teodulija, Kulin Ban are known Serbian musical groups that use traditional Balkan musical instruments and perform traditional songs and songs based on traditional music elements.
Old folk
The Serbian folk music is both rural (izvorna muzika) and urban (starogradska muzika) and includes a two-beat dance called kolo, which is a circle dance with almost no movement above the waist, accompanied by instrumental music made most often with an accordion, but also with other instruments: frula (traditional kind of a recorder), tamburica, or accordion. The Kolos usually last for about 5–13 minutes. Modern accordionists include Mirko Kodić and Ljubiša Pavković. Some kolos are similar to the Hungarian csárdás in that they are slow at the onset and gradually increase their speed until reaching a climax towards the end.
Famous performers of Serbian folk music are Predrag Gojković Cune, Predrag Živković Tozovac, Miroslav Ilić, Lepa Lukić, Vasilija Radojčić, Šaban Bajramović, Staniša Stošić, Toma Zdravković and others. Yugoslav singer, actress and writer, Olivera Katarina, has performed music of various genres, varying from Serbian traditional to pop music, and in numerous languages. She held 72 consecutive concerts in Paris Olympia.
New folk
During the 70s Serbian folk music started to use elements from oriental music, distancing from the original sound, style that is titled novokomponovana muzika ("newly composed music"). Soon many neo-folk singers emerged: Šaban Šaulić, Jašar Ahmedovski, Mitar Mirić, Nada Topčagić, Šeki Turković, Ipče Ahmedovski, Ljuba Aličić, Zorica Brunclik, Marinko Rokvić and others. Serbian folk scene was not homogeneous nor uniform. On one hand, following Western models, Vesna Zmijanac was creating a star-image, being sex-symbol, fashionista and gay icon as well. On the other hand, singers like Vera Matović, for example, have created folk subgenre, sort of rural folk, singing about works in field, domestic animals and themes from Serbian village. Louis was combining Serbian folk music with jazz. Their albums were sponsored and songs were broadcast on the Radio Television of Serbia, which led to domination of this genre.
Balkan brass
Brass bands, known as trubači (, "the trumpeters") are extremely popular, especially in Central and Southern Serbia where Balkan Brass Band originated. The trumpet was initially used as a military instrument to wake and gather soldiers and announce battles during First Serbian Uprising in the 19th century, but later took on the role of entertainment during downtime, as soldiers used it to transpose popular folk songs. When the war ended and the soldiers returned to the rural life, the music entered civilian life and eventually became a music style, accompanying special occasions such as slavas, baptisms, harvests, births and funerals. In 1831 the first official military band was formed by Prince Miloš Obrenović. Roma people have also adopted the tradition and enhanced the music, and today most of the best performers are Roma. The best known Serbian Brass musicians are Fejat Sejdić, and Boban Marković and are also the biggest names in the world of modern brass band bandleaders. Guča trumpet festival is one of the most popular and biggest music festivals in Serbia is a five-day annual festival with 300 000 visitors.
Popular music
Pop music
Various sources suggest that pop music existed in Serbia before the Second World War, including the claims of French entertainer Josephine Baker, who stated that she encountered gramophone records of this style of music during her trip to Serbia. Pop music grew in popularity during the following decades, especially during the late 1950s and 1960s with performers of schlager, such as Lola Novaković and Đorđe Marjanović. Some of the best known songs from this era include "Zvižduk u osam" by Marjanović and "Devojko mala", which was performed by actor Vlastimir Đuza Stojiljković in the popular movie Ljubav i moda (1960). Despite the fact that pop partially lost its popularity in Serbia to rock music during the 1970s and 1980s, it continued to stay relevant with disco-influenced artists such as Zdravko Čolić, who is recognized as one of the most prominent performers from the entire Yugoslavia. The 1980s also saw popularity of new wave music with acts like Zana and Bebi Dol. During the following decades however, pop music was significantly overshadowed by pop-folk. The 1990s pop was also marked by the influence of Europop with groups such as Tap 011 and K2.
Some of the best-known Serbian pop singers who have gained prominence in the 2000s are Vlado Georgiev, Marija Šerifović, Željko Joksimović, Aleksandra Radović, Tijana Dapčević, Jelena Tomašević, Nataša Bekvalac, Emina Jahović, Ana Nikolić and Saša Kovačević. Šerifović is also noted for winning the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest with Molitva, making her the only Serbian Eurovision winner.
Most prominent pop artists from the 2010s include: Sara Jo, Nikolija, Edita Aradinović, Teodora Džehverović, Anastasija Ražnatović, Elena Kitić, Angellina, Breskvica and Hurricane (Serbian band).
Rock music
As a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was a part, was far more open to western influences compared to the other socialist states. The western-influenced pop and rock music was socially accepted, the Yugoslav rock scene was well developed and covered in the media, which included numerous magazines, radio and TV shows. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia due to civil war, its rock scene also ceased to exist, but saw moderate revival in the 2000s. The most notable Serbian rock acts are Bajaga i Instruktori, Đorđe Balašević, Disciplina Kičme, Ekatarina Velika, Električni Orgazam, Galija, Idoli, Kerber, Korni Grupa, Laboratorija Zvuka, Partibrejkers, Pekinška Patka, Piloti, Pop Mašina, Rambo Amadeus, Riblja Čorba, Smak, Šarlo Akrobata, YU Grupa, Van Gogh, and others.
Popular folk music
Popular folk music, or simply pop-folk, gained in popularity during the 1980s when elements of Serbian folk music were combined with rock and pop music, as well as with elements of folk music from other Balkan cultures. During this decade two of the arguably biggest performers were Lepa Brena, who has sold over 40 million records and is recognized as one of the greatest symbols of Yugoslavia, and Vesna Zmijanac, who was noted as the sex symbol and fashion icon of the 1980s. In the following decade, pop-folk only grew in popularity as a result of the regime of Slobodan Milošević, Yugoslav wars, inflation and political isolation. Because of it, pop-folk gained a bad reputation, becoming colloquially known as "turbo-folk", a term that was coined by musician Rambo Amadeus because of the influence electronic dance music had on this crossover genre during the 1990s. It was during this period when some of the best known names in pop-folk music, and Serbian commercial music in general, emerged, including Dragana Mirković, Dragan Kojic Keba,Ceca, Aca Lukas and Jelena Karleuša.
Even after the downfall of Milošević, pop-folk continued to stay popular. In the 2000s Serbian record label Grand Production gathered most of the country's pop-folk performers, such as Indira Radić, Saša Matić, Seka Aleksić, Đani and Dara Bubamara. Their televised singing contest, called Zvezde Granda, also brought a new generation of singers, which includes Tanja Savić, Milica Todorović, Rada Manojlović, Milan Stanković, Milica Pavlović, Aleksandra Prijović and Tea Tairović.
Jazz
Jazz in Serbia appears in the 1920s when Markus Blam formed first jazz orchestra Studentski Micky Jazz. Jazz music was played mostly in salons and clubs, but it is also known that jazz orchestras toured in spas over Serbia. This style of music has been present on the radio as well as in specialized magazines. Radio Belgrade started to work in 1929, every night after 22:30h Radio Jazz Orchestra played popular songs. First jazz society in Serbia was set up in 1953, but to the development of jazz the most contributed hosting famous musicians, among whom was Louis Armstrong in 1959 and 1960. The first Serbian musicians to rise to international fame were Mladen Guteša who worked for famous musicians such as Lee Konitz, Benny Goodman and others and Duško Gojković. These two entered The 1956 Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz of Leonard Feather. Other prominent names of Serbian jazz include Bora Roković who composed jazz suite The Human Piano, Mihailo Živanović, Branislav Kovačev, Branko Pejaković, Milan Lulić, Boris Jojić, Jovan Miković and others. Among the most popular singers of jazz and blues in Serbia was Šaban Bajramović known as King of Romani music, who was included in the Time magazines list of top 10 blues singers in the world. Vladan Mijatovic (Jazz pianist) is the young ambassador of the Serbian Jazz music in North America.
Hip-hop
Serbian hip hop emerged in the early 80s among the b-boy crews. The first Serbian Hip Hop record release was the Degout EP by The Master Scratch Band, which was released by Jugoton in 1984. However, Serbian hip-hop scene wasn't developed until the late 90s when hip-hop groups started to break out from the underground. Best known rappers and hip-hop collectives include Gru, Sunshine, Bad Copy, Beogradski sindikat and Marčelo. Artists such as Elitni Odredi, Rasta and Coby reached mainstream success by switching to more commercial sound and appealing to the wider audience. Some of the more prominent female performers include Mimi Mercedez and Sajsi MC. Bassivity and later Bassivity Digital have been the biggest regional hip-hop recording labels.
Festivals
Exit is a summer music festival which is held at the Petrovaradin Fortress in the city of Novi Sad, officially proclaimed as the "Best Major European Festival" at the EU Festival Awards. Other festivals include Belgrade Beer Fest in Belgrade, Gitarijada in Zaječar, Nišville in Niš and Guča Trumpet Festival in Guča.
In the town of Guča, near the city of Čačak is an annually held brass band festival called Guča trumpet festival in the Dragačevo region of western Serbia with 600,000 visitors per year. Other popular festivals include Rock festivals Belgrade Beer Fest and Gitarijada, and Jazz festival Nišville.
See also
List of best-selling albums in Serbia
Music of Southeastern Europe
Music of Yugoslavia
References
Sources
Burton, Kim. "Balkan Beats". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 273–276. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.
Hudson, Robert. "Songs of seduction: popular music and Serbian nationalism." Patterns of prejudice 37.2 (2003): 57–176.
External links
Project Rastko category (some text in English, RealAudio church choirs)
The History Serbian Culture – Some facts about medieval Serbian music
Serbian Cultural Association Opleanc – Descriptions of Serbian folk dance choreographies
Traditional music album
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS%20Blueback%20%28SS-581%29
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USS Blueback (SS-581)
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USS Blueback (SS-581) is a that served in the United States Navy from 1959 to 1990, and subsequently was made into an exhibit at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. She was the second Navy submarine to bear the name.
Blueback was laid down by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi on 15 April 1957. She was launched on 16 May 1959 sponsored by Virginia McManes, wife of Rear Admiral Kenmore McManes, and commissioned on 15 October 1959, Lieutenant Commander Robert H. Gautier in command. She was the last non-nuclear submarine to join the United States Navy and was the final conventionally powered combat capable submarine to be decommissioned, which left the United States Navy with a fully nuclear submarine fleet, with the exception of the research submarine which served until 2007.
Origin of the name
Sources differ on the origin of Bluebacks name. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry for Blueback states that she is named after a
Other sources state that she is named after the
Service
1960s
After fitting out, Blueback got underway in January 1960 for a series of acceptance trials in the Gulf of Mexico. She completed that mission and departed Pascagoula on 11 June, bound for the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 7 July and continued on to her home port, Naval Station San Diego. There she was assigned to Submarine Squadron 3 (SUBRON 3), Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet. Blueback then carried out torpedo tube acceptance trials at Keyport, Washington, and underwent a post-shakedown availability at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. On 23 November 1960, the submarine was accepted for service.
Type training in the San Diego area kept her busy into February 1961. On 11 February, she commenced a two-week availability at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Blueback got underway on 28 March for a deployment to the western Pacific during which she participated in 7th Fleet operations and exercises. The submarine left Yokosuka, Japan, on 3 September and sailed submerged to San Diego, arriving there on 25 September.
After leave and upkeep, Blueback began type training exercises out of San Diego on 14 October. Four days later, she participated in a fleet exercise off the southern California coast conducted under the auspices of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). During the next eight months, the submarine took part in several fleet exercises and visited San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington. In July 1962, Blueback entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for her first major overhaul.
Upon completion of the overhaul in January 1963, the submarine made port calls at Seattle and at Vancouver, British Columbia. She then left the west coast and proceeded to her new home port, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. There, the submarine was assigned to Submarine Division 13 (SUBDIV 13). Blueback was involved in local operations from February to early April. On 11 April, the submarine got underway for operations in WestPac. Blueback sailed to Australia to participate in the annual celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea and visited Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. She then continued on to Subic Bay in the Philippines for operations with the 7th Fleet. While on her deployment, Blueback also called at Naha, Okinawa; and at Sasebo, Kobe, and Yokosuka, Japan, before returning to Pearl Harbor on 26 October.
Blueback resumed her former routine in Hawaiian waters and continued local operations into 1964. In March, she suffered damage when a crane toppled over onto her while changing her propeller, necessitating a drydocking for repairs. In the fall and early winter, the submarine made two trips to the vicinity of Wake Island to take part in the evaluations of the SUBROC missile system and s. In each test, Blueback served as a target ship.
On 17 February 1965, Blueback began her second deployment to the Far East. During the cruise, she made port calls at Naha, Hong Kong, Subic Bay, and Yokosuka, and also was involved in supporting American operations in Vietnam. She returned to Pearl Harbor in June, where she carried out local operations until 7 September. She got underway for Bremerton, Washington, on that day and entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard 18 days later for overhaul.
The yard work ended on 26 September 1966, and the submarine commenced sound trials and weapons tests in Puget Sound. She also provided services for a research and development project conducted near Nanoose, Canada. After a four-day visit to Vancouver, she set sail for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived early in November and began refresher training.
Following three months of preparations and training, Blueback embarked on another tour of duty in the western Pacific on 17 February 1967. During the seven-month assignment, she punctuated periods at sea training and supporting the American efforts in the Vietnam War with port calls at Hong Kong and in Japan at Yokosuka and Sasebo. The submarine returned to Oahu early that fall, arriving in Pearl Harbor on 20 September. After a month of leave and upkeep, she resumed operations in Hawaiian waters. On 19 December, she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a restricted availability.
In mid-January 1968, the submarine helped prospective commanding officers to prepare for their new assignments at the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force's school. She then acted as a target for several surface ships and aircraft to practice ASW techniques, and engaged in type training and weapons exercises. On 8 July, she began a five-month deployment to the Far East which, in addition to two special operations, also included much time spent in upkeep at Yokosuka. Blueback returned to Pearl Harbor on 3 December.
1970s
Very early in 1969, she voyaged to Bremerton, and entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 17 January for an overhaul. During her subsequent sea trials and training, the submarine visited Nanaimo, British Columbia, and Port Angeles, Washington, before returning to Hawaii early in December. After intensive training during the first three months of 1970, Blueback set sail on her fifth deployment to the western Pacific on 10 April. She carried out lengthy special operations; made brief visits to Yokosuka, Hong Kong, and Guam; and spent time in the Vietnam war zone. The warship ended the cruise at Pearl Harbor on 1 October and began a period of local operations and upkeep. On 12 February 1971, she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a restricted availability which concluded in late March with trials at sea. Early in April, she took part in SUBASWEX 1-71 in the Pearl Harbor area. After conducting torpedo firing exercises, Blueback entered upkeep at Pearl Harbor.
She began another Far eastern assignment on 25 June and arrived at Yokosuka on 12 July for a week of upkeep before beginning a month of operational training at sea. The submarine next visited Sasebo for 10 days and then continued on to Hong Kong for a liberty period. Blueback traveled south to the Vietnam war zone to render training services to destroyer units of the 7th Fleet and then returned to Japan for upkeep at Yokosuka. On 11 October, the submarine got underway for more training at sea. She paused once again at Yokosuka before sailing for Hawaii on 29 November. She arrived back in her home port on 14 December.
Local operations occupied her during the first 10 weeks of 1972; then, the submarine began a lengthy overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 29 March. Nearly a year later early in March 1973, she finished the yard work, commenced local operations and trained in preparation for deployment. She sailed for the Orient on 8 August and, while there, participated in several operations with other American warships as well as with naval forces from Korea and Taiwan. Among the ports she visited were Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan; Chinhae and Pusan, Korea; Buckner Bay, Okinawa; Hong Kong; and Subic Bay in the Philippines. On 5 January 1974, Blueback left Subic Bay and visited Keelung, Taiwan, for two days before heading back to Hawaii.
The submarine arrived in Pearl Harbor on 31 January 1974 and commenced a leave and upkeep period. During the remainder of the year, Blueback took part in numerous training operations and exercises. She provided services to surface ships and aircraft, conducted torpedo firing drills, and did another tour preparing prospective commanding officers for the new jobs.
During the first two months of 1975, the submarine continued local operations. In March, she participated in Exercise "RIMPAC 75", which included ships from the navies of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Upon completion of this operation, Blueback commenced a restricted availability. Early in June, she resumed local operations including a series of torpedo firing tests, type training, and services to surface and air units. The warship closed out the year in upkeep at Pearl Harbor.
She held sea trials and weapons exercises in January 1976 and began another long overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in February. She did not complete those repairs until 1 December. Blueback commenced refresher training 12 days later. In February 1977, she took part in Exercise "RIMPAC 77", then conducted torpedo trials. After a brief period of upkeep, the submarine departed Pearl Harbor on 28 March and proceeded to her new home port, San Diego, arriving there on 8 April. After an inspection and services to aircraft, she set out for San Francisco on 27 May, made a brief visit, and returned to San Diego on 1 June to prepare for duty overseas. On 21 June, the submarine got underway for Santa Marta, Colombia. Upon arriving there on 7 August, she joined Task Force 138 to participate in UNITAS XVIII. The task force also included , , and . During the deployment, Blueback visited ports in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. She departed Talcahuano, Chile, on 27 September and headed back to San Diego. She stopped at Rodman in the Panama Canal Zone, and made a four-day liberty call at Acapulco, Mexico, before reaching San Diego on 11 November.
The submarine began 1978 in upkeep. She got underway on 13 February for a short visit to San Francisco, returned to San Diego on the 21st, and provided services to ships and aircraft in the San Diego area. From 23 April to 23 May, she underwent a battery replacement in preparation for an upcoming deployment. The ship sailed on 30 May for Portland, Oregon, where she represented the Submarine Force at that city's Rose Festival. She then continued north along the coast to conduct an exercise with Canadian forces off Esquimalt, British Columbia. Following this operation, Blueback arrived at Seattle on 23 June for a two-day liberty call before returning to San Diego.
The submarine began a restricted availability on 17 July and, on 8 August, began final preparations for deployment. On 11 September, she got underway for her eighth western Pacific cruise. She touched at Pearl Harbor on the 22nd, but soon pressed on for Japan, and arrived at Yokosuka on 7 October. She next made a run to Chinhae, Korea, for two weeks of joint special warfare and ASW exercises with units of the South Korean Navy. On 5 November, Blueback arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, to participate in ASW exercises with the Taiwanese Navy. From 14 to 24 November, she took part in a 7th Fleet exercise and then proceeded to Sasebo for a leave and upkeep period. Blueback then spent five days at Hong Kong from 6 to 11 December before heading on to Subic Bay where she arrived on 13 December to close out the year in upkeep.
Blueback got underway on 5 January 1979 to provide target services for ships of the 7th Fleet undergoing ASW training. She then took part in special warfare exercises with Army Special Forces troops. On 22 January, the submarine arrived at Subic Bay for upkeep. Nine days later, she set out on a submerged voyage back to the United States and reached San Diego on 1 March.
After a few weeks of leave and upkeep, the submarine took up local operations again and continued so engaged until beginning a tender availability on 14 May. She resumed local operations again on 12 June. Blueback sailed north on 18 August to visit Astoria, Oregon, and Seattle, Wash., returning to her home port early in September. Following a minelaying exercise off the southern California coast between 17 and 20 September, the submarine entered drydock on 1 October. She began sea trials on 27 November and then provided ASW services before closing the year in a holiday leave and upkeep status.
1980s
Blueback spent the first three and a half months of 1980 in local operations and exercises in preparation for overseas movement. Blueback departed San Diego on 15 April and completed her submerged transit of the Pacific at Okinawa on 11 May. The submarine then took part in ASW exercises in the Philippine Sea. She began upkeep at Yokosuka on 18 May and then got underway for special operations. Blueback began the month of June in upkeep at Sasebo but soon returned to sea to participate in joint exercises with South Korean forces. After another period of upkeep and liberty at Sasebo, she got underway on the 22nd for ASW operations in cooperation with the Japanese submarine Isoshio. At the conclusion of the exercise, Blueback visited Beppu, Japan, before heading for Subic Bay, where she arrived on 8 July. After upkeep, the submarine participated in an ASW exercise in the South China Sea with several ships of the 7th Fleet.
On 22 July, Blueback began a six-day journey to Chinhae to take part in extensive exercises with the South Korean Navy. Early in August, the submarine visited Sasebo and Subic Bay. She conducted special warfare operations from 18 to 21 August and then entered port at San Fernando on northern Luzon. She got underway on 25 August for ASW operations with ships of the Royal Navy. After a final call at Subic Bay, the submarine began her voyage back to home port on 15 September. She entered San Diego on 15 October and began post-deployment leave and upkeep. Then came several days of type training in nearby waters followed by holiday leave and upkeep to close out the year.
[1980-1990]
Decommissioning and status
Blueback was decommissioned on 1 October 1990 and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet in Bremerton, Washington. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 October 1990. With her removal from service, the last warship that was a diesel-electric submarine of the United States Navy had left the fleet, leaving the research submarine as the last diesel submarine of the US fleet.
In February 1994 the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) towed Blueback to Portland, Oregon, where she now rests as an interactive part of the museum and a memorial. Her propeller was removed and installed outside the museum as a National Submarine Memorial. OMSI offers short guided tours of the submarine several times a day and three-hour technical tours twice a month. The vessel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 2008.
The radio room has been restored by the USS Blueback Radio Club with both historic military radios and operational modern amateur radio gear which use the original military HF and VHF antennas. The submarine's radio call sign is now W7SUB.
Honors and awards
Vietnam Service Medal with two campaign stars for Vietnam War service
Popular culture
Blueback appeared in the episode "Samurai" of the 1970s television series Hawaii Five-O.
Blueback appeared in the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October, although she did not perform the famous stunt of an emergency main ballast tank blow during an emergency surfacing procedure seen in the film. A film crew was allowed on board to film a torpedo room scene and some of her crew were paid $50 (USD) each to have their hair cut and to put on Soviet Navy uniforms for the scene, but the scene was not included in the film.
See also
USS Albacore (AGSS-569) unarmed, concept test, research submarine which lead to the Barbel-class_submarine. East Coast (NH) park/museum.
References
External links
USS Blueback All-Volunteer 3D Laser Scanning Project for OMSI
OMSI Web Page
Barbel-class submarines of the United States Navy
Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi
1959 ships
Cold War submarines of the United States
Vietnam War submarines of the United States
Museum ships in Oregon
Museums in Portland, Oregon
Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon
Military and war museums in Oregon
National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon
Hosford-Abernethy, Portland, Oregon
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth%20aircraft
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Stealth aircraft
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Stealth aircraft are designed to avoid detection using a variety of technologies that reduce reflection/emission of radar, infrared, visible light, radio frequency (RF) spectrum, and audio, collectively known as stealth technology. The F-117 Nighthawk was the first operational aircraft explicitly designed around stealth technology. Other examples of stealth aircraft include the B-2 Spirit, the B-21 Raider, the F-22 Raptor, the F-35 Lightning II, the Chengdu J-20, and the Sukhoi Su-57.
While no aircraft is completely invisible to radar, stealth aircraft make it more difficult for conventional radar to detect or track the aircraft effectively, increasing the odds of an aircraft avoiding detection by enemy radar and/or avoiding being successfully targeted by radar guided weapons. Stealth is a combination of passive low observable (LO) features and active emitters such as low-probability-of-intercept radars, radios and laser designators. These are typically combined with operational measures such as carefully planning mission maneuvers to minimize the aircraft's radar cross-section, since common hard turns or opening bomb bay doors can more than double an otherwise stealthy aircraft's radar return. Stealth is accomplished by using a complex design philosophy to reduce the ability of an opponent's sensors to detect, track, or attack the stealth aircraft. This philosophy takes into account the heat, sound, and other emissions of the aircraft which can also be used to locate it. Sensors are made to reduce the impact of low observable technologies and others have been proposed such as IRST (infrared search and track) systems to detect even reduced heat emissions, long wavelength radars to counter stealth shaping and RAM focused on shorter wavelength radar, or radar setups with multiple emitters to counter stealth shaping. However these have disadvantages compared to traditional radar against non-stealthy aircraft.
Full-size stealth combat aircraft demonstrators have been flown by the United States (in 1977), Russia (in 2000) and China (in 2011). , the only combat-ready stealth aircraft in service are the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (1997), the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor (2005); the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II (2015); the Chengdu J-20 (2017), and the Sukhoi Su-57 (2020), with a number of other countries developing their own designs. There are also various aircraft with reduced detectability, either unintentionally or as a secondary feature.
In the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia two stealth aircraft were used by the United States, the veteran F-117 Nighthawk, and the newly introduced B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber. The F-117 performed its usual role of striking precision high-value targets and performed well, although one F-117 was shot down by a Serbian Isayev S-125 'Neva-M' missile brigade commanded by Colonel Zoltán Dani.
Design principles
Besides all the usual demands of flight, the design of a stealth or low-observability aircraft aims to reduce radar and infrared (thermal) detection, including:
Reduce thermal infra-red emission from the engine and its exhaust wake
Reduce radar reflection back to a hostile receiver by shaping the airframe
Reduce radar reflections from the airframe by the use of radar-absorbent materials (RAM) or radar-transparent materials such as plastics.
Reduce radar detection from exposed internal surfaces such as the cockpit, weapons bay and engine intake ducting.
Reduce infra-red and radar detection during adverse weather conditions
Rotorcraft introduce a particular design challenge, due not only to their multiple wing surfaces and articulated joints, but also to the constantly-changing relationship of these to the main airframe surfaces. The Boeing–Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche was one of the first attempts at a stealth helicopter.
Limitations
Instability of design
Early stealth aircraft were designed with a focus on minimal radar cross section (RCS) rather than aerodynamic performance. Highly stealthy aircraft like the F-117 Nighthawk are aerodynamically unstable in all three axes and require constant flight corrections from a fly-by-wire (FBW) flight system to maintain controlled flight. As for the B-2 Spirit, which was based on the development of the flying wing aircraft by Jack Northrop in 1940, this design allowed for a stable aircraft with sufficient yaw control, even without vertical surfaces such as rudders.
Aerodynamic limitations
Earlier stealth aircraft (such as the F-117 and B-2) lack afterburners, because the hot exhaust would increase their infrared footprint, and flying faster than the speed of sound would produce an obvious sonic boom, as well as surface heating of the aircraft skin, which also increases the infrared footprint. As a result, their performance in air combat maneuvering required in a dogfight would never match that of a dedicated fighter aircraft. This was unimportant in the case of these two aircraft since both were designed to be bombers. More recent design techniques allow for stealthy designs such as the F-22 without compromising aerodynamic performance. Newer stealth aircraft, like the F-22, F-35 and the Su-57, have performance characteristics that meet or exceed those of current front-line jet fighters due to advances in other technologies such as flight control systems, engines, airframe construction and materials.
Electromagnetic emissions
The high level of computerization and large amount of electronic equipment found inside stealth aircraft are often claimed to make them vulnerable to passive detection. This is highly unlikely and certainly systems such as Tamara and Kolchuga, which are often described as counter-stealth radars, are not designed to detect stray electromagnetic fields of this type. Such systems are designed to detect intentional, higher power emissions such as radar and communication signals. Stealth aircraft are deliberately operated to avoid or reduce such emissions.
Current Radar Warning Receivers look for the regular pings of energy from mechanically swept radars while fifth generation jet fighters use Low Probability of Intercept Radars with no regular repeat pattern.
Vulnerable modes of flight
Stealth aircraft are still vulnerable to detection while and immediately after using their weaponry. Since stealth payload (reduced RCS bombs and cruise missiles) is not yet generally available, and ordnance mount points create a significant radar return, stealth aircraft carry all armaments internally. As soon as weapons bay doors are opened, the plane's RCS will be multiplied and even older generation radar systems will be able to locate the stealth aircraft. While the aircraft will reacquire its stealth as soon as the bay doors are closed, a fast response defensive weapons system has a short opportunity to engage the aircraft.
This vulnerability is addressed by operating in a manner that reduces the risk and consequences of temporary acquisition. The B-2's operational altitude imposes a flight time for defensive weapons that makes it virtually impossible to engage the aircraft during its weapons deployment. New stealth aircraft designs such as the F-22 and F-35 can open their bays, release munitions and return to stealthy flight in less than a second.
Some weapons require that the weapon's guidance system acquire the target while the weapon is still attached to the aircraft. This forces relatively extended operations with the bay doors open.
Such aircraft as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter can also carry additional weapons and fuel on hardpoints below their wings. When operating in this mode the planes will not be nearly as stealthy, as the hardpoints and the weapons mounted on those hardpoints will show up on radar systems. This option therefore represents a trade off between stealth or range and payload. External stores allow those aircraft to attack more targets further away, but will not allow for stealth during that mission as compared to a shorter range mission flying on just internal fuel and using only the more limited space of the internal weapon bays for armaments.
Reduced payload
Fully stealth aircraft carry all fuel and armament internally, which limits the payload. By way of comparison, the F-117 carries only two laser- or GPS-guided bombs, while a non-stealth attack aircraft can carry several times more. This requires the deployment of additional aircraft to engage targets that would normally require a single non-stealth attack aircraft. This apparent disadvantage however is offset by the reduction in fewer supporting aircraft that are required to provide air cover, air-defense suppression and electronic counter measures, making stealth aircraft "force multipliers".
Sensitive skin
Stealth aircraft often have skins made with radiation-absorbent materials or RAMs. Some of these contain carbon black particles, while some contain tiny iron spheres. There are many materials used in RAMs, and some are classified, particularly the materials that specific aircraft use.
Cost of operations
Stealth aircraft are typically more expensive to develop and manufacture. An example is the B-2 Spirit that is many times more expensive to manufacture and support than conventional bomber aircraft. The B-2 program cost the U.S. Air Force almost $45 billion.
Countermeasures
Reflected waves
Passive (multistatic) radar, bistatic radar and especially multistatic radar systems detect some stealth aircraft better than conventional monostatic radars, since first-generation stealth technology (such as the F117) reflects energy away from the transmitter's line of sight, effectively increasing the radar cross section (RCS) in other directions, which the passive radars monitor. Such a system typically uses either low frequency broadcast TV and FM radio signals (at which frequencies controlling the aircraft's signature is more difficult).
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign with support of DARPA, have shown that it is possible to build a synthetic aperture radar image of an aircraft target using passive multistatic radar, possibly detailed enough to enable automatic target recognition.
In December 2007, SAAB researchers revealed details for a system called Associative Aperture Synthesis Radar (AASR) that would employ a large array of inexpensive and redundant transmitters and receivers that could detect targets when they directly pass between the receivers/transmitters and create a shadow. The system was originally designed to detect stealthy cruise missiles and should be just as effective against low-flying stealth aircraft. That the array could contain a large amount of inexpensive equipment could potentially offer some "protection" against attacks by expensive anti-radar (or anti-radiation) missiles.
Infrared (heat)
Some analysts claim Infra-red search and track systems (IRSTs) can be deployed against stealth aircraft, because any aircraft surface heats up due to air friction and with a two channel IRST is a (4.3 µm absorption maxima) detection possible, through difference comparing between the low and high channel. These analysts point to the resurgence in such systems in Russian designs in the 1980s, such as those fitted to the MiG-29 and Su-27. The latest version of the MiG-29, the MiG-35, is equipped with a new Optical Locator System that includes more advanced IRST capabilities. The French Rafale, the British/German/Italian/Spanish Eurofighter and the Swedish Gripen also make extensive use of IRST.
In air combat, the optronic suite allows:
Detection of non-afterburning targets at range and more;
Identification of those targets at range; and
Estimates of aerial target range at up to .
For ground targets, the suite allows:
A tank-effective detection range up to , and aircraft carrier detection at ;
Identification of the tank type on the range, and of an aircraft carrier at ; and
Estimates of ground target range of up to .
Longer wavelength radar
VHF radar systems have wavelengths comparable to aircraft feature sizes and should exhibit scattering in the resonance region rather than the optical region, allowing most stealth aircraft to be detected. This has prompted Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT) to develop VHF AESAs such as the NEBO SVU, which is capable of performing target acquisition for Surface-to-air missile batteries. Despite the advantages offered by VHF radar, their longer wavelengths result in poor resolution compared to comparably sized X band radar array. As a result, these systems must be very large before they can have the resolution for an engagement radar. An example of a ground-based VHF radar with counter-stealth capability is the P-18 radar.
The Dutch company Thales Nederland, formerly known as Holland Signaal, developed a naval phased-array radar called SMART-L, which is operated at L Band and has counter-stealth. All ships of the Royal Dutch Navy's De Zeven Provinciën class carry, among others, the SMART-L radar.
OTH radar (over-the-horizon radar)
Over-the-horizon radar is a concept increasing radar's effective range over conventional radar. The Australian JORN Jindalee Operational Radar Network can overcome certain stealth characteristics. It is claimed that the HF frequency used and the method of bouncing radar from ionosphere overcomes the stealth characteristics of the F-117A. In other words, stealth aircraft are optimized for defeating much higher-frequency radar from front-on rather than low-frequency radars from above.
History
World War I and World War II
During World War I, the Germans experimented with the use of Cellon (Cellulose acetate), a transparent covering material, in an attempt to reduce the visibility of military aircraft. Single examples of the Fokker E.III Eindecker fighter monoplane, the Albatros C.I two-seat observation biplane, and the Linke-Hofmann R.I prototype heavy bomber were covered with Cellon. However, it proved ineffective, and even counterproductive, as sunlight glinting from the covering made the aircraft even more visible. The material was also found to be quickly degraded both by sunlight and in-flight temperature changes, so the attempt to make transparent aircraft was not proceeded with.
In 1916, the British modified a small SS class airship for the purpose of night-time aerial reconnaissance over German lines on the Western Front. Fitted with a silenced engine and a black gas bag, the craft was both invisible and inaudible from the ground, but several night-time flights over German-held territory produced little useful intelligence, and the idea was dropped.
Nearly three decades later, the Horten Ho 229 flying wing fighter-bomber was developed in Nazi Germany during the last years of World War II. In 1983, its designer Reimar Horten claimed that he planned to add charcoal to the adhesive layers of the plywood skin of the production model to render it invisible to radar. This claim was investigated, as the Ho 229's lack of vertical surfaces, an inherent feature of all flying wing aircraft, is also a key characteristic of all stealth aircraft. Tests were performed in 2008 by the Northrop-Grumman Corporation to establish if the aircraft's shape would have avoided detection by top-end HF-band, 20–30 MHz primary signals of Britain's Chain Home early warning radar, if the aircraft was traveling at high speed (approximately ) at extremely low altitude – . The testing did not find any evidence that charcoal was used, and confirmed that it would have been a poor absorber if used, concluding that the Ho 229 did not have stealth characteristics and was never intended to be a stealth aircraft.
Modern origins
Modern stealth aircraft first became possible when Denys Overholser, a mathematician working for Lockheed Aircraft during the 1970s, adopted a mathematical model developed by Petr Ufimtsev, a Soviet scientist, to develop a computer program called Echo 1. Echo made it possible to predict the radar signature of an aircraft made with flat panels, called facets. In 1975, engineers at Lockheed Skunk Works found that an aircraft made with faceted surfaces could have a very low radar signature because the surfaces would radiate almost all of the radar energy away from the receiver. Lockheed built a proof of concept demonstrator aircraft, the Lockheed Have Blue, nicknamed "the Hopeless Diamond", a reference to the famous Hope Diamond and the design's shape and predicted instability. Because advanced computers were available to control the flight of an aircraft that was designed for stealth but aerodynamically unstable such as the Have Blue, for the first time designers realized that it might be possible to make an aircraft that was virtually invisible to radar.
Reduced radar cross section is only one of five factors the designers addressed to create a truly stealthy design such as the F-22. The F-22 has also been designed to disguise its infrared emissions to make it harder to detect by infrared homing ("heat seeking") surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles. Designers also addressed making the aircraft less visible to the naked eye, controlling radio transmissions, and noise abatement.
Modern operations
The first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft was in December 1989 during Operation Just Cause in Panama. On 20 December 1989, two United States Air Force F-117s bombed a Panamanian Defense Force barracks in Rio Hato, Panama. In 1991, F-117s were tasked with attacking the most heavily fortified targets in Iraq in the opening phase of Operation Desert Storm and were the only jets allowed to operate inside Baghdad's city limits.
The U.S, UK, and Israel are the only countries to have used stealth aircraft in combat. These deployments include the United States invasion of Panama, the first Gulf War, the Kosovo Conflict, the War in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq and the 2011 military intervention in Libya. The first use of stealth aircraft was in the U.S. invasion of Panama, where F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft were used to drop bombs on enemy airfields and positions while evading enemy radar.
In 1990 the F-117 Nighthawk was used in the First Gulf War, where F-117s flew 1,300 sorties and scored direct hits on 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq while accumulating 6,905 flight hours. Only 2.5% of the American aircraft in Iraq were F-117s, yet they struck 40% of the strategic targets, dropping 2,000 tons of precision-guided munitions and striking their targets with an 80% success rate.
In the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia two stealth aircraft were used by the United States: the veteran F-117 Nighthawk, and the newly introduced B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber. The F-117 performed its usual role of striking precision high-value targets and performed well, although one F-117 was shot down by a Serbian Isayev S-125 'Neva-M' missile commanded by Colonel Zoltán Dani. The then-new B-2 Spirit was highly successful, destroying 33% of selected Serbian bombing targets in the first eight weeks of U.S. involvement in the War. During this war, B-2s flew non-stop to Kosovo from their home base in Missouri and back.
In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, F-117 Nighthawks and B-2 Spirits were used, and this was the last time the F-117 would see combat. F-117s dropped satellite-guided strike munitions on selected targets, with high success. B-2 Spirits conducted 49 sorties in the invasion, releasing 1.5 million pounds of munitions.
During the May 2011 operation to kill Osama bin Laden, one of the helicopters used to clandestinely insert U.S. troops into Pakistan crashed in the bin Laden compound. From the wreckage it was revealed this helicopter had stealth characteristics, making this the first publicly known operational use of a stealth helicopter.
Stealth aircraft were used in the 2011 military intervention in Libya, where B-2 Spirits dropped 40 bombs on a Libyan airfield with concentrated air defenses in support of the UN no-fly zone.
Stealth aircraft will continue to play a valuable role in air combat with the United States using the F-22 Raptor, B-2 Spirit, and the F-35 Lightning II to perform a variety of operations. The F-22 made its combat debut over Syria in September 2014 as part of the US-led coalition to defeat ISIS.
From February 2018, Su-57s performed the first international flight as they were spotted landing at the Russian Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. These Su-57s were deployed along with four Sukhoi Su-35 fighters, four Sukhoi Su-25s, and one Beriev A-50 AEW&C aircraft. It is believed that at least 4 Su-57 are deployed in Syria and that they have likely been armed with cruise missiles in combat.
In 2018, a report surfaced noting that Israeli F-35I stealth fighters conducted a number of missions in Syria and even infiltrated Iranian airspace without detection. In May 2018, Major General Amikam Norkin of IAF reported that Israeli Air Force F-35I stealth fighters carried out the first-ever F-35 strike in combat over Syria.
The People's Republic of China started flight testing its Chengdu J-20 stealth multirole fighter around in 2011 and made its first public appearance at Airshow China 2016. The aircraft entered service with the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in March 2017. Another fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter from China, the Shenyang FC-31 is also under flight testing.
List of stealth aircraft
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| Airbus Sagitta || Germany || UAV || Experimental || 2017 || Prototype || 1 ||
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| BAE Systems Corax || UK || UAV || Experimental || 2004 || Prototype || ||
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| BAE Systems Replica || UK || || || 1999 || Project || ||
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| BAE Systems Taranis || UK || UAV || Attack || 2013 || Prototype || ||
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| BAE Systems Tempest || UK || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || || UK contribution to the Global Combat Air Programme (qv).
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| Baykar Bayraktar Kızılelma || Turkey || UAV || || 2022 || Prototype || ||
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| Boeing Bird of Prey || US || UAV || Experimental || 1996 || Prototype || ||
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| Boeing Model 853-21 Quiet Bird || US || Subsonic || Reconnaissance || || Project || || Developed from Model 853.
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| Boeing MQ-25 Stingray || US || UAV || Experimental || 2019 || Prototype || ||
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| Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat || Australia || UAV || Loyal wingman || || Prototype || ||
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| Boeing X-32 || US || Supersonic || Fighter || 2000 || Prototype || 2 ||
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| Boeing X-45 || US || UAV || Experimental || 2002 || Prototype || ||
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| Boeing–Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche || US || Rotorcraft || Attack || 1996 || Prototype || 2 ||
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| Chengdu J-20 || China || Supersonic || Fighter || 2011 || Production || ||
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| Chengdu WZ-10 || China || UAV || || 2014 || Production || ||
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| Dassault nEUROn || France || UAV || Attack || 2012 || Prototype || ||
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| DRDO Ghatak || India || UAV || || || Project || ||
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| DRDO SWiFT || India || UAV || Experimental || 2022 || Prototype || ||
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| EADS Mako/HEAT || International || Supersonic || Attack || || Project || ||
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| F/A-XX || US || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || || Part of the NGAD programme.
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| Flygsystem 2020 || Sweden || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || ||
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| Global Combat Air Programme || International || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || || Merger of UK (BAE Systems Tempest), Japan (Mitsubishi F-X) & Italy
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| HAL AMCA || India || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || ||
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| Hongdu GJ-11 || China || UAV || || || || ||
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| KAI KF-21 Boramae || International || Supersonic || Fighter || 2022 || Prototype || || South Korea and Indonesia
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| Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie || US || UAV || Experimental || || || ||
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| Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk || US || Subsonic || Attack || || Production || ||
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| Lockheed Have Blue || US || Subsonic || Experimental || || Prototype || ||
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| Lockheed SR-71 || US || Supersonic || Reconnaissance || 1964 || Production || ||
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| Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor || US || Supersonic || Fighter ||1996 || Production || ||
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| Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II || US || Supersonic || Fighter ||2006|| Production || || B-variant has VTOL capability.
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| Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel || US || UAV || || || Production || ||
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| Lockheed Martin X-35 || US || Supersonic || Fighter || 2000 || Prototype || 2 ||
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| Lockheed Martin X-44 MANTA || US || Jet || Fighter || 2000 || Project || ||
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| MBB Lampyridae MRMF || Germany || Jet || Fighter || 1987 || Project || ||
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| McDonnell Douglas X-36 || US || Subsonic || Experimental || 1997 || Prototype || 1 || No vertical tail.
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| McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II || US || Subsonic || Bomber || || Project || ||
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| Mikoyan Skat || Russia || UAV || Attack || || Project || ||
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| Mikoyan LMFS || Russia || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || ||
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| Mikoyan PAK DP || Russia || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || ||
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| Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin || Japan || Supersonic || Experimental || 2016 || Prototype || 1 ||
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| New Generation Fighter || International || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || || France, Germany & Spain (within FCAS)
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| Northrop Tacit Blue || US || Subsonic || Experimental || 1982 || Prototype || 1 ||
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| Northrop YF-23 || US || Supersonic || Fighter || 1990 || Prototype || 2 ||
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| Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit || US || Subsonic || Bomber || 1989 || Production || ||
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| Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider || US || Subsonic || Bomber || || Project || ||
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| Northrop Grumman RQ-180 || US || UAV || || || Production || ||
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| Northrop Grumman X-47A Pegasus || US || UAV || Experimental || 2003 || Prototype || ||
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| Northrop Grumman X-47B || US || UAV || Experimental || 2003 || Prototype || 2 ||
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| Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA) || US || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || || (Within NGAD)
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| Ryan AQM-91 Firefly || US || UAV || Experimental || || || ||
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| Shenyang FC-31 || China || Supersonic || Fighter || 2012 || Prototype || ||
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| Sukhoi Okhotnik || Russia || UAV || || || Prototype || ||
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| Sukhoi Su-57 || Russia || Supersonic || Fighter || 2010 || Production || ||
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| Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate || Russia || Supersonic || Stealth Multirole Fighter || 2024 || Project || ||
|-
| TAI Anka-3 || Turkey || UAV || || || Prototype || ||
|-
| TAI TF-X Kaan || Turkey || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || ||
|-
| Tupolev PAK DA || Russia || Subsonic || Bomber || || Project || ||
|-
| Windecker YE-5 || US || Tractor || Experimental || 1973 || Prototype || 1 || Stealth research, not fully stealthy.
|-
| Xian H-20 || China || Subsonic || Bomber || || Project || ||
|-
| Yakovlev Yak-201 || Russia || Supersonic || Fighter || || Project || || VTOL
|}
See also
Cloaking device
Metamaterial
Penetration aid
QTOL
References
Bibliography
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403899
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS%20Atlanta%20%28CL-51%29
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USS Atlanta (CL-51)
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USS Atlanta (CL-51) of the United States Navy was the lead ship of the of eight light cruisers. She was the third Navy ship named after the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Designed to provide anti-aircraft protection for US naval task groups, Atlanta served in this capacity in the naval battles Midway and the Eastern Solomons. Atlanta was heavily damaged by Japanese and friendly gunfire in a night surface action on 13 November 1942 during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. The cruiser was sunk on her captain's orders in the afternoon of the same day.
Atlanta, in some works, is designated CLAA-51 because of her primary armament as an anti-aircraft cruiser. Hence, all of the Atlanta-class ships are sometimes designated as CLAA. However, her entire battery of guns were dual-purpose (DP) guns, and were capable of being used against both air and surface targets, able to fire anti-aircraft, high-explosive and armor-piercing shells.
The Atlanta-class ships were lightly armored, making them poor surface combatants compared to a typical light cruiser. In terms of armament, the Atlanta class was closer to a destroyer, being armed with 5-inch guns, than a light cruiser, which were generally equipped with 6-inch guns; but at well over in length, and combined with their large battery of sixteen guns (reduced to twelve in number for later ships of the class), they were designated as light cruisers. The unusual features of the Atlanta class is a result of the class originally being intended to be a destroyer leader. A destroyer leader is larger than its destroyer counterparts to accommodate command staff and resources as well as other general utilities to support the destroyers that they would be paired with. In line with this intended role the ship was given a complement of torpedoes and relatively thin armor compared to other ships of its size. Later the dimensions and tonnage of the ship resulted in a change in designation of the Atlanta class to a light cruiser. Despite this change in designation the Atlanta class of ships maintained their destroyer leader features.
Construction and commissioning
The first of the new class of ships was laid down on 22 April 1940 at Kearny, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., launched on 6 September 1941, sponsored by Margaret Mitchell (author of Gone with the Wind), and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 24 December 1941, Captain Samuel P. Jenkins in command.
Armament
Atlanta was fitted with eight twin 5-inch gun mounts, placed in a unique configuration. She had three forward mounts and three aft mounts, mounted inline and increasing in height toward the midships, giving her a symmetrical appearance, with a "gap" in the middle superstructure. In addition, the aft battery also had one "wing-mounted" mount on each side, for a total of 16 five-inch guns. The firing arcs of the forward and aft batteries intersected at a very limited angle, giving her an arc of 60° in which she could fire all of her guns broadside (excluding the wing mounts). Because Atlanta was able to bring all her guns to bear only within that narrow arc, her ability to engage surface targets was limited. Her firing arcs were ideally suited to bringing her guns to bear on an aircraft, however, with a minimum of six guns available from any angle.
Service history
After fitting out, Atlanta conducted shakedown training until 13 March 1942, first in Chesapeake Bay and then in Maine's Casco Bay, after which she returned to the New York Navy Yard for post-shakedown repairs and alterations. Adjudged to be "ready for distant service" on 31 March, the new cruiser departed New York for the Panama Canal Zone on 5 April. She reached Cristobal on 8 April. After transiting the isthmian waterway, Atlanta then cleared Balboa on 12 April with orders to reconnoiter Clipperton Island, a tiny barren, uninhabited atoll about 670 mi (1,080 km) southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, in the course of her voyage to the Hawaiian Islands, for any signs of enemy activity. Finding none, she ultimately reached Pearl Harbor on 23 April.
Battle of Midway
Punctuating her brief stay in Hawaiian waters with an antiaircraft practice off Oahu on 3 May, Atlanta, in company with , sailed on 10 May as escort for and , bound for Nouméa, New Caledonia. On 16 May, she joined Vice Admiral William F. Halsey's Task Force 16 (TF 16), formed around the aircraft carriers and , as it steamed back to Pearl Harbor, having been summoned back to Hawaiian waters in response to an imminent Japanese thrust in the direction of Midway Atoll. TF 16 arrived at Pearl on 26 May.
Atlanta again sailed with TF 16 on the morning of 28 May. Over the days that followed, she screened the carriers as they operated northeast of Midway in anticipation of the enemy's arrival. At the report of Japanese ships to the southwest, on the morning of 4 June, Atlanta cleared for action as she screened Hornet. Squadrons from the American carriers sought out the Japanese, and during that day, planes from and Enterprise inflicted mortal damage on four irreplaceable enemy aircraft carriers. Japanese planes twice hit TF 17, and it took the brunt of the enemy attacks. Over the days that followed the Battle of Midway, Atlanta remained in the screen of TF 16 until 11 June, when the task force received orders to return to Pearl Harbor.
Reaching her destination on 13 June, Atlanta, outside brief periods of antiaircraft practice on 21 and 25–26 June, remained in port, taking on stores and provisions and standing on 24-hour and then 48-hour alert into July 1942. Drydocked on 1–2 July so that her bottom could be scraped, cleaned and painted, the cruiser completed her availability on 6 July and then resumed a busy schedule of gunnery practice with drone targets, high-speed sleds, and in shore bombardment in the Hawaiian operating area.
On 15 July 1942, Atlanta, again in TF 16, sailed for Tongatapu. Anchoring at Nukuʻalofa, Tonga on 24 July, where she fueled and then took on fuel from Mobilube, the light cruiser pushed on later the same day and overtook TF 16. On 29 July, as all preparations proceeded for the invasion of Guadalcanal, Atlanta was assigned to TF 61.
Screening the carriers as they launched air strikes to support the initial landings on 7–8 August, Atlanta remained there until the withdrawal of the carrier task forces on 9 August. For the next several days, she remained at sea, replenishing when necessary while the task force operated near the Solomons.
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
As the Americans consolidated their gains on Guadalcanal, the critical need for reinforcements prompted Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to send the Combined Fleet south to cover a large troop convoy. American scout planes spotted the Japanese forces on the morning of 23 August. With the enemy reported to the northwest, Enterprise and launched search and attack planes, but they failed to make contact because of deteriorating weather and the fact that the Japanese, knowing that they had been spotted, reversed course.
Throughout the day on 24 August, Atlanta received enemy contact reports and screened Enterprise as she launched a strike group to attack the Japanese carriers. The sighting of an enemy "snooper" at 1328 sent Atlantas sailors to general quarters, where they remained for the next 5½ hours. At 1530, the cruiser worked up to as TF 16 stood roughly north-northwestward "to close [the] reported enemy carrier group." At 1637, with unidentified planes approaching, Atlanta went to . Enterprise then launched a strike group shortly thereafter, completing the evolution at 1706.
In the meantime, the incoming enemy bombers and fighter aircraft from and prompted the task force to increase speed to , shortly after Enterprise completed launching her own aircraft, the Japanese raid, estimated by Captain Jenkins to consist of at least 18 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, came in from the north northwest at 1710. Over the next 11 minutes, Atlantas , and 20 mm batteries contributed to the barrage over Enterprise, as the light cruiser conformed to Enterprises every move as she maneuvered violently to avoid the dive bombers.
Despite the heavy antiaircraft fire, Enterprise took one hit and suffered some shrapnel damage from an estimated five near hits. Captain Jenkins later reported that his ship may have shot down five of the attackers. Atlanta was not damaged in the engagement.
Reporting to TF 11 for duty the following day, Atlanta operated with that force, redesignated TF 61 on 30 August, over the next few days. When torpedoed Saratoga on 31 August, the light cruiser screened the stricken flagship as rigged a towline and began taking her out of danger. The force ultimately put into Tongatapu on 6 September, where Atlanta provisioned ship, fueled from , and enjoyed a period of upkeep.
Underway on 13 September, the light cruiser escorted and on 15 September. After seeing her charges safely to their destination at Dumbea Bay, Nouméa, on 19 September, Atlanta fueled, took on stores and ammunition, and sailed on 21 September as part of Task Group 66.4 (TG 66.4). Becoming part of TF 17 on 23 September, the light cruiser was detached the following day to proceed in company with , and to Tongatapu, which she reached on 26 September.
Underway with those same ships on 7 October, Atlanta briefly escorted Guadalcanal-bound transports from 11 to 14 October, before putting into Espiritu Santo for fuel on the afternoon of the 15th. Assigned then to Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee's TF 64, the ship sailed after dark that same day to resume operations covering the ongoing efforts to secure Guadalcanal. Returning briefly to Espiritu Santo for fuel, stores and provisions, the warship stood out from Segond Channel on the afternoon of 23 October.
Two days later, with a Japanese Army offensive having failed to eject the Americans from Guadalcanal, Admiral Yamamoto sent the Combined Fleet south in an attempt to annihilate the American naval forces doggedly supporting the marines. Atlanta operated in TF 64, along with Washington, , and two destroyers, as the opposing forces engaged in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October. That day, Atlanta patrolled astern of the fueling group supporting the two American carrier task forces. On 27 October, when attacked TF 64, the force maneuvered at high speed to clear the area.
On the morning of 28 October, Atlanta brought on board Rear Admiral Norman Scott from San Francisco, and became the flagship of the newly designated TG 64.2. After fueling from Washington, Atlanta, screened by four destroyers, headed northwest to shell Japanese positions on Guadalcanal. Reaching the waters off Lunga Point on the morning of 30 October, Atlanta embarked Marine liaison officers at 0550, and then steamed west, commencing her bombardment of Point Cruz at 0629 while the destroyers formed a column astern. Provoking no return fire, TG 64.2 accomplished its mission and returned to Lunga Point, where Atlanta disembarked the liaison officers. She then proceeded, in company with her screen, to Espiritu Santo, where she arrived on the afternoon of 31 October.
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
Convoy escort
Atlanta served as Admiral Scott's flagship as the light cruiser, accompanied by four destroyers, escorted , and to Guadalcanal. The cruiser and her consorts continued to screen those ships, designated TG 62.4, as they lay off Lunga Point on 12 November unloading supplies and disembarking troops.
At 0905, the task group received a report that nine bombers and 12 fighters were approaching from the northwest, and would reach their vicinity at about 0930. At about 0920, Atlanta led the three auxiliaries to the north in column, with the destroyers spaced in a circle around them. 15 minutes later, nine "Vals" from emerged from the clouds over Henderson Field, the American airstrip on Guadalcanal. The American ships opened fire soon after, putting up a barrage that downed "several" planes. Fortunately, none of the primary targets of the attack, Zeilin, Libra and Betelgeuse, suffered more than minor damage from several close calls, though Zeilin sustained some flooding. The three auxiliaries returned to the waters off Lunga Point as soon as the attack ended and resumed working cargo and disembarking troops.
A little over an hour later, at 1050, Atlanta received word of another incoming Japanese air raid. 15 minutes later, Atlanta led the three auxiliaries north with the destroyers in a circle around the disposition. The "bogeys", 27 Mitsubishi G4M "Bettys" from Rabaul, closed, sighted bearing west by north, approaching from over Cape Esperance in a very loose "V" formation. Although the destroyers opened fire, the planes proved to be out of range and the ships checked fire. The "Bettys", for their part, ignored the ships and continued on to bomb Henderson Field. Upon the disappearance of the planes, TG 62.4 resumed unloading off Lunga Point.
On 12 November, Atlanta was still off Lunga Point, screening the unloading, as part of TF 67 under Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan in San Francisco. At about 1310, Atlanta received a warning that 25 enemy planes were headed for Guadalcanal, slated to arrive within 50 minutes. The light cruiser went to general quarters at 1318 and received the signal "prepare to repel air attack...."
Within six minutes, Atlanta and the other combatants of the support group formed a screen around the transport group (TG 67.1), and the two groups steamed north together at . At about 1410, the Americans sighted the incoming raid, consisting of what appeared to be 25 twin-engined bombers ("Bettys") which broke up into two groups after clearing Florida Island, and came in at altitudes that ranged from . opened fire at 1412. Atlanta did so a minute later, training her guns at planes headed for the gap in the screen between San Francisco and . Atlanta claimed to have shot down two "Bettys", just after they dropped their torpedoes, at about 1415, only three minutes before the attack ended. Once the last Japanese plane had been splashed, the work of unloading the transports and cargo ships resumed. One "Betty", crippled by antiaircraft fire, crashed into the after superstructure of San Francisco, inflicting the only damage on the force.
Night attack
The abrupt end of the air attack gave Atlanta and her colleagues only a brief respite, however, for trouble approached from yet another quarter. A Japanese surface force, made up of two battleships, one cruiser and six destroyers, was detected steaming south toward Guadalcanal to shell Henderson Field. Admiral Callaghan's support group was to "cover [the retiring transports and cargo vessels] against enemy attack." TG 67.4 departed Lunga Point about 1800 and steamed eastward through Sealark Channel, covering the withdrawal of TG 67.1. An hour before midnight, Callaghan's ships reversed course and headed westward.
Helenas radar picked up the first contact at a range of . As the range closed, Atlantas surface search radar, followed by her gunnery radars, picked up a contact on the enemy ships.
Admiral Callaghan's order for a course change caused problems almost at once, as Atlanta had to turn to port (left) immediately to avoid a collision with one of the four destroyers in the van, the latter having apparently executed a "ships left" rather than "column left" movement. As Atlanta began moving to resume her station ahead of San Francisco, the illuminated the light cruiser. Atlanta shifted her main battery to fire at the enemy destroyer, opening fire at a range of about and, along with other US ships that concentrated on Akatsukis searchlights, overwhelmed the destroyer.
As two other Japanese destroyers crossed her line, Atlanta engaged both with her forward mounts, while her aft mounts continued to blast away at the illuminated ship. An additional, unidentified assailant also opened up on the light cruiser from the northeast. At about that time, at least one torpedo plowed into Atlantas forward engine room from the port side, fired almost certainly by either or (Akatsukis destroyer consorts). Atlanta lost all but auxiliary diesel power, suffered the interruption of her gunfire, and had to shift steering control to the steering engine room aft. Meanwhile, Akatsuki drifted out of the action and soon sank with heavy loss of life. Michiharu Shinya, Akatsukis Chief Torpedo Officer, one of her few survivors, was rescued the next day by US forces and spent the rest of the war in a New Zealand prisoner of war camp. He later stated unequivocally that Akatsuki had not been able to fire any torpedoes that night before being overwhelmed by gunfire.
Soon after being torpedoed, Atlanta was then hit by an estimated nineteen 8-inch (203 mm) shells when San Francisco, "in the urgency of battle, darkness, and confused intermingling of friend or foe", fired into her. Though almost all of the shells passed through the thin skin of the ship without detonating, scattering green dye, fragments from their impact killed many men, including Admiral Scott and members of his staff. Atlanta prepared to return fire on her new assailant, but San Francisco's own gun flashes disclosed a distinctly "non-Japanese hull profile" that resulted in a suspension of those efforts. San Francisco's shells, which passed high through Atlanta's superstructure, may have been intended for a Japanese target further beyond her from San Francisco's perspective.
After the fire ceased, Atlantas Captain Jenkins took stock of the situation, and, having only a minor foot wound, made his way aft to Battle II. His ship was badly battered, largely powerless, down by the head and listing slightly to port, and a third of his crew was dead or missing. As the battle continued, the light cruiser's men began clearing debris, jettisoning topside weight to correct the list, reducing the volume of sea water in the ship, and succoring the many wounded.
Sinking
Daylight revealed the presence nearby of three burning American destroyers, the disabled Portland, and the abandoned hulk of , which Portland summarily dispatched with three salvoes. Atlanta, drifting toward the enemy-held shore east of Cape Esperance, dropped her starboard anchor, and her captain sent a message to Portland explaining the light cruiser's condition. Boats from Guadalcanal came out to take her most critically wounded. By mid-morning, all of those had been taken off the ship.
arrived at 09:30 on 13 November, took Atlanta under tow, made harder by the cruiser's still lowered anchor, and headed toward Lunga Point. During the voyage, a "Betty" bomber neared the disposition, and one of the two surviving mounts—which was powered by a diesel generator—fired and drove it off. The other manually-rotated mount could not be trained on the target in time.
Atlanta reached Kukum about 14:00, at which point Captain Jenkins conferred with his remaining officers. As Jenkins, who was later awarded a Navy Cross for his heroism during the battle, later wrote, "It was by now apparent that efforts to save the ship were useless, and that the water was gaining steadily." Even had sufficient salvage facilities been available, he allowed, the severe damage she had taken would have made it difficult to save the ship. Authorized by Commander, South Pacific Forces, to act at his own discretion regarding the destruction of the ship, Jenkins ordered that Atlanta be abandoned and sunk with a demolition charge.
Accordingly, all remaining men except the captain and a demolition party boarded Higgins boats sent out from Guadalcanal for the purpose. After the charge had been set and exploded, the last men left the battered ship. Ultimately, at 20:15 on 13 November 1942, Atlanta sank west of Lunga Point in about 400 ft (120 m) of water. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 13 January 1943. One hundred seventy of her men were killed and 103 were wounded.
Exploration of the wreck
The wreck of USS Atlanta was discovered in 1992 by an expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, (ROV). Dr. Ballard was famous for leading the expeditions that discovered and the . Unfortunately, strong ocean currents and poor visibility prevented the expedition from thoroughly exploring Atlanta. In 1994, two Australian technical divers Rob Cason and Kevin Denlay traveled to Solomon Islands with the intention of being the first scuba divers to dive Atlanta but this was unsuccessful because of the lack of a suitable surface support vessel and strong surface currents; this was also the first mixed gas scuba diving expedition to Guadalcanal. However, they did manage to dive one of the two other deepest diveable wrecks; the Japanese transport Azumasan Maru, which is almost deep at the stern. Many other World War II wrecks discovered by Dr. Ballard in Iron Bottom Sound are beyond the current technical limit for scuba and are only accessible by ROVs or submersibles. Dr Ballard gives an account of this in his book The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal. In 1995 Denlay returned with American Terrance Tysall - with the specific intention of diving USS Atlanta - and one of their 'work-up dives' was on the Sasako Maru, one of the other deepest diveable wrecks at the time, which is over in the collapsed debris field of the bridge. They then went on to make the first successful scuba dive on USS Atlanta, which was at the time the deepest wreck dive by free swimming divers in the southern hemisphere.
In the following years, Denlay and Tysall mounted several larger expeditions to survey Atlanta, exploring and videoing the wreck in detail to a depth of at the bow. The civil unrest in Solomon Islands from late 1998 prevented further diving around Guadalcanal for several years. However, on the final expedition that year, the then deepest wreck dive by a woman was made by Kevin's wife, Mirja, on Atlanta. Denlay's last visit to the wreck was in 2002 using a closed circuit rebreather or CCR, the first CCR dive on Atlanta. Since then, very few dives have been conducted on Atlanta, although in May 2011 a very experienced deep diving team from Global Underwater Explorers successfully videoed the wreck for documentary purposes, the first survey of the wreck since Denlay's expeditions up to 1998.
Awards
Atlanta was awarded five battle stars for her World War II service and a Presidential Unit Citation for her "heroic example of invincible fighting spirit" in the battle off Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942.
References
Bibliography
External links
U.S.S. Atlanta Photograph Collection, 1942 from the Atlanta History Center
Atlanta-class cruisers
World War II cruisers of the United States
Shipwrecks in Ironbottom Sound
Ships built in Kearny, New Jersey
1941 ships
Maritime incidents in November 1942
Friendly fire incidents of World War II
1992 archaeological discoveries
Wreck diving sites
Underwater diving sites in the Solomon Islands
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403902
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St.%20Gallen
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St. Gallen
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St. Gallen is a Swiss city and the capital of the canton of St. Gallen. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration (with around 167,000 inhabitants in 2019) and represents the center of eastern Switzerland. Its economy consists mainly of the service sector. The city is home to the University of St. Gallen, one of the best business schools in Europe.
The main tourist attraction is the Abbey of Saint Gall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Abbey's renowned library contains books from the 9th century. The official language of St. Gallen is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of Alemannic Swiss German. The city has good transport links to the rest of the country and to neighbouring Germany and Austria. It also functions as the gate to the Appenzellerland.
History
Early history
The town of St. Gallen grew around the Abbey of St Gall, founded in the 8th century. The abbey is said to have been built at the site of the hermitage of Irish missionary Gallus, who according to legend had established himself by the river Steinach in AD 612. The monastery itself was founded by Saint Othmar in . The abbey prospered in the 9th century and became a site of pilgrimage and a center of trade, with associated guest houses, stables and other facilities, a hospital, one of the first monastery schools north of the Alps. By the tenth century, a settlement had grown up around the abbey.
In 926 Magyar raiders attacked the abbey and surrounding town. Saint Wiborada, the first woman formally canonized by the Vatican, reportedly saw a vision of the impending attack and warned the monks and citizens to flee. While the monks and the abbey treasure escaped, Wiborada chose to stay behind and was killed by the raiders.
Between 924 and 933 the Magyars again threatened the abbey, and its books were removed for safekeeping to Reichenau. Not all the books were returned.
On 26 April 937 a fire consumed much of the abbey, spreading to the adjoining settlement. However, the library was spared. Muslim slave-raiders attacked the abbey in 939. About 954 a protective wall was raised around the abbey. By 975, Abbot Notker finished the wall, and the adjoining settlement began growing into the town of St. Gall.
Independence from the Abbey
From the later 12th century, the town of St. Gall increasingly pushed for independence from the abbey. In 1180, an imperial reeve, who was not answerable to the abbot, was installed in the town.
In 1207, Abbot Ulrich von Sax was granted the rank of Imperial Prince (Reichsfürst) by Philip of Swabia, King of the Germans. As an ecclesiastical principality, the Abbey of St. Gallen was to constitute an important territorial state and a major regional power in northern Switzerland.
The city of St. Gallen proper progressively freed itself from the rule of the abbot. Abbot Wilhelm von Montfort in 1291 granted special privileges to the citizens. By about 1353 the guilds, headed by the cloth-weavers guild, had gained control of the civic government. In 1415 the city bought its liberty from the German king Sigismund.
Ally of the Swiss Confederacy
In 1405, the Appenzell estates of the abbot successfully rebelled and in 1411 they became allies of the Old Swiss Confederation. A few months later, the town of St. Gallen also became an ally. They joined the "everlasting alliance" as full members of the Confederation in 1454 and in 1457 became completely free from the abbot.
However, in 1451 the abbey became an ally of Zurich, Lucerne, Schwyz, and Glarus who were all members of the Confederation.
Ulrich Varnbüler was an early mayor of St. Gallen and perhaps one of the most colorful. Hans, the father of Ulrich, was prominent in city affairs in St. Gallen in the early 15th century. Ulrich entered public affairs in the early 1460s and attained the various offices and honours that are available to a talented and ambitious man. He demonstrated fine qualities as field commander of the St. Gallen troops in the Burgundian Wars.
In the Battle of Grandson (1476) his troops were part of the advance units of the Confederation and took part in their famous attack. A large painting of Ulrich returning triumphantly to a hero's welcome in St. Gallen is still displayed in St. Gallen.
After the war, Varnbüler often represented St. Gallen at the various parliaments of the Confederation. In December 1480, Varnbüler was offered the position of mayor for the first time. From that time on, he served in several leadership positions and was considered the city's intellectual and political leader.
According to Vadian, who understood his contemporaries well, "Ulrich was a very intelligent, observant, and eloquent man who enjoyed the trust of the citizenry to a high degree."
His reputation among the Confederates was also substantial. However, in the late 1480s, he became involved in a conflict that was to have serious negative consequences for him and for the city.
In 1463, Ulrich Rösch had assumed the management of the abbey of Saint Gall. He was an ambitious prelate, whose goal was to return the abbey to prominence by every possible means, following the losses of the Appenzell War.
His restless ambition offended the political and material interests of his neighbours. When he arranged for the help of the Pope and the Emperor to carry out a plan to move the abbey to Rorschach on Lake Constance, he encountered stiff resistance from the St. Gallen citizenry, other clerics, and the Appenzell nobility in the Rhine Valley, who were concerned for their holdings.
At this point, Varnbüler entered the conflict against the prelate. He wanted to restrain the increase of the abbey's power and at the same time increase the power of the town that had been restricted in its development. For this purpose he established contact with farmers and Appenzell residents (led by the fanatical Hermann Schwendiner) who were seeking an opportunity to weaken the abbot.
Initially, he protested to the abbot and the representatives of the four sponsoring Confederate cantons (Zurich, Lucerne, Schwyz, and Glarus) against the construction of the new abbey in Rorschach. Then on 28 July 1489 he had armed troops from St. Gallen and Appenzell destroy the buildings already under construction, an attack known as the Rorschacher Klosterbruch.
When the Abbot complained to the Confederates about the damage and demanded full compensation, Ulrich responded with a countersuit, and in cooperation with Schwendiner rejected the arbitration efforts of the non-partisan Confederates. He motivated the clerics from Wil to Rorschach to abandon their loyalty to the abbey and spoke against the abbey at a meeting of the townspeople at Waldkirch, where the popular league was formed. He was confident that the four sponsoring cantons would not intervene with force, due to the prevailing tensions between the Confederation and the Swabian League. He was strengthened in his resolve when the people of St. Gallen re-elected him as their highest magistrate in 1490.
Invasion of 1490
Ulrich Varnbüler had made a serious miscalculation. In early 1490, the four cantons decided to carry out their duty to the abbey and to invade the St. Gallen canton with an armed force. The people of Appenzell and the local clerics submitted to this force without significant resistance, while the city of St. Gallen braced itself for a fight to the finish. However, when they learned that their compatriots had given up the fight, they lost confidence, and they agreed to a settlement that greatly restricted the city's power and burdened the city with serious penalties and reparation payments.
Ulrich, overwhelmed by the responsibility for his political decisions, panicked in the face of the approaching enemy who wanted him apprehended. His life was in great danger, and he was forced to escape from the city disguised as a messenger. He made his way to Lindau and to Innsbruck and the court of King Maximilian. The victors confiscated those of his properties that lay outside of the city of St. Gallen and banned him from the Confederation. Ulrich then appealed to the imperial court (as did Schwendiner, who had fled with him) for the return of his property.
The suit had the support of Friedrich II and Maximilian and the trial threatened to drag on for years: it was continued by Ulrich's sons Hans and Ulrich after his death in 1496, and eventually the Varnbülers regained their properties. However, other political ramifications resulted from the court action, because the Confederation gained ownership of the city of St. Gallen and rejected the inroads of the empire. Thus, the conflict strengthened the relationship between the Confederation and the city of St. Gallen. On the other hand, the matter deepened the alienation between Switzerland and the German Holy Roman Empire, which eventually led to a total separation after the Swabian War.
Despite the unpropitious end of his career, Ulrich Varnbüler is immortalized in a famous woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, which is now part of the Smithsonian Institution's woodcut collection in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Among Varnbüler's sons, the eldest (Hans/Johann) became the mayor of Lindau. He is the patriarch of the Baden and Württemberg Varnbülers.
Reformation
Starting in 1526 then-mayor and humanist Joachim von Watt (Vadian) introduced the Protestant Reformation into St. Gallen. The town converted to the new religion while the abbey remained Roman Catholic. While iconoclastic riots forced the monks to flee the city and remove images from the city's churches, the fortified abbey remained untouched. The abbey would remain a Catholic stronghold in the Protestant city until 1803.
Modern history
In 1798 Napoleon invaded the Old Swiss Confederation, destroying the Ancien Régime. Under the Helvetic Republic both the abbey and the city lost their power and were combined with Appenzell into the Canton of Säntis. The Helvetic Republic was widely unpopular in Switzerland and was overthrown in 1803. Following the Act of Mediation the city of St. Gallen became the capital of the Protestant Canton of St. Gallen.
One of the first acts of the new canton was to suppress the abbey. The monks were driven from the abbey; the last abbot died in Muri in 1829. In 1846 a rearrangement in the local dioceses made St. Gall a separate diocese, with the abbey church as its cathedral and a portion of the monastic buildings designated the bishop's residence.
Gustav Adolf IV, former king of Sweden, spent the last years of his life in St. Gallen, and died there in 1837.
In the 15th century, St. Gallen became known for producing quality textiles. In 1714, the zenith was reached with a yearly production of 38,000 pieces of cloth. The first depression occurred in the middle of the 18th century, caused by strong foreign competition and reforms in methods of cotton production. But St. Gallen recovered and an even more prosperous era arrived.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the first embroidery machines were developed in St. Gallen. In 1910 the embroidery production constituted the largest export branch (18% of the total export value) in Switzerland and more than half of the worldwide production of embroidery originated in St. Gallen. One fifth of the population of the eastern part of Switzerland was involved with the textile industry. However, World War I and the Great Depression caused another severe crisis for St. Gallen embroidery. Only in the 1950s did the textile industry recover somewhat. Nowadays, because of competition and the prevalence of computer-operated embroidery machines, only a reduced textile industry has survived in St. Gallen; but its embroidered textiles are still popular with Parisian haute couture designers.
Geography and climate
Topography
St. Gallen is situated in the northeastern part of Switzerland in a valley about above sea level. It is one of the highest cities in Switzerland and thus receives abundant winter snow. The city lies between Lake Constance and the mountains of the Appenzell Alps (with the Säntis as the highest peak at ). It therefore offers excellent recreation areas nearby.
As the city center is built on an unstable turf ground (its founder Gallus was looking for a site for a hermitage, not for a city), all buildings on the valley floor must be built on piles. For example, the entire foundation of the train station and its plaza are based on hundreds of piles.
St. Gallen has an area, , of . Of this area, 27.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 42.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.9%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).
Climate
St. Gallen has a humid continental climate (Dfb) with short, warm summers and long, moderately cold winters. Precipitation is very high year round. St. Gallen has a very cloudy climate.
Between 1981 and 2010 St. Gallen had an average of 141 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was July during which time St. Gallen received an average of of rain. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 13.8 days. The month with the most days of precipitation were June and July May. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 9.1 days.
Radioactivity
St. Gallen is notable for reporting the highest maximum radioactivity measurements of any Swiss city, as published in the 2009 yearly report by the Federal Office of Public Health. While the daily average level of gamma-ray radioactivity in the city is unremarkable at 105 nSv/h, the maximum can reach 195 nSv/h, as high as the average for Jungfraujoch, the location with the highest reported level of radioactivity in Switzerland, due to its high elevation and therefore greater exposure to cosmic rays. The same report explains that the unusually high spikes of radioactivity measured in St. Gallen are due to radioactive products of radon gas being washed to the ground during heavy storms, but does not explain where the sufficient quantities of radon gas and its products to account for the anomaly would come from. The yearly report for 2009 on risks associated with radon published by the same governmental agency shows St. Gallen to lie in an area of the lowest level of radon exposure. In addition to the measured gamma-radiation, the city may be subject to radioactive tritium pollution in Teufen, a satellite town situated 4 km south of the city in the canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes (this pollution is also covered in the report).
Politics
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Bear rampant Sable langued and in his virility Gules and armed and gorged Or.
Subdivisions
Government
The City Council (Stadtrat) constitutes the executive government of the City of St. Gallen and operates as a collegiate authority. It is composed of five councilors (), each presiding over a directorate. The president of the presidential directorate acts as mayor (Stadtpräsident). In the mandate period 2017–2020 (Legislatur) the City Council is presided by Stadtpräsidentin Maria Pappa. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the City Parliament are carried by the City Council. The regular election of the City Council by any inhabitant valid to vote is held every four years. Any resident of St. Gallen allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Council. The current mandate period is from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2024. The mayor is elected as such by public election by means of a system of Majorz, while the heads of the other directorates are assigned by the collegiate. The delegates are elected by means of a system of Majorz.
, St. Gallen's City Council is made up of two representatives of the SP (Social Democratic Party) of which one is the mayor, one member of the FDP (FDP.The Liberals), one of the GLP (Green Liberal Party), and one independent. The last regular election was held on 27 September 2020.
Manfred Linke is City Chancellor (Stadtschreiber) since for the City Chancellary.
Parliament
The City Parliament (Stadtparlament) holds legislative power. It is made up of 63 members, with elections held every four years. The City Parliament decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the City Council and the administration. The delegates are selected by means of a system of proportional representation (Proporz).
The sessions of the City Parliament are public. Unlike members of the City Council, members of the City Parliament are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of St. Gallen allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Parliament. The parliament holds its meetings in the Waaghaus once a week on Tuesdays.
The last regular election of the City Parliament was held on 27 September 2020 for the mandate period () from January 2021 to December 2024. Currently the City Parliament consists of 17 members of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS) and one of its junior section, the JUSO, 11 The Liberals (FDP/PLR), 8 Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL), 8 Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), 8 Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), 7 Green Party (GPS/PES) and 1 of its junior section, the JungeGr, one representative of the Evangelical People's Party (EVP), and one member of the Politische Frauengruppe (PFG) (Political Women Group).
National elections
National Council
In the 2019 federal election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the PS which received 24.4% (-3.8) of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the Green Party (17.5%, +8.3), the SVP (16.5%, -4.6), FDP (14.4%, +0.1), the CVP (12.6%, +0.4), and the GLP (10.9%, +4.4). In the federal election a total of 18,821 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.9%.
In the 2015 election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the SPS which received 28.1% of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the SVP (21.1%), the FDP (14.3%), the CVP (12.2%), the GPS (9.2%), and the GLP (6.6%). In the federal election, a total of 20,768 voters were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.0%.
International relations
St. Gallen is twinned with:
Demographics
Population
St. Gallen has a population (as of ) of . , about 31.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. The population has grown at 4.4% per year. Most of the population () speaks German (83.0%), with Italian being second most common (3.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (3.7%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 60,297 speak German, 575 people speak French, 2,722 people speak Italian, and 147 people speak Romansh.
The age distribution, , in St. Gallen is: 6,742 (9.3%) between 0 and 9 years old; 7,595 (10.5%) between 10 and 19; 12,574 (17.3%) between 20 and 29; 11,735 (16.2%) between 30 and 39; 9,535 (13.1%) between 40 and 49; 8,432 (11.6%) between 50 and 59; 6,461 (8.9%) between 60 and 69; 5,633 (7.8%) between 70 and 79; 3,255 (4.5%) between 80 and 89; 655 (0.9%) between 90 and 99; 9 people (0.0%) aged 100 or more.
there were 16,166 people (22.3%) who were living alone in private dwellings; 17,137 (or 23.6%) who were part of a couple (married or otherwise committed) without children, and 27,937 (or 38.5%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 4,533 (or 6.2%) people who lived in single parent home, while there are 419 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 475 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 2,296 who lived household made up of unrelated persons, and 3,663 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing.
Historical population
The historical population is given in the following table:
Economy
, St. Gallen had an unemployment rate of 2.69%. , there were 336 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 95 businesses involved in this sector. 11,227 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 707 businesses in this sector. 48,729 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 4,035 businesses in this sector. the average unemployment rate was 4.5%. There were 4857 businesses in the municipality of which 689 were involved in the secondary sector of the economy while 4102 were involved in the third. there were 28,399 residents who worked in the municipality, while 8,927 residents worked outside St. Gallen and 31,543 people commuted into the municipality for work.
Helvetia Insurance is a major company headquartered in St. Gallen.
Religion
According to the , 31,978 or 44.0% are Roman Catholic, while 19,578 or 27.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there are 112 individuals (or about 0.15% of the population) who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, there are 3,253 individuals (or about 4.48% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 1,502 individuals (or about 2.07% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are 133 individuals (or about 0.18% of the population) who are Jewish, and 4,856 (or about 6.69% of the population) who are Muslim. There are 837 individuals (or about 1.15% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 7,221 (or about 9.94% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 3,156 individuals (or about 4.35% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
St. Gallen is known for its business school, now named the University of St. Gallen (HSG). It was ranked as the top business school in Europe by Wirtschaftswoche, a weekly German business news magazine and is highly ranked by several other sources. Recently, HSG has been building a reputation for Executive Education, with its International MBA recognised as one of Europe's leading programmes, and runs a PhD programme. HSG is a focused university that offers degrees in business and management, economics, political science and international relations as well as business law. The Master in Management course was Ranked number 1 in 2014 by The Financial Times ahead of HEC Paris. It is comparatively small, with about 6,500 students enrolled at present, has both EQUIS and AACSB accreditations, and is a member of CEMS (Community of European Management Schools). The university maintains student and faculty exchange programs around the world. The University of St. Gallen is also famous for its high density of clubs. Particularly well known is the International Students’ Committee, which has organised the St. Gallen Symposium for over forty years. The St. Gallen Symposium is the leading student-run economic conference of its kind worldwide and aims to foster the dialogue between generations.
St. Gallen's state school system contains 64 kindergartens, 21 primary schools and 7 secondary schools and about 6,800 students. In addition to the state system, St. Gallen is home to the Institut auf dem Rosenberg — an élite boarding school attracting students from all over the world. The Institut provides an education in English, German and Italian and prepares the students to enter: American, British, Swiss, Italian, German and other European university programmes.
The canton's Gewerbliches Berufs- und Weiterbildungszentrum is the largest occupational school in Switzerland with over 10,000 students and various specialty institutes. One for example, the GBS Schule für Gestaltung teaches students design fundamentals in the practice of graphic design. The school is located in Riethüsli, a small section of the city of St. Gallen.
In St. Gallen about 68.8% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Out of the total population in St. Gallen, , the highest education level completed by 15,035 people (20.7% of the population) was Primary, while 27,465 (37.8%) have completed their secondary education, 10,249 (14.1%) have attended a Tertiary school, and 2,910 (4.0%) are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question.
Culture and sightseeing
After the years of Gallus' death, the place became one of the centers of Germanic culture. This is because of the creative works of the monks who followed the footsteps of the city's founder Gallus. This resulted to numerous heritage sites of national significance of the country.
In 1992, St. Gallen was awarded the Wakker Prize for the city's effort to create a unified structure and appearance in current and future construction.
Heritage sites of national significance
There are 28 sites in St. Gallen that are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance, including four religious buildings; the Abbey of St. Gallen, the former Dominican Abbey of St. Katharina, the Reformed Church of St. Laurenzenkirche and the Roman Catholic parish church of St. Maria Neudorf.
There are six museums or archives in the inventory. This includes the Textile museum, the Historical and ethnographical museum, the Cantonal library and city archives, the Art and Natural History museum, the Museum in Lagerhaus and the St. Gallen State Archive. The entire city of St. Gallen is the only archeological heritage site. Two bridges are listed, the Eisenbahnbrücke BT (railroad bridge) and the Kräzern-Strassenbrücke with a custom house.
The twelve other sites include the main train station, main post office, University of St. Gallen, Cantonal School, City Theatre and two towers; the Lokremise with Wasserturm and the Tröckneturm.
Theatre
In the modern and somewhat extravagant building of the Theater St. Gallen operas, operettas, ballet, musicals and plays are performed. It has an average utilization of nearly 80 percent.
Since 2006 a series of open-air operas have been performed in front of the Cathedral starting around the last weekend of June.
In the nearby concert hall, Tonhalle St. Gallen, with its grand art nouveau style, all sorts of concerts (classic, symphony, jazz etc.) are given.
Museums
Historical and ethnographical museum (collections of regional early history, city history, folk art, cultural history as well ethnographical collections from all over the world)
Art museum (painting and sculptures from the 19th and 20th century)
St. Gallen art gallery (national and international modern art)
Natural history museum (natural history collection)
Museum in the storehouse (Swiss native art and art brut)
Textile museum (historical laces, embroidery and cloth)
Lapidarium of the abbey (building blocks from 8th to 17th century)
Point Jaune museum (Mail Art, Postpostism, 'Pataphysics)
Beer bottle museum (located at the Schützengarten brewery—the oldest brewery in Switzerland)
Music
The symphony orchestra St. Gallen performs as the Orchestra of the City Theatre, presents numerous symphony concerts in the City Concert Hall.
During the summer open-air opera and various concerts are performed at numerous locations in town.
The well known St. Gallen Open Air Festival takes place in the nearby Sitter Valley the first weekend in July.
St. Gallen is home to the Nordklang Festival, which takes place in February.
Buildings
Drei Weieren (three artificial water basins from the zenith of the textile industry with art nouveau-bath houses; reachable by the Mühleggbahn (train) from 1893). The Drei Weieren is a water park by day and a gathering place for young people by night. This results in many complaints by people who live in the vicinity about noise, drug abuse and vandalism. Locals jokingly call the three basins "Lakes with the most THC in the country". The young people who spend their time there claim that the Drei Weieren is a place where they can spend their time in a consumer-free environment.
Convent of St. Gall with the famous library and abbey (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Greek Orthodox Church of St.Constantine and Helena, Athonite icons and a stained glass window of the Last Judgement.
Wegelin & Co., the oldest bank in Switzerland, founded in 1741
Tröckneturm Schönenwegen; the tower was built 1828 and was used to hang up freshly colored cloth panels for drying.
Protestant church Linsebühl, an impressive new renaissance building dating from 1897
University of St. Gallen (HSG; University for Business Administration, Economics and Law with an excellent reputation in the German-speaking world), founded 1898.
Embroidery exchange, splendid building with the god of trade Hermes on its roof.
Volksbad, the oldest public bathhouse still in operation in Switzerland dating from 1908.
Catholic church of St. Martin in the Bruggen district; the concrete church built in 1936 was at that time glaringly modern.
1992 the city of St. Gallen received the Wakker Prize.
Stadtlounge (City Lounge) – a pedestrian area in the city center designed to represent a lounge room, but in the street.
Synagogue St. Gallen – Built by the architects Chiodera and Tschudy, it is the only synagogue in the Lake Constance region that has been preserved in its original state.
Parks
Wildlife park Peter and Paul
City park at the theater
Cantonal school park
Regular events
The St. Gallen Symposium attracts about 600 personalities from economics, science, politics and society to the University of St. Gallen every year. It hosts the world's largest student essay competition of its kind with about 1,000 participants, of whom the 100 best contributions are selected to participate in the St. Gallen Symposium. The Symposium celebrated its 40th anniversary in May 2010.
OLMA, traditional Swiss Fair for Agriculture and Nutrition in autumn as well as numerous other exhibitions at the OLMA Fairs St. Gallen.
OpenAir St. Gallen is an annual open air festival in the Sitter Valley.
Children's Feast, a triennial observance, originally a product of the textile industry.
Nordklang Festival takes place in multiple sites around St. Gallen.
Sport
The football club FC St. Gallen play in the Swiss Super League. They are the oldest football club in Switzerland and oldest in continental Europe, founded in 1879. Their stadium is the kybunpark.
The football club SC Brühl play in the 1. Liga Promotion. Their stadium is the Paul-Grüninger-Stadion.
EHC St. Gallen plays in the Swiss Second League, the fourth tier of Swiss ice hockey.
The Rugby Club St. Gallen Bishops (Men) was founded in 1990 and Cindies (Women) in 2014. They play at the Grundenmoos sports fields.
Transportation
The large urban area Zurich is 80 km south-west of St. Gallen, a 60-minute drive or train ride (ICN train).
Road transportation
The A1 motorway links St. Gallen with St. Margrethen, Zurich, Bern and Geneva. In 1987 the city motorway was opened, which conveys the traffic through two tunnels (Rosenberg and Stefanshorn) almost directly below the city center.
Air transportation
The Airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein, near Lake of Constance, provides scheduled airline flights to Vienna and other destinations.
Public transport
By rail and tram
St. Gallen railway station is part of the national Swiss Federal Railways network and has InterCity connections to Zurich and the Zurich Airport every half-hour. St. Gallen is the hub for many private railways such as the Südostbahn (SOB), connecting St. Gallen with Lucerne, the Appenzeller Bahnen, which operates the Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen railway, connecting to Appenzell and Trogen, and also serves as a tram in downtown.
By bus
The city has a dense local bus system, including the city's trolleybus network, which is operated by the VBSG and is well established on the valley floor, but less so on the hills. As St. Gallen is located near the Appenzell mountain area, it offers also many Postauto (post bus) connections. The agglomeration also has its own St. Gallen S-Bahn system (overground local trains).
Expansion - St. Gallen 2013
The "St. Gallen 2013" project aimed to improve local rail services, with infrastructure upgrades and new rolling stock. By December 2013, S-Bahn services would run on six lines, at intervals of 15 to 30 minutes.
Notable people
Early times
Joachim Vadian (1484–1551), a Swiss humanist, scholar, mayor and reformer in St. Gallen
Johannes Zollikofer (1633–1692), a Swiss reformed vicar
Georg Gsell (1673–1740), a Baroque painter, art consultant and art dealer
Michael Schlatter (1716–1790), an American German Reformed clergyman
Rev. John Joachim Zubly (1724–1781), a Swiss-born American pastor, planter and statesman during the American Revolution
Adrian Zingg (1734–1816), painter, draftsman, etcher, engraver
Prof Christopher Girtanner FRSE (1760–1800), a short-lived but influential Swiss author, physician and chemist
Johann Baptist Isenring (1796–1860), a landscape painter, printer and Daguerrotypist
19th century
Gall Morel (1803–1872), a poet, scholar, aesthete and educationist
Arnold Otto Aepli (1816–1897), a jurist and statesman, President of the Swiss Council of States 1868–1869
Johann Jakob Weilenmann (1819–1896), a mountaineer and Alpine writer, made many first ascents in the Alps
Karl Hoffmann (1820–1895), a politician, President of the Swiss Council of States, 1877–1878 and 1889–1890
Ernst Götzinger (1837–1896), a Germanist and historian
Alphonse Bory (1838–1891), a politician, President of the Swiss Council of States 1886–1887
Johannes Dierauer (1842–1920), an historian and librarian of the Stadtbibliothek Vadiana
Samuel Oettli (1846–1911), a Protestant theologian, specialized in Old Testament studies
Adolf Schlatter (1852–1938), a Protestant theologian and professor of the New Testament
Arthur Hoffmann (1857–1927), a politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council 1911–1917
Robert Emden (1862–1940), an astrophysicist and meteorologist
Julius Billeter (1869–1957), a genealogist and Mormon missionary
Ernst Rüdin (1874–1952), a German psychiatrist, geneticist, eugenicist and Nazi
Martha Cunz (1876–1961), an artist and printmaker, mastered the modernist woodcut
Joseph Joos (1878–1965), a German intellectual, politician and MP in Weimar, lived in St Gallen 1960-1965
Franz Riklin (1878–1938), a psychiatrist, worked with Carl Gustav Jung
Otto Schlaginhaufen (1879–1973), an anthropologist, ethnologist and eugenicist
Heinrich Greinacher (1880–1974), a physicist, developed the magnetron and the Greinacher multiplier
Fritz Platten (1883–1942), a Swiss Communist, the main organizer of Lenin's return trip to Russia from exile in Switzerland
Regina Ullmann (1884–1961), a poet and storyteller
Paul Scherrer (1890–1969), a physicist, proponent of Switzerland developing its own nuclear weapons
Karl Kobelt (1891–1968), politician, President of the Confederation in 1946 and 1952
Paul Grüninger (1891–1972), police captain, now recognized as one of the Righteous Among the Nations as he saved about 3,600 Jewish refugees by backdating their visas, for which he was sacked
Charles Stoffel (1893–1970), a sportsman, competed in the 1924 and 1928 Winter Olympics and the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics
Walter Mittelholzer (1894–1937), an aviation pioneer, pilot, photographer and travel writer
Ottó Misángyi (1895–1977), a Hungarian athletics coach, sports official and university professor
Thomas Holenstein (1896–1962), politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council 1955–1959
20th century
Jolanda Neff (born 1993), an olympian, cross-country cyclist
Berta Rahm (1910–1998), an architect, writer, publisher and feminist activist
Bärbel Inhelder (1913–1997), a psychologist and epistemologist particularly regards child development
Peter Maag (1919–2001), a conductor
Walter Roderer (1920–2012), an actor and screenwriter
Kevin Fiala (1996 – present), an NHL player for the Los Angeles Kings
Kurt Furgler (1924–2008) a politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council 1972–1986
Fred Iklé (1924–2011) a sociologist and defense expert in the US defense policy establishment
Fred Hayman (1925–2016) an American fashion retailer and entrepreneur
Hansrudi Wäscher (1928–2016) a Swiss-German comics artist and comics author
Peter Hildebrand Meienberg (1929–2021) a Swiss Benedictine Missionary based in East Africa
Ines Torelli (born 1931) a comedian, radio personality and stage, voice and film actress
Max Meier (born 1936) a boxer, competed in the men's welterweight at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Hugo Tschirky (born 1938) a scientist, studies management science, technology management and innovation study
Hans Eugen Frischknecht (born 1939), a composer and organist
Niklaus Meienberg (1940–1993) a writer and investigative journalist
Ruth Dreifuss (born 1940) a politician, member of the Swiss Federal Council 1993–2002
Dieter Mobius (1944–2015) a German electronic musician and composer
Daniel Thürer (born 1945), a jurist and law professor
Karl Ammann (born 1948), a conservationist and wildlife photographer in the Congo basin
Josef Flammer (born 1948), an ophthalmologist.
Paola del Medico (born 1950) a singer, she sang for Switzerland in the 1969 and 1980 Eurovision Song Contest
Christophe Boesch (born 1951), a primatologist who studies chimpanzees
Peter Liechti (1951–2014) a movie director
René Tinner (born 1953) a recording engineer and producer
Hans Fässler (born 1954) an historian, politician, satirical revue artist, political activist and teacher of English
Simone Drexel (born 1957) a singer and songwriter, she sang for Switzerland in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest
Susan Boos (born 1963) a journalist, writes on nuclear and energy policy
Michael Hengartner (born 1966) a Swiss-Canadian biochemist and molecular biologist
Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein (born 1969) CEO of the LGT Group
Monika Fischer (born 1971) with Mathias Braschler is a photographer of portrait projects
Marco Zwyssig (born 1971), a retired football defender, 302 club caps and 20 for the national team
Aurelia Frick (born 1975), a Liechtensteiner politician, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education and Culture.
David Philip Hefti (born 1975), a composer and conductor
Dominik Meichtry (born 1984), a competitive middle-distance freestyle swimmer
Tranquillo Barnetta (born 1985), a professional footballer, nearly 500 team caps and 75 for the national team
Nevin Galmarini (born 1986), a snowboarder, gold medallist at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Linda Fäh (born 1987), a model and beauty pageant titleholder, Miss Switzerland 2009
See also
List of mayors of St. Gallen
Notes and references
External links
St. Gallen Symposium
QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) images of St. Gallen
Cities in Switzerland
Cantonal capitals of Switzerland
Saint Gallen
Saint Gallen
Saint Gallen
Saint Gallen
States and territories established in 1401
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of St. Gallen
States and territories disestablished in 1648
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary%20of%20the%20French%20Revolution
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Glossary of the French Revolution
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This glossary of the French Revolution generally does not explicate names of individual people or their political associations; those can be found in List of people associated with the French Revolution.
The terminology routinely used in discussing the French Revolution can be confusing. The same political faction may be referred to by different historians (or by the same historian in different contexts) by different names. During much of the revolutionary period, the French used a newly invented calendar that fell into complete disuse after the revolutionary era. Different legislative bodies had rather similar names, not always translated uniformly into English.
The three estates
The estates of the realm in ancien régime France were:
First Estate (Premièr État, le clergé ) – The clergy, both high (generally siding with the nobility, and it often was recruited amongst its younger sons) and low.
Second Estate (Second État, la noblesse ) – The nobility. Technically, but not usually of much relevance, the Second Estate also included the Royal Family.
Third Estate (Tiers État) – Everyone not included in the First or Second Estate. At times this term refers specifically to the bourgeoisie, the middle class, but the Third Estate also included the sans-culottes, the labouring class. Also included in the Third Estate were lawyers, merchants, and government officials.
Fourth Estate is a term with two relevant meanings: on the one hand, the generally unrepresented poor, nominally part of the Third Estate; on the other, the press, as a fourth powerful entity in addition to the three estates of the realm.
Social classes
Royalty – House of Bourbon, After the Empire was established.
Nobility (noblesse) – Those with explicit noble title. These are traditionally divided into
noblesse d'épée ("nobility of the sword"), the hereditary gentry and nobility who originally had to perform military service in exchange for their titles.
noblesse de robe ("nobility of the gown"), the magisterial class that administered royal justice and civil government, often referring to those who earned a title of nobility through generations of long periods of public service (bureaucrats and civil servants) or bought it (rich merchants).
noblesse de cloche ("nobility of the bell"), mayors and aldermen of certain cities under royal charter were considered gentry. Some mayors and aldermen held a noble title for life after a long period of service in office.
Noblesse de race, ("Nobility through breeding"), The "old" nobility, who inherited their titles from time immemorial.
Noblesse d’extraction, Nobility of seize-quartiers ("sixteen Quarterings"); having pure noble or gentle ancestry for four generations.
Noblesse de lettres ("Nobility through letters patent"), The "new" nobility, from after circa 1400 AD.
Ci-devant nobility (literally "from before"): nobility of the ancien régime (the Bourbon kingdom) after it had lost its titles and privileges.
Bourgeoisie (literally "Suburbanites") – Roughly, the non-noble wealthy and the middle classes: typically merchants, investors, and professionals such as doctors and lawyers. The dwellers in the small bourgs ("walled towns and communities") outside the city.
Constitutions
Liberal monarchical constitution – Adopted 6 October 1789, accepted by the King 14 July 1790.
The Constitution of 1791 or Constitution of 3 September 1791 – Establishes a limited monarchy and the Legislative Assembly.
The Constitution of 1793, Constitution of 24 June 1793 (Acte constitutionnel du 24 juin 1793, or Montagnard Constitution (Constitution montagnarde) – Ratified, but never applied, due to the suspension of all ordinary legality 10 October 1793.
The Constitution of the Year III, Constitution of 22 August 1795, Constitution of the Year III, or Constitution of 5 Fructidor – Establishes the Directory.
The Constitution of the Year VIII – Adopted 24 December 1799, establishes the Consulate.
The Constitution of the Year X – Establishes a revised Consulate, with Napoleon as First Consul for Life.
The Constitution of the Year XII – Establishes Bonaparte's First Empire.
Governmental structures
In roughly chronological order:
The ancien régime – The absolute monarchy under the Bourbon kings, generally considered to end some time between the meeting of the Estates-General on 5 May 1789, and the liberal monarchical constitution of 6 October 1789.
Parlements – Royal Law courts in Paris and most provinces under the ancien régime.
The Estates-General, also known as States-General (Etats-Généraux) – The traditional tricameral legislature of the ancien régime, which had fallen into disuse since 1614. The convention of the Estates-General of 1789 is one of the events that led to the French Revolution. The Estates General, as such, met 5–6 May 1789, but reached an impasse because the Third Estate refused to continue to participate in this structure. The other two estates continued to meet in this form for several more weeks.
The Communes – The body formed 11 May 1789, by the Third Estate after seceding from the Estates General. On 12 June 1789, the Communes invited the other orders to join them: some clergy did so the following day.
The National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) – Declared 17 June 1789, by the Communes. The clergy joined them June 19. This was soon reconstituted as...
The National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale constituante); also loosely referred to as the National Assembly – From 9 July 1789 to 30 September 1791, this was both the governing and the constitution–drafting body of France. It dissolved itself in favour of:
The Legislative Assembly (Assemblée Legislative) – From 1 October 1791, to September 1792, the Legislative Assembly, elected by voters with property qualifications, governed France under a constitutional monarchy, but with the removal of the king's veto power on 11 July 1792, was a republic in all but name, and became even more so after the subsequent arrest of the Royal Family.
The Paris Commune – During the waning days of the Legislative Assembly and the fall of the Monarchy, the municipal government of Paris functioned, at times, in the capacity of a national government, as a rival, a goad, or a bully to the Legislative Assembly.
Further, the Sections were directly democratic mass assemblies in Paris during the first four years of the Revolution.
The Provisional Executive Committee – Headed by Georges Danton, this also functioned in August–September 1792 as a rival claimant to national power.
The National Convention, or simply The Convention – First met 20 September 1792; two days later, declared a republic. The National Convention after the fall of the Montagnards (27 July 1794) is sometimes referred to as the "Thermidorian Convention". Three committees of the National Convention are particularly worthy of note:
The Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public) – During the Reign of Terror, this committee was effectively the government of France. After the fall of the Montagnards, the committee continued, but with reduced powers.
The Committee of General Security (Comité de sûreté générale) – Coordinated the War effort.
The Committee of Education (Comité de l'instruction)
The Revolutionary Tribunal (Tribunal révolutionaire) instituted in March–October 1793 to prosecute all threats to the revolutionary republic, was the effective agent of the Comité de Salut Public's reign of terror in Paris until its dissolution on 31 May 1795.
The Directory (Directoire) – From 22 August 1795, the Convention was replaced by the Directory, a bicameral legislature that more or less institutionalized the dominance of the bourgeoisie while also enacting a major land reform that was henceforward to place the peasants firmly on the political right. The rightward move was so strong that monarchists actually won the election of 1797 but were stopped from taking power by the coup of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797), the first time Napoleon played a direct role in government. The Directory continued (politically quite far to the left of its earlier self) until Napoleon took power in his own right, 9 November 1799 (or 18 Brumaire), the date that is generally counted as the end of the French Revolution. The Directory itself was the highest executive organ, comprising five Directors, chosen by the Ancients out of a list elected by the Five Hundred; its legislative was bicameral, consisting of:
The Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents), or simply the Five Hundred.
The Council of Ancients (Conseil des Anciens), or simply the Ancients or the Senate.
The Consulate (Consulat) – The period of the Consulate (December 1799 – December 1804) is only ambiguously part of the revolutionary era. The government was led by three individuals known as Consuls. From the start, Napoleon Bonaparte served as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the Republic. In May 1802, a plebiscite made Bonaparte First Consul for Life. In May 1804 the Empire was declared, bringing the Revolutionary era to a yet more definitive end.
The tribunat was one of the legislative chambers instituted by the Constitution of year VIII, composed of 100 members nominated by the Senate to discuss the legislative initiatives defended by the government's Orateurs in the presence of the Corps législatif; abolished in 1807
Political groupings
Royalists or Monarchists – Generally refers specifically to supporters of the Bourbon monarchy and can include both supporters of absolute and constitutional monarchy. See Reactionary.
Jacobins – strictly, a member of the Jacobin club, but more broadly any revolutionary, particularly the more radical bourgeois elements.
Feuillants – Members of the Club des Feuillants, result of a split within the Jacobins, who favoured a constitutional monarchy over a republic.
Republicans – Advocates of a system without a monarch.
The Gironde – Technically, a group of twelve republican deputies more moderate in their tactics than the Montagnards, though arguably many were no less radical in their beliefs; the term is often applied more broadly to others of similar politics. Members and adherents of the Gironde are variously referred to as "Girondists" ("Girondins") or "Brissotins"
The Mountain (Montagne) – The radical republican grouping in power during the Reign of Terror; its adherents are typically referred to as "Montagnards".
Septembriseurs – The Mountain and others (such as Georges Danton) who were on the rise in the period of the September Massacres
Thermidorians or Thermidoreans – The more moderate (some would say reactionary) grouping that came to power after the fall of the Mountain.
Society of the Panthéon, also known as Conspiracy of the Equals, and as the Secret Directory – faction centered around François-Noël Babeuf, who continued to hold up a radical Jacobin viewpoint during the period of the Thermidorian reaction.
Bonapartists – Supporters of Napoleon Bonaparte, especially those who supported his taking on the role of Emperor.
Émigrés – This term usually refers to those conservatives and members of the elite who left France in the period of increasingly radical revolutionary ascendancy, usually under implied or explicit threat from the Terror. (Generically, it can refer to those who left at other times or for other reasons.) Besides the émigrés having their property taken by the State, relatives of émigrés were also persecuted.
Ancien régime taxes
Corvée – A royal or seigneurial tax, taken in the form of forced labour. It came in many forms, including compulsory military service and compulsory tillage of fields. Most commonly, the term refers to a royal corvée requiring peasants to maintain the king's roads.
Gabelle – A tax on salt.
Taille – A royal tax, in principle pro capita, whose amount was fixed before collecting.
Tithe – A tax to church.
Aide – A tax on wine.
Vingtième – 5 percent direct tax levied on income.
Capitation – A poll tax.
Months of the French Revolutionary Calendar
Vendémiaire
Brumaire
Frimaire
Nivôse
Pluviôse
Ventôse
Germinal
Floréal
Prairial
Messidor
Thermidor
Fructidor
Under this calendar, the Year I or "Year 1" began 22 September 1792 (the date of the official abolition of the monarchy and the nobility).
Events commonly known by their Gregorian dates
14 July – The storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789. The flashpoint of the revolution.
4th of August – The National Constituent Assembly voted to abolish feudalism on 4 August 1789.
10th of August – The storming of the Tuileries Palace, 10 August 1792. The effective end of the French monarchy.
Events commonly known by their Revolutionary dates
22 Prairial Year II – Passage of a law greatly expanding the power of the Revolutionary Tribunals.
9 Thermidor Year II – The fall of the Mountain and the execution of Robespierre and others, 27 July 1794.
13 Vendémiaire Year IV – Failed coup and incidence of Napoleon's "whiff of grapeshot", 5 October 1795
18 Fructidor Year V – The coup against the monarchist restorationists, 4 September 1797.
22 Floréal Year VI – Coup in which 106 left–wing deputies were deprived of their seats, (11 May 1798).
30 Prairial Year VII – Coup backed militarily by General Joubert, under which four directors were forced to resign (18 June 1799).
18 Brumaire Year VIII – The coup that brought Napoleon to power, establishing the Consulate (9 November 1799).
War
The First Coalition – the opponents of France 1793 – 1797: Austria, England, Prussia, Sardinia, The Netherlands, and Spain.
The Second Coalition – the opponents of France 1798 – 1800: Austria, England, Russia, and Turkey.
The Vendée – Province where peasants revolted against the Revolutionary government in 1793. Fighting continued until 1796.
Symbols
Tricolour – the flag of the Republic, consisting of three vertical stripes, blue, white, and red.
Fleur-de-lys – the lily, emblem of the Bourbon monarchy.
Phrygian cap – symbol of liberty and citizenhood
The "Marseillaise" – the republican anthem.
The "Ça ira" – the militant sans–culottes anthem
Cockades
Cockades (cocardes) were rosettes or ribbons worn as a badge, typically on a hat.
Tricolour cockade – The symbol of the Revolution (from shortly after the Bastille fell) and later of the republic. Originally formed as a combination of blue and red—the colours of Paris—with the royal white.
Green cockade – As the "colour of hope", the symbol of the Revolution in its early days, before the adoption of the tricolour.
White cockade – Bourbon monarchy and French army.
Black cockade – Primarily, the cockade of the anti–revolutionary aristocracy. Also, earlier, the cockade of the American Revolution.
Other countries and armies at this time typically had their own cockades.
Religion
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (Constitution civile du clergé) – 1790, confiscated Church lands and turned the Catholic clergy into state employees; those who refused out of loyalty to Rome and tradition were persecuted; those who obeyed were excommunicated; partially reversed by Napoleon's Concordat of 1801.
Cult of Reason, La Culte de la raison – Official religion at the height of radical Jacobinism in 1793–4.
"Juror" ("jureur"), Constitutional priest ("constitutionnel") – a priest or other member of the clergy who took the oath required under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
"Non–juror", "refractory priest" ("réfractaire"), "insermenté" – a priest or other member of the clergy who refused to take the oath.
Other terms
Assignats – notes, bills, and bonds issued as currency 1790–1796, based on the noble lands appropriated by the state.
Cahier – petition, especially Cahiers de doléances, petition of grievances (literally "of sorrow").
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen – 1789; in summary, defined these rights as "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression."
Flight to Varennes – The Royal Family's attempt to flee France June 20–21, 1791.
The "Great Fear" – Refers to the period of July and August 1789, when peasants sacked the castles of the nobles and burned the documents that recorded their feudal obligations.
guillotine – name, originating during this period, of an execution-by-decapitation machine.
Lettre de cachet – Under the ancien régime, a private, sealed royal document that could imprison or exile an individual without recourse to courts of law.
"Left" and right" – These political terms originated in this era and derived from the seating arrangements in the legislative bodies. The use of the terms is loose and inconsistent, but in this period "right" tends to mean support for monarchical and aristocratic interests and the Roman Catholic religion, or (at the height of revolutionary fervor) for the interests of the bourgeoisie against the masses, while "left" tends to imply opposition to the same, proto-laissez faire free marketeers and proto-communists.
Terror – in this period, "terror" usually (but not always) refers to State violence, especially the so–called Reign of Terror.
Reactionary – coined during the revolutionary era to refer to those who opposed the revolution and its principles and sought a Restoration of the monarchy.
September Massacres – the September 1792 massacres of prisoners perceived to be counter–revolutionary, a disorderly precursor of the Reign of Terror.
Tricoteuse ("Knitter") - The term for the old ladies who would knit while watching the guillotine executions of enemies of the state. They were spies for the sans-culottes and often whipped up the crowds into a fervor.
References
For citations see the linked articles and also Ballard (2011); Furet (1989) Hanson (2004), Ross (1998) and Scott & Rothaus (1985).
Further reading
French Revolution
French Revolution
French Revolution
Wikipedia glossaries using unordered lists
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home%20Guard%20%28United%20Kingdom%29
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Home Guard (United Kingdom)
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The Home Guard (initially Local Defence Volunteers or LDV) was an armed citizen militia supporting the British Army during the Second World War. Operational from 1940 to 1944, the Home Guard had 1.5 million local volunteers otherwise ineligible for military service, such as those who were too young or too old to join the regular armed services (regular military service was restricted to those aged 18 to 41) and those in reserved occupations. Excluding those already in the armed services, the civilian police or civil defence, approximately one in five men were volunteers. Their role was to act as a secondary defence force in case of invasion by the forces of Nazi Germany.
The Home Guard were to try to slow down the advance of the enemy even by a few hours to give the regular troops time to regroup. They were also to defend key communication points and factories in rear areas against possible capture by paratroops or fifth columnists. A key purpose was to maintain control of the civilian population in the event of an invasion, to forestall panic and to prevent communication routes from being blocked by refugees to free the regular forces to fight the Germans. The Home Guard continued to man roadblocks and guard the coastal areas of the United Kingdom and other important places such as airfields, factories and explosives stores until late 1944, when they were stood down. They were finally disbanded on 31 December 1945, eight months after Germany's surrender.
Men aged 17 to 65 years could join, although the age limits were not strictly enforced. One platoon had a fourteen year old and three men in their eighties enrolled in it. Service was unpaid but gave a chance for older or inexperienced soldiers to support the war effort.
Background
Early ideas for a home defence force prior to the Second World War
The origins of the Second World War Home Guard can be traced to Captain Tom Wintringham, who returned from the Spanish Civil War and wrote a book entitled How to Reform the Army. In the book, as well as many regular army reforms, Wintringham called for the creation of 12 divisions similar in composition to that of the International Brigades, which had been formed in Spain during the conflict. The divisions would be raised by voluntary enlistment targeting ex-servicemen and youths. Despite great interest by the War Office in the book's assertion that 'security is possible', Wintringham's call to train 100,000 men immediately was not implemented.
Establishing a home defence force
When the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, debates began in official circles about the possible ways in which the German military might invade Britain. In the first week of the conflict, numerous diplomatic and intelligence reports seemed to indicate that there was the possibility of an imminent German amphibious assault. Many government ministers and senior army officials, including the Commander in Chief Home Forces, General Walter Kirke, believed that the threat of invasion was greatly exaggerated and were sceptical, but others were not, including Winston Churchill, the new First Lord of the Admiralty.
Churchill argued that some form of home defence force should be raised from people who were ineligible to serve in the regular forces but wished to serve their country. In a letter to Samuel Hoare, the Lord Privy Seal, on 8 October 1939, Churchill called for a Home Guard force of 500,000 men over the age of 40 to be formed.
Early local grassroots formation of home defence forces
While government officials were debating the need for a home defence force, such a force was actually being formed without any official encouragement. In Essex, men not eligible for call-up into the armed forces were coming forward to join the self-styled "Legion of Frontiersmen". Officials were soon informed of the development of the legion, with the Adjutant-General, Sir Robert Gordon-Finlayson, arguing that the government should encourage the development of more unofficial organisations. The fear of invasion in 1939 quickly dissipated as it became evident that the German military was not in a position to launch an invasion of Britain; official enthusiasm for home defence forces waned and the legion appears to have dissolved itself at the same time.
The Battle of France began on 10 May 1940, with the Wehrmacht invading Belgium, the Netherlands and France. By 20 May, German forces had reached the English Channel, and on 28 May, the Belgian Army surrendered. The combination of the large-scale combined operations mounted by the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Norway in April and the prospect that much of the English Channel coast would soon be occupied made the prospect of a German invasion of the British Isles alarmingly real. Fears of an invasion grew rapidly, spurred on by reports both in the press and from official government bodies, of a fifth column operating in Britain that would aid an invasion by German airborne forces.
Increasing pressure on Government to form a home defence force
The government soon found itself under increasing pressure to extend the internment of suspect aliens to prevent the formation of a fifth column and to allow the population to take up arms to defend themselves against an invasion. Calls for some form of home defence force soon began to be heard from the press and from private individuals. The press baron Lord Kemsley privately proposed to the War Office that rifle clubs form the nucleus of a home defence force, and Josiah Wedgwood, a Labour MP, wrote to the prime minister asking that the entire adult population be trained in the use of arms and given weapons to defend themselves. Similar calls appeared in newspaper columns: in the 12 May issue of the Sunday Express, a brigadier called on the government to issue free arms licences and permits to buy ammunition to men possessing small arms, and the same day, the Sunday Pictorial asked if the government had considered training golfers in rifle shooting to eliminate stray parachutists.
The calls alarmed government and senior military officials, who worried about the prospect of the population forming private defence forces that the army would not be able to control, and in mid-May, the Home Office issued a press release on the matter. It was the task of the army to deal with enemy parachutists, as any civilians who carried weapons and fired on German troops were likely to be executed if captured. Moreover, any lone parachutist descending from the skies in the summer of 1940 was far more likely to be a downed RAF airman than a German Fallschirmjäger.
Nevertheless, private defence forces soon began to be formed throughout the country, often sponsored by employers seeking to bolster defence of their factories. This placed the government in an awkward position. The private forces, which the army might not be able to control, could well inhibit the army's efforts during an invasion, but to ignore the calls for a home defence force to be set up would be politically problematic. An officially-sponsored home defence force would allow the government greater control and also allow for greater security around vulnerable areas such as munitions factories and airfields; but there was some confusion over who would form and control the force, with separate plans drawn up by the War Office and General Headquarters Home Forces under General Kirke.
The government and senior military officials rapidly compared plans and, by 13 May 1940, worked out an improvised plan for a home defence force, to be called the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV). The rush to complete a plan and announce it to the public had led to a number of administrative and logistical problems, such as how the volunteers in the new force would be armed, which caused problems as the force evolved. On the evening of 14 May 1940, Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden gave a radio broadcast announcing the formation of the LDV and calling for volunteers to join the force: "You will not be paid, but you will receive a uniform and will be armed."
Official recognition and enlistment
In the official radio announcement, Eden called on men between the ages of 17 and 65 years in Britain who were not in military service but wished to defend their country against an invasion to enroll in the LDV at their local police station. It was anticipated that up to 500,000 men might volunteer, a number that conformed generally with the Army's expectation of the total numbers required to fulfill the LDV's expected functions. However, the announcement was met with much enthusiasm: 250,000 volunteers tried to sign up in the first seven days, and by July this had increased to 1.5 million. Social groups such as cricket clubs began forming their own units, but the bulk were workplace-based, especially as co-operation from employers was necessary to ensure that volunteers would be available for training and operational patrols. Indeed, many employers envisaged the LDV units primarily as protecting industrial plants from fifth column attack.
Women and the Home Guard
The Home Guard did not initially admit women to its ranks. Some women formed their own groups like the Amazon Defence Corps. In December 1941, a more organised but still unofficial Women's Home Defence (WHD) was formed under the direction of Dr Edith Summerskill, Labour MP for Fulham West. WHD members were given weapons training and basic military training. Limited female involvement was permitted later, on the understanding that these would be in traditional female support roles (e.g. clerical, driving) and not in any way seen as combatants.
Logistics and practical support issues
The War Office continued to lay down the administrative and logistical foundations for the LDV organisation. Eden's public words were generally interpreted as an explicit promise to provide everyone who volunteered with a personal firearm. In retrospect, it was recognised that recruitment would have been better limited to the numbers required (and capable of being armed), with later volunteers given places on a waiting list. However, once volunteers had been enlisted, it was considered impossible from a public relations perspective to then dismiss them. Nevertheless, the regular forces saw no priority in providing more arms and equipment to the new force than would have been needed had numbers been properly constrained in the first place.
In telegrams to the lord lieutenants of each county it was explained that LDV units would operate in predefined military areas already used by the regular army, with a General Staff Officer coordinating with civilian regional commissioners to divide these areas into smaller zones. In London this was organised on the basis of police districts. On 17 May, the LDV achieved official legal status when the Privy Council issued the Defence (Local Defence Volunteers) Order in Council, and orders were issued from the War Office to regular army headquarters throughout Britain explaining the status of LDV units; volunteers would be divided into sections, platoons and companies but would not be paid and leaders of units would not hold commissions or have the power to command regular forces.
Implementation of the legislation proved to be extremely difficult, particularly as the primary focus of the War Office and General Headquarters Home Forces was on Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk between 27 May and 4 June 1940. The apparent lack of focus led to many LDV members becoming impatient, particularly when it was announced that volunteers would receive only armbands printed with "L.D.V." on them until proper uniforms could be manufactured, and there was no mention of weapons being issued to units. The impatience led to many units conducting their own patrols without official permission, often led by men who had previously served in the armed forces.
The presence of many veterans and the appointment of ex-officers as commanders of LDV units, only worsened the situation, with many believing that they did not require training before being issued weapons. That led to numerous complaints being received by the War Office and the press and to many ex-senior officers attempting to use their influence to obtain weapons or permission to begin patrolling. The issue of weapons to LDV units was particularly problematic for the War Office, as it was recognised that the rearming and reequipping of the regular forces would have to take precedence over the LDV. All civilian firearms, especially shotguns and pistols, previously were to have been handed in to local police stations, and volunteers were allowed often by the police to retrieve these for their LDV duties. In rural areas, volunteer shotgun users initially organised themselves into vigilante groups, dubbed 'the parashots' by the press, to watch the early morning skies for German parachutists.
For public (and enemy) consumption, the government maintained that large stocks of Lee-Enfield rifles remained from the First World War, but the actual total reserve stockpile amounted to 300,000, and they had already been earmarked for the expansion of the army by 122 infantry battalions. Instead, the War Office issued instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails and emergency orders were placed for Ross rifles from Canada. In the absence of proper weapons, local units improvised weapons, especially grenades, mortars and grenade projectors, from whatever came to hand, and the legacy of self-reliant improvisation in the face of what was interpreted as official disregard and obstruction was to remain as a characteristic of the Home Guard throughout its existence.
Unclear role, low morale and disciplinary problems
Another problem that was encountered as the LDV was organised was the definition of the role the organisation was to play. Initially, in the eyes of the War Office and the army, the LDV was to act as 'an armed police constabulary', which, in the event of an invasion, was to man roadblocks, observe German troop movements, convey information to the regular forces and guard places of strategic or tactical importance. The War Office believed that the LDV would act best in such a passive role because of its lack of training, weapons and proper equipment. Such a role clashed with the expectations of LDV commanders and members who believed that the organisation would be best suited to an active role of hunting down and killing parachutists, and fifth columnists, as well as attacking and harassing German forces. "In the popular mind it was the twin terrors of Nazi paratrooper and Fifth Columnist traitor which were the Home Guard’s nemesis, its natural enemy. Notwithstanding that the Home Guard actually spent most of its time preparing to defend 'nodal points' against tank attack, operating anti-aircraft artillery or locating unexploded bombs."The clash led to morale problems and even more complaints to the press and the War Office from LDV members who were opposed, as they saw it, the government's leaving them defenceless and placing them in a noncombatant role. Complaints about the role of the LDV and continuing problems encountered by the War Office in its attempts to clothe and arm the LDV, led the government to respond to public pressure in August, redefining the role of the LDV to include delaying and obstructing German forces through any means possible. Also in August, the Home Office and MI5 instituted the 'Invasion List', a list of around 1,000 persons whose 'recent conduct or words indicated that they were likely to assist the enemy' and who would be apprehended by the police in the event of an invasion, hoping thereby to forestall the expectations of many LDV volunteers that they would then be empowered to act as 'Judge, Jury and Executioner' of potential collaborators and fifth columnists.
At the same time, Churchill, who had assumed the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, became involved in the matter after being alerted to the problems, obtaining a summary of the current LDV position from the War Office on 22 June 1940. After reviewing the summary, Churchill wrote to Eden stating that in his opinion, one of the main causes of disciplinary and morale problems stemmed from the uninspiring title of the LDV and suggesting that it be renamed as the 'Home Guard'. Despite resistance from Eden and other government officials, who noted that one million "LDV" armbands had already been printed and the cost of printing another million 'Home Guard' armbands would be excessive, Churchill would not be dissuaded. On 22 July, the LDV was officially renamed the Home Guard. Churchill ruled decisively on the issue of whether civilian volunteers should actively resist German forces, even at the expense of setting themselves outside the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The 'Rules of War', he pointed out, had been drawn up with the express intention of avoiding defeated combatants fighting on to the last. However, in the fight against Nazism, any outcome, including the complete destruction of a town and the massacre of its population, would be preferable to its acquiescing to Nazi rule.
Formal combatant status
The Home Guard in 1940 were an armed uniformed civilian militia, entirely distinct from the regular armed forces. Volunteers originally had no recognised military rank, were not subject to military discipline and could withdraw (or be withdrawn by their employers) at any time. In 1941, nominal ranks were introduced for Home Guard 'officers', and in 1942, limited conscription was implemented intended for circumstances where Home Guard forces were taking over functions from regular forces (chiefly coastal artillery and anti-aircraft batteries), and non-officer volunteers became 'privates'. Volunteers remained legally civilians and failure to attend when ordered to do so was punishable by civilian authorities. Nevertheless, the British Government consistently maintained that as Home Guard service was strictly to be undertaken only in approved uniform. Uniformed volunteers would be lawful combatants within the Geneva Conventions and so would be "prisoners of war" if captured. That was an argument with a long history since armed civilian irregulars (uniformed and non-uniformed) had been widely employed by smaller combatant nations in the First World War, but former British governments had consistently refused to recognise captured irregular combatants in uniform as prisoners of war. Indeed, most of the Irish Republican volunteers executed by the British administration following the 1916 Easter Rising had been fighting or at least surrendered in full Irish Volunteer or Irish Citizen Army uniforms. However, that was an uprising or rebellion of subjects of the Crown and was not entirely comparable to combatants in a war between sovereign states.
German and Austrian military traditions were, if anything, more absolute in rejecting any recognition of civilian militia combatants as prisoners of war since the German response to the nonuniformed francs-tireurs who had attacked German forces during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. It had long been standard German military practice that civilians who attacked German troops in areas that opposing regular forces had surrendered, withdrawn or chosen not to defend should be considered properly liable to be shot out of hand. Indeed, German military doctrine had always maintained that their military forces were further entitled in such circumstances to take reprisals against unarmed local civilians - taking and executing hostages, and leveling villages: "fight chivalrously against an honest foe; armed irregulars deserve no quarter". The actions of regular German forces during the Second World War consistently conformed to those principles: captured partisans in the Soviet Union and the Balkans, whether they were fighting in uniform or not, were killed on the spot. German radio broadcasts described the British Home Guard as 'gangs of murderers' and left no doubt that they would not be regarded as lawful combatants.
Organisation, deployment and tactics
By the end of 1940, the Home Guard was established into 1,200 battalions, 5,000 companies and 25,000 platoons. For its primary defensive role, each section was trained and equipped to operate as a single, largely independent 'battle platoon', with an operational establishment of between 25 and 30 men at any one time although, as volunteers would also have full-time jobs, the numbers of volunteers in each section would be around twice that establishment. In the event of an invasion, the Home Guard battle platoons in a town would be under the overall control of an Army military commander and maintain contact with that commander with a designated 'runner' (no Home Guard units were issued with wireless sets until 1942), who would usually be a motorbike owner. Otherwise, the battle platoon was static and would defend a defined local area and report on enemy activity in that area, but it was neither equipped nor expected to join up with the mobile forces of the regular army. Each Home Guard unit would establish and prepare a local strongpoint, from which 'civilians' (non-Home Guard) would be cleared if possible, and aim to defend that strongpoint for as long as possible. It might be forced to retreat towards a neighbouring strongpoint but would not surrender so long as ammunition held out. Most towns of any size would have a number such Home Guard units, each defending its own strongpoint and providing 'defence in depth', which should ideally be sited to offer supporting fire to cover one another and to control road access through the town from all directions.
Each battle platoon had a headquarters section; commander, second in command, runner, and at least one marksman 'sniper' with an M1917 Enfield rifle. The fighting force of the platoon consisted of three squads of around 8 men, each squad having a three-man automatic weapons group (usually with one either of a BAR or Lewis gun) and a rifle/bomb group armed with M1917 rifles, grenades and sticky-bombs, and a Thompson or Sten sub-machine gun if possible. Men without rifles should all have shotguns, if available. The basic tactical principle was 'aggressive defence'; fire would be held until the enemy were within the defensive perimeter of the town in force and they would then be attacked with concentrated firepower of bombs, grenades, shotguns and automatic weapons (as much as possible from above and from the rear), with the object of forcing them into cover close by. Retreating enemy forces would be counterattacked (again preferably from the rear), the automatic weapons group of each squad providing covering fire while the bombing group attacked with grenades, submachine guns and shotguns. As many Germans as possible should be killed, and no prisoners would be taken.
Battle tactics were derived substantially from the experience of Spanish Republican forces although they also drew on the experience of the British Army (and the IRA) in Ireland. The emphasis was on drawing the Germans into fighting in central urban areas at short ranges, where stone buildings would provide cover; lines of communication between units would be short; the Home Guard's powerful arsenal of shotguns, bombs and grenades would be most effective; and German tanks and vehicles would be constrained by narrow, winding streets.
Secret roles of the Home Guard
The Home Guard had a number of secret roles. That included sabotage units who would disable factories and petrol installations following the invasion. Members with outdoor survival skills and experience (especially as gamekeepers or poachers) could be recruited into the Auxiliary Units, an extremely secretive force of more highly trained guerrilla units with the task of hiding behind enemy lines after an invasion, emerging to attack and destroy supply dumps, disabling tanks and trucks, assassinating collaborators, and killing sentries and senior German officers with sniper rifles. They would operate from pre-prepared secret underground bases, excavated at night with no official records, in woods, in caves, or otherwise concealed.
These concealed bases, upwards of 600 in number, were able to support units ranging in size from squads to companies. In the event of an invasion, all Auxiliary Units would disappear into their operational bases and would not maintain contact with local Home Guard commanders, who should indeed be wholly unaware of their existence. Hence, although the Auxiliaries were Home Guard volunteers and wore Home Guard uniforms, they would not participate in the conventional phase of their town's defence but would be activated once the local Home Guard defence had ended to inflict maximum mayhem and disruption over a further necessarily brief but violent period.
Active military combat
It is a common fallacy that the Home Guard never fired a shot in anger during the whole of the Second World War. In fact, individual Home Guardsmen helped man anti-aircraft guns as early as the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940. By 1943, the Home Guard operated its own dedicated batteries of anti-aircraft guns, rockets, coastal defence artillery and engaging German planes with their machine guns. They are credited with shooting down numerous Luftwaffe aircraft and the V-1 flying bombs that followed them in the summer of 1944. The Home Guard's first official kill was shot down on Tyneside in 1943. The Home Guard in Northern Ireland also took part in gun battles with the IRA.
A major new function emerged for the Home Guard after the German bombing campaign, the Blitz, in 1940 and 1941; resulting in large numbers of unexploded bombs in urban areas. Home Guard units took on the task of locating unexploded bombs after raids and, if such bombs were found (often after several months or years), would commonly assist in sealing off the danger area and evacuating civilians. Most Home Guard wartime fatalities occurred in the course of that task. Aside from deaths in accidents, the Home Guard lost a total of 1,206 members on duty to unexploded bombs, air and rocket attacks during the war.
Equipment and training
For the first few weeks the LDV were poorly armed since the regular forces had priority for weapons and equipment. Since the government could not admit the severe shortage of basic armaments for the regular troops in 1940, the public remained deeply frustrated at the failure to issue rifles to the LDV. Rifles were a particular problem, as domestic production of new Lee-Enfield rifles had ceased after the First World War; and in the summer of 1940 there were no more than 1.5 million serviceable frontline military rifles available in total. Contracts had been placed in the UK, Canada and the United States to build new factories for an updated Lee-Enfield model (designated Rifle No. 4), but in 1940, they were still a long way from volume production. The LDV's original role had been envisaged by the army as largely observing and reporting enemy movements, but it swiftly changed to a more aggressive role. Nevertheless, it would have been expected to fight well-trained and equipped troops despite having only negligible training and only weapons such as home-made bombs and shotguns (a solid ammunition for shotguns was developed for that purpose), personal sidearms and firearms that belonged in museums. Patrols were carried out on foot, by bicycle, even on horseback and often without uniforms, although all volunteers wore an armband printed with the letters "LDV". There were also river patrols using the private craft of members.
Many officers from the First World War armed themselves with Webley Mk VI .455 revolvers (officers had been expected to purchase their sidearms privately and retained them in civilian life). There were also numerous private attempts to produce armoured vehicles by adding steel plates to cars or lorries, often armed with machine guns. These improvised vehicles included the Armadillo armoured truck, the Bison mobile pillbox and the Bedford OXA armoured car (some of these makeshift vehicles were also operated by RAF units for aerodrome defense).
Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Aircraft Production, had sponsored the emergency creation of the "Car Armoured Light Standard" (a commercial car body with a simple armoured hull and light machine gun), known as the Beaverette, for the British armed forces but, to the intense annoyance of the British Army command, he insisted on reserving considerable numbers for Home Guard units guarding key air components factories. LDV units broke into museums, appropriated whatever weapons could be found and equipped themselves with private weapons such as shotguns. Many veterans who had served in the First World War had retained German sidearms as trophies, but ammunition was scarce. Members of the public deposited their sporting rifles at their local police stations, to be used (on loan) by the LDV, and local police forces themselves donated their stocks of military rifles, again on loan, but those expedients provided only around 8,000 rifles (although that number did not include volunteers' use of their own firearms).
Ex-communist and Spanish Civil War veteran Tom Wintringham, a journalist and key advocate of the LDV and later the Home Guard, opened a private training camp for the LDV at Osterley Park, outside London, in early July 1940. Wintringham's training methods were mainly based on his experience in the International Brigades in Spain. Those who had fought alongside him in Spain trained volunteers in anti-tank warfare and demolitions. Bert "Yank" Levy was one of the chief trainers, and his lectures became the source for a book on guerrilla warfare.
Supplies of small arms to the Home Guard improved radically after July 1940, when the active support of US President Franklin Roosevelt allowed the British government to purchase 500,000 M1917 Enfield Rifles and 25,000 M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles from the reserve stock of the US armed forces, but the very limited initial issue of standard Lee-Enfield rifles was withdrawn as the American arms became available, as were some 25,000 Pattern 14 .303 rifles (the British calibre version of the M1917 Enfield) and 60,000 Canadian Ross rifles. The M1917 Enfield rifles were a more modern design than the Lee-Enfield rifles issued to British regular forces, both harder hitting and more accurate, but were heavier and notably less handy to use. The M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles lacked the bipod stand and carrying handle that the US army had applied in an attempt to convert the weapon into a light machine gun but, when used primarily as a semiautomatic rifle fired from the shoulder (as was advised in Home Guard training manuals), one or two such weapons in a battle platoon could provide formidable additional firepower. In the hands of a trained soldier, each BAR could maintain a firing rate of up to 40 single shots per minute. Furthermore, the British government had placed large commercial orders for Thompson submachine guns, which were issued first to the Home Guard from 1941 onwards (especially to the secret Auxiliary Units). The British Expeditionary Force had lost almost its entire stock of Bren Guns in the Dunkirk evacuation and the regular army initially fell back on prewar and American Lewis guns as a stopgap; but by the end of 1940, around 14,000 of these American Lewis guns (together with some 4,000 American M1917 Browning machine guns) had been released to the Home Guard. From the perspective of the War Office, this removed weapons using US ammunition from regular army use, and had the further advantage that the three volunteers in the machine gun team would not expect rifles. This model of Lewis gun had been designed to be swivel-mounted in aircraft; before issuing to the Home Guard the fitted spade-handle stock was extended into a crude shoulder stock, and a wooden fore-grip and rigid triangular bipod added.
Within a few months, the Home Guard had acquired proper uniforms and equipment as the immediate needs of the regular forces were satisfied. Special trains were laid on to rush the M1917 rifles and Browning Automatic Rifles to Home Guard units, and by the end of July, all had been distributed. Priority in mid-1940 was given to Home Guard units on the South Coast and Home Counties and those defending key air industry suppliers from air and paratroop attack, and had an invasion happened in September or October, those Home Guard units would have largely been well equipped and armed for a static defence role, the key remaining lack being an effective anti-tank grenade capable of being launched a reasonable distance. After September 1940, the army began to take charge of the Home Guard training in Osterley, and Wintringham and his associates were gradually sidelined. Wintringham resigned in April 1941. Ironically, despite his support of the Home Guard, Wintringham was never allowed to join the organisation himself because of a policy barring membership by communists and fascists.
Nevertheless, Home Guard members continued to express dissatisfaction with their armaments until 1943 since not all of the 1.5 million members could be provided with their own rifle or pistol. Although large numbers of M1917 Enfield rifles and Browning Automatic Rifles had been purchased for the use of the Home Guard, they had had to be laboriously cleaned of their heavy cosmoline packing grease by the Home Guard units themselves. All the American guns (M1917 Enfield Rifles, BAR, Lewis light machine guns, and Browing M1917 machine guns) used the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, an 0.30 inch round, a type of ammunition totally different from and more powerful than the 0.303 round used by the service issue British Lee–Enfield rifle. A red band was painted around the fore end of the stock of the Enfield and BAR weapons as a warning since a 0.303 round wouldn't load, but jam the rifle.
The Thompson guns used .45 ACP pistol ammunition, again not British Army standard, which was one major reason that the weapons had been turned down for use by the regular army in the first place. Indeed, it rapidly became accepted that any weapons firing US calibre .30 ammunition would go to the Home Guard. Each gun came with an adequate supply of ammunition: 50 rounds for each Enfield, 750 for each BAR and up to 1,000 rounds for the 'Tommy Guns'. However, Home Guard units were commonly not allowed to fire them in practice shooting as until America entered the war, there were no reserve ammunition stocks, which reinforced the impression that they were not frontline weapons.
For regular shooting practice, the Home Guard mainly borrowed Territorial Army shooting ranges and guns, with limited issue of live .22 and .303 ammunition. From 1942, the Thompson guns (and their ammunition) were increasingly withdrawn to be issued to Commando forces but were replaced by large numbers of Sten submachine guns. For the first time, all Home Guard members could have their own issue firearm.
Home Guard training at Osterly Park had disseminated experience from Spanish Republican forces, in using improvised grenades and bombs in urban warfare against tanks. Two particular weapons were recommended for that purpose: the satchel bomb, a fused explosive charge in a canvas bag, and the Molotov cocktail, a glass bottle containing a mixture of petrol and a gelling agent.
The Home Guard inherited weapons that the regular army no longer required, such as the Blacker Bombard antitank weapon, and weapons they no longer desired, such as the Sticky bomb. The arsenal also included weapons that could be produced cheaply without consuming materials needed to produce armaments for the regular units such as the Northover Projector, a blackpowder-powered mortar; the No. 76 Special Incendiary Grenade, a glass bottle filled with highly-flammable material and the Smith gun, a small artillery gun that could be towed by a car.
"Croft's Pikes"
By late 1940, the Home Guard had amassed 847,000 rifles, 47,000 shotguns and 49,000 machine guns of various kinds. With more than 1,682,000 volunteers, 739,000 men were thus unarmed. There was little improvement in June 1941, when Churchill wrote to the War Office saying that "every man must have a weapon of some sort, be it only a mace or a pike". The civil servants took Churchill at his word and ordered 250,000 pikes from the Ministry of Aircraft Production, each consisting of a long steel tube with an obsolete bayonet welded to the end. When the first reached the Home Guard, there was uproar, and it is thought that none was actually issued.
Captain Godfrey Nicholson, MP, spoke for the Home Guard when he said in the House of Commons that the provision of pikes, "if not meant as a joke, was an insult". Lord Croft, the Under-Secretary of State for War, could have blamed the fiasco on Churchill but defended the decision by saying that the pike was "a most effective and silent weapon". His name was attached to the affair thereafter. The armaments shortage was solved when the first mass-produced Sten submachine guns entered service early in 1942.
Fifth Column
The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 had been supported by prepared irregular units raised from ethnic German populations in western Poland. Linking with the Brandenburg Regiment, troops equipped to fight in the uniforms of their opponents or disguised as civilians. As the German armed services refused to countenance regular troops engaging in such clearly irregular tactics, the Brandenburgers in Poland served under the command of the Abwehr, German military intelligence. Counterpart tactics were employed in the spring of 1940 in support of the German invasions of Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, but German success in those invasions was more substantially because of the use of paratroopers to seize and hold key defence points behind the front line and to prevent the defending forces from concentrating against the main German ground forces. British public opinion conflated the two tactics and concluded that the rapidity of the German victories in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands had to be caused by German paratroops linking with a prepared 'fifth column' in each country of Nazi sympathisers and ethnic Germans.
Now that Britain might potentially face invasion, the British press speculated that the German Gestapo had already prepared two lists of British civilians: "The Black Book" of known anti-fascists and prominent Jews who would be rounded up following an invasion and 'The Red Book' of 'Nazi sympathisers' who would support the German invaders as a fifth column. The police and security services found themselves deluged with a mass of denunciations and accusations against suspected fifth columnists. General Ironside, Commander in Chief, Home Forces, was convinced that substantial landowners in the British fifth column had already prepared secret landing strips in South East England for the use of German airborne forces. The Imperial General Staff, spurred on by Churchill, pressed for widespread internment of Nazi- sympathisers.
The government's worst fears were briefly thought to have been confirmed on 20 May 1940. Tyler Kent, a cipher clerk in the US embassy spying for the Germans, was apprehended by MI5. Kent had in his possession a locked ledger of 235 names, which was the prewar membership records of the "Right Club", an anti-war and anti-Semitic association run by the Conservative MP Archibald Maule Ramsay. None of that was made public at the time, but there was widespread public demand that if the names in the 'Red Book' could be obtained by the Security Services, they should be supplied to local Home Guard units in the event of an invasion. Lord Swinton was ordered by Churchill to determine the true extent of the threat and to propose measures to deal with it. Lord Swinton's immediate response was that internment of British nationals with pro-German sympathies should be greatly extended, and Oswald Mosley and other leaders of the British Union of Fascists were interned on 21 May 1940, with some 700 other suspects.
However, following the loss at sea on 2 July 1940 of the SS Arandora Star, carrying German and Italian internees to Canada, the impracticalities and potential injustices of internment became more apparent, and the public understanding of the fifth column threat changed from being directed towards enemy nationals towards upper and upper-middle class Englishmen. Within a few weeks, the Security Services admitted that it had been unable to confirm any actual instance of organised fifth column activity or even any actual confirmed fifth columnist. Churchill, "with an impressive display of amnesia", asserted in the House of Commons at the end of August 1940 that he had always considered the fifth column threat to be exaggerated, and many of those detained were silently released. From then on, however, the primary official response to fears of fifth column activity was that the names of those for whom there was substantial grounds for suspicion would be added to the 'Invasion List' and that fifth column activity otherwise would be countered by the Home Guard.
There had been no active Fifth Column actually established by the Germans in Britain in 1940 although numbers of fascist sympathisers might have joined one had they been approached. Nevertheless, Home Guard volunteers continued to assume that a major part of their military role would be to apprehend potential fifth columnists, hunt down and kill any that might mobilise in support of an invasion and prevent their linking up with German paratroops.
Paratrooper defence
The use of German paratroopers in Rotterdam, where Fallschirmjäger landed in a football stadium and then hijacked private transport to make their way to the city centre, demonstrated that nowhere was safe. It was widely reported that the paratroops in the Netherlands had been assisted and guided by ethnic German servants in reaching their targets and that was reported as fact by the British ambassador. From July 1940, to counter the threat of an airborne assault, the Home Guard manned observation posts, where soldiers spent every night continuously watching the skies and were initially armed with shotguns but rapidly re-equipped with M1917 rifles.
Official British intelligence reports in 1940 gave credence to the belief that German paratroops routinely engaged in 'dirty tricks' by appearing in the uniforms of opposing forces or masquerading as civilians. Stray parachutists separated from their units were claimed to have feigned surrender to overpower and kill their captors with concealed weapons. In the first (unofficial) published Home Guard training manuals such warnings were re-enforced, with the advice that "the pretenders should be promptly and suitably dealt with" although otherwise official Home Guard guidance would avoid putting 'shoot to kill' orders in writing.
Following the German airborne capture of Crete in May 1941, further advice was rapidly disseminated throughout the Home Guard on defence against paratroops in the light of what was now learned about Fallschirmjäger tactics. In particular, it was noted that in German parachute drops, the paratroops themselves were armed only with a pistol and knife and for a period would be highly vulnerable until they had located and unpacked their separate dropped equipment containers. To disperse British regular forces around the country to provide rapid response cover for potential drop areas would severely deplete the main Home Defence order of battle, but that role appeared tailor-made for local Home Guard units and so throughout 1940 and 1941, defence against paratroops dominated much Home Guard thinking and training. Even after the immediate threat of an invasion had passed, Home Guard units associated with key industrial plants were provided with extra equipment, and Beaverette armoured cars, specifically to defend against possible paratroop raids.
To spread word in the event of an invasion, the Home Guard set up a relatively simple code to warn their compatriots. For instance, the word "Cromwell" indicated that a paratrooper invasion was imminent, and "Oliver" meant that the invasion had commenced. Additionally, the Home Guard arranged to use church bells as a call-to-arms for the rest of the LDV, which led to a series of complex rules governing who had keys to bell towers, and the ringing of church bells was forbidden at all other times.
Uniform
On 22 May 1940, eight days after the formation of the LDV, the War Office announced that 250,000 field service caps were to be distributed as the first part of the uniform of the new force and that khaki brassards or "armlets" were being manufactured, each carrying the letters "LDV" in black. In the meantime, LDV units improvised their own brassards with whatever materials were available. Local Women's Voluntary Service branches were often asked to produce them, sometimes by using old puttees donated by veterans.
The British Army used loose-fitting work clothes called "Overalls, Denim" which were made of khaki-coloured cotton twill fabric and consisted of a short jacket or "blouse" and trousers. They were cut to the same style as and were designed to be worn over the 1938 pattern Battle Dress. It was announced that 90,000 sets of denim overalls would be released from military stores at once and that more would be issued as soon as they could be manufactured.
On 25 June, Anthony Eden announced in the House of Commons that LDV uniform was intended "to consist of one suit of overalls of design similar to that of battle dress, a field service cap, and an armlet bearing the letters 'L.D.V.'". On 30 July 1940, Eden further announced that the Home Guard (as the LDV had been renamed) would be issued with military boots as supplies became available.
The issue of uniforms proceeded slowly because of shortages and the need to re-equip and enlarge the army following the Fall of France. On 14 August, Eden announced that the supply of material to make the denim overalls was insufficient and that regular battle dress would be released to the Home Guard as an interim measure. By the end of 1940, the Cabinet had approved the expenditure of £1 million for the supply of battle dress to the whole force. On 20 August 1940, it was further announced that blankets were being issued and that the intention was to provide the Home Guard with greatcoats.
As winter approached, there were many complaints from Home Guardsmen who had to patrol or stand sentry without the benefit of a uniform overcoat. Therefore, a large cape made of heavy serge fabric was hastily designed and issued in the interim. There was no prospect of being able to provide sufficient sets of the 1937 Pattern Web Equipment (including belt, ammunition pouches and a haversack) to the Home Guard and so a simplified equipment set made from leather and canvas was produced. Particularly unpopular were the awkward leather "anklets" which were issued in place of the webbing gaiters worn by the army. The lack of provision of steel helmets was keenly felt, especially by those Home Guardsmen required to be on guard duty during the Blitz when the risk of being hit by a shell splinter was high. That situation was only gradually rectified.
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland, the provincial government had placed the LDV under the control of the Royal Ulster Constabulary; they were known as the Ulster Defence Volunteers, and then the Ulster Home Guard. The police held large stocks of black cloth in reserve, for use by the Ulster Special Constabulary in the event of large-scale civil insurgency. The black cloth was quickly made up into uniforms in the style of the denim overalls by the many clothing factories in the province. The Ulster Home Guard kept their black uniforms until Battle Dress began to be issued in April 1941.
Ranks
When the Home Guard was first formed, it had its own rank structure. As a unit of volunteers, it was thought that there should be a system of appointed ranks, with officers who did not hold a King's Commission.
It was not until November 1940 that it was decided to bring the Home Guard structure into line with the regular army. From February 1941, officers and men were known by regular army ranks except that "Private" was not used until the spring of 1942, when the rank of "Volunteer" was dropped in favour of "Private".
After November 1940, officers were granted a King's Commission but were regarded as junior in rank to a regular army officer of the equivalent rank and senior to army officers of a junior rank.
American participation
Churchill had recognised that the Home Guard offered a powerful opportunity to promote pro-British sentiments in the United States and hoped that by encouraging US interest and participation in the Home Guard, it might be possible to advance his aspirations to bring the United States into the war against Germany. Although there were also strong practical advantages in directing weapons sourced in the United States towards the Home Guard, rather than the regular army, the prompt issuing of very large numbers of modern American rifles and machine guns to the Home Guard still offered a golden opportunity for British propaganda, which was widely exploited.
The messages sought to be disseminated in the propaganda was that 'Britain can take it' and would never concede to Nazi domination and would be a steadfast ally and also that the Britain being defended was a repository of traditional civility and humanitarian values. One consequence was to establish a representation of the Home Guard through popular films, such as Mrs. Miniver and Went the Day Well, as defending idealised rural English villages, but most Home Guard units were in fact in towns and cities, and most volunteers were industrial workers.
Committee for American Aid for the Defense of British Homes
In November 1940, a committee was formed to collect donations of pistols, rifles, revolvers, shotguns and binoculars from American civilians; to be provided to Home Guard units. Most useful were pistols, especially police issue revolvers, provided from the reserve stocks of US city police departments, many of which went to support Home Guard Auxiliary units.
1st American Squadron of the Home Guard
On 17 May 1940, the United States Embassy advised the 4000 Americans living in Britain to return home "as soon as possible." A sterner message in June warned "that this may be the last opportunity for Americans to get home until after the war." Many Americans chose to remain, and on 1 June 1940, the 1st American Squadron of the Home Guard was formed in London. They had average strength of 60–70, and were commanded by General Wade H. Hayes.
The US ambassador in London, Joseph Kennedy, opposed the mustering of citizens from a neutral power. He feared that in the event of invasion, a civilian squadron would make all citizens of the then still-neutral America living in London liable to be shot by the invading Germans as francs-tireurs.
Evolution of role and eventual disbandment
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 clearly indicated that an immediate invasion of Britain was no longer to be expected. But initially, the British military command did not expect Soviet resistance to last more than a few months and so the Home Guard needed to be retained in full readiness should the German threat be resumed in greater strength once the Soviets had been defeated. The Home Guard remained in existence manning guard posts and performing other duties to free up regular troops for duties overseas, especially taking over the operation of coastal artillery batteries and anti-aircraft batteries (especially rocket batteries for the protection of key industrial sites). In 1942, the National Service Act allowed for compulsory enrolment in the Home Guard of men aged 42 to 51 years where units were below strength. Meanwhile, the lowest rank within the Home Guard, 'volunteer', was renamed to 'private' to match the regular army usage.
Disbandment
It was only when the tide on the Eastern Front had definitively turned against Germany in 1943 that the military necessity for the Home Guard began to recede. Even so, both military planners and the public maintained an apprehension that the Germans might launch seaborne or airborne commando raids against targets in Southern England to disrupt the preparations for the Second Front or to assassinate Allied leaders. Following the successful landings in France and the drive towards Germany by the Allies, the Home Guard were formally stood down on 3 December 1944 and finally disbanded on 31 December 1945.
Recognition certificates
Male members were rewarded with a certificate, bearing the words: "In the years when our Country was in mortal danger, (name) who served (dates) gave generously of his time and powers to make himself ready for her defence by force of arms and with his life if need be. George R.I." If he had served more than three years and requested it, a member would be awarded the Defence Medal. It was only in 1945 that women who had helped as auxiliaries were recognised with their own certificate.
Social impact
Anthony Eden summarised the raising and equipping of the British Home Guard during a debate in the House of Commons in November 1940, when he was Secretary of State for War: "No one will claim for the Home Guard that it is a miracle of organisation... but many would claim that it is a miracle of improvisation, and in that way it does express the particular genius of our people. If it has succeeded, as I think it has, it has been due to the spirit of the land and of the men in the Home Guard".
General Sir John Burnett-Stuart, the commander of the 1st Aberdeen Battalion, commented that the Home Guard "was the outward and visible sign of the spirit of resistance". The chief constable of Glasgow suggested that criminal elements joined the Home Guard to break, enter and loot during the blackout.
Representations
Alison Uttley brought the Home Guard into her Little Grey Rabbit series of children's stories with Hare Joins The Home Guard in 1942.
In the wartime Hollywood blockbuster film Mrs. Miniver starring Greer Garson, Clem Miniver (the father of the family) provides his own motor launch to form a Local Defence Volunteer 'River patrol'; together with whom he crosses the English Channel in support of the Dunkirk evacuation.
The British wartime propaganda film Went the Day Well? starring Thora Hird and made at Ealing Studios in 1942 focuses on how the Home Guard and the population of a village defeat the combined forces of German paratroops and local fifth columnists.
Noël Coward wrote a song in 1943, "Could You Please Oblige Us with a Bren Gun?" that pokes fun at the disorder and shortage of supplies and equipment that were common in the Home Guard, and indeed all of Britain, during the war.
The Home Guard also played a significant part in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. In it, the lead character, a career soldier who had retired from the active list, joins the Home Guard and rises to a leadership position in it. He has planned a Home Guard training exercise for the following day; in which he himself would be the designated 'flag target' for capture by the opposite side; but they break the rules and seize him in advance in a Turkish bath. The film celebrates and justifies the Home Guard fundamental philosophy, that in the combat against Nazism all the previous 'rules of war' had been rendered obsolete.
The 1943 British film Get Cracking starred George Formby as a Home Guard lance corporal who is constantly losing and winning back his stripe. Formby's platoon is involved in rivalry with the Home Guard sections of the local villages Major Wallop and Minor Wallop. At the end of the film Formby is promoted to sergeant after inventing a secret weapon – a home-made tank.
The Home Guard also featured in the 1971 Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
In the last of his 'Old Sam' series of monologues, Stanley Holloway wrote of the protagonist of the series, Sam, attempting to join the army at the outbreak of war in 1939. In the series, Sam is a serviceman who fought at the Battle of Waterloo and in the First World War as an adult. In the monologue dealing with World War II Sam is sent to the Home Guard instead of the front line, much to his bemusement, and whilst there finds that his stories of glory are debunked by another character who turns out to be the Duke of Wellington with whom he fought at Battle of Waterloo.
The Home Guard appears in a scene in the film Hope and Glory (1987) when a unit shoots down a wayward barrage balloon and in the 2003 "War Games" episode of the British detective series Foyle's War, which is set in Hastings during World War II. In 2010, an episode of the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures featured Clyde Langer being transported back to the British coast during World War II, and featured the Home Guard.
Dad's Army
The Home Guard was immortalised in the British television comedy Dad's Army, which followed the formation and running of a platoon in the fictional south coast town of Walmington-on-Sea, and is widely regarded as having kept the efforts of the Home Guard in the public consciousness. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and was loosely based on Perry's own experiences in the Home Guard. Broadcast on BBC Television from 31 July 1968 (The Man and the Hour) to 13 November 1977 (Never Too Old), the sitcom ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total (74 regular episodes, 3 missing episodes and 3 Christmas specials), plus a radio version based on the television scripts, two feature films and a stage show. The series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers and is still repeated worldwide.
Dad's Army focuses primarily on a platoon of Home Guard volunteers ineligible for military service on grounds of age, and as such the series mainly featured older British actors, including Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Arnold Ridley and John Laurie (Ridley and Laurie had served in the Home Guard during the war). Among relative youngsters in the regular cast were Ian Lavender, Clive Dunn (who played the elderly Jones), Frank Williams, James Beck (who died suddenly during production of the programme's sixth series in 1973) and Bill Pertwee.
In 2004, Dad's Army was voted into fourth place in a BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It had been placed 13th in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and voted for by industry professionals. The series has influenced popular culture in the United Kingdom, with the series' catchphrases and characters being well known. It highlighted a forgotten aspect of defence during the Second World War. The Radio Times magazine listed Captain Mainwaring's "You stupid boy!" among the 25 greatest put-downs on TV. A film featuring Bill Nighy, Sir Michael Gambon, Toby Jones and Sir Tom Courtenay was released in 2016.
Home Guard honours
Post-war revivals of the Home Guard
Home Guard: 1952–1957
Not long after the Home Guard had been disbanded, suggestions began to be made that it be revived in the face of a new threat from the Soviet Union. The first official step was a paper by the Director of Military Operations (DMO) in November 1948, which was later incorporated into an executive committee of the Army Council (ECAC) report. Suggested roles included countering communist inspired insurrection as well as guarding vulnerable points and anti-invasion duties. In May 1949, a parliamentary Home Guard Working Party was established to consider the issues raised, which resulted in a further report being completed in August 1950.
Although preliminary planning started, such as the identification of suitable battalion commanders, nothing concrete was done because of financial constraints. It was not until Winston Churchill again become prime minister and Minister of Defence in the general election of October 1951 that preparations to revive the Home Guard began in earnest. Churchill predicted that there could be an assault on Britain by "twenty thousand or so" Soviet paratroopers (an assessment of the risk was not requested until March 1953, the outcome of which was that "the Chiefs of Staff believe that the Russians would not contemplate such a step – with or without atomic bombardment....").
The speech from the throne on 6 November 1951 included the intention to "take the necessary measures... to re-establish the Home Guard". While the required legislation was in passage through parliament, the Chiefs-of-Staff produced yet another report, outlining the final form that the new Home Guard should take. The force would consist of two categories of battalions; 162 would be "Category A" which would recruit 60 per cent of their projected wartime strength, while 397 "Category B" battalions would be established on an en cadre basis, a skeleton staff of trained officers and NCOs which could be expanded in a crisis. The majority of the Category A battalions would be in the south and east of England. The Home Guard Act 1951 received Royal Assent on 7 December. Enrolment started on 2 April 1952. The aim was to recruit 170,000 men in the first year, but by November 1952, only 23,288 had been enrolled, with a further 20,623 men who had joined a "Reserve Roll" (initially called the "Supernumerary Register") for enrolment in an emergency.
Uniform consisted of standard 1949 pattern battledress and midnight blue beret as worn by the rest of the army. Scottish battalions wore a Balmoral bonnet. A helmet and greatcoat were provided, along with 1937 pattern webbing. Small arms issued to the Home Guard were the Lee-Enfield No 4 Mk 1 rifle and the Mk II Sten sub-machine gun; the Bren gun was the section automatic weapon. Support weapons were the obsolescent PIAT antitank projector, the Vickers medium machine gun and the 2-inch mortar. A detachment of the Home Guard led the British Army section of the State Procession at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953.
There was much criticism of the cost of the Home Guard, especially the full-time officers, since all battalions had a paid adjutant and quartermaster whose workload was quite limited, especially in Category B units. Accordingly, on 20 December 1955, it was announced that there would be a "reorganisation on a reserve basis". The essence was all battalions would be reduced to a cadre basis, and paid staff would have to effect the change before resigning their commissions or transferring to the Reserve Roll by 1 April 1956. A certificate of thanks was issued to those who had served in an active role. Even those reforms were not enough, and on 26 June 1957, John Hare, the Secretary of State for War, announced in parliament that the Home Guard would be disbanded on 31 July, making a saving of £100,000 in that year.
Home Service Force: 1982–1993
At the height of the Cold War, the Home Service Force was established in 1982, starting with four "pilot companies". Recruitment began in earnest in 1984, but was limited to those who had previously served in the armed forces or reserves. Some 48 HSF units were formed, each hosted by an existing Territorial Army battalion. After the end of the Cold War, disbandment of the force commenced in 1992 as a part of the "peace dividend".
Famous Home Guards
Tony Benn, Labour politician (Bromyard and Oxted Home Guard), pre-enlistment in RAF
John Brophy, Anglo-Irish soldier, journalist and author who wrote more than 40 books, mostly based on his experiences during World War I.
Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, Urdu broadcaster and first director-general of Radio Pakistan (BBC Home Guard)
Sir Henry Chilton, GCMG, Diplomat, Ambassador to Chile, Argentina, and Spain during the Spanish Civil War
Cecil Day-Lewis, poet and later Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (Musbury Home Guard)
George Formby, actor, singer-songwriter and comedian (Blackpool Home Guard, Corporal Despatch Rider)
Robert Johnson, politician (Warrant Officer, King's Own Home Guard, London)
John Laurie, actor notably in Dad's Army (Paddington Home Guard)
H. V. Morton, journalist and travel writer (Binsted platoon commander)
C S Lewis, writer (Oxford Home Guard)
Patrick Moore, astronomer and broadcaster (East Grinstead Home Guard)
Patrick Munro, Conservative politician and former Scotland rugby union football international (Private, 1st County of London HG Battalion, killed in training accident at Westminster – the only MP to die on duty in the Home Guard)
George Orwell, author and journalist (Sergeant, Greenwich Home Guard)
Jimmy Perry, scriptwriter, (Barnes and Watford Home Guard)
Felix Powell, songwriter (Peacehaven Home Guard – committed suicide on duty)
Arnold Ridley, another Dad's Army actor (Caterham Home Guard)
Frank Whitcombe, England rugby union international (Sergeant, Wibsey Home Guard)
See also
Operation Sea Lion, Nazi Germany's planned invasion of Britain
Auxiliary Units, a British "stay behind" undercover force of 1940
Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II
Volunteer Training Corps (World War I), the British voluntary home defence force of World War I
The American Committee for the Defense of British Homes, donated weapons, which went to the Home Guard.
International:
Armia Krajowa, the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland
Black Brigades, one of the Fascist paramilitary groups operating in the Italian Social Republic during the final years of World War II
Canadian Rangers, a group in Canada that functions like the Home Guard
State defense forces, non-federal military forces in the United States of America that operate in various states, similar to the Home Guard
Volkssturm, German national militia of the last months of World War II
Volunteer Defence Corps, Australian Home Guard
Volunteer Fighting Corps, armed civil defense units planned in 1945 in the Empire of Japan
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
23rd Sussex Home Guard British Re-Enactment Group
The Home Guard
Stonehouse Home Guard – 1945
BBC History Home Guard pages
The Home Guard of Great Britain - a website covering the entire country but with particular emphasis on units in the West Midlands - Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire
The Humber Home Guard, Coventry Photos and Memorabilia
Revealed: the real Dad's Army University of Manchester study.
Home Guard operating in Bures, Suffolk
Meldreth Home Guard Meldreth Home Guard: photographs and transcription of Home Guard diary
(1940) by John Langdon-Davies
Groups of World War II
Military units and formations of the British Army
Home Guard
1940 establishments in the United Kingdom
1945 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Military units and formations established in 1940
Military units and formations disestablished in 1945
Volunteer military formations of the United Kingdom
British Defence Forces
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing%20Machinery%20and%20Intelligence
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Computing Machinery and Intelligence
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"Computing Machinery and Intelligence" is a seminal paper written by Alan Turing on the topic of artificial intelligence. The paper, published in 1950 in Mind, was the first to introduce his concept of what is now known as the Turing test to the general public.
Turing's paper considers the question "Can machines think?" Turing says that since the words "think" and "machine" cannot be clearly defined we should "replace the question by another, which is closely related to it and is expressed in relatively unambiguous words." To do this, he must first find a simple and unambiguous idea to replace the word "think", second he must explain exactly which "machines" he is considering, and finally, armed with these tools, he formulates a new question, related to the first, that he believes he can answer in the affirmative.
Turing's test
Rather than trying to determine if a machine is thinking, Turing suggests we should ask if the machine can win a game, called the "Imitation Game". The original Imitation game, that Turing described, is a simple party game involving three players. Player A is a man, player B is a woman and player C (who plays the role of the interrogator) can be of either sex. In the Imitation Game, player C is unable to see either player A or player B (and knows them only as X and Y), and can communicate with them only through written notes or any other form that does not give away any details about their gender. By asking questions of player A and player B, player C tries to determine which of the two is the man and which is the woman. Player A's role is to trick the interrogator into making the wrong decision, while player B attempts to assist the interrogator in making the right one.
Turing proposes a variation of this game that involves the computer: What will happen when a machine takes the part of A in this game?" Will the interrogator decide wrongly as often when the game is played like this as he does when the game is played between a man and a woman? These questions replace our original, 'Can machines think?
So the modified game becomes one that involves three participants in isolated rooms: a computer (which is being tested), a human, and a (human) judge. The human judge can converse with both the human and the computer by typing into a terminal. Both the computer and human try to convince the judge that they are the human. If the judge cannot consistently tell which is which, then the computer wins the game.
As Stevan Harnad notes, the question has become "Can machines do what we (as thinking entities) can do?" In other words, Turing is no longer asking whether a machine can "think"; he is asking whether a machine can act indistinguishably from the way a thinker acts. This question avoids the difficult philosophical problem of pre-defining the verb "to think" and focuses instead on the performance capacities that being able to think makes possible, and how a causal system can generate them.
Some have taken Turing's question to have been "Can a computer, communicating over a teleprinter, fool a person into believing it is human?" but it seems clear that Turing was not talking about fooling people but about generating human cognitive capacity.
Digital machines
Turing also notes that we need to determine which "machines" we wish to consider. He points out that a human clone, while man-made, would not provide a very interesting example. Turing suggested that we should focus on the capabilities of digital machinery—machines which manipulate the binary digits of 1 and 0, rewriting them into memory using simple rules. He gave two reasons.
First, there is no reason to speculate whether or not they can exist. They already did in 1950.
Second, digital machinery is "universal". Turing's research into the foundations of computation had proved that a digital computer can, in theory, simulate the behaviour of any other digital machine, given enough memory and time. (This is the essential insight of the Church–Turing thesis and the universal Turing machine.) Therefore, if any digital machine can "act like it is thinking" then, every sufficiently powerful digital machine can. Turing writes, "all digital computers are in a sense equivalent."
This allows the original question to be made even more specific. Turing now restates the original question as "Let us fix our attention on one particular digital computer C. Is it true that by modifying this computer to have an adequate storage, suitably increasing its speed of action, and providing it with an appropriate programme, C can be made to play satisfactorily the part of A in the imitation game, the part of B being taken by a man?"
Hence, Turing states that the focus is not on "whether all digital computers would do well in the game nor whether the computers that are presently available would do well, but whether there are imaginable computers which would do well". What is more important is to consider the advancements possible in the state of our machines today regardless of whether we have the available resource to create one or not.
Nine common objections
Having clarified the question, Turing turned to answering it: he considered the following nine common objections, which include all the major arguments against artificial intelligence raised in the years since his paper was first published.
Religious Objection: This states that thinking is a function of man's immortal soul; therefore, a machine cannot think. "In attempting to construct such machines," wrote Turing, "we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children: rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates."
'Heads in the Sand' Objection: "The consequences of machines thinking would be too dreadful. Let us hope and believe that they cannot do so." This thinking is popular among intellectual people, as they believe superiority derives from higher intelligence and the possibility of being overtaken is a threat (as machines have efficient memory capacities and processing speed, machines exceeding the learning and knowledge capabilities are highly probable). This objection is a fallacious appeal to consequences, confusing what should not be with what can or cannot be (Wardrip-Fruin, 56).
The Mathematical Objection: This objection uses mathematical theorems, such as Gödel's incompleteness theorem, to show that there are limits to what questions a computer system based on logic can answer. Turing suggests that humans are too often wrong themselves and pleased at the fallibility of a machine. (This argument would be made again by philosopher John Lucas in 1961 and physicist Roger Penrose in 1989.)
Argument From Consciousness: This argument, suggested by Professor Geoffrey Jefferson in his 1949 Lister Oration (acceptance speech for his 1948 award of Lister Medal) states that "not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain." Turing replies by saying that we have no way of knowing that any individual other than ourselves experiences emotions, and that therefore we should accept the test. He adds, "I do not wish to give the impression that I think there is no mystery about consciousness ... [b]ut I do not think these mysteries necessarily need to be solved before we can answer the question [of whether machines can think]." (This argument, that a computer can't have conscious experiences or understanding, would be made in 1980 by philosopher John Searle in his Chinese room argument. Turing's reply is now known as the "other minds reply". See also Can a machine have a mind? in the philosophy of AI.)
Arguments from various disabilities. These arguments all have the form "a computer will never do X". Turing offers a selection:Be kind, resourceful, beautiful, friendly, have initiative, have a sense of humour, tell right from wrong, make mistakes, fall in love, enjoy strawberries and cream, make someone fall in love with it, learn from experience, use words properly, be the subject of its own thought, have as much diversity of behaviour as a man, do something really new.Turing notes that "no support is usually offered for these statements," and that they depend on naive assumptions about how versatile machines may be in the future, or are "disguised forms of the argument from consciousness." He chooses to answer a few of them:
Machines cannot make mistakes. He notes it's easy to program a machine to appear to make a mistake.
A machine cannot be the subject of its own thought (or can't be self-aware). A program which can report on its internal states and processes, in the simple sense of a debugger program, can certainly be written. Turing asserts "a machine can undoubtably be its own subject matter."
A machine cannot have much diversity of behaviour. He notes that, with enough storage capacity, a computer can behave in an astronomical number of different ways.
Lady Lovelace's Objection: One of the most famous objections states that computers are incapable of originality. This is largely because, according to Ada Lovelace, machines are incapable of independent learning.The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths. Turing suggests that Lovelace's objection can be reduced to the assertion that computers "can never take us by surprise" and argues that, to the contrary, computers could still surprise humans, in particular where the consequences of different facts are not immediately recognizable. Turing also argues that Lady Lovelace was hampered by the context from which she wrote, and if exposed to more contemporary scientific knowledge, it would become evident that the brain's storage is quite similar to that of a computer.
Argument from continuity in the nervous system: Modern neurological research has shown that the brain is not digital. Even though neurons fire in an all-or-nothing pulse, both the exact timing of the pulse and the probability of the pulse occurring have analog components. Turing acknowledges this, but argues that any analog system can be simulated to a reasonable degree of accuracy given enough computing power. (Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus would make this argument against "the biological assumption" in 1972.)
Argument from the informality of behaviour: This argument states that any system governed by laws will be predictable and therefore not truly intelligent. Turing replies by stating that this is confusing laws of behaviour with general rules of conduct, and that if on a broad enough scale (such as is evident in man) machine behaviour would become increasingly difficult to predict. He argues that, just because we can't immediately see what the laws are, does not mean that no such laws exist. He writes "we certainly know of no circumstances under which we could say, 'we have searched enough. There are no such laws.'". (Hubert Dreyfus would argue in 1972 that human reason and problem solving was not based on formal rules, but instead relied on instincts and awareness that would never be captured in rules. More recent AI research in robotics and computational intelligence attempts to find the complex rules that govern our "informal" and unconscious skills of perception, mobility and pattern matching. See Dreyfus' critique of AI). This rejoinder also includes the Turing's Wager argument.
Extra-sensory perception: In 1950, extra-sensory perception was an active area of research and Turing chooses to give ESP the benefit of the doubt, arguing that conditions could be created in which mind-reading would not affect the test. Turing admitted to "overwhelming statistical evidence" for telepathy, likely referring to early 1940s experiments by Samuel Soal, a member of the Society for Psychical Research.
Learning machines
In the final section of the paper Turing details his thoughts about the Learning Machine that could play the imitation game successfully.
Here Turing first returns to Lady Lovelace's objection that the machine can only do what we tell it to do and he likens it to a situation where a man "injects" an idea into the machine to which the machine responds and then falls off into quiescence. He extends on this thought by an analogy to an atomic pile of less than critical size which is to be considered the machine and an injected idea is to correspond to a neutron entering the pile from outside the pile; the neutron will cause a certain disturbance which eventually dies away. Turing then builds on that analogy and mentions that if the size of the pile were to be sufficiently large then a neutron entering the pile would cause a disturbance that would continue to increase until the whole pile were destroyed, the pile would be supercritical. Turing then asks the question as to whether this analogy of a super critical pile could be extended to a human mind and then to a machine. He concludes that such an analogy would indeed be suitable for the human mind with "There does seem to be one for the human mind. The majority of them seem to be "subcritical," i.e., to correspond in this analogy to piles of sub critical size. An idea presented to such a mind will on average give rise to less than one idea in reply. A smallish proportion are supercritical. An idea presented to such a mind that may give rise to a whole "theory" consisting of secondary, tertiary and more remote ideas". He finally asks if a machine could be made to be supercritical.
Turing then mentions that the task of being able to create a machine that could play the imitation game is one of programming and he postulates that by the end of the century it will indeed be technologically possible to program a machine to play the game. He then mentions that in the process of trying to imitate an adult human mind it becomes important to consider the processes that lead to the adult mind being in its present state; which he summarizes as:
1. The initial state of the mind, say at birth,
2. The education to which it has been subjected,
3. Other experience, not to be described as education, to which it has been subjected.
Given this process he asks whether it would be more appropriate to program a child's mind instead of an adults mind and then subject the child mind to a period of education. He likens the child to a newly bought notebook and speculates that due to its simplicity it would be more easily programmed. The problem then is broken down into two parts, the programming of a child mind and its education process. He mentions that a child mind would not be expected as desired by the experimenter (programmer) at the first attempt. A learning process that involves a method of reward and punishment must be in place that will select desirable patterns in the mind. This whole process, Turing mentions, to a large extent is similar to that of evolution by natural selection where the similarities are:
Structure of the child machine = hereditary material
Changes of the child machine = mutations
Natural selection = judgment of the experimenter
Following this discussion Turing addresses certain specific aspects of the learning machine:
Nature of inherent complexity: The child machine could either be one that is as simple as possible, merely maintaining consistency with general principles, or the machine could be one with a complete system of logical inference programmed into it. This more complex system is explained by Turing as "..would be such that the machines store would be largely occupied with definitions and propositions. The propositions would have various kinds of status, e.g., well-established facts, conjectures, mathematically proved theorems, statements given by an authority, expressions having the logical form of proposition but not belief-value. Certain propositions may be described as "imperatives." The machine should be so constructed that as soon as an imperative is classed as "well established" the appropriate action automatically takes place.". Despite this built-in logic system the logical inference programmed in would not be one that is formal, rather it would be one that is more pragmatic. In addition the machine would build on its built-in logic system by a method of "scientific induction".
Ignorance of the experimenter: An important feature of a learning machine that Turing points out is the ignorance of the teacher of the machines' internal state during the learning process. This is in contrast to a conventional discrete state machine where the objective is to have a clear understanding of the internal state of the machine at every moment during the computation. The machine will be seen to be doing things that we often cannot make sense of or something that we consider to be completely random. Turing mentions that this specific character bestows upon a machine a certain degree of what we consider to be intelligence, in that intelligent behaviour consists of a deviation from the complete determinism of conventional computation but only so long as the deviation does not give rise to pointless loops or random behaviour.
The importance of random behaviour: Though Turing cautions us of random behaviour he mentions that inculcating an element of randomness in a learning machine would be of value in a system. He mentions that this could be of value where there might be multiple correct answers or ones where it might be such that a systematic approach would investigate several unsatisfactory solutions to a problem before finding the optimal solution which would entail the systematic process inefficient. Turing also mentions that the process of evolution takes the path of random mutations in order to find solutions that benefit an organism but he also admits that in the case of evolution the systematic method of finding a solution would not be possible.
Turing concludes by speculating about a time when machines will compete with humans on numerous intellectual tasks and suggests tasks that could be used to make that start. Turing then suggests that abstract tasks such as playing chess could be a good place to start another method which he puts as "..it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English.".
An examination of the development in artificial intelligence that has followed reveals that the learning machine did take the abstract path suggested by Turing as in the case of Deep Blue, a chess playing computer developed by IBM and one which defeated the world champion Garry Kasparov (though, this too is controversial) and the numerous computer chess games which can outplay most amateurs. As for the second suggestion Turing makes, it has been likened by some authors as a call to finding a simulacrum of human cognitive development. And such attempts at finding the underlying algorithms by which children learn of the features of the world around them are only beginning to be made.
Notes
References
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.
.
.
Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, eds. (2003). The New Media Reader. Cambridge: MIT Press. . "Lucasfilm's Habitat" pp. 663–677.
External links
PDF with the full text of the paper
1950 documents
History of artificial intelligence
Philosophy of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence publications
Alan Turing
Computer science papers
Cognitive science literature
Works originally published in Mind (journal)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sick%20building%20syndrome
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Sick building syndrome
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Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a condition in which people develop symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building in which they work or reside.
The main identifying observation is an increased incidence of complaints of symptoms such as headache, eye, nose, and throat irritation, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea. In fact the 1989 Oxford English Dictionary defines SBS in that way. The World Health Organization created a 484-page tome on indoor air quality back in 1984 when SBS was attributed only to non-organic causes, and suggested that the book might form a basis for legislation or litigation.
The outbreaks may or may not be a direct result of inadequate cleaning or inappropriate cleaning methods. SBS has also been used to describe staff concerns in post-war buildings with misplanned building aerodynamics, defects in the construction materials or assembly process and-or inadequate maintenance. Certain symptoms tend to increase in severity with the time people spend in the building; often improving over time or even disappearing when people are away from the building. SBS is also used interchangeably with "building-related symptoms", which orients the name of the condition around patients' symptoms rather than a "sick" building.
Attempts have been made to connect sick building syndrome to various causes, such as contaminants produced by outgassing of some types of building materials, volatile organic compounds (VOC), improper exhaust ventilation of ozone (byproduct of some office machinery), light industrial chemicals used within, or lack of adequate fresh-air intake/air filtration (see minimum efficiency reporting value). Sick building syndrome has also been attributed to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. However, there have been inconsistent findings on whether air conditioning systems result in SBS or not.
Signs and symptoms
Human exposure to aerosols has been documented to give rise to a variety of adverse health effects. Building occupants complain of symptoms such as sensory irritation of the eyes, nose, or throat; neurotoxic or general health problems; skin irritation; nonspecific hypersensitivity reactions; infectious diseases; and odor and taste sensations. Exposure to poor lighting conditions has led to general malaise.
Extrinsic allergic alveolitis has been associated with the presence of fungi and bacteria in the moist air of residential houses and commercial offices. A study in 2017 correlated several inflammatory diseases of the respiration tract with objective evidence of damp-caused damage in homes.
The WHO has classified the reported symptoms into broad categories, including: mucous membrane irritation (eye, nose, and throat irritation), neurotoxic effects (headaches, fatigue, and irritability), asthma and asthma-like symptoms (chest tightness and wheezing), skin dryness and irritation, gastrointestinal complaints and more.
Several sick occupants may report individual symptoms which do not appear to be connected. The key to discovery is the increased incidence of illnesses in general with onset or exacerbation within a fairly close time frame – usually within a period of weeks. In most cases, SBS symptoms will be relieved soon after the occupants leave the particular room or zone. However, there can be lingering effects of various neurotoxins, which may not clear up when the occupant leaves the building. In some cases – particularly in sensitive individuals – there can be long-term health effects.
Cause
ASHRAE has recognized that polluted urban air, designated within the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s air quality ratings as unacceptable, requires the installation of treatment such as filtration for which the HVAC practitioners generally apply carbon-impregnated filters and their likes. Different toxins will aggravate the human body in different ways. Some people are more allergic to mold, while others are highly sensitive to dust. Inadequate ventilation will exaggerate small problems (such as deteriorating fiberglass insulation or cooking fumes) into a much more serious indoor air quality problem.
Common products such as paint, insulation, rigid foam, Particle Board, plywood, duct liners, exhaust fumes and other chemical contaminants from indoor or outdoor sources, and biological contaminants can be trapped inside by the HVAC AC system. As this air is recycled using fan coils the overall oxygenation ratio drops and becomes harmful. When combined with other stress factors such as traffic noise, poor lighting, inhabitants of buildings located in a polluted urban area can quickly become ill as their immune system is overwhelmed.
Certain VOCs, considered toxic chemical contaminants to humans, are used as adhesives in all common building construction products. These aromatic carbon rings / VOCs can cause acute and chronic health effects on the occupants of a building, including cancer, paralysis, lung failure, and others. Bacterial spores, fungal spores, mold spores, pollen, and viruses are types of biological contaminants and can all cause allergic reactions or illness described as SBS. In addition, pollution from outdoors, such as motor vehicle exhaust, can infiltrate into poorly designed buildings and contribute to poor indoor air quality, high ppm of CO and CO2. Adult SBS symptoms were associated with a history of allergic rhinitis, eczema and asthma.
A 2015 study concerning the association of SBS and indoor air pollutants in office buildings in Iran found that, as carbon dioxide levels increase in a building, symptoms like nausea, headaches, nasal irritation, dyspnea, and throat dryness have also been shown to increase. Certain work conditions have been found to be correlated with specific symptoms. For example, higher light intensity was significantly related to skin dryness, eye pain, and malaise. Higher temperature has also been found to correlate with symptoms such as sneezing, skin redness, itchy eyes and headache, while lower relative humidity has been associated with sneezing, skin redness, and pain of the eyes.
In 1973, in response to the oil crisis and conservation concerns, ASHRAE Standards 62-73 and 62-81 reduced required ventilation from per person to per person, but this was found to be a contributing factor to sick building syndrome. As of the 2016 revision, ASHRAE ventilation standards call for 5 to 10 cubic feet per minute of ventilation per occupant (depending on the occupancy type) in addition to ventilation based on the zone floor area delivered to the breathing zone.
Psychological factors
One study looked at commercial buildings and their employees, comparing some environmental factors suspected of inducing SBS to a self-reported survey of the occupants, finding that the measured psycho-social circumstances appeared more influential than the tested environmental factors. The authors of that study pointed to the self-reported nature of the observations as a limitation of the research.
Research has shown that SBS shares several symptoms common in other conditions thought to be at least partially caused by psychosomatic tendencies. The umbrella term "autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants" has been suggested. Other members of the suggested group include silicosis, macrophagic myofascitis, Gulf War syndrome, and post-vaccination phenomena.
Workplace
Greater effects were found with features of the psycho-social work environment including high job demands and low support. The report concluded that the physical environment of office buildings appears to be less important than features of the psycho-social work environment in explaining differences in the prevalence of symptoms. However, there is still a relationship between sick building syndrome and symptoms of workers regardless of workplace stress.
Excessive work stress or dissatisfaction, poor interpersonal relationships and poor communication are often seen to be associated with SBS, recent studies show that a combination of environmental sensitivity and stress can greatly contribute to sick building syndrome.
Specific work-related stressors are related with specific SBS symptoms. Workload and work conflict are significantly associated with general symptoms (headache, abnormal tiredness, sensation of cold or nausea). While crowded workspaces and low work satisfaction are associated with upper respiratory symptoms. Work productivity has been associated with ventilation rates, a contributing factor to SBS, and there's a significant increase in production as ventilation rates increase, by 1.7% for every two-fold increase of ventilation rate. Printer effluent, released into the office air as ultra-fine particles (UFPs) as toner is burned during the printing process, may lead to certain SBS symptoms. Printer effluent may contain a variety of toxins to which a subset of office workers are sensitive, triggering SBS symptoms.
Specific careers are also associated with specific SBS symptoms. Transport, communication, healthcare, and social workers have highest prevalence of general symptoms. Skin symptoms such as eczema, itching, and rashes on hands and face are associated with technical work. Forestry, agriculture, and sales workers have the lowest rates of sick building syndrome symptoms.
From the assessment done by Fisk and Mudarri, 21% of asthma cases in the United States were caused by wet environments with mold that exist in all indoor environments, such as schools, office buildings, houses and apartments. Fisk and Berkeley Laboratory colleagues also found that the exposure to the mold increases the chances of respiratory issues by 30 to 50 percent. Additionally, studies showing that health effects with dampness and mold in indoor environments found that increased risk of adverse health effects occurs with dampness or visible mold environments.
Milton et al. determined the cost of sick leave specific for one business was an estimated $480 per employee, and about five days of sick leave per year could be attributed to low ventilation rates. When comparing low ventilation rate areas of the building to higher ventilation rate areas, the relative risk of short-term sick leave was 1.53 times greater in the low ventilation areas.
Home
Sick building syndrome can also occur due to factors of the home. Laminate flooring can cause more exposure to chemicals and more resulting SBS symptoms compared to stone, tile, and cement flooring. Recent redecorating and new furnishings within the last year were also found to be associated with increased symptoms, along with dampness and related factors, having pets, and the presence of cockroaches. The presence of mosquitoes was also a factor related to more symptoms, though it is unclear whether it was due to the presence of mosquitoes or the use of repellents.
Mold
Some studies have found that sick building syndrome may be associated with indoor mould or mycotoxin contamination. However, the attribution of sick building syndrome to mould is controversial and supported by little evidence.
Indoor temperature
Indoor temperature under 18 °C (64 °F) has been shown to be associated with increased respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, increased blood levels, and increased hospitalization.
Diagnosis
While sick building syndrome (SBS) encompasses a multitude of non-specific symptoms, building-related illness (BRI) comprises specific, diagnosable symptoms caused by certain agents (chemicals, bacteria, fungi, etc.). These can typically be identified, measured, and quantified. There are usually 4 causal agents in BRI; 1.) Immunologic, 2.) Infectious, 3.) toxic, and 4.) irritant. For instance, Legionnaire's disease, usually caused by Legionella pneumophila, involves a specific organism which could be ascertained through clinical findings as the source of contamination within a building.
Prevention
Reduce the time you stay in the building
If you live there, consider moving to a new place. Make sure you are not moving to a worse place though
Fix any deteriorated paint or concrete deterioration
Regular inspections to indicate for presence of mold or other toxins
Adequate maintenance of all building mechanical systems
Toxin-absorbing plants, such as sansevieria
Roof shingle non-pressure cleaning for removal of algae, mold, and Gloeocapsa magma
Using ozone to eliminate the many sources, such as VOCs, molds, mildews, bacteria, viruses, and even odors. However, numerous studies identify high-ozone shock treatment as ineffective despite commercial popularity and popular belief.
Replacement of water-stained ceiling tiles and carpeting
Only using paints, adhesives, solvents, and pesticides in well-ventilated areas or only using these pollutant sources during periods of non-occupancy
Increasing the number of air exchanges; the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers recommend a minimum of 8.4 air exchanges per 24-hour period
Increased ventilation rates that are above the minimum guidelines
Proper and frequent maintenance of HVAC systems
UV-C light in the HVAC plenum
Installation of HVAC air cleaning systems or devices to remove VOCs and bioeffluents (people odors)
Central vacuums that completely remove all particles from the house including the ultrafine particles (UFPs) which are less than 0.1 μm
Regular vacuuming with a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner to collect and retain 99.97% of particles down to and including 0.3 micrometers
Placing bedding in sunshine, which is related to a study done in a high-humidity area where damp bedding was common and associated with SBS
Lighting in the workplace should be designed to give individuals control, and be natural when possible
Relocating office printers outside the air conditioning boundary, perhaps to another building
Replacing current office printers with lower emission rate printers
Identification and removal of products containing harmful ingredients
Management
SBS, as a non specific blanket term, does not have any specific cause or cure. Any known cure would be associated with the specific eventual disease that was cause by exposure to known contaminants. In all cases, alleviation consists of removing the affected person from the building associated. BRI, on the other hand, utilizes treatment appropriate for the contaminant identified within the building (e.g., antibiotics for Legionnaire's disease).
In most cases, simply improving the indoor air quality (IAQ) of a particular building will attenuate, or even eliminate, the continued exposure to toxins. For the individual, the recovery may be a process involved with targeting the acute symptoms of a specific illness, as in the case of mold toxins. Treating various building-related illnesses is vital to the overall understanding of SBS. Careful analysis by certified building professionals and Medical Doctors can help to identify the exact cause of the BRI, and help to illustrate a causal path to infection. With this knowledge one can, theoretically, remediate a building of contaminants and rebuild the structure with new materials. Office BRI may more likely than not be explained by three events: "Wide range in the threshold of response in any population (susceptibility), a spectrum of response to any given agent, or variability in exposure within large office buildings."
Isolating any one of the three aspects of office BRI can be a great challenge, which is why those who find themselves with BRI should take three steps, history, examinations, and interventions. History describes the action of continually monitoring and recording the health of workers experiencing BRI, as well as obtaining records of previous building alterations or related activity. Examinations go hand in hand with monitoring employee health. This step is done by physically examining the entire workspace and evaluating possible threats to health status among employees. Interventions follow accordingly based on the results of the Examination and History report.
Epidemiology
Some studies have found that women have higher reports of SBS symptoms than men. It is not entirely clear, however, if this is due to biological, social, or occupational factors.
A 2001 study published in the Journal Indoor Air, gathered 1464 office-working participants to increase the scientific understanding of gender differences under the Sick Building Syndrome phenomenon. Using questionnaires, ergonomic investigations, building evaluations, as well as physical, biological, and chemical variables, the investigators obtained results that compare with past studies of SBS and gender. The study team found that across most test variables, prevalence rates were different in most areas, but there was also a deep stratification of working conditions between genders as well. For example, men's workplaces tend to be significantly larger and have all-around better job characteristics. Secondly, there was a noticeable difference in reporting rates, specifically that women have higher rates of reporting roughly 20% higher than men. This information was similar to that found in previous studies, thus indicating a potential difference in willingness to report.
There might be a gender difference in reporting rates of sick building syndrome, because women tend to report more symptoms than men do. Along with this, some studies have found that women have a more responsive immune system and are more prone to mucosal dryness and facial erythema. Also, women are alleged by some to be more exposed to indoor environmental factors because they have a greater tendency to have clerical jobs, wherein they are exposed to unique office equipment and materials (example: blueprint machines, toner-based printers), whereas men often have jobs based outside of offices.
History
In the late 1970s, it was noted that nonspecific symptoms were reported by tenants in newly constructed homes, offices, and nurseries. In media it was called "office illness". The term "sick building syndrome" was coined by the WHO in 1986, when they also estimated that 10–30% of newly built office buildings in the West had indoor air problems. Early Danish and British studies reported symptoms.
Poor indoor environments attracted attention. The Swedish allergy study (SOU 1989:76) designated "sick building" as a cause of the allergy epidemic as was feared. In the 1990s, therefore, extensive research into "sick building" was carried out. Various physical and chemical factors in the buildings were examined on a broad front.
The problem was highlighted increasingly in media and was described as a "ticking time bomb". Many studies were performed in individual buildings.
In the 1990s "sick buildings" were contrasted against "healthy buildings". The chemical contents of building materials were highlighted. Many building material manufacturers were actively working to gain control of the chemical content and to replace criticized additives. The ventilation industry advocated above all more well-functioning ventilation. Others perceived ecological construction, natural materials, and simple techniques as a solution.
At the end of the 1990s came an increased distrust of the concept of "sick building". A dissertation at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm 1999 questioned the methodology of previous research, and a Danish study from 2005 showed these flaws experimentally. It was suggested that sick building syndrome was not really a coherent syndrome and was not a disease to be individually diagnosed, but a collection of as many as to dozen semi related diseases. In 2006 the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare recommended in the medical journal Läkartidningen that "sick building syndrome" should not be used as a clinical diagnosis. Thereafter, it has become increasingly less common to use terms such as "sick buildings" and "sick building syndrome" in research. However, the concept remains alive in popular culture and is used to designate the set of symptoms related to poor home or work environment engineering. "Sick building" is therefore an expression used especially in the context of workplace health.
Sick building syndrome made a rapid journey from media to courtroom where professional engineers and architects became named defendants and were represented by their respective professional practice insurers. Proceedings invariably relied on expert witnesses, medical and technical experts along with building managers, contractors and manufacturers of finishes and furnishings, testifying as to cause and effect. Most of these actions resulted in sealed settlement agreements, none of these being dramatic. The insurers needed a defense based upon Standards of Professional Practice to meet a court decision that declared that in a modern, essentially sealed building, the HVAC systems must produce breathing air for suitable human consumption. ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, currently with over 50,000 international members) undertook the task of codifying its indoor air quality (IAQ) standard.
ASHRAE empirical research determined that "acceptability" was a function of outdoor (fresh air) ventilation rate and used carbon dioxide as an accurate measurement of occupant presence and activity. Building odors and contaminants would be suitably controlled by this dilution methodology. ASHRAE codified a level of 1,000 ppm of carbon dioxide and specified the use of widely available sense-and-control equipment to assure compliance. The 1989 issue of ASHRAE 62.1-1989 published the whys and wherefores and overrode the 1981 requirements that were aimed at a ventilation level of 5,000 ppm of carbon dioxide (the OSHA workplace limit), federally set to minimize HVAC system energy consumption. This apparently ended the SBS epidemic.
Over time, building materials changed with respect to emissions potential. Smoking vanished and dramatic improvements in ambient air quality, coupled with code compliant ventilation and maintenance, per ASHRAE standards have all contributed to the acceptability of the indoor air environment.
See also
List of diagnoses characterized as pseudoscience
Aerotoxic syndrome
Air purifier
Asthmagen
Cleanroom
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity
Havana syndrome
Healthy building
Indoor air quality
Lead paint
Multiple chemical sensitivity
NASA Clean Air Study
Nosocomial infection
Particulates
Power tools
Renovation
Somatization disorder
Fan death
References
Further reading
Martín-Gil J., Yanguas M. C., San José J. F., Rey-Martínez and Martín-Gil F. J. "Outcomes of research into a sick hospital". Hospital Management International, 1997, pp. 80–82. Sterling Publications Limited.
Åke Thörn, The Emergence and preservation of sick building syndrome, KI 1999.
Charlotte Brauer, The sick building syndrome revisited, Copenhagen 2005.
Michelle Murphy, Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty, 2006.
Johan Carlson, "Gemensam förklaringsmodell för sjukdomar kopplade till inomhusmiljön finns inte" [Unified explanation for diseases related to indoor environment not found]. Läkartidningen 2006/12.
Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov, Series I: Engineering Sciences • Vol. 5 (54) No. 1 2012 "Impact of Indoor Environment Quality on Sick Building Syndrome in Indian Leed Certified Buildings". by Jagannathan Mohan
External links
Best Practices for Indoor Air Quality when Remodeling Your Home, US EPA
Renovation and Repair, Part of Indoor Air Quality Design Tools for Schools, US EPA
Addressing Indoor Environmental Concerns During Remodeling, US EPA
Dust FAQs, UK HSE
CCOHS: Welding - Fumes And Gases | Health Effect of Welding Fumes
Syndromes of unknown causes
Building biology
Environmental toxicology
Indoor air pollution
Building defects
Syndromes
Mass psychogenic illness
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip%20P.%20Barbour
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Philip P. Barbour
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Philip Pendleton Barbour (May 25, 1783 – February 25, 1841) was the tenth speaker of the United States House of Representatives and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the only individual to serve in both positions. He was also a slave owner.
Born in Gordonsville, Virginia, Barbour established a legal career in Gordonsville after studying at the College of William & Mary. Several members of Barbour's family, including his brother, James Barbour, went on to hold prominent political office. Barbour won election to the House of Representatives in 1814 as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. He served a single term as Speaker from 1821 to 1823 and declined to seek re-election to Congress in 1824. Barbour returned to Congress in 1827 as an ally of Andrew Jackson.
Barbour served in Congress until 1830, when he accepted appointment as a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. President Jackson appointed Barbour to the Supreme Court in 1835 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation in 1835 of Gabriel Duvall. Barbour served on the Court until his death in 1841. On the Court, Barbour generally supported Jacksonian principles and states' rights.
Early and family life
Barbour was born near Gordonsville, Orange County, Virginia, as the son of a planter, Thomas Barbour, who was a legislator, neighbor and early political sponsor of James Madison. He was named for his ancestor Philip Pendleton, through whom he was related to Edmund Pendleton, a politician and judge. The family was one of the First Families of Virginia, descended from a Scottish merchant who married a Miss Taliaferro and made his home in nearby Culpeper County, Virginia.
Like his brother James Barbour, Philip attended common and private schools before beginning formal legal studies under jurist St. George Tucker in Williamsburg, Virginia, but financial circumstances forced Tucker to end this arrangement in 1799.
He soon moved to Kentucky to make his fortune, where after a year reading law, he was admitted to the bar, and began practicing law in Bardstown. After another year, friends persuaded him to return to Virginia and resume his studies at the College of William & Mary, so in 1802, he began practicing law near his family home in Gordonsville.
In 1804, Barbour married a local planter's daughter, Frances Johnson, with whom he had one son named Sextus Barbour.
Political and early judicial career
Barbour practiced law for eight years before he started his public life as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1812 to 1814. When U.S. Representative John Dawson died, Barbour won the special election to fill the seat, and served as a Jeffersonian Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from September 19, 1814 to March 4, 1825, reaching the office of Speaker from 1821 to 1823. Barbour entered politics as the nation witnessed a political shift in which former state's rights activists such as current President James Madison, Henry Clay, and his brother James, now a U.S. Senator, began supporting nationalistic policies. Throughout this shift in power, Philip Barbour remained a strong advocate of Jeffersonian "Old Republican" principles of states' rights and maintaining a strict construction of the Constitution.
First term in Congress
Barbour's reputation for constitutional conservatism grew with his opposition to the Bonus Bill of 1817. The Bill permitted the federal funding of internal
improvement projects such as building roads like that being constructed to connect Buffalo, New York to New Orleans, Louisiana, through Washington. Barbour viewed federally funded internal projects as outside the sphere of Congress' powers and therefore unconstitutional and undermining state sovereignty. Barbour viewed states as sovereign, political communities, independent of an overarching political dynasty and free to secede from the Union if the federal government infringed on the rights of the states, an argument that he employed when countering restrictions to Missouri's admission to the Union as a slave state.
Barbour also defended Missouri's ban on free Black Americans entering the state. To those who argued that this ban was a violation of Article IV of the Constitution, he replied that banning free Black Americans was no different than banning destitute white men who would become a burden on the state. He argued that the term "citizen" did not apply to Black Americans, whether free or not.
His opposition to national restrictions on slave states served to foment his passion for states' rights but also develop his pro-slavery argument in politics. As a Congressman, Barbour was the first prominent politician to openly contest the constitutionality of protective tariffs.
Cohens v. Virginia
In Cohens v. Virginia (1821), Congressman Barbour represented the Commonwealth of Virginia to argue the issue of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction to hear the case, in which two men from Baltimore were convicted for selling D.C. lottery tickets in Virginia. Barbour unsuccessfully argued that the Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction, since the law banning the sale of foreign lottery tickets was not meant to affect Virginia, rendering this a purely local issue. He also maintained that the suit was barred by the Eleventh Amendment, which prohibits suit against a state without its consent. However, Chief Justice Marshall held that the Court had jurisdiction based on the Supremacy Clause, Art. VI, cl. 2. This case strengthened Barbour's reputation as an Old Republican leader in a political system in which Virginian influence was waning and power was shifting between parties with the election of Andrew Jackson as the seventh President of the United States.
Jacksonian Democratic-Republican Party
Andrew Jackson's election in 1828 led to the bifurcation of the Old Republican Party into the Jacksonian Democratic Republicans and the opposing National Republicans. Jackson formed the Democratic party on the foundation of Old Republican principles, such as Jefferson's displeasure with Hamilton's National Bank. During his two terms, President Jackson destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, and advocated for individual liberty, states' rights, and slavery.
State judge and second term in Congress
Barbour declined to run for re-election in 1824 and turned down an offer from Thomas Jefferson to become the professor of law in the University of Virginia in 1825. Instead, he accepted election by Virginia legislature as a judge of the General Court of Virginia succeeding the late Hugh Holmes. Barbour served for two years as a state judge.
In 1827, Barbour returned to his seat in the House of Representatives as a Jacksonian. For the first two years of his second stint in the House, he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
In 1829, Barbour became one of the first Jeffersonian Old Republicans to join the Jacksonian Democrats in opposition to the National Bank. He fought to expose the Second Bank of the United States as a private enterprise, endowed with federal funds while only masquerading as a government institution. Although his anti-Bank campaign did not take hold, Barbour's advocacy for state sovereignty, the removal of the National Bank, and the legalization of slavery in territories such as Missouri earned him favor with President Andrew Jackson.
Also in 1829, while continuing to serve as a U.S. Representative, Barbour became a delegate for the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, and the Convention elected him their second president, after the Convention's first president, James Monroe, had to withdraw due to failing health on December 8. As such, Barbour (with distinguished Virginians such as Monroe, James Madison, and John Marshall) helped restrict discussion of slavery's role in the Commonwealth, and limited the rancorous assembly's debates to issues of representation and suffrage (Virginia had been one of the last states to allow only landowners to vote, and slaveholders had disproportionate power). The resulting constitution was adopted in 1830, despite the votes against it from the state's northern and western areas (much of which ultimately split off to become West Virginia during the American Civil War decades after Barbour's death).
Federal district judge and the 1832 campaign season
Barbour also turned down offers of a chancellorship and the post of U.S. Attorney General before finally resigning his congressional seat October 15, 1830 to accept President Jackson's appointment to become judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Jackson appointed Barbour by recess appointment on October 8, 1830, to a seat on that court vacated by George Hay. Barbour was formally nominated on December 14, 1830, and two days later he was confirmed by the Senate, and received his commission, serving thereafter until March 17, 1836.
In 1832, Democrats unhappy with the selection of Martin Van Buren as their party's vice-presidential nominee held a convention in Virginia, at which they nominated Jackson for president and Barbour for vice president. Barbour eventually withdrew his candidacy and endorsed the Jackson-Van Buren ticket, but the alternative Democratic ticket still appeared on the ballot in several Southern states.
Barbour also refused nominations for judge of the court of appeals, for Governor, and for United States Senator.
Although it was unknown whether Barbour could gain favor with voters outside Virginia, Barbour's campaigning on the Democratic ticket illuminated the similarities in parties and gained favor for the Democratic party. Voters reasoned that, if a man like Barbour, loyal to his party even when his fellow Virginians chose different principles, could switch to the Democratic party, then the Democrats must hold the same values. By joining the Jacksonian Democratic Party, Barbour entrenched Old Republican principles into a new political dynasty, therefore continuing the legacy of Jefferson and further validating the strength of Democratic principles. This was similar to Lincoln's argument that secession should not occur due to the state of perpetual Union that had existed since the first draft of the Constitution before the term "Union" was first used to describe the North during the Civil War. Therefore, Barbour's resignation allowed the second party system to coalesce by unifying the Democratic Party on the ideologies of war in the American system through the national reform retrenchment and economy, and a restoration of republican constitutionalism.
United States Supreme Court
Appointment
In 1835, Chief Justice Marshall's death and Justice Gabriel Duvall's resignation created two vacancies on the Supreme Court. President Jackson, at the end of his second Presidential term, nominated Judge Barbour to fill Duvall's vacancy. Nationalists feared Jackson's appointment of Barbour because Barbour's anti-administration Congressional legacy and Democratic beliefs suggested that he would attempt to undermine the federal supremacy achieved during the Marshall Court. This fear made the finalization of the decision an arduous process with two attempts at delaying the Senate's decision. On March 15, 1836, the Senate approved the appointment of Barbour by a vote of 30-11.
Tenure
Barbour served on the Supreme Court for five years. He heard 155 cases, for which he authored one major opinion and two dissents. His passion for states' rights, strict constructionism, and limits on federal power helped shape the legacy of the Taney Court.
During Barbour's first term (1837), he heard three cases that mitigated Marshall's accomplishment of judicial nationalism, Briscoe v. Bank of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, and New York v. Miln. Justice Barbour authored the majority opinion in New York v. Miln. In 1824, the state of New York passed a law that required all ship masters to provide a report delineating personal information of passengers in order to prevent smuggling and immigration of the impoverished for whom the state could not provide. Ship master Miln refused to comply with the law and was therefore jailed and fined. The case went to the Court on the issue of whether the statute violated the Commerce Clause, U.S. Const., Art. 1, § 8. Barbour held that the New York statute did not violate the Commerce Clause, because it was an exercise of the power granted to the state to "regulate their internal police and to take care that no detriment comes to the commonwealth." People were "not the subject of commerce, and not being imported goods, cannot fall within a train of reasoning founded upon the construction of a power given to Congress to regulate commerce and the prohibition to the states from imposing a duty on imported goods." Justice Barbour argued that the statute was valid as an act of police power to protect the health and welfare of the community. Because it is within the powers of the state to have jurisdiction over its people and things within its territorial boundaries, then "the authority of a state is complete, unqualified, and exclusive."
Justice Barbour's holding in Miln was supported by Taney's opinion in Charles River Bridge that the people have rights and it is the duty of both the state and the nation to preserve those rights in order to ensure the happiness and welfare of every citizen. Miln helped Barbour develop a states' rights constitutional vision for the Supreme Court, by narrowing the scope of federal commerce power while expanding state policing power. For both Briscoe v. Bank of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, Barbour voted with the majority, simultaneously gaining more power for states and weakening Marshall Court nationalism.
While Barbour did not spend enough time on the court to amass a large body of judicial opinions, he authored dissents in Kendall v. United States ex rel. Stokes (1838) and Holmes v. Jennison (1840). These two dissents sought to diminish federal authority by supporting Jacksonian political aspirations and opposing restrictions to state sovereignty. Kendall dealt with judicial supervision of executive acts. In 1835, President Jackson appointed Amos Kendall the Postmaster General for the United States. A firm, Stockton and Stokes, had had a contract with the previous Postmaster General, and demanded payment of outstanding debts thereunder, which Kendall declined, in favor of the debt-ridden U.S. Postal Service's other creditors.
The Court viewed Kendall as a proceeding against an Executive Branch official who acted within the scope of his powers. The Court dealt with the issues of whether it had jurisdiction to hear the case under Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and whether it had the power to issue a writ of mandamus under Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 to an official of the Executive Branch. The majority held that the Supreme Court could issue a writ of mandamus to "compel the Postmaster General to perform any ministerial duty devolved on him by law." This issue and holding is similar to that in Marbury v. Madison (1803), which also involved writs of mandamus to an executive officer and held that the Supremacy Clause in Article VI and the notion of popular sovereignty granted the Court jurisdiction over state court cases and the power of judicial review to make legitimate and final rulings on constitutional questions.
Justices Taney and Catron concurred with Barbour's opinion that it was never within the scope of judicial power to control executive actions. Although Barbour believed that "Congress has the constitutional power to give to the federal judiciary …authority to issue the writ of mandamus," Barbour did not believe that the lower court had the "power to issue the writ in question". Even though the Postmaster General was subject to direction and control of the President with respect of the duties imposed by law, when the law is 'ministerial,' Congress can limit and regulate the executive officials. Because Congress created the executive office, then Congress could monitor executive decisions, but the President is not controlled by the federal courts. While the majority opinion served to further define separation of powers by holding acts of the executive branch as subject to the rulings of the Supreme Court, Barbour's dissenting opinion sought to discourage judicial supervision of executive acts by applying President Jackson's departmental theory, the notion that the executive branch has the right to interpret the Constitution for itself. Barbour's opinion in Kendall demonstrated his loyalty to President Jackson's political agenda.
Barbour made his most powerful argument in favor of states' rights in Holmes v. Jennison (1840), which focused on the extradition of a fugitive from Vermont to Canada. In 1838, George Holmes, a resident of Quebec, was convicted of murdering Louis Paschal Achille Tache in Canada. Holmes escaped to the United States where he was detained under issue of warrant in Vermont. Silas H. Jennison, the governor of Vermont, issued the warrant stating that Holmes, being a citizen of the lower province of Canada, would be arrested and returned to suffer prosecution according to the Canadian justice system, even though the United States had no extradition treaty with Canada. Because the Vermont Supreme Court refused to issue a writ of habeas corpus, Holmes petitioned to the Supreme Court on grounds that he was unlawfully imprisoned and deprived of his personal liberties.
The case became a contentious debate further polarizing the Court between nationalists and states' rights Justices. Holmes focused on whether the Court had the authority to review the case based on Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and whether the governor's warrant violated the Extradition Clause of Article IV, section 2 of the Constitution, which gave the federal government power to surrender a fugitive to a foreign government. Chief Justice Taney believed that the case fell within the Court's jurisdiction and that the federal government had the exclusive power to engage in foreign relations and so believed that the governor had violated the Extradition Clause.
However, as the Court divided 4-4 over the issue of jurisdiction, the Court dismissed the petition. The Vermont Supreme Court subsequently ordered Holmes released in light of the fact that five of the eight Justices expressed the opinion that the governor had violated the Extradition Clause, an expression of the principle that the Constitution gives state officers no power to take independent actions concerned with foreign governments. Barbour was one of the four Justices who disagreed with the Chief Justice. Barbour believed that, because "there is no treaty on the subject of surrendering fugitives," between Vermont and Canada, then the returning of fugitives to Canada did not violate a power granted to the federal government by the Constitution, and therefore the "authority, exercised by the Governor of Vermont, is not repugnant to the power of making treaties in its dormant state, because, in the language of the Chief Justice before cited, it is not the mere existence of the power but its exercise which is incompatible with the exercise of the same power by the states." Barbour opined that, because the Constitution did not explicitly define the affairs of states with foreign countries, Governor Jennison was completely within his rights to order the extradition.
Barbour's opinion in Holmes accorded with his opinion in New York v. Miln that the state has the duty to maintain the welfare of its people. Holmes v. Jennison provides an example of Barbour's strict reading of the Constitution, which allowed him to read a more pronounced states' rights view into the text.
Death and legacy
Barbour died of a coronary thrombosis on February 25, 1841, while asleep in his bed, and partway through the arguments of John Quincy Adams, who sought freedom for African captives in the Amistad Case. Justice Story (although opposing slavery and personally more nationalist than Barbour) eulogized Barbour as earning the respect of his colleagues by his commitment to personal values, persistence in fighting for his beliefs, and legal acumen.
Barbour owned fifty-four slaves at the time of the 1840 census.
An Episcopalian throughout his life, Philip Pendleton Barbour was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C. Barbour's long-time friend and fellow Virginian, Peter V. Daniel, succeeded him on the U.S. Supreme Court, and continued Barbour's legacy of maintaining Jacksonian principles, states' rights, and strict constructionist reading of the Constitution.
Locations named after him include Barbour County, West Virginia, Philippi, West Virginia and its Philip Barbour High School.
Barbour's tenure on the Court demonstrated his loyalty to President Jackson's national vision while applying a narrowed reading of state's rights into the Constitution. Barbour's decisions in major Court cases created an enduring Jacksonian legacy on the Taney Court. Barbour's furtherance of Jacksonian principles of departmental theory in his Kendall dissent, his states' rights advocacy in his majority opinion in New York v. Miln, and textualist reading of the Constitution in order to distinguish state from Congressional power in his dissent in Holmes, all served in this regard.
Barbour's opinions began to unravel the work of Marshall's Court, and set a precedent for future cases as the country became more polarized. Barbour's arguments for the authority of the President to interpret the Constitution in Kendall, and those in defense of the states' police power in Cohens v. Virginia, allowed Chief Justice Taney to rule that slaves were not citizens in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857). Ironically, they were also used by President Abraham Lincoln to issue a suspension of habeas corpus in 1861.
See also
Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830
List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
Note(s)
References
FJC Bio
Further reading
Abraham, Henry J. Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the US Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Clinton. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc, 1999.
Belko, William S. Philip Pendleton Barbour in Jacksonian America: An Old Republican in King Andrew’s Court (University of Alabama Press, 2016).
Friedman, L and Israel, Fred L. The Justices of The United States Supreme Court 1789-1969: Their Lives and Major Opinions. New York and London: Chelsea House Publishers, 1969.
Huebner, Timothy S. The Taney Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. California: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2003.
Schwartz, Bernard. A Book of Legal Lists: The Best and Worst in American Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Urofsky, Melvin I. The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc, 1994.
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1783 births
1841 deaths
People from Gordonsville, Virginia
Barbour family
Pendleton family
American people of Scottish descent
American Episcopalians
Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia
Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia
Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates
Speakers of the United States House of Representatives
Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
United States federal judges appointed by Andrew Jackson
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic%20toothfish
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Antarctic toothfish
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The Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) is a large, black or brown fish found in very cold (subzero) waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. It is the largest fish in the Southern Ocean, feeding on shrimp and smaller fish, and preyed on by whales, orcas, and seals. It is caught for food and marketed as Chilean sea bass together with its sister species, the more northerly Patagonian toothfish (D. eliginoides). Often mistakenly called "Antarctic cod," the Antarctic toothfish belongs to the notothen family (Nototheniidae), a group of fish species abundant near Antarctica.
Name and taxonomy
The common name "toothfish" refers to the two rows of teeth in the upper jaw, thought to give it a shark-like appearance.
The genus name Dissostichus is from the Greek (twofold) and stichus (line) and refers to the presence of two long lateral lines that enable the fish to sense prey. The species name, mawsoni, honors the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson who led the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition that explored the Antarctic coast and obtained the species' type specimen.
The Antarctic toothfish was first formally described in 1937 by the English ichthyologist John Roxborough Norman with the type locality given as off MacRobertson Land at 66°45'S, 62°03'E in Antarctica.
Description
Fully grown, these fish (and their warmer-water relative, the Patagonian toothfish, D. eleginoides) can grow to more than in length and 135 kg in weight, twice as large as the next-largest Antarctic fish. Being large, and consistent with the unstructured food webs of the ocean (i.e., big fish eat little fish regardless of identity, even eating their own offspring), the Antarctic toothfish has been characterized as a voracious predator. Furthermore, by being by far the largest midwater fish in the Southern Ocean, it is thought to fill the ecological role that sharks play in other oceans. Aiding in that role, the Antarctic toothfish is one of only five notothenioid species that, as adults, are neutrally buoyant. This buoyancy is attained at 100–120 cm in length and enables them to spend time above the bottom without expending extra energy. Both bottom-dwelling and mid-water prey are, therefore, available to them. Most other notothenioid fish and the majority of all Antarctic fishes, including smaller toothfish, are confined to the bottom. Coloring is black to olive brown, sometimes lighter on the undersides, with a mottled pattern on body and fins. Small fish blend in very well among the benthic sponges and corals. The species has a broad head, an elongated body, long dorsal and anal fins, large pectoral fins, and a rudder-like caudal fin. They typically move slowly, but are capable of speed bursts that can elude predatory seals.
Feeding ecology
Over the continental shelf, Antarctic toothfish feed on shrimp (Nauticaris spp.) and small fish, principally another neutrally buoyant nototheniid, the Antarctic silverfish (Pleuragramma antarcticum). This loosely schooling species is also a major prey of Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae) and emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri), Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) and Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis). Therefore, competition for prey among toothfish and these other mesopredators (middle trophic level predators) could be very important. The large Antarctic toothfish are eaten by sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), killer whales (Orcinus orca), Weddell seals, and possibly colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). Toothfish that are dwelling on the bottom, particularly those caught during the summer on the continental slope, eat mainly grenadiers (Macrouridae), but also feed on other smaller fish species and skates (Raja spp.). They also feed on the colossal squid. Antarctic toothfish have been caught to depths of 2200 m, though based on commercial fishing effort, few occur that deep.
Aging and reproduction
Aging data indicate Antarctic toothfish are relatively fast-growing when young, but then growth slows later in life. They reach about one-third of maximum size after 5 years, and half maximum by 10 years, after which growth slows considerably. To grow fast when small is an adaptation of most predatory fish, e.g., sharks, so as not to be small for very long. The maximum age recorded so far has been 48 years. Antarctic toothfish take a long time to mature (13 years for males, 17 years for females) and once mature may not spawn every year, though the actual spawning interval is unknown. Only a few Antarctic toothfish with mature eggs have ever been caught, meaning knowledge is sparse about fecundity. They spawn sometime during winter. Large, mature, older fish have been caught among the seamounts of the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, a location thus thought to be important for spawning. Smaller, subadult Antarctic toothfish tend to concentrate in shallower waters on the continental shelf, while a large portion of the older fish are found on in the continental slope. This sequestering by size and age could be another adaptation for small fish to avoid being eaten by large ones. The recruitment potential of Antarctic toothfish, a measure of both fecundity and survival to spawning age, is not known.
Anatomy and physiology
The Antarctic toothfish has a lightweight, partially cartilaginous skeleton, lacks a swim bladder, and has fatty deposits which act as a stored energy source, particularly during spawning. This fat also makes large toothfish neutrally buoyant. Many toothfish caught over the seamounts are very depleted of fat, and this is thought perhaps to be related to spawning and spawning migration, which are energy-demanding activities. It is not known what happens to these fat-depleted fish, including whether they reach, or how long it takes them to reach, breeding condition again; this ostensibly occurs upon returning to continental-slope waters. Antarctic toothfish have vision and lateral line systems well adapted to find prey in low light levels. Since ice covers the surface of the ocean where Antarctic toothfish occur even in summer, these sensory specializations likely evolved to enable survival in the reduced light levels found under ice and in the Antarctic winter, as well as at deep depths. Antarctic toothfish also have a very well developed sense of smell, which is why they are easily caught by baited hooks and also scavenge the remains of penguins killed by other predators.
Cold adaptation
The Antarctic toothfish lives in subzero degree water below latitude 60°S. It is noteworthy, like most other Antarctic notothenioids, for producing antifreeze glycoproteins, a feature not seen in its closest relative, the Patagonian toothfish, which typically inhabits slightly warmer waters. The presence of antifreeze glycoproteins allows the Antarctic toothfish (and other notothenioids) to thrive in subzero waters of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. The Antarctic toothfish's voracious appetite also is important in coping with cold water. It is mainly caught in the Ross Sea in the austral summer, but has also been recorded from Antarctic coastal waters south of the Indian Ocean sector, in the vicinity of the Antarctic Peninsula, and near the South Sandwich Islands.
Fishery and associated ecosystem
A fishery for Antarctic toothfish, managed by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), has existed since 1997. The existence of this fishery in the Ross Sea, the area where most Antarctic toothfish are caught, is very contentious - the main argument proposed for this is the lack of accurate population parameters, such as original stock size, fecundity, and recruitment. Moreover, the main fishing grounds are presumed by some researchers to cover the area through which the entire stock of Antarctic toothfish pass. Typically, the fishing season has finished in the area by the end of February and for the remainder of the year, much of the area is covered by sea ice, providing a natural impediment to fishing. This fishery is characterised by opponents as being a challenge to manage owing to the nature of benthic longline fishing. The bycatch of other fish can also be significant, with the ratio of toothfish caught ranging from 4.5% to 17.9% and averaging 9.3% from the 1999/2000 fishing season to 2013/14 in CCAMLR Subarea 88.1 when the toothfish catch first exceeded 50 tonnes and from 2.3% to 24.5% averaging 12.4% in CCAMLR Subarea 88.2 up to the latest publicly available figure from 2013/14. The bycatch of other fish species is also regulated to a maximum amount annually by CCAMLR. CCAMLR decision rules are based on determining the catch level that will ensure that the median estimated spawning stock biomass (not total biomass) is greater than or equal to 50% of the average pre-exploitation spawning biomass after a further 35 years of fishing (i.e. 35 years from each year of assessment), with the additional condition that the probability is less than a 10% that the spawning biomass will decline below 20% of the pre-exploitation level at any time during this period. Current spawning stock biomass for Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea Region is estimated to be at 75% of the pre-exploitation level (95% Bayesian probability interval 71–78%), well above the 50% target reference point.
An independent study was reported to have detected the disappearance of large fish at the southern periphery of its range in the McMurdo Sound and was postulated to be consistent with this apparent loss of large fish. However, more recent work has shown this was not the case in 2014. Some studies have reported that the prevalence of fish-eating killer whales has been apparently decreasing in the southern Ross Sea, foraging efficiency of Weddell seals is decreasing, and numbers of Adélie penguins (competitors for Antarctic silverfish) have been increasing. More recent studies have confirmed visual sightings of Weddell seals and Type-C killer whales holding and consuming large toothfish in the McMurdo Sound area and raise questions over the previously assumed importance of assumed dominance of Antarctic silverfish (Pleuragramma antarcticum) in the diet of Weddell seal and Type-C killer whales. These reports highlight the importance of managing this fishery in the best interests of the ecosystem by continuing to collect information on both Antarctic toothfish life history and the interaction of that species with predators and prey. An important research programme in this regard is the annual 'Shelf' survey carried out annually since 2012, which is designed to monitor the abundance of subadult Antarctic toothfish in areas where subadult-sized fish have been regularly found (e.g., in the southern Ross Sea) has been designed provide data to better estimate recruitment variability and provide an important early-warning signal of changes in toothfish recruitment. The project also is used for additional targeted data collection to better understand the lifecycle and ecosystem role of Antarctic toothfish.
Research has provided evidence for long-distance migrations of type-C killer whales between the Ross Sea and New Zealand waters, indicating a much wider range that had been postulated by a number of scientists. One adult female type-C killer whale has been seen in both New Zealand waters and McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, and a high large proportion of type-C killer whales sighted in McMurdo Sound have scars caused by cookiecutter sharks that are currently assumed to be limited to north of 50°S. At the same time as this study was occurring, Italian whale experts at Terra Nova Bay, about 360 km north of Scott Base, deployed satellite transmitters on type-C killer whales to determine the whales' movements. Their results independently verified that type-C killer whales were commuting between Scott Base and the waters off Northland.
The total catch of Antarctic toothfish in 2013–14 was 3820 tonnes; 3,320 tonnes of this were taken from the Ross Sea (FAO Statistical Divisions 88.1 and 88.2), with the remainder taken from other high seas areas within the CCAMLR convention area.
Management
The ecosystem approach to fishing is encapsulated in Article II of the CAMLR Convention. The ecosystem approach uses decision rules based on both population status targets and limit reference points, and incorporates uncertainty and ecosystem status in the calculation of these targets. Different reference points to account for the needs of dependent predators in the ecosystem are used depending on the location of the species in the food web. The ecosystem fisheries management approach by CCAMLR involves use of move-on rules to protect trophic interactions, and limit direct effects of fishing on fish bycatch, seabirds, and vulnerable marine ecosystems. Annually reviewed mitigation measures such as line weighting and streamer lines minimize seabird bycatch, which have resulted in a substantial reduction in accidental seabird mortalities in the CAMLR Convention Area. The 50% (target) and 20% (limit) reference points used by the CCAMLR decision rules exceed the requirements for target and limit reference points set by almost all national and international fisheries management organizations, even for species longer lived than toothfish. A wide study of many fisheries generally indicated that most reach maximum sustainable yield at 30–35% of their pre-exploitation abundances. CCAMLR uses a more conservative reference level to allow exploitation at a level where toothfish recruitment and the ecosystem in general is not appreciably impacted. This is required by Article II of the CAMLR Convention. A common misunderstanding of the CCAMLR decision rules is an assumption that the decline in population size will follow a clear trajectory from the starting year to a point 35 years later when the stock size will reach 50% of pre-exploitation levels and an assumption that no feedback occurs during each assessment. The catch limit, though, is recalculated based on all updated or revised data at each annual or biennial assessment. This approach is used to ensure that the 50% level will be approached slowly and enables an ongoing readjustment of catch levels as knowledge improves.
Environment and bycatch
CCAMLR imposes stringent environmental protection and bycatch mitigation measures to Antarctic toothfish fisheries, including:
Monitoring of daytime setting and movement of vessels from the fishery should any vessel catch more than three seabirds
Use of streamer lines during setting to keep birds away from baited hooks
Weighting of lines to ensure fast sink rates to prevent seabirds from accessing baited hooks
The use of bird exclusion devices to prevent birds from accessing hooks whilst lines are being hauled
Limitations on the release of fish offal overboard at the same time as setting and hauling of lines to avoid attracting seabirds: An additional requirement prohibits the dumping of all offal south of 60°S, the region where Antarctic toothfish are caught
Prohibition on the dumping of oil, plastic, garbage, food waste, poultry, eggs or eggshells, sewage, and ash by fishing vessels
Prohibition of the use of plastic packaging bands on fishing vessels
Incidental mortality of seabirds as a result of fishing has fallen to near-zero levels in the CCAMLR convention area. No mortality of seabirds or marine mammals was recorded as a result of fishing for Antarctic toothfish in 2011–12 and only two seabirds (southern giant petrels Macronectes giganteus) have been killed as a result of fishing in the Ross Sea since 1996/97.
Compliance
Compliance measures adopted by CCAMLR apply to all Antarctic toothfish fisheries. These include:
At-sea inspections of fishing vessels
Vessel licensing
Port inspections of fishing vessels
Continuous reporting of fishing vessel positions via satellite-linked vessel monitoring systems
Catch documentation scheme for toothfish, which tracks toothfish from the point of landing through to the final point of sale and requires verification and authorisation by government authorities at each step
The requirement to carry two scientific observers on each licensed vessel – including one from a member state other than the vessel flag
Sustainability
In November 2010, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified the Ross Sea Antarctic toothfish fishery as a sustainable and well-managed fishery. The certification is contentious, with many conservation groups protesting the certification due to the paucity of information needed to reliably manage the fishery, and that only eight of the 19 vessels in the fishery during the latest year for which data are publicly available were certified. During the 2013–14 season, vessels operating under the Marine Stewardship Certification landed 51.3% of all Antarctic toothfish from the Ross Sea Region (CCAMLR Subarea 88.1) and 64.7% of Antarctic toothfish from the Amundsen Sea sector (CCAMLR Subarea 88.2).
The argument that only a portion of Antarctic toothfish is certified, the high price it commands, and the remote areas where a large proportion of the fish are caught have been advanced as an encouragement to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and mislabeling. A 2011 genetic study of MSC-labeled Antarctic toothfish found in markets revealed a significant proportion was not from the MSC-certified stock, and many were not toothfish at all. The MSC had conducted its own internal study, which found no evidence of mislabeling. The MSC conducts an annual audit of the fishery which includes sampling of certified product.
Due to the challenges that faced toothfish management in the 1990s and early 2000s (e.g., IUU fishing, mislabeling, and inadequate data for management), consumer seafood guides such as Seafood Watch placed toothfish of both species (Chilean seabass) on their red, or “avoid”, list; however, in light of up-to-date, internationally peer-reviewed scientific information, in April 2013, Seafood Watch upgraded the Ross Sea Antarctic toothfish fishery to a "good alternative". Following a comprehensive review in 2012, the Monterey Bay Aquarium revised its rating of Antarctic toothfish to 'good alternative'.
Greenpeace International added the Antarctic toothfish to its seafood red list in 2010. This approach is at variance with the high score given the fishery when it was granted certification by the MSC.
References
Further reading
Antarctic toothfish
Fish of Antarctica
Fish of the Southern Ocean
Antarctic toothfish
Taxa named by John Roxborough Norman
Commercial fish
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharad%20Pawar
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Sharad Pawar
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Sharad Govindrao Pawar (Marathi pronunciation: [ʃəɾəd̪ pəʋaːɾ], born 12 December 1940) is an Indian politician. He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for four terms and has also served in the Union Council Of Ministers as the Minister of Defence in the Cabinet of P.V Narsimha Rao and Minister of Agriculture in the Cabinet of Manmohan Singh. He is the first and current president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress. He leads the NCP delegation in the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Indian parliament. He is the chairperson of Maha Vikas Aghadi, a regional Maharashtra-based political alliance.
Pawar comes from Baramati of Maharashtra. He is the patriarch of the influential political family—the Pawar Family—and a prominent face in Maharashtra politics. Other politicians from the family include his daughter Supriya Sule, Ajit Pawar his nephew, Rohit Rajendra Pawar a nephew's son and other members of his extended family.
Outside of politics, Pawar has served as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI from 2005 to 2008 and as the president of the International Cricket Council from 2010 to 2012. He was the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association from October 2013 to January 2017.
In 2017, the Indian government conferred upon him Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian honour of India.
Personal life and family
Pawar is one of the eleven children born to Govindrao Pawar and Shardabai Pawar. The ancestors of Govindrao had moved to Baramati from the nearby Satara. Govindrao had a long career in Sahakari Kharedi Vikri Sangh, a Baramati Farmers' Cooperative. He also managed Shahu boarding, a students' hostel, in the 1940s. In the 1950s he was instrumental in setting up cooperative sugar mills in the Baramati region. Shardabai Pawar was elected to the district local board three times between 1937 and 1952. She looked after the family farm at Katewadi, ten kilometres from Baramati.
Pawar studied at Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) in Pune. He was an average student but active in student politics. Most of his siblings were well educated and successful in their respective professions.
Vasantrao, the eldest brother of Pawar and a lawyer, was murdered over a land deal by a man who was suspected to be a hired assassin. Pratap Pawar, Pawar's younger brother, runs the Marathi daily newspaper Sakal. Pawar's nephew, Ajit Pawar, is a politician and served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. His grandnephew Rohit Rajendra Pawar represents the Karjat constituency in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha.
Pawar is married to Pratibha (née Shinde), daughter of the test cricketer Sadashiv Shinde. They have a daughter, Supriya Sule, who represents the Baramati constituency in the 17th Lok Sabha.
He is the oldest and senior most member of Pawar political dynastic family of Maharashtra. The family have 2 Members of Parliament and 2 Members of Legislative Assembly in the state assembly,. Among them, Ajit Pawar was the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.
In 1999, Pawar was diagnosed with oral cancer and had oral surgery in April 2004. In March 2021, he underwent surgery for his gallbladder problem.
Political career
Early career
Pawar's first political activity was when he was a school-going student. He organized a protest march for Goan Independence in Pravaranagar in 1956. At college, he was active in student politics. Although his older lawyer brother belonged to Peasants and Workers Party, the young Pawar preferred the Congress party and joined Youth Congress in 1958. He later became the president of Poona district (now Pune district) youth Congress in 1962. By 1964, he was one of the two secretaries of Maharashtra youth congress and in regular contact with influential leaders of the party.
1967–1978
Early in his career, Pawar was regarded as a protégé of Yashwantrao Chavan, a highly influential politician from Maharashtra at that time. At the young age of 27 in 1967, Pawar was nominated as the candidate for the Baramati constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly over more established members by the undivided Congress Party. He won the election and represented the constituency from 1967 to 1990. In 1969, when the Congress party split after the 1969 Indian presidential election he opted for the Congress(R) faction of prime minister Indira Gandhi along with his mentor Yashwantrao Chavan. As the MLA of Baramati in the early 1970s, he was instrumental in building percolation tanks during a severe drought in Maharashtra. Like most Congress party politicians from rural western Maharashtra, he was also heavily involved in the politics of the local cooperative sugar mills and other member run cooperatives societies. In the early 1970s, the then chief minister Vasantrao Naik had been power for a long time and there was jockeying for succession among different factions of the state Congress party. At that time, looking to the future leadership of the party, Yashwantrao Chavan persuaded Naik to bring Pawar into his cabinet as state home affairs minister. Pawar continued as home affairs minister in the 1975-77 government of Shankarrao Chavan, who succeeded Naik as the chief minister.
1978-1987
In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, Congress party, under Indira Gandhi, lost power to the Janata Alliance. Taking responsibility for the loss of large number of seats in Maharashtra, chief minister Shankarrao Chavan resigned shortly afterwards and was replaced by Vasantdada Patil. Later in the year, the Congress party split, with Pawar's mentor, Yashwantrao Chavan joining one faction, Congress (U), and Indira Gandhi leading her own faction, Congress (I). Pawar himself joined Congress (U). In the state assembly elections held early in 1978, the two Congress parties ran separately but then formed an alliance to keep power under Vasantdada Patil and deny it to Janata Party which emerged as the biggest single party after the election, but without a majority. Pawar served as Minister of Industry and Labour in the Patil government.
In July 1978, Pawar broke away from the Congress (U) party to form a coalition government with the Janata Party. In the process, at the age of 38, he became the youngest Chief Minister of Maharashtra. This Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) government was dismissed in February 1980, following Indira Gandhi's return to power.
In the 1980 elections Congress (I) won the majority in the state assembly, and A.R. Antulay took over as chief minister. Pawar took over the Presidency of his Indian National Congress (Socialist) Congress (S) party in 1983. For the first time, he won the Lok Sabha election from the Baramati parliamentary constituency in 1984. He also won the state assembly election of March 1985 from Baramati and preferred to return to state politics, and resigned his Lok Sabha seat. Congress (S), won 54 seats out of 288 in the state assembly, and Pawar became the leader of the opposition of PDF coalition which included the BJP, PWP, and the Janata party.
1987–1990
His return to Congress (I) in 1987 has been cited as a reason for the rise of the Shiv Sena at that time. Pawar had stated at the time, "the need to save the Congress Culture in Maharashtra", as his reason for returning to Congress. In June 1988, Prime Minister of India and Congress President Rajiv Gandhi decided to induct then Maharashtra Chief Minister Shankarrao Chavan into his Union Cabinet as Finance Minister and Pawar was chosen to replace Chavan as the chief minister. Pawar had the task of checking the rise of the Shiv Sena in state politics, which was a potential challenge to the dominance of Congress in the state. In the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, Congress won 28 seats out of 48 in Maharashtra. In the state assembly elections of February 1990, the alliance between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party posed a stiff challenge to Congress. Congress fell short of an absolute majority in the state assembly, winning 141 seats out of 288. Pawar was sworn in as chief minister again on 4 March 1990 with the support of 12 independent or unaffiliated members of the legislative assembly (MLAs).
Early 1990s
During the course of the 1991 election campaign, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. The party elected P.V. Narasimha Rao as the party president. It was expected that the party president would become the prime minister in the event of a Congress victory. However, Pawar at that time had talked about the distinction between party president and prime minister. Also since the Congress contingent from Maharashtra was the largest, Pawar felt he had a legitimate claim for the post of prime minister. However, Pawar eventually decided not to enter the contest, and the Congress Parliamentary Party (party MPs) unanimously elected P.V. Narasimha Rao as their leader, and he was sworn in as prime minister on 21 June 1991. Rao named Pawar as defence minister. On 26 June 1991, Pawar took over that portfolio, and held it until March 1993. After Pawar's successor in Maharashtra, Sudhakarrao Naik, stepped down after the disastrous handling of the Bombay riots, Rao asked Pawar to serve again as chief minister of the state. Pawar was sworn in as chief minister for his fourth term on 6 March 1993. Almost immediately, Mumbai experienced a series of bomb blasts, on 12 March 1993. Pawar's response to the blasts attracted controversy. More than a decade later, Pawar admitted that he had "deliberately misled" people following the bombings, by saying that there were "13 and not 12" explosions, and had added the name of a Muslim-dominated locality to show that people from both communities had been affected. He attempted to justify this deception by claiming that it was a move to prevent communal riots, by falsely portraying that both Hindu and Muslim communities in the city had been affected adversely. He also admitted to lying about evidence recovered and misleading people into believing that it pointed to the Tamil Tigers as possible suspects.
Mid-to-late 1990s
In 1993, the Deputy Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, G. R. Khairnar made a series of accusations against Pawar for being involved in corruption and protecting criminals. Though Khairnar could not produce any evidence in support of his claims, it inevitably affected Pawar's popularity. Notable social worker Anna Hazare started a fast-unto-death to demand the expulsion of 12 officers of the Maharashtra state forest department who had been accused of corruption. The opposition parties accused Pawar's government of trying to shield the corrupt officers.
The 1994 Gowari stampede occurred at Nagpur, during the winter session of the state assembly, and killed 114 people. Nagpur Police were trying to disperse almost 50,000 Gowari and Vanjari protesters using baton charges but the police created panic and triggered a stampede amongst protesters. Allegations were made that the mishap occurred because welfare minister Madhukarrao Pichad did not meet with the delegation of the Vanjari people in time. Though Pichad, accepting moral responsibility for the mishap, stepped down, this incident was another setback to Pawar's government.
After 16 years of protest by the Namantar Andolan (Name-change Movement), the state government finally renamed Marathwada University as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University on 14 January 1994, the compromise new name being an expansion of the old name (Namvistar) rather than a complete change of name (Namanatar). As chief minister, Pawar announced few developments in university departments.
New elections to the Vidhan Sabha were held in 1995. The Shiv Sena-BJP coalition was leading Congress in the polls, and there was widespread rebellion in the Congress party. Shiv Sena-BJP won 138 seats while Congress retained only 80 seats in the state assembly. Pawar had to step down and Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi took over as chief minister on 14 March 1995. Until the Lok Sabha elections of 1996, Pawar served as the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly. In the 1996 General elections, Pawar won the Baramati seat in the Lok Sabha and left the state assembly.
In June 1997, Pawar unsuccessfully challenged Sitaram Kesri for the post of President of the Indian National Congress. In the mid-term parliamentary elections of 1998, Pawar not only won his constituency, Baramati, but also led Congress to a win by a large majority of Maharashtra Lok Sabha constituencies. Congress was aligned with the Republican Party of India (Athvale) and Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. The Congress party won 33 Lok Sabha seats outright, and the allied Republican Party of India won 4 more, for a total of 37 out of 48 in the state. Pawar served as Leader of Opposition in the 12th Lok Sabha.
Formation of Nationalist Congress Party
In 1999, after the 12th Lok Sabha was dissolved and elections to the 13th Lok Sabha were called, Pawar, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar demanded that the party needed to propose someone native-born as the prime ministerial candidate and not the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, who had entered party politics and replaced Kesri as Congress president. In response, the Congress working committee (CWC) expelled the trio for six years from the party. In response Pawar and Sangma founded the Nationalist Congress Party in June 1999. Despite the falling out, the new party aligned with the Congress party to form a coalition government in Maharashtra after the 1999 state assembly elections to prevent the Shiv Sena-BJP combine from returning to power. Pawar, however, did not return to state politics and Vilasrao Deshmukh of Congress was chosen as chief minister, with Chagan Bhujbal representing the NCP as deputy chief minister.
Minister of agriculture in UPA government
After the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Pawar joined the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the Minister of Agriculture. He retained his portfolio when the UPA coalition government was reelected in 2009. He faced several crisis and controversies during his tenure as Agriculture minister. Critics also point out that during his tenure as the minister agriculture, he spent time on cricket in his role as the president of BCCI than on his ministerial duties.
Wheat imports
In 2007, the BJP asked for Pawar's resignation after alleging he was involved in a multi-crore Indian rupee (INR) scam involving wheat imports. In May 2007, a tender floated by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for procurement of wheat was cancelled when the lowest bid received was for US$263/ton. The government subsequently allowed private traders to purchase wheat directly from farmers that year resulting in a paucity of wheat to stock FCI granaries. By July 2007 the shortage at FCI was large enough to require import of wheat at a much higher price of 320–360 USD/ton. Taking advantage of this, traders who had domestically purchased wheat at 900 INR/ton earlier, were now offering the same to FCI at 1,300 INR/ton.
Agricultural produce prices
As the Minister of Agriculture, Pawar was consistently accused of colluding in the extreme hike in prices of agricultural produce:
Wheat import in 2007 – The Bombay High Court issued notices to Union agriculture minister Pawar, questioning the decision to import defective red wheat, and asking for a directive to submit details of procurement of the crop from different states and the exact process of importing it.
Sugar prices in 2009 – Opposition parties, including the BJP and the CPI(M) accused Pawar of engineering a steep rise in the price of sugar to the advantage of hoarders and importers.
Wheat, Sugar, Rice, and Bean prices in 2009–2010 – The opposition accused Pawar to be responsible on the issue of spiraling prices.
Farmer suicides
Since the 1990s there had been a high number of farmer suicides in India: in excess of 10,000 per year, and totalling over 200,000 between 1997 and 2010. Pawar, as the agricultural minister, in 2006 had underplayed the rate of farmer suicide in India. However, he claimed at that time that his department was taking the necessary steps to reduce the numbers. His ministry initiated a series of government inquiries to look into the causes of farmers' suicides in 2012. In 2013 Pawar admitted that the suicides was a serious issue with many factors being responsible, and he said the government was increasing investment in agriculture and raising minimum prices of crops to increase farmers' income.
Promotion of endosulfan
Even though the pesticide endosulfan has been banned, India is slow to phase it out. In spite of its known negative health effects, Pawar made a remark that endosulfan is not yet proved dangerous. This remark prompted activist Vandana Shiva to call him a corrupt minister.
Other issues
In 2012, Pawar gave up the chairmanship of the Empowered Group of Ministers investigating the 2G spectrum case, days after his appointment by the prime minister, fearing that his association with the decision-making process would drag him into the 2G Spectrum controversy. In 2011, he also decided to resign from the committee that was reviewing the draft of the anti-corruption Lokpal bill after his inclusion in the committee was criticized by the anti-corruption campaigner, Anna Hazare.
Career since 2014
In January 2012, Pawar announced that he would not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in order to make way for younger leadership. Pawar is at present a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was elected to the body in April 2014 for a six-year term. He lost his ministerial position when the BJP-led NDA defeated the ruling UPA government, in which Pawar was the minister of agriculture, in the general elections of 2014. Pawar's NCP also lost power in Maharashtra after the 2014 assembly elections. The BJP had won a plurality of seats in the new assembly and initially formed a minority government with the NCP. The BJP's estranged ally, the Shiv Sena later joined the BJP-led government, and that government then did not need the support of the NCP. In May 2017, Pawar ruled out being a candidate for the June 2017 Indian presidential election.
In the 2019 elections to the Lok Sabha, Pawar's NCP and the Congress party had a seat-sharing arrangement. Similarly, despite their differences, the BJP and Shiv Sena once again contested the elections together under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) banner. The election gave a landslide victory to Narendra Modi's BJP. Out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, the Congress party won only one seat in the state, whereas the NCP won five seats from its stronghold of western Maharashtra.
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections were soon followed by elections to the Vidhan Sabhaa in October 2019. Predictions for the state's ruling BJP–Shiv Sena alliance to win by a large margin led to a steady stream of defections from the NCP to the ruling alliance. Pawar was the star campaigner for the NCP-Congress alliance in the state.His campaigning during the assembly election was credited with helping not only the NCP but also the leaderless Congress party. Against predictions, the actual voting left the ruling alliance with fewer seats than in 2014. After the election, Pawar thought that his party would remain in opposition in the new assembly. However, differences between the Shiv Sena and the BJP led to a month of political drama, with Pawar and his family playing a pivotal roles. The drama ended with the NCP coming back into power on 28 November 2019, as part of a coalition between Shiv Sena, Congress, and the NCP, led by the Shiv Sena chief, Uddhav Thackeray, as the new chief minister of Maharashtra.
In June 2020, Pawar was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Sharad Pawar, the founder and chief of NCP since 1999, announced his decision to step down from his post and also his unwillingness to contest election in future,at the launch of the second edition of his political memoirs ' Lok Maze Sangati' ('People Accompany Me'). Sharad Pawar has had a long period of public life from 1 May 1960, to 1 May 2023.
Sharad Pawar took back his decision to step down as national leader of National Congress Party, citing "strong sentiments" his resignation had evoked among the party workers as well as leaders across the country. The octogenarian leader clarified that he would focus on assigning new responsibilities, through organizational changes and creating new leadership.
2023 Ajit Pawar's rebellion
In July 2023, Ajit Pawar rebelled against Sharad Pawar and joined ruling BJP-Shiv sena government and took oath as Deputy Chief minister of Maharashtra, majority of NCP's sitting MLAs deserted the party in support of A. Pawar. He claimed to election commission that he's the president of NCP, later in his followers first public meeting, he claimed the ownership of party including its name, election symbol. This rebellion results in to two factions in the party : Sharad Pawar loyalist and Ajit Pawar's supporters, causing 2022 Shiv sena like political crisis for Sharad Pawar
Member of coordination committee of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance
Pawar has been appointed as a member of the Coordination Committee of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance at its Mumbai convention on 1 September 2023.The coordination committee will decide the national agenda, common campaign issues and common program of the country's main opposition alliance (I.N.D.I.A.).
Sports administration
Pawar has interests in cricket, kabbadi, kho kho, wrestling and football.
He has served as the head of various sports organisations, including
Mumbai Cricket Association
Maharashtra Wrestling Association
Maharashtra Kabbadi Association
Maharashtra Kho Kho Association
Maharashtra Olympics Association
Board of Control for Cricket in India President 2005–2008
International Cricket Council Vice President
International Cricket Council President
Pawar served as the president of Pune International Marathon Trust, which has hosted Pune International Marathon for last 22 years.
Educational institutions
Early in his public career in 1972, Pawar founded "Vidya pratishthan" for serving the educational needs of the rural poor. The organisation now runs a number of schools at all levels, and colleges specialising in subjects such as information technology, and Biotechnology in Baramati and other locations. Pawar is associated with the Hon. Sharad Pawar Public School, under the Shree Gurudatta Education Society; Sharad Pawar International School, Pune and the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy, near Mumbai. Pawar is the current president of the century-old educational organisation Rayat Shikshan Sanstha.
Controversies
Criminal links
In 1992–93, the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Sudhakarrao Naik made a statement that the state leader of Indian National Congress party and erstwhile-Chief Minister Pawar, had asked him to "go easy on Pappu Kalani", a well known criminal-turned-politician. Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, later concurred with these allegations. Further, Chief Minister Naik also alleged that it was possible that Kalani and Hitendra Thakur, another criminal-turned-politician from Virar, had been given tickets to contest election for the Maharashtra State Legislature at the behest of Pawar, who also put in a word for Naik with the police when the latter was arrested for his role in post-Demolition of the Babri Masjid riots in Mumbai.
Pawar is also alleged to have close links with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim through Ibrahim's henchman Lakhan Singh based in the Middle East and close relationship with Shahid Balwa, also a suspect in the 2G spectrum case. These allegations were strengthened by the revelation about the involvement of Vinod Goenka, Balwa's business partner, in a controversial commercial project in Yerwada, Pune, which was being constructed under the same survey number as Pawar's family friend, Atul Chordia, had constructed the Panchshil Tech Park. BJP leader Eknath Khadse alleged that it was Balwa who had applied for environmental clearance for the two projects, a charge that Chordia refuted. Coincidentally, Chordia's Panchshil Pvt. Ltd. has Pawar's daughter, Supriya Sule, and her husband Sadanand as investors. The state government's decision to hand over a 3-acre plot of the Yerwada police station for "re-development" to Balwa was retracted following Balwa's arrest.
For several years, confusion existed about the number of blasts in the 1993 Bombay Bombings, whether they were 12 or 13 in number. This was because Pawar, the then chief minister of Maharashtra, stated on television that day that there had been 13 blasts, and included a Muslim-dominated locality in the list. He later revealed that he had lied on purpose, and that there had been only 12 blasts, none of them in Muslim-dominated areas; he also confessed that he had attempted to mislead the public into believing that the blasts could be the work of the LTTE, a Sri Lankan militant organization, when in fact intelligence reports had already confirmed to him that Mumbai's Muslim underworld (known as the "D-Company," a reference to Dawood Ibrahim) were the perpetrators of the serial blasts.
Land allotment
On 27 October 2007, the Bombay High Court served notices to institutions headed by Pawar, Ajit Pawar, and Sadanand Sule (Pawar's son-in-law), along with a corresponding notice served to the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) on why special privileges were given to Pawar and his family. This was done in consideration of Public Interest Litigation No. 148 of 2006, filed by Shamsunder Potare alleging that the said 2002 land allocations in Pune were illegal. The institutions and properties mentioned include:
Two plots given allotted to Vidya Pratishthan, an educational society headed by Sharad Pawar
A plot allotted to Anant Smriti Pratishthan, headed by Ajit Pawar, the Maharashtra state minister for irrigation and Pawar's nephew
A plot allotted to Lavasa Corporation, owned by Sule. Sule handed over his share in 2006.
A plot allotted to Shivajinagar Agriculture College
A plot allotted to Sharadchandraji Scout and Guide Training Institute.
These allocations were allegedly made by NCP leader and minister Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar who was in charge of MKVDC at the time. Pawar was served a contempt of court notice on 1 May 2008 in connection with this case for issuing statements to the press even though the matter was subjudice at the time. Also in connection with the case, the respondents were directed not to create third-party interests in the property under dispute and to undertake any developments at their own risk.
IPL exemption from tax controversy
In 2010, in the case of tax exemptions of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Shiv Sena MLA Subhash Desai alleged that the state cabinet decided in January to impose the tax, before the year's IPL season started, but the decision was not implemented because of NCP chief Pawar's association with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Bombay High Court in August 2010 said there was "nothing on record" to show that the Union Minister influenced the Maharashtra government's decision to exempt Indian Premier League matches from entertainment tax.
Asset declaration
In 2011, Pawar declared his assets to be worth as part of a mandatory disclosure, but his critics claimed that his wealth far exceeded the stated amount. In 2010, it was alleged that the Pawar family indirectly held a 16% stake in the City Corporation, which had bid for the Pune franchise of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Pawar and his family denied the allegations, but the bidders board of the IPL contradicted their claims.
Nira Radia's allegations
In 2011, under investigation of the 2G spectrum case Nira Radia told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that agriculture minister Pawar may be controlling the controversial DB Realty. According to the reports, she also told the investigative agency that Pawar may have spoken with former telecom minister A. Raja about the allocation of spectrum and licence to Swan Telecom. Radia also said that she had no documentary proof to back up her allegations. Pawar has denied any link with former DB managing director Shahid Balwa who is now in CBI custody.
Lavasa
Pawar is alleged to have demanded compensation for allowing the planned-city Lavasa to be constructed. When Lavasa Corporation was receiving necessary clearances from the government of Maharashtra, relatives of Pawar had part-ownership of the company developing the project. Pawar's daughter and son-in-law had more than 20% ownership between 2002 and 2004, and they later sold their stakes. A nephew of his was chairman of Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) when the MKVDC signed off on lease agreements for Lavasa and allowed it to store water and build dams.
Comments on the 2010 Pune bombing
After the 2010 Pune bombing of German Bakery, Pawar appeared to take the incident lightly. He said to the reporters, "It is not alright to arrive at a conclusion that the entire Pune city has been targeted. The place where the blast took place is an isolated area", adding "when I was Chief Minister, Mumbai saw 11 simultaneous blasts but everything returned to normal soon."
Slapping incident
Pawar was slapped by a youth named Harvinder Singh at the New Delhi Municipal Corporation centre while leaving the premises after attending a literary function on 24 November 2011. The attacker, who previously is said to have assaulted former telecom minister Sukh Ram, was later arrested.
Turban controversy
In 2018, Pawar asked party members to felicitate him with the pagadi (turban) of social reformer Mahatma Phule, instead of the usual Puneri Pagadi worn by peshwas (prime ministers) of the Maratha Empire. In response to criticism that he was trying to stir up anti-Brahmin sentiment and appeal to Dalits, Pawar said that he wasn't rejecting any section of society but honoring his idols Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar, and Shahu Maharaj.
Awards and honours
Padma Vibhushan (2017) – In 2017, Pawar was honored with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, on the recommendation of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. The timing of the award was questioned by observers and some attributed it to political motivations of the BJP.
Newsmakers Achievers Awards 2022
See also
First Sharad Pawar ministry
Political families of Maharashtra
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
P. K. Ravindranath (1 February 1992) Sharad Pawar- the making of a modern maratha South Asia Books.
Page 23 of the Times of India, New Delhi, India, Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Profile at BBC News
Profile at government of India website
External links
Article based on personal experience with Sharad Pawar
1940 births
Living people
Marathi politicians
People from Baramati
Chief Ministers of Maharashtra
Indian cricket administrators
Politicians from Pune
India MPs 2009–2014
India MPs 2004–2009
India MPs 1999–2004
India MPs 1998–1999
India MPs 1996–1997
India MPs 1991–1996
India MPs 1984–1989
Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Maharashtra
Scouting and Guiding in India
Indian politicians with disabilities
Union ministers from Maharashtra
Leaders of political parties in India
Agriculture Ministers of India
Presidents of the International Cricket Council
Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra
Indian political party founders
Leaders of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra
Chief ministers from Indian National Congress
Presidents of the Board of Control for Cricket in India
Indian Congress (Socialist) politicians
Defence Ministers of India
Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in public affairs
Indian National Congress (U) politicians
Nationalist Congress Party politicians
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi
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Aldi
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Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 19 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother's store in Essen. The business was split into two separate groups in 1960, that later became Aldi Nord, headquartered in Essen, and Aldi Süd, headquartered in Mülheim.
In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi (a syllabic abbreviation for Albrecht Diskont), which is pronounced . In Germany, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been financially and legally separate since 1966, although both divisions' names may appear as if they were a single enterprise with certain store brands or when negotiating with contractor companies. The formal business name of Aldi Nord is Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Co., while the formal business name of Aldi Süd is ALDI SÜD Dienstleistungs-SE & Co. Each company is owned and operated independently, but they do have contractual business with one another.
Aldi's German operations consist of Aldi Nord's 35 individual regional companies with about 2,200 stores in western, northern, and eastern Germany, and Aldi Süd's 32 regional companies with 2,000 stores in western and southern Germany. Internationally, Aldi Nord operates in Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Spain, while Aldi Süd operates in Australia, Austria, China, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. Only in Austria and Slovenia Aldi operates the stores under the Hofer brand. Aldi Nord also owns the Trader Joe's grocery chain in the United States which operates separately from the group. Aldi Süd announced in August 2023 that it will buy 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets in the southern United States.
History
Karl and Theo Albrecht's mother opened a small store in a suburb of Essen, Germany, in 1913. Their father was employed as a miner and later as a baker's assistant. Karl and Theo were born in 1920 and 1922 respectively. Theo Albrecht completed an apprenticeship in his mother's store, while Karl Albrecht worked in a delicatessen.
Karl Albrecht took over a food shop formerly run by F. W. Judt and later served in the German Army during World War II. In 1945, the brothers took over their mother's business and soon opened another retail outlet nearby. By 1950, the Albrecht brothers owned 13 stores in the Ruhr Valley.
The brothers' idea was to subtract the legal maximum rebate of 3% before sale. The market leaders at the time, which often were co-operatives, required their customers to collect rebate stamps and to send them at regular intervals to reclaim their money. The Albrecht brothers also rigorously removed merchandise that did not sell from their shelves, cutting costs by neither advertising nor selling fresh produce and keeping the size of their retail outlets small.
Split
The brothers split the company in 1960, over a dispute about whether they should sell cigarettes. Karl believed they would attract shoplifters while his brother did not. At the time, they jointly owned 300 shops with a cash flow of DM90 million yearly. In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi—short for Albrecht-Diskont, which translates into English as "Albrecht Discount". Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been financially and legally separate since 1966.
The individual groups were originally owned and managed jointly by the brothers. After the death of Theo's son Berthold, Aldi Nord continues to be controlled by the Albrecht family through its Markus, Lukas and Jakobus foundations, which hold a combined 80.5 per cent of the company's issued capital.
International expansion
Aldi started to expand internationally in 1967, when Aldi Süd acquired the grocery chain Hofer in Austria; Aldi Nord opened its first stores abroad in the Netherlands in 1973, and other countries followed. In 1976, Aldi Süd opened its first store in the United States in Iowa, and, in 1979, Aldi Nord acquired Trader Joe's. After German reunification and the fall of the Iron Curtain, Aldi experienced a rapid expansion. The brothers retired as CEOs in 1993; control of the companies was placed in the hands of private family foundations, the Siepmann Foundation (Aldi Süd) and the Markus, Jakobus and Lukas Foundation (Aldi Nord, Trader Joe's).
Acquisition of Winn-Dixie/Harvey’s
On August 16, 2023, ALDI Süd entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket, including approximately 400 stores across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Business organization
Germany
The Aldi Nord group currently consists of 35 independent regional branches with approximately 2,500 stores. Aldi Süd is made up of 24 companies with 2,000 stores. The border between their territories is commonly known as ″Aldi-Äquator″ (literally: Aldi equator) and runs from the Rhine via Mülheim an der Ruhr, Wermelskirchen, Marburg, Siegen, and Gießen east to just north of Fulda.
The former East Germany is served by Aldi Nord, except for one Aldi Süd in Sonneberg, Thuringia, whose regional office is in Bavaria. The regional branches are organised as limited partnerships with a regional manager for each branch who reports directly to the head office in Essen (Aldi Nord) or Mülheim an der Ruhr (Aldi Süd).
In December 2002, a survey conducted by the German market research institute Forsa found 95% of blue-collar workers, 88% of white-collar workers, 84% of public servants, and 80% of self-employed Germans shop at Aldi. One of Aldi's direct competitors is Lidl.
Internationally
The Aldi group operates over 12,000 stores worldwide. Aldi Nord is responsible for its stores in Northern Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Aldi Nord also owns the Trader Joe's grocery chain in the United States which operates separately from the group. Aldi Süd's responsibilities are for Southern Germany, Australia, China, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States and through Austrian subsidiary Hofer AG in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland. In Austria and Slovenia Aldi Süd operates their stores under the Hofer brand. Aldi Süd's first Switzerland store opened in 2005, and it has operated in Hungary since 2007. Aldi Süd had invested an estimated €800m ($1bn; £670m) in Greece from November 2008 until pulling out on 31 December 2010.
While Aldi Nord has renamed its Dutch and Belgian subsidiaries Combi and Lansa to the Aldi Markt/Aldi Marché brand, Aldi Süd tries to maintain a regional appearance, branding its stores Aldi Süd in Germany, Aldi Suisse in Switzerland, and Hofer in Austria and Slovenia.
Aldi launched in Great Britain, on 5 April 1990, when it opened its first store there in Stechford, Birmingham, using the wholly owned English registered company of Aldi Stores Limited. In October 2013, Aldi opened the 300th store in Great Britain. By 2017, Aldi had over 600 stores there and was opening them at a rate of more than one a week. A report in February 2020, indicated that the company was operating approximately 874 outlets in the UK and planned to have 1,200 stores by 2025. In 2022, Aldi stores in Great Britain reported that due to the annual Veganuary challenge its sales of plant-based foods were 500% higher in January that year than in January 2021. In September 2022 it was confirmed that Aldi had overtaken Morrisons to become Britain's 4th largest supermarket with a 9.3% market share. In September 2023, Aldi opened its 1000th location in the UK and shared its plan to open another 500 as a long-term goal.
Aldi entered the Irish market in 1999. In March 2022, its 150th store in Ireland opened in Cahersiveen (Co Kerry).
Aldi opened its first Australian store in Sydney in 2001, and has grown rapidly since, maintaining a 12.6% market share as of early 2016. It has still yet to open any stores in the state of Tasmania or in Northern Australia in major cities such as Cairns or Darwin, much to the frustration of the population. Financial website Canstar rated Australia's supermarkets based on the feedback of 2,897 consumers who had visited one in the past month with Aldi coming out on top. By August 2019, there were 540 Aldi stores in Australia; Aldi had approximately 11 percent share of the grocery market in Australia in the previous year with sales of $9.2 billion. Aldi opened 26 new stores in 2018, but Aldi Australia CEO Tom Daunt predicted that "store growth would be slower in the future".
Aldi Limited (New Zealand) was incorporated in 2001. The company did not expect to open stores in the near future as of 2019. A news report in January 2020, indicated that the country did not have enough consumers to warrant new supermarket chains; the report predicted that such stores would not arrive "any time soon".
Aldi Süd expanded to the United States under the Aldi banner, having expanded throughout the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. Aldi Süd revealed expansion plans in 2015, and expanded into the Southern California market, where Aldi Nord's Trader Joe's is based. Reports in August 2019, stated that the company was in the process of using a $3.4 billion investment in order to expand to 2,500 stores in the country by year end 2022; it was also investing an extra $1.6 billion to renovate 1,300 of its US stores. By February 2020, there were over 1,900 Aldi stores in 36 states. Groceries ordered on-line could be delivered to homes in the areas covered by 95 percent of stores in the U.S.; this service was provided in conjunction with Instacart.
Aldi Süd opened its first 10 stores in Italy on 1 March 2018. In the first year of operation, 51 outlets were opened. By October 2019, there were 66 stores in northern Italy. At that time, the company was planning to open 80 new stores in the country as well as a distribution centre in Landriano.
In mid-2019, Aldi Süd opened two small, upscale, stores in Shanghai. Two more were opened in late-2019. This is the first of a planned one hundred such locations in the city. The company stated that "the emphasis is on fresh produce and ready meals".
In December 2020, Aldi bought 545 supermarkets and three warehouses of Leader Price and another 2 Casino supermarkets in France for €717 million from Casino Group.The transaction is part of Aldi's plan to catch up with Lidl in France.
In February 2021, Aldi said that it is planning to open 100 new stores in 2021, in the United States (Arizona, California, Florida and the Northeast region).
In January 2022, Aldi launched its Shop&Go concept in Greenwich, London.
On 9 December 2022, Aldi Nord issued a press release stating that Aldi is withdrawing from Denmark after 45 years of operations there. 114 of the chain's total of 188 stores will be taken over by Norwegian competitor Rema 1000. In August 2023, it was announced the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority had approved the Rema 1000 acquisition.
Geographic distribution
Business practices
On 9 August 2018, Aldi (Nord) announced plans to expand its product selection by offering more organic, fresh and easy-to-prepare meals. Aldi also aims to expand to about 2,500 stores in the United States by 2022. On 18 September 2018, Aldi announced its intent to offer grocery delivery in the United States. Aldi began testing grocery delivery in 2017 in select cities such as Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois.
On 4 March 2020, Aldi announced that all its suppliers must utilize recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging by 2025.
In-store layout
Aldi stores are noted as examples of so-called no-frills stores that often display a variety of items at discount prices, specializing in staple items, such as food, beverages, toilet paper, sanitary articles, and other inexpensive household items. Many of its products are own brands, with the number of other brands usually limited to a maximum of two for a given item.
Aldi mainly sells exclusively produced, custom-branded products (often very similar to and produced by major brands) with brand names including Grandessa, Happy Farms, Millville, Simply Nature, and Fit & Active.
Branded products carried include HARIBO in Germany, Knoppers in Belgium, France, and the United States, Marmite and Branston Pickle in Great Britain; and Vegemite and Milo in Australia. Unlike most shops, Aldi does not accept manufacturers' coupons, although some US stores successfully experimented with store coupons (e.g. $10 off a $25 purchase).
In addition to its standard assortment, Aldi has weekly special offers, some of them on more expensive products such as electronics, tools, appliances, or computers. Discount items can include clothing, toys, flowers and gifts. Special offers have limits on quantities, and are for one week. Aldi's early computer offers in Germany, such as a Commodore 64 in 1987, resulted in those products selling out in a few hours.
Aldi is the largest wine retailer in Germany. Some Australian stores now sell alcoholic beverages. Some US stores also sell alcoholic beverages, mainly beer and wine, where permitted by local and state laws.
In March 2019, Aldi Süd launched smaller-format stores in the UK called Aldi Local, with the first store in Balham, south London. The store has slightly fewer products than a regular Aldi, a preference for fresh products, two sizes of baskets rather than trolleys, and lacks the notable "middle aisle" of weekly offers.
Aldi stores generally do not play music, though some stores in Scotland play Christmas music during December. Some have a PA system for announcements (not commercials), but most lack any audio system. In The Netherlands and Belgium, Aldi also sells A-brands.
In 2021, Aldi UK opened its first cashierless store in Greenwich.
Payments
Until 2004, Aldi stores accepted only cash (German stores have since accepted domestic Girocard debit cards, and nowadays they also accept such common payment options as Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and more). Debit cards, also, are accepted in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Slovenia, and Hungary. Aldi stores in the United States allow supplemental nutritional assistance program payments via EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) but do not support payments through the WIC program (Women, Infants, and Children).
In Ireland, ALDI stores accept EMV ("chip-and-PIN") Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Visa Electron, Visa Debit (formerly Delta) and Maestro debit cards are also accepted. Card, phone and contactless payments are not subject to any surcharge and phone payments can be used for any amount, when authenticated with biometrics. AmEx is not accepted and non–chip-and-PIN cards (no longer used in Ireland) cannot be processed.
All four major credit cards are accepted in the United States since March 2016 (MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover Card). Electronic Benefit Transfer cards are also accepted in the United States.
Outside of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the United States, the Netherlands and France, Aldi generally does not accept credit cards, though Aldi Australia accepts MasterCard and Visa for a 0.5% surcharge. From the beginning of Aldi's operations in France, all credit cards (referred to in French as Carte Bleue) (Visa, American Express or MasterCard) were accepted because of the French banking system. Aldi has accepted Visa/MasterCard without surcharge since October 2014 throughout Great Britain (previously, only in Scotland), and similarly throughout Germany from September 2015.
On 7 July 2016 Aldi Suisse became one of the first companies to accept the Apple Pay contactless payment system.
Advertising policy
In the United States, it advertises in newspapers and on television, as well as print ads distributed in stores, and via the Internet.
In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, print and television ads have appeared since May 2005. And since 2016, Aldi began producing a series of Christmas adverts to rival John Lewis' featuring a carrot named Kevin.
In Australia, television advertising is common and the current ads are listed on the Australian website.
In Belgium, print, radio and television ads started appearing in late 2017. These ads were based on the positive results of taste-tests where the chain pitted its own products against common name-brand products.
Logos and branding
The two stores Nord and Süd have distinct logos with Nord displaying the entire 'A' for Aldi while Süd unveiled a logo in 1982 which displays only half. In 2006, Aldi Süd modified the logo slightly and then in March 2017, unveiled a new logo which removed the blue box line around the artistic 'A' and revealed a more rounded, 3D look for the logo as well as a new font for the word 'ALDI', further differentiating it from the Aldi Nord logo which had shared the same font for the brand until then.
Reputation
In the United Kingdom, Aldi has won Supermarket of the Year two years in a row (2012/13), and in 2013, Aldi won the Grocer of the Year Award. In February 2015, Aldi narrowly lost to Waitrose for the title of Supermarket of the Year 2015. In April 2015, Aldi overtook Waitrose to become the United Kingdom's sixth-largest supermarket chain.
In February 2017, Aldi overtook the Co-op to become the United Kingdom's fifth largest supermarket chain. In May 2017, Aldi lost out to Marks & Spencer for the title of Supermarket of the Year 2017 (published by the magazine Which?). According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel, nearly two-thirds of households within the UK now visit an Aldi or Lidl branch at least once every 12 weeks.
Between 2012 and 2019, Aldi's UK operations became "carbon neutral", with investments in solar, green energy, energy efficiency and offsets reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 53 per cent per square meter of sales floor.
In the United States, due to the relatively low staffing of Aldi locations compared to other supermarket chains, Aldi has a reputation of starting employees out at significantly higher than minimum wage, unusual among American supermarkets.
In Ireland, Aldi has been accused of a "lack of corporate responsibility" to their farmer suppliers by the Irish Farmers' Association.
Aldi was named 2018 "Retailer of the Year" by Supermarket News.
Australian trucking giant Scott's Refrigerated Logistics was plunged into receivership and liquidation on 3 March 2023 after going into voluntary administration that February. This sparked protests from the Transport Workers' Union who put the blame on ALDI Australia for increasing strains on the company during the last few years of shortages and inflation.
Subsidiaries and joint ventures
Subsidiaries include the mobile network operator "Aldi Talk", the alcoholic drink brand "Aldi Alcohol", and petrol station retailer "Diskont". Multimedia products such as CD-R and DVD-R recordable media, boomboxes, DVD players, digital cameras, camcorders, and turntables are branded as "Tevion" and "Maginon". Personal computer and computer monitor, computer mouse, keyboard, laptop and tablet pc branded as Medion.
Aldi Talk
Aldi has a mobile virtual network operator in Germany and the Netherlands, called Aldi Talk, also known as "MEDIONmobile" (Service provider is Medion). Aldi also operates a similar network in Australia using Telstra's 4G network, called Aldimobile. Aldimobile is also in Switzerland.
In Austria and Slovenia, Hofer stores serve as distributors for the brand HoT by Ventocom.
Aldi Alcohol
Aldi sells low cost alcohol from its alcohol stores. Until March 2016, Aldi had an alcohol website serving the east coast of Australia. This has now been closed down, citing it wishes to focus on expanding the supermarket chain across Australia. In November 2019, Aldi announced same-day beer and wine delivery via a partnership with Instacart in the US.
Diskont
In Austria through its subsidiary Hofer, Aldi has a joint venture with the local petrol retailer OMV Downstream GmbH, to create some no frills petrol stations called Diskont. The 85 stations in Austria are on or near the stores, providing self-serve unleaded or diesel fuel by card-operated pumps. These have been in operation since 2009.
Notes
References
External links
How a cheap, brutally efficient grocery chain is upending America's supermarkets – CNN
"The long read – The Aldi effect: how one discount supermarket transformed the way Britain shops," – The Guardian
Arts and crafts retailers
Retail companies established in 1913
Privately held companies of Germany
German brands
1913 establishments in Germany
Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia
Discount stores
Supermarkets of Australia
Supermarkets of Austria
Supermarkets of Belgium
Supermarkets of China
Supermarkets of Denmark
Supermarkets of France
Supermarkets of Germany
Supermarkets of Hungary
Supermarkets of Italy
Supermarkets of the Netherlands
Supermarkets of Poland
Supermarkets of Portugal
Supermarkets of Switzerland
Supermarkets of the United States
Discount stores of the United States
Supermarkets of the United Kingdom
Retail companies of the United Kingdom
Supermarkets of Spain
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Albrecht family
Trader Joe's
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%20Wife%20of%20Bath%27s%20Tale
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The Wife of Bath's Tale
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"The Wife of Bath's Tale" () is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It provides insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and was probably of interest to Chaucer himself, for the character is one of his most developed ones, with her Prologue twice as long as her Tale. He also goes so far as to describe two sets of clothing for her in his General Prologue. She holds her own among the bickering pilgrims, and evidence in the manuscripts suggests that although she was first assigned a different, plainer tale—perhaps the one told by the Shipman—she received her present tale as her significance increased. She calls herself both Alyson and Alys in the prologue, but to confuse matters these are also the names of her 'gossib' (a close friend or gossip), whom she mentions several times, as well as many female characters throughout The Canterbury Tales.
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the "Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale" during the fourteenth century at a time when the social structure was rapidly evolving during the reign of Richard II; it was not until the late 1380s to mid-1390s when Richard's subjects started to take notice of the way in which he was leaning toward bad counsel, causing criticism throughout his court. It was evident that changes needed to be made within the traditional hierarchy at the court of Richard II; feminist reading of the tale argues that Chaucer chose to address through "The Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale" the change in mores that he had noticed, in order to highlight the imbalance of power within a male-dominated society. Women were identified not by their social status and occupations, but solely by their relations with men: a woman was defined as either a maiden, a spouse or a widow – capable only of child-bearing, cooking and other "women's work".
The tale is often regarded as the first of the so-called "marriage group" of tales, which includes the Clerk's, the Merchant's and the Franklin's tales. But some scholars contest this grouping, first proposed by Chaucer scholar Eleanor Prescott Hammond and subsequently elaborated by George Lyman Kittredge, not least because the later tales of Melibee and the Nun's Priest also discuss this theme. A separation between tales that deal with moral issues and ones that deal with magical issues, as the Wife of Bath's does, is favoured by some scholars.
The tale is an example of the "loathly lady" motif, the oldest examples of which are the medieval Irish sovereignty myths such as that of Niall of the Nine Hostages. In the medieval poem The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, Arthur's nephew Gawain goes on a nearly identical quest to discover what women truly want after he errs in a land dispute, although, in contrast, he never stooped to despoliation or plunder, unlike the unnamed knight who raped the woman. By tradition, any knight or noble found guilty of such a transgression (abuse of power) might be stripped of his name, heraldic title and rights, and possibly even executed.
Jodi-Anne George suggests that the Wife's tale may have been written to ease Chaucer's guilty conscience. It is recorded that in 1380 associates of Chaucer stood surety for an amount equal to half his yearly salary for a charge brought by Cecily Champaign for "de rapto", rape or abduction; the same view has been taken of his Legend of Good Women, which Chaucer himself describes as a penance.
Scholarly work reported in October 2022 refutes this, stating that the court documents from 1380 have been misinterpreted and that mention of "raptus" were related to a labor dispute in which Chaucer hired a Cecily Chaumpaigne before she was released from her previous employer.
Synopsis
Prologue
The Wife of Bath's Prologue is by far the longest in The Canterbury Tales and is twice as long as the actual story, showing the importance of the prologue to the significance of the overall tale. In the beginning the wife expresses her views in which she believes the morals of women are not merely that they all solely desire "sovereignty", but that each individual woman should have the opportunity to make the decision. The Wife of Bath speaks against many of the typical customs of the time, and provides her assessment of the roles of women in society.
The Wife of Bath particularly speaks out in defence of those who, like her, have married multiple times. As a counterargument, she mentions many holy men who have had multiple wives:
Through this quote, she addresses why society should not look down on her or any other woman who has wed to multiple men throughout their life. The tale confronts the double standard and the social belief in the inherent inferiority of women, and tries to establish a defence of secular women's sovereignty that opposes the conventions available to her.
Tale
The Wife of Bath's tale, spoken by one who had been married
five times, argues that women are morally identical to men who have also had more than one spouse. Double standards for men and women were common and deeply rooted in culture.
A knight in King Arthur's time raped a fair young maiden. King Arthur issues a decree that the knight must be brought to justice. When the knight is captured, he is condemned to death, but Queen Guinevere intercedes on his behalf and asks the King to allow her to pass judgment upon him. The Queen tells the knight that he will be spared his life if he can discover for her what it is that women most desire, and allots him a year and a day in which to roam wherever he pleases and return with an answer.
Everywhere the knight goes he explains his predicament to the women he meets and asks their opinion, but "No two of those he questioned answered the same." The answers range from fame and riches to play, or clothes, or sexual pleasure, or flattery, or freedom. When at last the time comes for him to return to the Court, he still lacks the answer he so desperately needs.
Outside a castle in the woods, he sees twenty-four maidens dancing and singing, but when he approaches they disappear as if by magic, and all that is left is an old woman. The Knight explains the problem to the old woman, who is wise and may know the answer, and she forces him to promise to grant any favour she might ask of him in return. With no other options left, the Knight agrees. Arriving at the court, he gives the answer that women most desire sovereignty over their husbands, which is unanimously agreed to be true by the women of the court who, accordingly, free the Knight.
The old woman then explains to the court the deal she has struck with the Knight, and publicly requests his hand in marriage. Although aghast, he realizes he has no other choice and eventually agrees. On their wedding night the old woman is upset that he is repulsed by her in bed. She reminds him that her looks can be an asset—she will be a virtuous wife to him because no other men would desire her. She asks him which one he would prefer—an old and ugly wife who is true and loyal, or a beautiful and young woman, who may not be faithful. The Knight responds by saying that the choice is hers. Happy that she now has the ultimate power, he having taken to heart the lesson of sovereignty and relinquished control, rather than choosing for her, she promises him both beauty and fidelity. The Knight turns to look at the old woman again, but now finds a young and lovely woman. The old woman makes "what women want most" and the answer that she gave true to him, sovereignty.
The Wife of Bath ends her tale by praying that Jesus Christ bless women with meek, young, and submissive husbands and the grace to break them.
Themes
Feminist critique
The Wife of Bath's Prologue simultaneously enumerates and critiques the long tradition of misogyny in ancient and medieval literature. As Cooper notes, the Wife of Bath's "materials are part of the vast medieval stock of antifeminism", giving St. Jerome's Adversus Jovinianum, which was "written to refute the proposition put forward by one Jovinianus that virginity and marriage were of equal worth", as one of many examples.
As author Ruth Evans notes in her book, "Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: the Wife of Bath and All her Sect", the Wife of Bath embodies the ideology of "sexual economics," wherein described as the "psychological effects of economic necessity, specifically on sexual mores." The wife is described as a woman in the trade of textiles, she is neither upper-class or lower, strictly a middle-class woman living independently off her own profit. The Wife of Bath sees the economics of marriage as a profitable business endeavor, based solely on supply and demand: she sells her body in marriage and in return is given money in the form of titles and inheritance. She is both the broker and commodity in this arrangement.
The Wife of Bath's first marriage occurred at the age of twelve which highlights the lack of control that women and girls had over their own bodies in medieval Europe as children were often bartered in marriage to increase family status. By choosing her next husbands and subsequently "selling herself," she regains some semblance of control and ownership over her body, and the profit is solely hers to keep.
The simple fact that she is a widow who has remarried more than once radically defies medieval conventions. Further evidence of this can be found through her observation: "For hadde God commanded maydenhede, / Thanne hadde he dampned weddyng with the dede." She refutes Jerome's proposition concerning virginity and marriage by noting that God would have condemned marriage and procreation if He had commanded virginity. Her decision to include God as a defence for her lustful appetites is significant, as it shows how well-read she is. By the same token, her interpretations of Scripture, such as Paul on marriage, are tailored to suit her own purposes.
While Chaucer's Wife of Bath is clearly familiar with the many ancient and medieval views on proper female behavior, she also boldly questions their validity. Her repeated acts of remarriage, for instance, are an example of how she mocks "clerical teaching concerning the remarriage of widows". Furthermore, she adds, "a rich widow was considered to be a match equal to, or more desirable than, a match with a virgin of property", illustrating this point by elaborating at length concerning her ability to remarry four times, and attract a much younger man.
While she gleefully confesses to the many ways in which she falls short of conventional ideals for women, she also points out that it is men who constructed those ideals in the first place.
Who painted the lion, tell me who?
By God, if women had written stories,
As clerks have within their studies,
They would have written of men more wickedness
Than all the male sex could set right.
That does not, however, mean they are not correct, and after her critique she accepts their validity.
Behaviour in marriage
Both Carruthers and Cooper reflect on the way that Chaucer's Wife of Bath does not behave as society dictates in any of her marriages. Through her nonconformity to the expectations of her role as a wife, the audience is shown what proper behaviour in marriage should be like. Carruthers' essay outlines the existence of deportment books, the purpose of which was to teach women how to be model wives. Carruthers notes how the Wife's behaviour in the first of her marriages "is almost everything the deportment-book writers say it should not be." For example, she lies to her old husbands about them getting drunk and saying some regrettable things. Yet, Carruthers does note that the Wife does do a decent job of upholding her husbands' public honour. Moreover, deportment books taught women that "the husband deserves control of the wife because he controls the estate"; it is clear that the Wife is the one who controls certain aspects of her husband's behaviour in her various marriages.
Cooper also notes that behaviour in marriage is a theme that emerges in the Wife of Bath's Prologue; neither the Wife nor her husbands conform to any conventional ideals of marriage. Cooper observes that the Wife's fifth husband, in particular, "cannot be taken as any principle of correct Christian marriage". He, too, fails to exhibit behaviour conventionally expected within a marriage. This can perhaps be attributed to his young age and lack of experience in relationships, as he does change at the end, as does the Wife of Bath. Thus, through both the Wife's and her fifth and favorite husband's failure to conform to expected behaviour in marriage, the poem exposes the complexity of the institution of marriage and of relationships more broadly.
Female sovereignty
As Cooper argues, the tension between experience and textual authority is central to the Prologue. The Wife argues for the relevance of her own marital experience. For instance, she notes that:
<poem style="margin-left:2em">
Unnethe myghte they the statut holde "unnethe" = not easily
In which that they were bounden unto me. "woot" = know
Ye woot wel what I meene of this, pardee! "pardee" = "by God", cf. French "par dieu"
As help me God, I laughe whan I thynke
How pitously a-nyght I made hem swynke! (III.204–08) <small>"hem" = them; "swynke" = work</small>
</poem>
The Wife of Bath's first three husbands are depicted as subservient men who cater to her sexual appetites. Her characterisation as domineering is particularly evident in the following passage:
Of tribulacion in mariage,
Of which I am expert in al myn age
This is to seyn, myself have been the whippe. (III.179–81)
The image of the whip underlines her dominant role as the partnership; she tells everyone that she is the one in charge in her household, especially in the bedroom, where she appears to have an insatiable thirst for sex; the result is a satirical, lascivious depiction of a woman, but also of feudal power arrangements.
However, the end of both the Prologue and the Tale make evident that it is not dominance that she wishes to gain, in her relation with her husband, but a kind of equality.
In the Prologue she says: "God help me so, I was to him as kinde/ As any wyf from Denmark unto Inde,/ And also trewe, and so was he to me." In her Tale, the old woman tells her husband: "I prey to God that I mot sterven wood,/ But I to yow be also good and trewe/ As evere was wyf, sin that the world was newe."
In both cases, the Wife says so to the husband after she has been given "sovereyntee". She is handed over the control of all the property along with the control of her husband's tongue. The old woman in the Wife of Bath's Tale is also given the freedom to choose which role he wishes her to play in the marriage.
Economics of love
In her essay "The Wife of Bath and the Painting of Lions," Carruthers describes the relationship that existed between love and economics for both medieval men and women. Carruthers notes that it is the independence that the Wife's wealth provides for her that allows her to love freely. This implies that autonomy is an important component in genuine love, and since autonomy can only be achieved through wealth, wealth then becomes the greatest component for true love. Love can, in essence, be bought: Chaucer makes reference to this notion when he has the Wife tell one of her husbands:
Is it for ye wolde have my queynte allone? "queynte" = a nice thing, cf. Latin quoniam, with obvious connotation of "cunt"
Wy, taak it al! Lo, have it every deel! "deel" = "part"; plus, the implication of transaction
Peter! I shrewe yow, but ye love it weel; "Peter" = St. Peter; "shrewe" = curse; hence: "I curse you if you don't love it well."</small>
For if I wolde selle my bele chose, "belle chose": another suggestion of female genitalia (her "lovely thing")
I koude walke as fressh as is a rose;
But I wol kepe it for youre owene tooth. (III.444–49) <small>"tooth" = taste, pleasure
The Wife appears to make reference to prostitution, whereby "love" in the form of sex is a "deal" bought and sold. The character's use of words such as "dette (debt)" and "paiement (payment)" also portray love in economic terms, as did the medieval Church: sex was the debt women owed to the men that they married. Hence, while the point that Carruthers makes is that money is necessary for women to achieve sovereignty in marriage, a look at the text reveals that love is, among other things, an economic concept. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that her fifth husband gives up wealth in return for love, honour, and respect.
The Wife of Bath does take men seriously and wants them for more than just sexual pleasure and money. When the Wife of Bath states, "but well I know, surely, God expressly instructed us to increase and multiply. I can well understand that noble text" to bear fruit, not in children, but financially through marriage, land, and from inheritance when her husbands die; Chaucer's Wife chose to interpret the meaning of the statement by clarifying that she has no interest in childbearing as a means of showing fruitfulness, but the progression of her financial stability is her ideal way of proving success.
Sex and Lollardy
While sexuality is a dominant theme in The Wife of Bath's Prologue, it is less obvious that her sexual behaviour can be associated with Lollardy. Critics such as Helen Cooper and Carolyn Dinshaw point to the link between sex and Lollardy. Both describe the Wife's knowledge and use of Scripture in her justification of her sexual behaviour. When she states that "God bad us for to wexe and multiplye", she appears to suggest that there is nothing wrong with sexual lust, because God wants humans to procreate. The Wife's "emphatic determination to recuperate sexual activity within a Christian context and on the authority of the Bible [on a number of occasions throughout the text] echoes one of the points made in the Lollard Twelve Conclusions of 1395". The very fact that she remarries after the death of her first husband could be viewed as Chaucer's characterisation of the Wife as a supporter of Lollardy, if not necessarily a Lollard herself, since Lollards advocated the remarriage of widows.
Author Alistair Minnis makes the assertion that the Wife of Bath is not a Lollard at all but was educated by her late husband Jankyn, an Oxford-educated clerk, who translated and read aloud anti-feminist texts. Jankyn gave her knowledge far beyond what was available to women of her status which explains how she can hold her own when justifying her sexual behavior to the Canterbury group. Further, Minnis explains that "being caught in possession of a woman's body, so to speak, was an offense in itself, carrying the penalty of a life-sentence", showing a perception that in medieval Europe, women could not hold priestly duties on the basis of their sex and no matter how flawless her moral status was, her body would always bar her from the ability to preach the word of God. Minnis goes on to say that "it might well be concluded that it was better to be a secret sinner than a woman" as a sinful man could always change his behavior and repent, but a woman could not change her sex.
Femininity
In an effort to assert women's equality with men, the Wife of Bath states that an equal balance of power is needed in a functional society. Wilks proposes that through the sovereignty theme, a reflection of women's integral role in governance compelled Chaucer's audience to associate the Wife's tale with the reign of Anne of Bohemia. By questioning universal assumptions of male dominance, making demands in her own right, conducting negotiations within her marriages and disregarding conventional feminine ideals, Chaucer's Wife of Bath was ahead of her time.
The Queen's Law
The Wife of Bath's Tale reverses the medieval roles of men and women (especially regarding legal power), and it also suggests a theme of feminist coalition-building. Appointed as sovereign and judge over the convicted knight, the Queen holds a type of power given to men in the world outside the tale. She has power as judge over the knight's life. Author Emma Lipton writes that the Queen uses this power to move from a liberal court to an educational court. In this sense the court is moving beyond punishment for the offense, and it now puts a meaning behind the offense, tying it to consequences. In the tale, the Queen is a figurehead for a feminist movement within a society that looks much like the misogynistic world in which the Canterbury Tales are told. From this tale's feminist notion that the Queen leads, women are empowered rather than objectified. The effect of feminist coalition-building can be seen through the knight. As a consequence for the knight's sexual assault against the maiden, when the old woman asks the Queen to allow the knight to marry her, the Queen grants it. This shows support for the broader female community's commitment to education in female values. In response to this fate, the knight begs the court and the Queen to undo his sentence, offering all his wealth and power: "Take all my goods and let my body go," which the Queen does not allow. The knight's lack of agency in this scene demonstrates a role reversal, according to Carissa Harris, in juxtaposition to women's lack of agency in situations of rape.
Adaptations
Pasolini adapted the prologue of this tale in his film The Canterbury Tales. Laura Betti plays the wife of Bath and Tom Baker plays her fifth husband.
Zadie Smith adapted and updated the prologue and story for the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn in 2019 as The Wife of Willesden, with a running from November 2021 to January 2022.
Karen Brookes has written a book based on the tale: The Good Wife of Bath, as has Chaucer scholar Marion Turner: The Wife of Bath: A Biography.
See also
Blaesilla, on whom the tale is partly based.
Bacon in the fabliaux — a figurative use of bacon echoed by Chaucer
References
Sources
Blake, Jonathan. "Struggle For Female Equality in 'The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale.'" Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature, 25 September 1994, www.luminarium.org/medlit/jblake.htm. Accessed 23 February 2017.
Brother Anthony. "Chaucer and Religion." Chaucer and Religion, Sogang University, Seoul, hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/Religion.htm. Accessed 22 February 2017.
Crane, Susan. "Alyson's Incapacity and Poetic Instability in the Wife of Bath's Tale." PMLA, vol. 102, no. 1, 1987, pp. 20–28., www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/462489.pdf. Accessed 22 February 2017.
Evans, Ruth. "Sexual Economics, Chaucer's Wife of Bath." Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: the Wife of Bath and All Her Sect. Ed. Lesley Johnson and Sheila Delany. Routledge, 2004. 71–85.
Getty, et al. "The Wife of Bath's Tale." World Literature I: Beginnings to 1650, vol. 2, University of North Georgia Press, Dahlonega, GA, pp. 28–37.
Passmore, Elizabeth S., and Susan Carter. The English "Loathly Lady" Tales: Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs.'' Medieval Institute Publications, 2007.
External links
"The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale", middle-english hypertext with glossary and side-by-side middle english and modern english
Read "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" with interlinear translation
Modern Translation of the Wife of Bath's Tale and Other Resources at eChaucer
"The Wife of Bath's Tale" – a plain-English retelling for laypeople.
Arthurian literature in Middle English
The Canterbury Tales
Fiction with unreliable narrators
Rape in fiction
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%9Bciuszko%20Uprising
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Kościuszko Uprising
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The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794, Second Polish War, Polish Campaign of 1794, and the Polish Revolution of 1794, was an uprising against the Russian and Prussian influence on Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Poland-Lithuania and the Prussian partition in 1794. It was a failed attempt to liberate the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from external influence after the Second Partition of Poland (1793) and the creation of the Targowica Confederation.
Background
Decline of the Commonwealth
By the early 18th century, the magnates of Poland and Lithuania controlled the state – or rather, they managed to ensure that no reforms would be carried out that might weaken their privileged status (the "Golden Freedoms"). Through the abuse of the liberum veto rule which enabled any deputy to paralyze the Sejm (Commonwealth's parliament) proceedings, deputies bribed by magnates or foreign powers or those simply content to believe they were living in an unprecedented "Golden Age", paralysed the Commonwealth's government for over a century.
The idea of reforming the Commonwealth gained traction starting from the mid-17th century. It was, however, viewed with suspicion not only by its magnates but also by neighboring countries, which were content with the deterioration of the Commonwealth and abhorred the thought of a resurgent and democratic power on their borders. With the Commonwealth Army reduced to around 16,000, it was easy for its neighbors to intervene directly (The Imperial Russian Army numbered 300,000; The Prussian Army and Imperial Austrian Army, 200,000 each).
Attempts at reform
A major opportunity for reform presented itself during the "Great Sejm" of 1788–92. Poland's neighbors were preoccupied with wars and unable to intervene forcibly in Polish affairs. Russia and Austria were engaged in hostilities with the Ottoman Empire (the Russo-Turkish War, 1787–1792 and the Austro-Turkish War, 1787–1791); the Russians also found themselves simultaneously fighting in the Russo-Swedish War, 1788–1790. A new alliance between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussia seemed to provide security against Russian intervention, and on 3 May 1791 the new constitution was read and adopted to overwhelming popular support.
With the wars between Turkey and Russia and Sweden and Russia having ended, Empress Catherine was furious over the adoption of the new constitution, which she believed threatened Russian influence in Poland. Russia had viewed Poland as a de facto protectorate. "The worst possible news has arrived from Warsaw: the Polish king has become almost sovereign" was the reaction of one of Russia's chief foreign policy authors, Alexander Bezborodko, when he learned of the new constitution. Prussia was also strongly opposed to the new constitution, and Polish diplomats received a note that the new constitution changed the Polish state so much that Prussia did not consider its obligations binding. Just like Russia, Prussia was concerned that the newly strengthened Polish state could become a threat and the Prussian foreign minister, Friedrich Wilhelm von Schulenburg-Kehnert, clearly and with rare candor told the Poles that Prussia did not support the constitution and refused to help the Commonwealth in any form, even as a mediator, as it was not in Prussia's state interest to see the Commonwealth strengthened as it could threaten Prussia in the future. The Prussian statesman Ewald von Hertzberg expressed the fears of European conservatives: "The Poles have given the coup de grâce to the Prussian monarchy by voting a constitution", elaborating that a strong Commonwealth would likely demand the return of the lands Prussia acquired in the First Partition.
Second Partition of Poland
The Constitution was not adopted without dissent in the Commonwealth itself, either. Magnates who had opposed the constitution draft from the start, namely Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Seweryn Rzewuski, and Szymon and Józef Kossakowski, asked Tsaritsa Catherine to intervene and restore their privileges such as the Russian-guaranteed Cardinal Laws abolished under the new statute. To that end these magnates formed the Targowica Confederation. The Confederation's proclamation, prepared in St. Petersburg in January 1792, criticized the constitution for contributing to, in their own words, "contagion of democratic ideas" following "the fatal examples set in Paris". It asserted that "The parliament ... has broken all fundamental laws, swept away all liberties of the gentry and on the third of May 1791 turned into a revolution and a conspiracy." The Confederates declared an intention to overcome this revolution. We "can do nothing but turn trustingly to Tsarina Catherine, a distinguished and fair empress, our neighboring friend and ally", who "respects the nation's need for well-being and always offers it a helping hand", they wrote. The Confederates aligned with Catherine and asked her for military intervention. On 18 May 1792 the Russian ambassador to Poland, Yakov Bulgakov, delivered a declaration of war to Polish Foreign Minister Joachim Chreptowicz. Russian armies entered Poland and Lithuania on the same day, starting the Polish–Russian War of 1792. The war ended without any decisive battles, with a capitulation signed by Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who hoped that a diplomatic compromise could be worked out.
King Poniatowski's hopes that the capitulation would allow an acceptable diplomatic solution to be worked out were soon dashed. With new deputies bribed or intimidated by the Russian troops, a new session of parliament, known as the Grodno Sejm, took place, in fall 1793. On 23 November 1793, it concluded its deliberations under duress, annulling the constitution and acceding to the Second Partition. Russia took , while Prussia took of the Commonwealth's territory. This event reduced Poland's population to only one-third of what it was before the partitions began in 1772. The rump state was garrisoned by Russian troops and its independence was strongly curtailed. Such an outcome was a giant blow for the members of the Targowica Confederation, who saw their actions as a defense of the centuries-old privileges of the magnates, but now were regarded by the majority of the Polish population as traitors.
Growing unrest
The Polish military was widely dissatisfied with the capitulation, most commanders considering it premature; Tadeusz Kościuszko, Prince Józef Poniatowski and many others would criticize the king's decision and many, including Kościuszko, resigned their commission shortly afterward. After the Commonwealth defeat in that war and the rescinding of the Constitution, the Army was reduced to about 36,000. In 1794 Russians demanded a further downsizing of the army to 15,000. The dissent in the Polish Army was one of the sparks that would lead to the coming conflict.
The King's capitulation was a hard blow for Kościuszko, who had not lost a single battle in the campaign. By mid September he was resigned to leave the country, and he departed Warsaw in early October. Kościuszko settled in Leipzig, where many other notable Polish commanders and politicians formed an émigrée community. Soon he and some others began preparing an uprising against Russian rule in Poland. The politicians, grouped around Ignacy Potocki and Hugo Kołłątaj, sought contacts with similar opposition groups formed in Poland and by spring 1793 had been joined by other politicians and revolutionaries, including Ignacy Działyński. While Kołłątaj and others had begun planning for the uprising before meeting Kościuszko, his support was a major boon for them, as he was, at that time, among the most popular individuals in the entire Poland.
In August 1793 Kościuszko returned to Leipzig where he was met with demands to start planning for the uprising; however, he was worried that an uprising would have little chance against the three partitioners. In September he would clandestinely cross the Polish border to conduct personal observations, and to meet some sympathetic high-ranking officers in the remaining Polish Army, including general Józef Wodzicki. The preparations in Poland were slow and he decided to postpone the outbreak, and left for Italy, planning to return in February. However, the situation in Poland was changing rapidly. The Russian and Prussian governments forced Poland to again disband the majority of her armed forces and the reduced units were to be drafted into the Russian army. Also, in March the tsarist agents discovered the group of revolutionaries in Warsaw and started arresting notable Polish politicians and military commanders. Kościuszko was forced to execute his plan earlier than expected, and on 15 March 1794 he set off for Kraków.
On 12 March 1794, General Antoni Madaliński, the commander of 1st Greater Polish National Cavalry Brigade (1,500 men) decided to disobey the order to demobilise, advancing his troops from Ostrołęka to Kraków. This sparked an outbreak of riots against Russian forces throughout the country. The Russian garrison of Kraków was ordered to leave the city and confront Madalinski, which left Kraków completely undefended, but also foiled Kosciuszko's plan to seize their weapons.
Uprising
On 24 March 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko, a veteran of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War, announced the general uprising in a speech in the Kraków town square and assumed the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces. He also vowed
In order to strengthen the Polish forces, Kościuszko issued an act of mobilisation, requiring that every 5 houses in Lesser Poland delegate at least one able male soldier equipped with carbine, pike, or an axe. Kościuszko's Commission for Order in Kraków recruited all males between 18 and 28 years of age and passed an income tax. The difficulties with providing enough armament for the mobilised troops made Kościuszko form large units composed of peasants armed with scythes, called the "scythemen".
To destroy the still weak opposition, Russian Empress Catherine the Great ordered the corps of Major General Fiodor Denisov to attack Kraków. On 4 April both armies met near the village of Racławice. In what became known as the Battle of Racławice Kościuszko's forces defeated the numerically and technically superior opponent. After the bloody battle the Russian forces withdrew from the battlefield. Kościuszko's forces were too weak to start a successful pursuit and wipe the Russian forces out of Lesser Poland. Although the strategic importance of the victory was close to none, the news of the victory spread fast and soon other parts of Poland joined the ranks of the revolutionaries. By early April the Polish forces concentrated in the lands of Lublin and Volhynia, ready to be sent to Russia, joined the ranks of Kościuszko's forces.
On 17 April in Warsaw, the Russian attempt to arrest those suspected of supporting the insurrection and to disarm the weak Polish garrison of Warsaw under Gen. Stanisław Mokronowski by seizing the arsenal at Miodowa Street resulted in an uprising against the Russian garrison of Warsaw, led by Jan Kiliński, in the face of indecisiveness of the King of Poland, Stanisław II Augustus. The insurgents were aided by the incompetence of Russian ambassador and commander, Iosif Igelström, and the chosen day being the Thursday of Holy Week when many soldiers of the Russian garrison went to the churches for the Eucharist not carrying their arms. Finally, from the onset of the insurrection, the Polish forces were aided by the civilian population and had surprise on their side as they attacked many separate groups of soldiers at the same time and the resistance to Russian forces quickly spread over the city. After two days of heavy fighting the Russians, who suffered between 2,000 and 4,000 casualties out of an initial 5,000 strong garrison, were forced to leave the city. A similar uprising was started by Jakub Jasiński in Vilnius on 23 April and soon other cities and towns followed.
On 7 May 1794, Kościuszko issued an act that became known as the "Proclamation of Połaniec", in which he partially abolished serfdom in Poland, granted civil liberty to all peasants and provided them with state help against abuses by the nobility. Although the new law never fully came into being and was boycotted by much of the nobility, it also attracted many peasants to the ranks of the revolutionaries. It was the first time in Polish history that the peasants were officially regarded as part of the nation, the word being previously equivalent to nobility.
Despite the promise of reforms and quick recruitment of new forces, the strategic situation of the Polish forces, which consisted of 6,000 peasants, cavalry, and 9,000 soldiers, was still critical. On 10 May the forces of Prussia (17,500 soldiers under General Francis Favrat), crossed the Polish borders and joined the 9,000 Russian soldiers operating in northern Poland. On 6 June Kościuszko was defeated in the Battle of Szczekociny by a joint Russo-Prussian force and on 8 June General Józef Zajączek was defeated in the Battle of Chełm. Polish forces withdrew towards Warsaw and started to fortify the city under directions from Kosciuszko and his 16,000 soldiers, 18,000 peasants and 15,000 burghers. On 15 June the Prussian army captured Kraków unopposed. Warsaw was besieged by 41,000 Russians under General Ivan Fersen and 25,000 Prussians under King Frederick William II of Prussia on 13 July. On 20 August, an uprising in Greater Poland started and the Prussians were forced to withdraw their forces from Warsaw. The siege was lifted by 6 September when the Prussians and Russians had both withdrawn their troops.
Although the opposition in Lithuania was crushed by Russian forces (Vilnius was besieged and capitulated on 12 August), the uprising in Greater Poland achieved some success. A Polish corps under Jan Henryk Dąbrowski captured Bydgoszcz (2 October) and entered Pomerania almost unopposed. Thanks to the mobility of his forces, General Dąbrowski evaded being encircled by a much less mobile Prussian army and disrupted the Prussian lines, forcing the Prussians to withdraw most of their forces from central Poland. However, the Poles did not stay long in Prussian territories, and soon retreated to Central Poland.
Meanwhile, the Russians equipped a new corps commanded by General Aleksandr Suvorov and ordered it to join up with the corps under Ivan Fersen near Warsaw. After the Battle of Krupczyce (17 September) and the Battle of Terespol (19 September), the new army started its march towards Warsaw. Trying to prevent both Russian armies from joining up, Kościuszko mobilised two regiments from Warsaw and with General Sierakowski's 5,000 soldiers, engaged Fersen's force of 14,000 on 10 October in the Battle of Maciejowice. Kościuszko was wounded in the battle and was captured by the Russians, who sent him to Saint Petersburg.
The new commander of the uprising, Tomasz Wawrzecki, could not control the spreading internal struggles for power and ultimately became only the commander of weakened military forces, while the political power was held by General Józef Zajączek, who in turn had to struggle with both the leftist liberal Polish Jacobins and the rightist and monarchical nobility.
On 4 November the joint Russian forces started the Battle of Praga, after the name of the right-bank suburb of Warsaw where it took place. After four hours of brutal hand-to-hand fighting, the 22,000-strong Russian forces broke through the Polish defences and Suvorov allowed his Cossacks to loot and burn Warsaw. Approximately 20,000 were murdered in the Praga massacre. Zajaczek fled wounded, abandoning the Polish army.
On 16 November, near Radoszyce, Wawrzecki surrendered. This marked the end of the uprising. The power of Poland was broken and the following year the third partition of Poland took place, after which Austria, Russia and Prussia annexed the remainder of the country.
Aftermath
After the failure of the Kościuszko Uprising, Poland ceased to exist for 123 years, and all of its institutions were gradually banned by the partitioning powers. However, the uprising also marked the start of modern political thought in Poland and Central Europe. Kościuszko's Proclamation of Połaniec and the radical leftist Jacobins started the Polish leftist movement. Many prominent Polish politicians who were active during the uprising became the backbone of Polish politics, both at home and abroad, in the 19th century. Also, Prussia had much of its forces tied up in Poland and could not field enough forces to suppress the French Revolution, which added to its success and briefly restored a Polish state.
In the lands of partitioned Poland, the failure of the uprising meant economic catastrophe, as centuries-old economic markets became divided and separated from each other, resulting in the collapse of trade. Several banks fell and some of the few manufacturing centres established in the Commonwealth were closed. Reforms made by the reformers and Kosciuszko, aimed at easing serfdom, were revoked. All the partitioning powers heavily taxed their newly acquired lands, filling their treasuries at the expense of the local population.
The schooling system was also degraded as the schools in those territories were given low priority. The Commission of National Education, the world's first Ministry of Education, was abolished, because the absolutist governments of the partitioning powers saw no gain in investing in education in the territories inhabited by restless Polish minorities. The creation of educational institutions in the partitions became very difficult. For example, an attempt to create a university in Warsaw was opposed by the Prussian authorities. Further, in the German and Russian partitions, all remaining centers of learning were subject to Germanisation and Russification; only in territories acquired by Austria was there relatively little governmental intervention in the curriculum. According to S. I. Nikołajew, from the cultural point of view the partitions may have given a step forward towards the development of national Polish literature and arts, since the inhabitants of partitioned lands could acquire the cultural developments of German and Russian Enlightenment.
The conditions for the former Polish elite were particularly harsh in Russian partition. Thousands of Polish szlachta families who supported Kościuszo's uprising were stripped of their possessions and estates, which were awarded to Russian generals and favourites of the St. Petersburg court. It is estimated that 650,000 former Polish serfs were transferred to Russian officials in this manner. Some among the nobility, especially in Lithuanian and Ruthenian regions of the former Commonwealth, were expelled to southern Russia, where they were subject to Russification. Other nobles were denied their nobility status by Russian authorities, which meant loss of legal privileges and social status, significantly limiting any possibility of a career in administration or the military - the traditional career paths of Polish nobles. It also meant that they could not own any land, another blow to their former noble status. But for Orthodox Christian peasants of Western Ukraine and Belarus, the partition may have brought the decline of religious oppression by their formal lords, followers of Roman Catholicism.
However, Orthodox Christians were only a small minority in Eastern Belarus at that time; the prevailing majority of the country's population was Eastern rite Catholics. Peasants were flogged just for mentioning the name of Kościuszko and his idea of abolishing serfdom. Platon Zubov, who was awarded estates in Lithuania, was especially infamous, as he personally tortured to death many peasants who complained about worsening conditions. Besides this, the Russian authorities conducted heavy recruiting for the Russian army among the population, which meant a practically lifelong service. Since the conditions of serfdom in former Poland due to the exploitation by nobility and arendators were already severe, discussion exists on how partitions influenced the life of common people.
See also
Supreme National Council
Polish Uprisings
Battle of Praga
the painting Racławice Panorama
Notes
References
External links
Resistance to the Russian Empire
Conflicts in 1794
Tadeusz Kościuszko
1794 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth–Russian Empire relations
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia%20Museum%20of%20Art
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Philadelphia Museum of Art
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The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at Eakins Oval. The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin. The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor, and decorative arts.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art administers several annexes including the Rodin Museum, also located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, which is located across the street just north of the main building. The Perelman Building, which opened in 2007, houses more than 150,000 prints, drawings and photographs, along with 30,000 costume and textile pieces, and over 1,000 modern and contemporary design objects including furniture, ceramics and glasswork. The museum also administers the historic colonial-era houses of Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, both located in Fairmount Park. The main museum building and its annexes are owned by the City of Philadelphia and administered by a registered nonprofit corporation.
Several special exhibitions are held in the museum every year, including touring exhibitions arranged with other museums in the United States and abroad. The museum had 437,348 visitors in 2021, making it the 65th most-visited art museum worldwide.
History
Early years (1877–1900)
Philadelphia celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Memorial Hall, which contained the art gallery, was intended to outlast the Exposition and house a permanent museum. Following the example of London's South Kensington Museum, the new museum was to focus on applied art and science, and provide a school to train craftsmen in drawing, painting, modeling, and designing.
The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art opened on May 10, 1877. (The school became independent of the museum in 1964 and is now part of the University of the Arts). The museum's collection began with objects from the Exposition and gifts from the public impressed with the Exposition's ideals of good design and craftsmanship. European and Japanese fine and decorative art objects and books for the museum's library were among the first donations. The location outside of Center City, Philadelphia, however, was fairly distant from many of the city's inhabitants. Admission was charged until 1881, then was dropped until 1962.
Starting in 1882, Clara Jessup Moore donated a remarkable collection of antique furniture, enamels, carved ivory, jewelry, metalwork, glass, ceramics, books, textiles and paintings. The Countess de Brazza's lace collection was acquired in 1894 forming the nucleus of the lace collection. In 1892 Anna H. Wilstach bequeathed a large painting collection, including many American paintings, and an endowment of half a million dollars for additional purchases. Works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and George Inness were purchased within a few years and Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation was bought in 1899.
Construction of the main building (1895–1933)
The City Council of Philadelphia funded a competition in 1895 to design a new museum building, but it was not until 1907 that plans were first made to construct it on Fairmount, a rocky hill topped by the city's main reservoir. The Fairmount Parkway (renamed Benjamin Franklin Parkway), a grand boulevard that cut diagonally across the grid of city streets, was designed to terminate at the foot of the hill. But there were conflicting views about whether to erect a single museum building, or a number of buildings to house individual collections. The architectural firms of Horace Trumbauer and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary collaborated for more than a decade to resolve these issues. The final design is mostly credited to two architects in Trumbauer's firm: Howell Lewis Shay for the building's plan and massing, and Julian Abele for the detail work and perspective drawings. In 1902, Abele had become the first African-American student to be graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Architecture, which is presently known as Penn's School of Design. Abele adapted classical Greek temple columns for the design of the museum entrances, and was responsible for the colors of both the building stone and the figures added to one of the pediments.
Construction of the main building began in 1919, when Mayor Thomas B. Smith laid the cornerstone in a Masonic ceremony. Because of shortages caused by World War I and other delays, the new building was not completed until 1928. The building was constructed with dolomite quarried in Minnesota. The wings were intentionally built first, to help assure the continued funding for the completion of the design. Once the building's exterior was completed, twenty second-floor galleries containing English and American art opened to the public on March 26, 1928, though a large amount of interior work was incomplete.
The building's eight pediments were intended to be adorned with sculpture groups. The only pediment that has been completed, Western Civilization (1933) by C. Paul Jennewein, colored by Leon V. Solon, features polychrome sculptures of painted terra-cotta figures depicting Greek deities and mythological figures. The sculpture group was awarded the Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York.
The building is also adorned by a collection of bronze griffins, which were later adopted as the symbol of the museum in the 1970s.
Membership program and growth (1928–1976)
In the early 1900s, the museum started an education program for the general public, as well as a membership program. Fiske Kimball was the museum director during the rapid growth of the mid- to late-1920s, which included one million visitors in 1928—the new building's first year. The museum enlarged its print collection in 1928 with about 5,000 Old Master prints and drawings from the gift of Charles M. Lea, including French, German, Italian, and Netherlandish engravings. Major exhibitions of the 1930s included works by Eakins, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, van Gogh, and Degas. In the 1940s, the museum's major gifts and acquisitions included the collections of John D. McIlhenny (Oriental carpets), George Grey Barnard (sculpture), and Alfred Stieglitz (photography).
Early modern art dominated the growth of the collections in the 1950s, with acquisitions of the Louise and Walter Arensberg and the A.E. Gallatin collections. The gift of Philadelphian Grace Kelly's wedding dress is perhaps the best known gift of the 1950s.
Extensive renovation of the building lasted from the 1960s through 1976. Major acquisitions included the Carroll S. Tyson, Jr. and Samuel S. White III and Vera White collections, 71 objects from designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and Marcel Duchamp's Étant donnés. In 1976 there were celebrations and special exhibitions for the centennial of the museum and the bicentennial of the nation. During the last three decades major acquisitions have included After the Bath by Edgar Degas and Fifty Days at Iliam by Cy Twombly.
Building expansion (2004–present)
Due to high attendance and overflowing collections, the museum announced in October 2006 that Frank Gehry would design a building expansion. The gallery will be built entirely underground behind the east entrance stairs and will not alter any of the museum's existing Greek revival facade. The construction was initially projected to last a decade and cost $500 million. It will increase the museum's available display space by sixty percent and house mostly contemporary sculpture, Asian art, and special exhibitions.
Uncertainty was cast on the plans by the 2008 death of Anne d'Harnoncourt, but new director Timothy Rub, who had initiated a $350 million expansion at the Cleveland Museum of Art, will be carrying out the plans as scheduled. In 2010, Gehry attended the groundbreaking for the second phase of the expansion, due to be completed in 2012. In that phase, a new art handling facility was created on the south side of the building, enabling the museum to reclaim a street level entrance, closed since the mid-1970s, which leads to a -long vaulted walkway that extends across the museum and is original to the 1928 building. The north entrance will be reopened to the public as a part of the "core project", which is scheduled for completion in 2020. The core project also focuses on the interior of the current building and will add of public space, including of new gallery space for American art and contemporary art. In addition, a new space called the forum will be created, along with dining and retail spaces. Said Gehry: "When it's done, people coming to this museum will have an experience that's as big as Bilbao. It won't be apparent from the outside, but it will knock their socks off inside."
In March 2017, the museum announced a $525 million campaign. The core project is budgeted at $196 million and will be funded through the campaign. The museum also announced that more than 62 percent of the campaign goal has been met, as of March 30, 2017.
In March 2020, the museum was officially temporarily closed due to COVID-19 pandemic. All public events and programs were canceled until August 31, 2020. The museum reopened by late September 2020.
The most controversial part of the Gehry design remains a proposed window and amphitheater to be cut into the east entrance stairs. Others have criticized the design as too tame. The Gehry expansion is projected to be completed by 2028.
Collections
The Philadelphia Museum of Art houses more than 240,000 objects, highlighting the creative achievements of the Western world and those of Asia, in more than 200 galleries spanning 2,000 years. The museum's collections of Egyptian and Roman art, as well as many of its Pre-Columbian works, were relocated to the Penn Museum after an exchange agreement was made whereby the museum houses the university's collection of Chinese porcelain.
Highlights of the Asian collections include paintings and sculpture from China, Japan, and India; furniture and decorative arts, including major collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ceramics; a large and distinguished group of Persian and Turkish carpets; and rare and authentic architectural assemblages such as a Chinese palace hall, a Japanese teahouse, and a 16th-century Indian temple hall.
The European collections, dating from the medieval era to the present, encompass Italian and Flemish early-Renaissance masterworks; strong representations of later European paintings, including French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism; sculpture, with a special concentration in the works of Auguste Rodin; decorative arts; tapestries; furniture; the second-largest collection of arms and armor in the United States; and period rooms and architectural settings ranging from the facade of a medieval church in Burgundy to a superbly decorated English drawing room by Robert Adam.
The museum's American collections, surveying more than three centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, are among the finest in the United States, with outstanding strengths in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture and silver, Pennsylvania German art, rural Pennsylvania furniture and ceramics, and the paintings of Thomas Eakins. The museum houses the most important Eakins collection in the world.
Modern artwork includes works by Pablo Picasso, Jean Metzinger, Antonio Rotta, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Constantin Brâncuși, as well as American modernists. The expanding collection of contemporary art includes major works by Agnes Martin, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Sol LeWitt, among many others.
The museum houses encyclopedic holdings of costume and textiles, as well as prints, drawings, and photographs that are displayed in rotation for reasons of preservation.
The Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch Collection
The museum also houses the armor collection of Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch. The Von Kienbusch collection was bequeathed by the celebrated collector to the museum in 1976, the Bicentennial Anniversary of the American Revolution. The Von Kienbusch holdings are comprehensive and include European and Southwest Asian arms and armor spanning several centuries.
On May 30, 2000, the museum and the State Art Collections in Dresden, Germany (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), announced an agreement for the return of five pieces of armor stolen from Dresden during World War II. In 1953, Von Kienbusch had unsuspectingly purchased the armor, which was part of his 1976 bequest. Von Kienbusch published catalogs of his collection, which eventually led Dresden authorities to bring the matter up with the museum.
Special exhibitions
The Philadelphia Museum of Art organizes several special exhibitions each year. Special exhibitions have featured Salvador Dalí in 2005, Paul Cézanne in 2009, Auguste Renoir in 2010, Vincent van Gogh in 2012, Pablo Picasso in 2014, John James Audubon and Andy Warhol (et al.) in 2016, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent in 2017, and the Duchamp siblings—Marcel, Gaston, Raymond and Suzanne—in 2019. A Jasper Johns exhibition is planned for 2021.
In 2009, the museum organized Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, the official United States entry at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, more commonly known as the Venice Biennale, for which the artist Bruce Nauman was awarded the Golden Lion.
Administration
Directors
Below is the list of directors of the Philadelphia Museum of Art since its inception.
Sasha Suda, 2022–Present
Timothy Rub, 2009–2022
Anne d'Harnoncourt, 1982–2008
Jean Sutherland Boggs, 1978–1982
Evan Hopkins Turner, 1964–1977
Arnold H. Jolles, 1977–1979 (acting)
Henri Gabriel Marceau, 1955–1964
Fiske Kimball, 1925–1955
Sr. Samuel W. Woodhouse, 1923–1925 (acting)
Langdon Warner, 1917–1923
Edwin Atlee Barber, 1907–1916
William Platt Pepper, 1899–1907
Dalton Dorr, 1892–1899
William W. Justice, 1879–1880
William Platt Pepper, 1877–1879
Board of trustees
Below is the list of chairs of the board of trustees of the museum since 1991.
Leslie A. Miller 2016–present
Constance H. Williams 2010–2016
Gerry Lenfest 2001–2009
Raymond Perlman 1991–2001
Gallery
In popular culture
Besides being known for its architecture and collections, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has in recent decades become known due to the role it played in the Rocky filmsRocky (1976) and seven of its eight sequels, II, III, V, Rocky Balboa, Creed, Creed II, and Creed III. Visitors to the museum are often seen mimicking Rocky Balboa's (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) famous run up the east entrance stairs, informally nicknamed the Rocky Steps. Screen Junkies named the museum's stairs the second most famous movie location behind only Grand Central Station in New York.
An tall bronze statue of the Rocky Balboa character was commissioned in 1980 and placed at the top of the stairs in 1982 for the filming of Rocky III. After filming was complete, Stallone donated the statue to the city of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Art Commission eventually decided to relocate the statue to the now-defunct Spectrum sports arena due to controversy over its prominent placement at the top of the museum's front stairs and questions about its artistic merit. The statue was placed briefly on top of the stairs again for the 1990 film Rocky V and then returned to the Spectrum. In 2006, the statue was relocated to a new display area on the north side of the base of the stairs.
The museum provides the backdrop for concerts and parades because of its location at the end of the Ben Franklin Parkway. The museum's east entrance area played host to the American venue of the international Live 8 concert held on July 2, 2005, with musical artists including Dave Matthews Band, Linkin Park and Maroon 5. The Philadelphia Freedom Concert, orchestrated and headlined by Elton John, was held two days later on the same outdoor stage from the Live 8 concert while a preceding ball was held inside the museum.
On September 26, 2015, the Festival of Families event, attended by Pope Francis, was held along the Ben Franklin Parkway with musical performances by various acts within Eakins Oval in front of the museum, as well as in Logan Square.
On April 27, 2017, the 2017 NFL Draft was held at the museum through April 29 of that year.
On February 8, 2018, the victory parade for the Philadelphia Eagles' win in Super Bowl LII finished upon the museum steps, where players and team personnel gave speeches from a lectern to the large crowd gathered along Ben Franklin Parkway.
See also
3rd Sculpture International
70 Sculptors, photograph by Herbert Gehr
Barnes Foundation
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Woodmere Art Museum
References
External links
Listing at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, including more than 800 images, mostly of the main building's construction
Philadelphia Museum of Art within Google Arts & Culture
1876 establishments in Pennsylvania
Art museums established in 1876
Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia
Museums of American art
Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Terminating vistas in the United States
Asian art museums in the United States
Art museums and galleries in Philadelphia
East Fairmount Park
Fairmount, Philadelphia
Horace Trumbauer buildings
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November%20Uprising
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November Uprising
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The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution,
was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when young Polish officers from the military academy of the Army of Congress Poland revolted, led by Lieutenant Piotr Wysocki. Large segments of the peoples of Lithuania, Belarus, and Right-bank Ukraine soon joined the uprising. Although the insurgents achieved local successes, a numerically superior Imperial Russian Army under Ivan Paskevich eventually crushed the uprising.
The Russian Emperor Nicholas I issued the Organic Statute in 1832, according to which henceforth Russian-occupied Poland would lose its autonomy and become an integral part of the Russian Empire. Warsaw became little more than a military garrison, and its university closed.
Background
After the Partitions of Poland by Austria, Germany, and Russia, Poland ceased to exist as an independent political entity at the end of 1795. However, the Napoleonic Wars and Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. The Congress of Vienna brought that state's existence to an end in 1815, and essentially solidified the long-term division of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria. The Austrian Empire annexed territories in the south, Prussia took control over the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Poznań in the west and Russia assumed hegemony over the semi-autonomous so-called Congress Kingdom.
Initially, the Russian-formed Congress Kingdom enjoyed a relatively large amount of internal autonomy and was only indirectly subject to imperial control. It had its own constitution. The province, united with Russia through a personal union with the Tsar as King of Poland, could elect its own parliament (the Sejm) and government. The kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury. Over time, however, the freedoms granted to the Kingdom were gradually taken back, and the constitution was progressively ignored by the Russian authorities. Alexander I of Russia never formally crowned himself as King of Poland. Instead, in 1815, he appointed his brother, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich as de facto viceroy and disregarded the constitution.
Soon after the Congress of Vienna resolutions had been signed, Russia ceased to respect them. In 1819, Alexander I abandoned liberty of the press in the Congress Kingdom and introduced censorship. The Russian secret police, commanded by Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev, started to infiltrate and persecute Polish clandestine organizations, and in 1821, the Tsar ordered the abolition of Freemasonry. As a result, after 1825, sessions of the Polish Sejm were conducted in secret. Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw.
Despite numerous protests by various Polish politicians who actively supported the "personal union", Grand Duke Constantine had no intention of respecting the Polish constitution, one of the most progressive in Europe at that time. He abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations and the liberal opposition of the Kaliszanie faction, and replaced Poles with Russians in important administrative positions. Although married to a Pole (Joanna Grudzińska), he was commonly considered an enemy of the Polish nation. Also, his command over the Polish Army led to serious conflicts within the officer corps. The frictions led to various conspiracies throughout the country, most notably within the army.
Outbreak
The armed struggle began when a group of conspirators led by a young cadet from the Warsaw officers' school, Piotr Wysocki, took arms from their garrison on 29 November 1830 and attacked the Belweder Palace, the main seat of the Grand Duke. The final spark that ignited Warsaw was a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress France's July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. The rebels managed to enter the Belweder, but Grand Duke Constantine had escaped in women's clothing. The rebels then turned to the main city arsenal and captured it after a brief struggle. The following day, armed Polish civilians forced the Russian troops to withdraw north of Warsaw. That incident is sometimes called the Warsaw Uprising or the November Night. ().
Uprising
Taken by surprise with the rapidly unfolding of events during the night of 29 November 1830, the local Polish government (administrative council) assembled immediately to take control and to decide on a course of action. Unpopular ministers were removed and men like Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, the historian Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and General Józef Chłopicki took their places. Loyalists led by Prince Czartoryski initially tried to negotiate with Grand Duke Constantine and to settle matters peacefully. However, when Czartoryski told the council that Constantine was ready to forgive the offenders and that the matter would be amicably settled, Maurycy Mochnacki and other radicals angrily objected and demanded a national uprising. Fearing an immediate break with Russia, the government agreed to let Constantine depart with his troops.
Mochnacki did not trust the newly-constituted ministry and set out to replace it with the Patriotic Club, organized by him. At a large public demonstration on 3 December in Warsaw, he denounced the negotiations between the government and Grand Duke Constantine, who was encamped outside the city. Mochnacki advocated a military campaign in Lithuania to spare the country from the devastation of war and to preserve the local food supply. The meeting adopted a number of demands to be communicated to the administrative council, including the establishment of a revolutionary government and an immediate attack upon the forces of Constantine. The Polish army, with all but two of its generals, Wincenty Krasiński and Zygmunt Kurnatowski, now joined the uprising.
The remaining four ministers of the pre-revolutionary cabinet left the administrative council, and their places were taken by Mochnacki and three of his associates from the Patriotic Club, including Joachim Lelewel. The new body was known as the "provisional government". To legalize its actions the provisional government ordered the convocation of the Sejm and on 5 December 1830 proclaimed General Chłopicki as "dictator of the uprising". Chłopicki considered the uprising an act of madness but bowed to pressure and consented to take command temporarily in the hope that it would be unnecessary to take the field. An able and highly-decorated soldier, he had retired from the army because of the chicanery of Constantine. He overestimated the power of Russia and underestimated the strength and the fervor of the Polish revolutionary movement. By temperament and conviction, he was opposed to a war with Russia and did not believe in a successful outcome. He accepted the dictatorship essentially to maintain internal peace and to save the constitution.
Believing that Tsar Nicholas was unaware of his brother's actions and that the uprising could be ended if the Russian authorities accepted the constitution, Chłopicki's first move was to send Prince Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki to Saint Petersburg to negotiate. Chłopicki refrained from strengthening the Polish army and refused to initiate armed hostilities by expelling Russian forces from Lithuania. However, the radicals in Warsaw pressed for war and the complete liberation of Poland. On 13 December, the Sejm pronounced the National Uprising against Russia, and on 7 January 1831, Prince Drucki-Lubecki returned from Russia with no concessions. The Tsar demanded the complete and unconditional surrender of Poland and announced that the "Poles should surrender to the grace of their Emperor". His plans foiled, Chłopicki resigned the following day.
Power in Poland was now in the hands of the radicals united in the Towarzystwo Patriotyczne ('Patriotic Society'), directed by Joachim Lelewel. On 25 January 1831, the Sejm passed the Act of Dethronization of Nicholas I, which ended the Polish-Russian personal union and was equivalent to a declaration of war on Russia. The proclamation declared that "the Polish nation is an independent people and has a right to offer the Polish crown to him whom it may consider worthy, from whom it might with certainty expect faith to his oath and wholehearted respect to the sworn guarantees of civic freedom."
On 29 January, the national government of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was established, and Michał Gedeon Radziwiłł was chosen as successor to Chłopicki, who was persuaded to accept active command of the army.
Russo-Polish War
It was too late to move the theatre of hostilities to Lithuania. On 4 February 1831, a 115,000-strong Russian army under Field Marshal Hans Karl von Diebitsch crossed the Polish borders. The first major battle took place on 14 February 1831, close to the village of Stoczek near Łuków. In the Battle of Stoczek, Polish cavalry under Brigadier Józef Dwernicki defeated the Russian division of Teodor Geismar. However, the victory had mostly psychological value and could not stop the Russian advance towards Warsaw. The subsequent Battles of Dobre, Wawer and Białołęka were inconclusive.
The Polish forces then assembled on the right bank of the Vistula to defend the capital. On 25 February, a Polish contingent of approximately 40,000 met a Russian force of 60,000 east of Warsaw at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska. Both armies withdrew after almost two days of heavy fighting and with considerable losses on both sides. Over 7,000 Poles fell on that field, and the number of killed in the Russian army was slightly larger. Diebitsch was forced to retreat to Siedlce and Warsaw was saved.
Chłopicki, whose soldierly qualities reasserted themselves by military activity, was wounded in action and his place taken by General Jan Skrzynecki, who, like his predecessor, had won distinction under Napoleon for personal courage. Disliked by Grand Duke Constantine, he had retired from service. He shared with Chłopicki the conviction that war with Russia was futile but with the opening of hostilities took command of a corps and fought creditably at Grochov. When the weak and indecisive Michał Radziwiłł surrendered the dictatorship, Skrzynecki was chosen to succeed him. He endeavored to end the war by negotiations with the Russian field commanders and hoped for benign foreign intervention.
Sympathetic echoes of the Polish aspirations reverberated throughout Europe. Enthusiastic meetings had been held in Paris under Lafayette's chairmanship, and money for the Polish cause was collected in the United States. The governments of France and Britain, however, did not share the feelings of some of their people. King Louis-Philippe of France thought mainly of securing for himself recognition on the part of all European governments, and Lord Palmerston was intent on maintaining friendly relations with Russia. Britain regarded with alarm the reawakening of the French national spirit and did not wish to weaken Russia, "as Europe might soon again require her services in the cause of order, and to prevent Poland, whom it regarded as a national ally of France, from becoming a French province of the Vistula". Austria and Prussia adopted a position of benevolent neutrality towards Russia. They closed the Polish frontiers and prevented the transportation of munitions of war or supplies of any kind.
Under those circumstances, the war with Russia began to take on a somber and disquieting aspect. The Poles fought desperately and attempts were made to rouse Volhynia, Podolia, Samogitia and Lithuania. With the exception of the Lithuanian uprising in which the youthful Countess Emilia Plater and several other women distinguished themselves, the guerilla warfare carried on in the frontier provinces was of minor importance and served only to give Russia an opportunity to crush local risings. Notorious was the slaughter of the inhabitants of the small town of Ashmiany in Belarus. Meanwhile, new Russian forces under Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia arrived in Poland but met with many defeats. Constant warfare, however, and bloody battles such as that at Ostroleka in which 8,000 Poles died, considerably depleted the Polish forces. Mistakes on the part of the commanders, constant changes and numerous resignations, and the inactivity of the commanders, who continued to hope for foreign intervention, added to the feeling of despair.
The more radical elements severely criticized the government not only for its inactivity but also for its lack of land reform and its failure to recognize the peasants' rights to the soil they tilled, but the Sejm, fearing that the governments of Europe might regard the war with Russia as social revolution, procrastinated and haggled over concessions. The initial enthusiasm of the peasantry waned, and the ineptitude of the government became more apparent.
In the meantime, the Russian forces, commanded after the death of Diebitsch by General Paskevich, were moving to encircle Warsaw. Skrzynecki failed to prevent the Russian forces from joining, and the Sejm responded to popular clamor for his deposition by appointing General Dembinski to temporary command. The atmosphere was highly charged. Severe rioting took place and the government became completely disorganized. Count Jan Krukowiecki was made President of the Ruling Council. He had little faith in the success of the military campaign but believed that when passions had subsided he could end the war on what seemed to him advantageous terms.
Despite a desperate defence by General Józef Sowiński, Warsaw's suburb of Wola fell to Paskevich's forces on 6 September. The next day saw the second line of the capital's defensive works attacked by the Russians. During the night of 7 September Krukowiecki capitulated, although the city still held out. He was immediately deposed by the Polish government and replaced by Bonawentura Niemojowski. The army and the government withdrew to the Modlin fortress, on the Vistula, subsequently renamed Novo-Georgievsk by the Russians, and then to Płock. New plans had been adopted when the news arrived that the Polish crack corps under Ramorino, unable to join the main army, had laid down its arms after crossing the Austrian frontier into Galicia. It became evident that the war could be carried on no longer.
On 5 October 1831, the remainder of the Polish army of over 20,000 men crossed the Prussian frontier and laid down their arms at Brodnica in preference to submission to Russia. Only one man, a colonel by the name of Stryjenski, gained the peculiar distinction of giving himself up to Russia.
Following the example of Dąbrowski a generation before, General Bem endeavored to reorganize the Polish soldiers in Prussia and Galicia into Legions and lead them to France, but the Prussian government frustrated his plans. The immigrants left Prussia in bands of between fifty and a hundred, and their journey through the various German principalities was greeted with enthusiasm by the local populations. Even German sovereigns such as the King of Saxony, the Princess of Weimar and the Duke of Gotha shared in the general demonstration of sympathy. It was only upon the very insistent demands of Russia that the Polish committees all over Germany were be closed.
Aftermath
Adam Czartoryski remarked that the war with Russia, precipitated by the rising of young patriots in November 1830, came either too early or too late. Puzyrewski argued that the rising should have been initiated in 1828, when Russia was experiencing reversals in Turkey and was least able to spare substantial forces for war with Poland (Lewinski-Corwin, 1917). Military critics, such as the Russian pundit General Puzyrevsky, maintained that in spite of the inequality of resources of the two countries, Poland had had every chance of holding her own against Russia if the campaign had been managed skillfully. Russia sent over 180,000 well-trained men against Poland's 70,000, 30% of whom were fresh recruits entering the service at the opening of hostilities. "In view of this, one would think that not only was the result of the struggle undoubted, but its course should have been a triumphant march for the infinitely stronger party. Instead, the war lasted eight months, with often doubtful success. At times the balance seemed to tip decidedly to the side of the weaker adversary who dealt not only blows but even ventured daring offensives."
It had long been argued, as Edward Lewinski-Corwin in 1917, that "anarchy and a lack of concord" among people were the causes of Poland's national downfall. Thus, when the rising finally began, the insurgents demanded absolute power for their leaders and tolerated no criticism for fear that discord would again prove ruinous for all. However, the men chosen to lead, because of their past achievements, proved unable to perform the great task expected of them. Moreover, many apparently had little faith that their joint effort could succeed.
Militarily, Poland might have succeeded if the line of battle had been established in Lithuania, wrote Lewinski-Corwin, and if the Russian forces, arriving in Poland progressively, had been dealt with separately and decisively, one unit after another.
After the end of the November Uprising, Polish women wore black ribands and jewellery as a symbol of mourning for their lost homeland. Such images can be seen in the first scenes of the movie Pan Tadeusz, filmed by Andrzej Wajda in 1999, based on the Polish national epic. A 1937 German film, Ride to Freedom was partly shot on location in Poland.
The Scottish poet Thomas Campbell, who had championed the cause of the Poles in The Pleasures of Hope, was affected by the news of the capture of Warsaw by the Russians in 1831 as if it had been the deepest of personal calamities. "Poland preys on my heart night and day", he wrote in one of his letters, and his sympathy found a practical expression in the foundation in London of the Association of the Friends of Poland. The November Uprising was also supported in the United States. Edgar Allan Poe was sympathetic to the Polish cause and volunteered to fight the Russians during the November Uprising (Bobr-Tylingo 1982, 145).
Despite Poland's deep connection to Catholicism and the fact that many participants in the rebellion were Catholic, the rebellion was condemned by the Church. Pope Gregory XVI issued an encyclical letter in the following year on the subject of civil disobedience. Cum Primum stated:
When the first report of the calamities, which so seriously devastated your flourishing kingdom reached our ears, We learned simultaneously that they had been caused by some fabricators of deceit and lies. Under the pretext of religion, and revolting against the legitimate authority of the princes, they filled their fatherland, which they loosed from due obedience to authority, with mourning. We shed abundant tears at the feet of God, grieving over the harsh evil with which some of our flock was afflicted. Afterward We humbly prayed that God would enable your provinces, agitated by so many and so serious dissensions, to be restored to peace and to the rule of legitimate authority.
See also
Great Emigration
List of wars involving Poland
Warszawianka 1831 roku
Revolutionary etude
Hôtel Lambert
Polish National Government (November Uprising)
Sources in Polish
Stanislas Hernisz
Notes
References
Roman Soltyk: Polen, geographisch und historisch geschildert – Mit einer vollständigen Geschichte der Jahre 1830 und 1831. Von einem Augenzeugen.. Stuttgart 1834 (Online)
Conflicts in 1830
Conflicts in 1831
1831 disestablishments
1830 in Poland
1831 in Poland
Wars of independence
1830 in the Russian Empire
1831 in the Russian Empire
States and territories established in 1830
1831 in Lithuania
History of Ukraine (1795–1918)
19th century in Belarus
Rebellions in Poland
Congress Poland
Nicholas I of Russia
Revolutions of 1830
Free City of Kraków
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian%20Uprisings
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Silesian Uprisings
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The Silesian Uprisings (; ) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic at the time. Ethnic Polish and Polish-Silesian insurrectionists, seeking to have the area transferred to the newly founded Polish Republic, fought German police and paramilitary forces which sought to keep the area part of the new German state founded after World War I. Following the conflict, the area was divided between the two countries. The rebellions have subsequently been commemorated in modern Poland as an example of Polish nationalism. Despite central government involvement in the conflict, Polish historiography renders the events as uprisings reflecting the will of ordinary Upper Silesians rather than a war.
Background
Much of Silesia had belonged to the Crown of Polish Kingdom in medieval times, but it passed to the Kings of Bohemia under the Holy Roman Empire in the 14th century. Following the death of Louis II Jagiellon of Bohemia and Hungary in the Battle of Mohács, Silesia became part of the Habsburg monarchy when Ferdinand I of Austria was elected as the King of Bohemia. Frederick the Great of Prussia seized Silesia from Maria Theresa of Austria in 1742 in the War of Austrian Succession, after which it became a part of Prussia and subsequently, in 1871, the German Empire. Although the province of Silesia overall had by then become Germanized through the Ostsiedlung and later the Kulturkampf, Poles constituted a majority in Upper Silesia.
Mineral resources
Upper Silesia was bountiful in mineral resources and heavy industry, with mines, iron and steel mills. The Silesian mines were responsible for almost a quarter of Germany's annual output of coal, of its zinc and 34 percent of its lead.
After World War I, during the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, the German government claimed that, without Upper Silesia, it would not be able to fulfill its obligations with regard to reparations to the Allies.
Demographics in the early 20th century
The area in Upper Silesia east of the Oder was dominated by ethnic Poles, most of whom were working class. Most spoke a dialect of Polish, a few felt they were a Slavic group of their own called Silesians. In contrast, most of the local middle and upper classes were ethnic Germans, including the landowners, businessmen, factory owners, local government, police, and Catholic clergy. The population of Upper Silesia was overwhelmingly Catholic with 92% of the people being Roman Catholic. Most of the 8% of Upper Silesians who were Protestant tended to be Germans, but the linguistic and ethnic divide between Catholic Germans and Poles tended to subsume their shared religion.
In the German census of 1900, 65% of the population of the eastern part of Silesia was recorded as Polish-speaking, which decreased to 57% in 1910. This was partly a result of forced Germanization, but was also due to the creation of a bilingual category, which reduced the number of Polish speakers. American Paul Weber drew up a language map that showed that in 1910, in most of the Upper Silesian districts east of the Oder river, Polish-speaking Silesians constituted a majority, forming more than 70% of the population there.
While still under German control, various Poles identified as Silesians would write, publish, distribute pamphlets, newsletters and other written material, promoting the idea of a Polish-Silesian Identity. Included among the statements within these texts was adherence to the Roman Catholic church. One such publisher was Ignacy Bulla (later changed to Buła in celebration), who would spread information related to these principles at risk to his own life and freedom. He is widely credited with having inspired the Polish-Silesian patriotic feelings that inspired the uprisings. His contribution to bringing Silesia back into the Roman Catholic Church was the subject of at least one dissertation presented by a Seminary student.
The First World War
As a frontier area, Upper Silesia was placed under martial law in August 1914 and remained so for rest of the war. The German military administrators distrusted the Poles, taking the viewpoint that as Slavs, they were naturally sympathetic towards the Russians, and governed Upper Silesia in a very high-handed and harsh manner. The First World War was a period in Upper Silesia of collapsing living standards as wages failed to keep up with inflation; almost everyone suffered from shortages of food and working hours were increased in the mines and factories. The ultra-nationalist climate produced by the Burgfrieden ("the peace within the besieged castle") with the call for all Germans to rally behind the Kaiser in the war effort led to members of Germany's Polish minority to feel more excluded and marginalized than before 1914. The subject of an independent Polish state was first raised by the Germans and Austrians who in 1916 created a puppet Polish state on the territory of Congress Poland. The way in which the Allies promoted the promise of an independent Poland after the war, most notably in the 14 Points issued by the American president Woodrow Wilson led to hopes within the Polish community within the Reich that Poland might be reborn again after an Allied victory. During the First World War, about 56, 000 men from Upper Silesia were killed fighting in the war with the heaviest losses being taken at the Battle of Somme in 1916.
Versailles plebiscite
During the Paris peace conference in 1919, a strong division emerged between the British prime minister David Lloyd George who wanted Upper Silesia to remain within Germany vs. the French Premier Georges Clemenceau who supported the Polish claim to Upper Silesia. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, had ordered a plebiscite in Upper Silesia, to determine whether the territory should be a part of Germany or Poland. The plebiscite was to be held within two years of the Treaty in the whole of Upper Silesia, although the Polish government had only requested it to be held in the areas east of the Oder river, which had a significant number of Polish speakers. Thus, the plebiscite took place in all of Upper Silesia, including the predominantly areas in the east and the predominantly German-speaking areas west of the river. The Upper Silesian plebiscite was to be conducted on 20 March 1921. In the meantime, the German administration and police remained in place. The requirement for a referendum in Upper Silesia in the Treaty of Versailles was a compromise to resolve the Anglo-French dispute at the Paris peace conference. Around the German city of Posen turned the Polish city of Poznań, an uprising by the Polish majority in December 1918 had left about 2,900 people dead, and it was felt preferable to have a plebiscite in Upper Silesia and rather a resort to arms as being the case in Poznań.
Meanwhile, propaganda and strong arm tactics by both sides led to increasing unrest. The German authorities warned that those voting for Poland might forfeit their jobs and pensions. Pro-Polish activists argued that, under Polish rule, Silesian Poles would no longer be discriminated against. Poland also promised to honour their German state social benefits, such as the old age pensions. However, many German Army veterans joined the Freikorps (Free Corps), a paramilitary organization whose troops fought any pro-Polish activists. The pro-Poland side employed the Polish Military Organisation (POW) – a secret military organisation and predecessor of Polish intelligence – to fight back with the same force.
The majority of the men serving in the para-military forces on both sides were veterans of the First World War and were experienced soldiers, accustomed to fighting and killing. In addition, most of the men serving on the German side had served in the Freikorps ("Free Corps"), units of volunteers raised by the government to fight against the possibility of a Communist revolution. Most of the men serving on the Polish side had previously served in the German military during World War One.
Eventually, the deteriorating situation resulted in Upper Silesian Uprisings conducted by Poles in 1919 and 1920.
The right to vote was granted to all aged 20 and older who either had been born in or lived in the plebiscite area. A result was the mass migration of both Germans and Poles. The German newcomers accounted for 179,910, while Polish newcomers numbered over 10,000. Without these "new voters", the pro-German vote would have had a majority of 58,336 instead of the final 228,246. The plebiscite took place as arranged on 20 March. A total of 707,605 votes were cast for Germany and 479,359 for Poland.
The Third Silesian Uprising conducted by Poles broke out in 1921 suported by thousands of troops from outside the region mobilized by the Polish government.. The League of Nations was asked to settle the dispute before it led to even more bloodshed. In 1922, a six-week debate decided that Upper Silesia should be divided. This was accepted by both countries, and the majority of Upper Silesians. Approximately 736,000 Poles and 260,000 Germans thus found themselves now in Polish (Upper) Silesia, and 532,000 Poles and 637,000 Germans remained in German (Upper) Silesia.
Uprisings
First Uprising (1919)
On 15 August 1919, German border guards (Grenzschutz) massacred ten Silesian civilians in a labour dispute at the Mysłowice mine (Myslowitzer Grube). The massacre sparked protests from the Silesian Polish miners, including a general strike of about 140,000 workers, and caused the First Silesian uprising against German control of Upper Silesia. The miners demanded the local government and police become ethnically mixed to include both Germans and Poles.
About 21,000 Germans soldiers of the Weimar Republic's Provisional National Army (Vorläufige Reichsheer), with about 40,000 troops held in reserve, quickly put down the uprising. The army's reaction was harsh, with 2,500 Poles either hanged or executed by firing squad for their parts in the violence. Some 9,000 ethnic Poles sought refuge in the Second Polish Republic, taking along their family members. This came to an end when Allied forces were brought in to restore order, and the refugees were allowed to return later that year.
Second Uprising (1920)
The Second Silesian Uprising () was the second of the three uprisings.
In February 1920, an Allied Plebiscite Commission was sent to Upper Silesia. It was composed of representatives of the Allied forces, mostly from France, with smaller contingents from United Kingdom and Italy. Soon, however, it became apparent that the Allied forces were too few to maintain order. Further, the commission was torn apart by lack of consensus: the British and Italians favored the Germans, while the French supported the Poles. Those forces failed to prevent continuing unrest.
In August 1920, a German newspaper in Upper Silesia printed what later turned out to be a false announcement of the fall of Warsaw to the Red Army in the Polish–Soviet War. Pro-German activists spontaneously organised a march to celebrate what they assumed would be the end of independent Poland. The volatile situation quickly degenerated into violence as pro-German demonstrators began looting Polish shops; the violence continued even after it had become clear that Warsaw had not fallen.
On 19 August, the violence eventually led to a Polish uprising which quickly resulted within the occupation of government offices in the districts of Kattowitz (Katowice), Pless (Pszczyna) and Beuthen (Bytom). Between 20 and 25 August, the rebellion spread to Königshütte (Chorzów), Tarnowitz (Tarnowskie Góry), Rybnik, Lublinitz (Lubliniec) and Gross Strehlitz (Strzelce Opolskie). The Allied Commission declared its intention to restore order, but internal differences kept anything from being done; British representatives held the French responsible for the easy spread of the uprising through the eastern region.
The fighting was slowly brought to an end in September, by a combination of allied military operations and negotiations between the parties. The Poles obtained the disbanding of the Sipo police and the creation of a new police (Abstimmungspolizei) for the area, which would be 50% Polish. Poles were also admitted to the local administration. The Polish Military Organisation in Upper Silesia was supposed to be disbanded, though in practice this did not happen.
Third Uprising (1921)
The Third Silesian Uprising () was the last, largest and longest of the three uprisings. It included the Battle of Annaberg and began in the aftermath of a plebiscite that yielded mixed results. The British and French governments could not reach a consensus on the interpretation of the plebiscite. The primary problem was the disposition of the "Industrial Triangle" east of the Oder river, whose triangle ends were marked by the cities of Beuthen (Bytom), Gleiwitz (Gliwice) and Kattowitz (Katowice). The French wanted to weaken Germany, and thus supported Polish claims on the territory; the British and the Italians disagreed, in part because the German government declared that a loss of the Silesian industries would render Germany incapable of paying the demanded war reparations. Devising a frontier that was mutually acceptable to both sides proved to be impossible because in many of the contested districts of Upper Silesia, the people in the urban areas tended to vote for staying in Germany while the rural areas voted for going to Poland. Thus, any division would mean that a number of people would end up on the "wrong" side of the frontier.
In late April 1921, rumours spread that the British position would prevail, prompting the local Polish activists to organise an uprising. The insurrection was to begin in early in May. Having learned from previous failures, the Third War was carefully planned and organized under the leadership of Wojciech Korfanty. It started on 2–3 May 1921, with the destruction of German rail bridges (see "Wawelberg Group") in order to slow down the movement of German reinforcements. A particular concern was to prevent the recurrence of violent acts against Polish civilians by members of the Freikorps, demobilised Imperial German army units that had refused to disband. These paramilitary units existed throughout Germany and usually acted independently from both the provisional official army and the leadership of the fledgling German Republic. However, the Reich government subsidized these groups and thus had much leverage over them. The most violent and the most aggressive of the Freikorps units sent into Upper Silesia was the Oberland corps from Bavaria, which seemed to have been the unit most responsible for the atrocities on the German side.
The Inter-Allied Commission, in which General Henri Le Rond was the most influential individual, waited rather long prior to taking any steps to end the violence. The French troops generally favored the insurrection, while within some cases, British and Italian contingents actively cooperated with Germans. UK Prime Minister Lloyd George's speech in the British Parliament, strongly disapproving of the insurrection, aroused the hopes of some Germans, but the Entente appeared to have no troops ready and available for dispatch. The only action the 'Inter-Allied Military Control Commission' and the French government made was demanding immediate prohibition of the recruiting of German volunteers from outside Upper Silesia, and this was promptly made public.
After the initial success of the insurgents in taking over a large portion of Upper Silesia, the German Grenzschutz several times resisted the attacks of Wojciech Korfanty's Polish troops, in some cases with the cooperation of British and Italian troops. An attempt on the part of the British troops to take steps against the Polish forces was prevented by General Jules Gratier, the French commander-in-chief of the Allied troops. Eventually, the insurgents kept most of territory they had won, including the local industrial district. They proved that they could mobilize large amounts of local support, while the German forces based outside Silesia were barred from taking an active part in the conflict.
The fighting in Upper Silesia was characterized by numerous atrocities on both sides with rape and mutilation being integral and routine methods of war. The men of both sides tended to conflate "national honor" and their sense of masculinity with their perceived ability to "protect" the women of their respective communities from the other side. For both sides, rape served as a way to symbolically "unman" the men of the other side by proving that they were incapable of defending their women and as a way of asserting their power over the women of the other side, hence the frequency of rape. Complaints about rape by both sides started to become common after the 1919 uprising, but were most common after the 1921 uprising. The British historian Tim Wilson wrote about sexual violence by the German forces: "Eighteen such incidents can be easily verified. Many of these were multiple rapes; in other cases of mass rape the number of victims were not even given". In September 1922, the Polish government submitted a detailed dossier about the rape of Polish Upper Silesian women to the League of Nations. Wilson also wrote that rape of women believed to be supporting the German cause by "Polish militants" was "relatively common".
Mutilation by both sides were a common tactic as a way to show dominance over the other side. Both sides liked to mutilate the faces of their victims to the point of obliviating the face as a way to show their dominance by robbing the victim of not only their lives, but even their identities that they held in life. Reports from the British officers state that the "corpses of both men and women have been mutilated". The most common means of mutilation was by smashing in the face with rifle butts into a bloody mash. Likewise, castration of prisoners were a common tactic, again as a way to show dominance and to literally "unman" the other side. Violence against the genitals was the second common form of mutilation of faces. One British Army officer wrote in 1921 "It is revolting the number of murders that took place, generally at night and in the woods, which no amount of patrolling could stop. For instance, a one-armed German ex-soldier was taken out and murdered by the Poles one night, and the same night the French reported several murders by the Germans near their post in the woods close by". Wilson wrote that these tactics were not "the triumph of innate barbarism in the absence of social constraint", but rather were tactics quite consciously chosen to express contempt and dominance. Much of the grotesque violence was due to the fluidity of identities in Upper Silesia where many people saw themselves as neither German nor Polish, but rather Silesian, thus leading to nationalists to take extreme measures to polarize society into diametrically opposed blocs. In May-June 1921, at least 1, 760 people were killed in the fighting in Upper Silesia.
The support of France for Poland proved to be crucial. On 23 May 1921, the Freikorps defeated the Poles at the Battle of Annaberg, which in turn led to a French ultimatum demanding that the Reich cease at once its support of the German para-military forces. The next day, much to the shock of the Freikorps who were expecting to follow up their victory by keeping all of Upper Silesia for Germany, the German president Frederich Ebert bowed to the ultimatum and banned the Freikorps.
Twelve days after the outbreak of the insurrection, Korfanty offered to take his troops behind a line of demarcation (the "Korfanty Line"), conditional on the released territory not being re-occupied by German forces, but by Allied troops. It was not, however, until 1 July that the British troops arrived in Upper Silesia and began to advance in company with those of the other Allies towards the former frontier. Simultaneously, with this advance, the Inter-Allied Commission pronounced a general amnesty for the illegal actions committed during the insurrection, with the exception of acts of revenge and cruelty. The German Grenzschutz was withdrawn and disbanded.
Aftermath
Arrangements between the Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia and appeals issued by both sides, as well as the dispatch of six battalions of Allied troops and the disbandment of the local guards, contributed markedly to the pacification of the district.
The Allied Supreme Council was, however, still unable to come to an agreement on the partition of the Upper Silesian territory on the lines of the plebiscite; the British and the French could only agree on one solution: turning the question over to the Council of the League of Nations.
The greatest excitement was caused all over Germany and in the German part of Upper Silesia by the intimation that the Council of the League of Nations had handed over the matter for closer investigation to a commission; this remained composed of four representatives, one each from Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and China. The commission collected its own data and issued a decision, stressing the principle of self-determination. On the basis of the reports of this commission and those of its experts, in October 1921 the Council awarded the greater part of the Upper Silesian industrial district to Poland.
The Polish Government had decided to give Silesia considerable autonomy with the Silesian Parliament as a constituency and the Silesian Voivodeship Council as the executive body.
Poland obtained almost exactly half of the 1,950,000 inhabitants, viz., 965,000, but not quite a third of the territory, i.e., only 3,214 of 10,951 square kilometres (1,241 of 4,228 mi2). This, however, constituted the more valuable portion by far of the district. Of 61 coal mines 49 fell to Poland, the Prussian state losing 3 mines out of 4. Of a coal output of 31,750,000 tonnes, 24,600,000 tonnes fell to Poland. All iron mines with an output of 61,000 tonnes fell to Poland. Of 37 furnaces, 22 went to Poland, 15 to Germany. Of a pig-iron output of 570,000 tonnes, 170,000 tonnes remained German, and 400,000 tonnes became Polish. Of 16 zinc and lead mines, which produced 233,000 tons in 1920, only 4, with an output of 44,000 tonnes, remained German. The main towns of Königshütte (Chorzów), Kattowitz (Katowice), and Tarnowitz (Tarnowskie Góry) were given to Poland. In the Silesian territory that Poland regained, the Germans were a significant minority. Similarly, a significant minority of Poles (about half a million Poles) was still left on the German side, most of them in Oppeln (Opole).
In order to mitigate the hardships likely to arise from the partition of a district that was essentially an economic unit, it was decided, on the recommendation of the Council of the League of Nations, that German and Polish delegates, under a chairman appointed by the Council of the League, should draw up economic regulations as well as a statute for the protection of minorities, which were to have a duration of fifteen years. Special measures were threatened in the event that either of the two states should refuse to participate in the drawing up of such regulations, or to accept them subsequently.
In May 1922, the League of Nations issued the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia, also known as the Geneva Accord, intended to preserve the economic unity of the area and to guarantee minority rights. The League also set up a tribunal to arbitrate disputes. Furthermore, in response to a German complaint about the importance of Silesian coal for the German industry, Germany was given the right to import 500,000 tons per year at discounted prices. In 1925, three years following the development of the agreement and approaching the termination of the coal agreement, Germany refused to import the appropriate quantities of coal, attempting to use the coal issue as a lever against Poland, trying to impose a revision of the whole Polish-German frontier. Polish-German relations worsened, as Germany also began a tariff war with Poland, but the Polish government would not yield on the border issue.
In 1921, Adolf Hitler who was the best known member of the Munich-based National Socialist German Workers' Party, but not its leader, came into conflict with the party's founder and leader, Anton Drexler. In July 1921, the dispute came was resolved with Hitler seizing control of the party and deposing Drexler as a party leader. At the meeting in Munich that decided in favor of Hitler, it was the veterans of the Upper Silesia campaign newly returned to Bavaria, described by one contemporary as the "Upper Silesian adventurers, flashing medals, badges and swastikas", who provided the decisive votes which enabled the triumph of Hitler over Drexler. A number of the Freikorps veterans of the Upper Silesia war such as Fritz Schmedes went on to serve in the Nazi Party. Schmedes, who played a leading role as a Freikorps officer in the "vicious fighting" in Upper Silesia in 1921, became a SS-Brigadeführer in World War Two who committed one of the worse massacres ever in Greek history when his men massacred the entire village of Distomo on 10 June 1944.
Under the Sanajca''' regime, Michał Grażyński, was appointed as the voivode of Polish Upper Silesia in 1927. Graźyński became involved in a lengthy feud with Korfanty and went out of his way to downplay and minimize Korfanty's role in the uprisings. By contrast, Graźyński vastly inflated his own role in the uprising of 1921 as he described himself as the "chief insurgent" and the "sole liberator" of Upper Silesia, an attempt to rewrite history in his favor that made him unpopular in Upper Silesia. The fact that Grażyński was from Galicia led him being viewed as an outsider in Upper Silesia. During his time as the voivode which lasted until 1939, Grażyński held gigantic rallies to honor the anniversary of the uprising of 1921 every May 3rd that were meant as much to honor himself as the anniversary of the uprising. Grażyński's rallies were boycotted by Korfanty and his supporters who complained that he was taking all of the credit for the uprisings for himself. Jan Kustos, the leader of the Upper Silesia Defense League that wanted autonomy for Upper Silesia in Poland criticised the especially grandiose and expensive rally Grażyński organsed on 3rd May 1931 to mark the 10th anniversary of the uprising as a colossal waste of money, charging that it was unjust that millions of zlotys have been spent on the rally when so ordinary people were suffering from the Great Depression.
In September 1939, Polish Upper Silesia was annexed to Germany, and during the German occupation, there were a violent policy of Germanizing the "recovered lands". During the German occupation, the Polish veterans of the Upper Silesia uprisings were as much possible hunted down and killed as enemies of the Reich. For this reason alone, the Polish veterans tended to be overrepresented in the Polish resistance. In 1945, all of Upper Silesia was annexed to Poland. During the Communist era, the government in Warsaw took an ultra-nationalist line to rebut the charge that it was under Soviet domination, and placed great emphasis on the "recovered western territories" as the centerpiece of its claim for legitimacy. Władysław Gomułka gave a speech at Góra Świętej Anny on 1 May 1946 to honor the Poles killed fighting in the battle in 1921 and presented a line of continuity between the uprising of 1921 and his government. This was especially the case during the period when Gomułka was in power between 1956-1970 as he restored the tradition of celebrating the anniversary of the third uprising every May 3rd and often took part in the celebrations.
The last veteran of the Silesian Uprisings, Wilhelm Meisel, died in 2009 at the age of 105. "Wilhelm Meisel do końca cieszył się życiem, bardzo lubił towarzystwo, muzykę oraz ruch. Interesował się tym, co dzieje się w Polsce i na świecie." In 2021, a dispute emerged over plans to put up a monument in Opole honoring those who fought for Poland. The Social-Cultural Society of Germans in Opole Silesia, representing the last of the volksdeutche (ethnic German) minority in Silesia, called for a monument to honor both sides. The mayor of Opole stated he wanted to “commemorate the heroes of the Silesian uprising who fought for Poland and not those who shot at them.”
References
Further reading
Henryk Zieliński, Rola powstania wielkopolskiego oraz powstań śląskich w walce o zjednoczenie ziem zachodnich z Polską (1918–1921), w: Droga przez Półwiecze.
Rohan Butler, MA, J.P.T. Bury, MA, & M.E. Lambert (ed.), MA, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 1st Series, volume XI, Upper Silesia, Poland, and the Baltic States, January 1920 – March 1921, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), London, 1961 (amended edition 1974),
W.N. Medlicott, MA, D.Lit., Douglas Dakin, MA, PhD, & M.E. Lambert, MA (ed.), Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 1st Series, volume XVI, Upper Silesia, March 1921 – November 1922 HMSO, London, 1968.
Dziewanowski, M. K., Poland in the 20th century, New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.
Hughes, Rupert, "Germany's Silesian Plot: Colonizing Scheme to Overcome Polish Majority in a Region Which Contains Vast Resources for Future War-Making", The New York Times'', 12 October 1919.
1919 in Germany
1919 in Poland
1920 in Germany
1920 in Poland
1921 in Germany
1921 in Poland
Rebellions in Germany
Rebellions in Poland
Massacres committed by Germany
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora%20Caves
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Ellora Caves
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Ellora Caves are a multi-religious rock-cut cave complex with inscriptions dating from the period 6th century CE onwards, located in the Aurangabad District of Maharashtra, India. They are also called verul caves.
There are over 100 caves at the site, all excavated from the basalt cliffs in the Charanandri Hills, 34 of which are open to public.
These consist of 17 Hindu (caves 13–29), 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) caves. Each group represents deities and mythologies prevalent in the 1st millennium CE, as well as monasteries of each respective religion. They were built close to one another and illustrate the religious harmony that existed in ancient India. Because of their exceptional architecture of ancient India, the Ellora Caves were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983.
All of the Ellora monuments were built during the Satavahana period, which constructed part of the Vedic Dynasty and much later Buddhist caves and the Jain caves, were named .
Although the caves served as temples and a rest stop for pilgrims, the site's location on an ancient South Asian trade route also made it an important commercial centre in the Deccan region.
Ellora Caves are situated north-west of Aurangabad, and about east-northeast of Mumbai. Today, the Ellora Caves, along with the nearby Ajanta Caves, are a major tourist attraction in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra and a are a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Etymology
Ellora, also called Verul or Elura, is the short form of the ancient name Elloorpuram. The older form of the name has been found in ancient references such as the Baroda inscription of 812 CE which mentions "the greatness of this edifice" and that "this great edifice was built on a hill by Krishnaraja at Elapura, the edifice in the inscription being the Kailasa temple. In the Indian tradition, each cave is named and has a suffix Guha (Sanskrit), Lena or Leni (Marathi), meaning cave.
It is also thought to be derived from Ilvalapuram, named after the asura Ilvala who ruled this region who was vanquished by Sage Agastya.
Location
The Ellora caves are situated in state of Maharashtra about northwest of the city of Sambhaji Nagar, east-northeast of Mumbai, from Pune and about west of the Ajanta Caves, 2.3 kilometres (1.42 miles) from Grishneshwar Temple (India).
Ellora occupies a relatively flat rocky region of the Western Ghats, where ancient volcanic activity had created multilayered basalt formations, known as the Deccan Traps. The volcanic activity that formed the west-facing cliff that houses the Ellora caves occurred during the Cretaceous period. The resulting vertical face made access to many layers of rock formations easier, enabling architects to pick basalt with finer grains for more detailed sculpting.
Chronology
The construction at Ellora has been studied since British colonial rule. However, the overlapping styles between the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves has made it difficult to establish agreement concerning the chronology of their construction. The disputes generally concern: one, whether the Buddhist or Hindu caves were carved first and, two, the relative dating of caves within a particular tradition. The broad consensus that has emerged is based on comparing the carving styles at Ellora to other cave temples in the Deccan region that have been dated, textual records of various dynasties, and epigraphical evidence found at various archaeological sites near Ellora and elsewhere in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Geri Hockfield Malandra and other scholars have stated that the Ellora caves had three important building periods: an early Hindu period (~550 to 600 CE), a Buddhist phase (~600 to 730 CE) and a later Hindu and Jain phase (~730 to 950 CE).
The earliest caves may have been built during the Traikutakas and Vakataka dynasties, the latter being known for sponsoring the Ajanta caves. However, it is considered likely that some of the earliest caves, such as Cave 29 (Hindu), were built by the Shiva-inspired Kalachuri dynasty, while the Buddhist caves were built by the Chalukya dynasty. The later Hindu caves and early Jain caves were built by the Rashtrakuta dynasty, while the last Jain caves were built by the Yadava dynasty, which had also sponsored other Jain cave temples.
The Hindu monuments: Caves 13–29
The Hindu caves were constructed during the Kalachuri period, from the mid-6th century to the end of the 8th century in two phases. Nine cave temples were excavated early in the 6th century, followed by a further four caves (caves 17–29). Work first started
, in order, on Caves 28, 27 and 19 then Caves 29 and 21, which were excavated concurrently with Caves 20 and 26. Caves 17 and 28 were the last ones to be started.
The later caves, 14, 15 and 16, were constructed during the Rashtrakuta period, some being dated to between the 8th to 10th centuries. Work first began in Caves 14 and 15 with Cave 16, the world's largest monolith, being the last of the three to be constructed. These caves were completed in the 8th century with the support of king Krishna I.
Early Hindu temples: Dhumar Lena, Cave 29
Construction in the early Hindu caves commenced before any of the Buddhist or Jain caves. These early caves were generally dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, although the iconography suggests that the artisans gave other gods and goddesses of Hinduism prominent and equal reverence. A common feature of these cave temples was a rock-cut linga-yoni within the core of the shrine with each being surrounded by a space for circumambulation (parikrama).
Cave 29, also called Dhumar Lena, is one of earliest excavations in Ellora and among the largest. Early Hindu temple building in the cave centred around the "Vale Ganga", a natural waterfall that was integrated into the monument. The waterfall is visible from a rock carved balcony to the south and has been described as "falling over great Shiva's brow", particularly during monsoon season. The carvings in this cave are larger than life size but, according to author Dhavalikar, they are "corpulent, stumpy with disproportionate limbs" compared to those found in other Ellora caves.
Rameshwar temple, Cave 21
Cave 21, also called Rameshwar Lena, is another early excavation whose construction has been credited to the Kalachuri dynasty. The cave was completed prior to the ascension of Rashtrakuta dynasty which went on to expand the caves at Ellora
Although the cave features similar works to those in other Ellora caves, it also has a number of unique pieces, such as those depicting the story of goddess Parvati's pursuit of Shiva. Carvings depicting Parvati and Shiva at leisure, Parvati's wedding to Shiva, Shiva dancing and Kartikeya (Skanda) have been found in other caves. The cave also features a large display of the Sapta Matrika, the seven mother goddesses of the Shakti tradition of Hinduism, flanked on either side by Ganesha and Shiva. Inside the temple are other goddesses important to Shakti tradition, for example, the Durga. The entrance to Cave 21 is flanked by large sculptures of the goddesses Ganga and Yamuna representing the two major Himalayan rivers and their significance to the Indian culture.
The cave is laid out symmetrically according to the mandapa square principle and has embedded geometric patterns repeated throughout the cave. The Shiva linga at the sanctum sanctorum of the temple is equidistant from the major statues of goddesses Ganga and Yamuna, with all three set in an equilateral triangle. According to Carmel Berkson, this layout likely symbolizes the Brahman–Prakriti relationship, the interdependence of the masculine and the feminine energies, that is central to Hindu theology.
The Kailāśa temple: Cave 16
Cave 16, known as the Kailasa temple, is a particularly notable cave temple in India as a result of its size, architecture and having been entirely carved out of a single rock.
The Kailasha temple, inspired by Mount Kailasha, is dedicated to Shiva. It is modeled along similar lines to other Hindu temples with a gateway, an assembly hall, a multi-storey main temple surrounded by numerous shrines laid out according to the square principle, an integrated space for circumambulation, a garbha-grihya (sanctum sanctorum) wherein resides the linga-yoni, and a spire-shaped like Mount Kailash – all carved from one rock. Other shrines carved from the same rock are dedicated to Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, the ten avatars of Vishnu, Vedic gods and goddesses including Indra, Agni, Vayu, Surya and Usha, as well as non-Vedic deities like Ganesha, Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati), Harihara (half Shiva, half Vishnu), Annapurna, Durga and others. The basement level of the temple features numerous Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakti works; a notable set of carvings include the twelve episodes from the childhood of Krishna, an important element of Vaishnavism.
The structure is a freestanding, multi-level temple complex covering an area twice the size of the Parthenon in Athens. It is estimated that the artists removed three million cubic feet of stone, weighing approximately 200,000 tonnes, to excavate the temple.
The construction of the temple has been attributed to the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I (r. 756–773 CE), but elements of Pallava architecture have also been noted. The dimensions of the courtyard are 82 meters by 46 meters at the base, and 30 meters high (280 × 160 × 106 feet). The entrance features a low gopuram. The central shrine housing the lingam features a flat-roofed mandapa supported by 16 pillars, and a Dravidian shikhara. An image of Shiva's mount Nandi (the sacred bull) stands on a porch in front of the temple. Two of the walls in the main temple house rows of carvings depicting the Mahabharata, along the north side, and the Ramayana, on the south side.
The Kailasha temple is considered a highly notable example of temple construction from 1st millennium Indian history, and was called, by Carmel Berkson, "a wonder of the world" among rock-cut monuments.
The Dashavatara: Cave 15
The Dashavatara temple, or Cave 15, is another significant excavation that was completed sometime after Cave 14 (Ravan ki Khai, Hindu). Cave 15 has cells and a layout plan that are similar to Buddhist Caves 11 and 12, which suggests this cave was intended to be a Buddhist cave; however, the presence of non-Buddhist features, such as a Nrtya Mandapa (an Indian classical dance pavilion) at its entrance, indicated otherwise. According to James Harle, Hindu images have been found in Buddhist Cave 11, while many Hindu deities have been incorporated in Buddhist caves of the region. This overlap in disparate designs between Buddhist and Hindu caves may be due to the sites being worked on by the same architects and workers, or perhaps a planned Buddhist cave was adapted into a Hindu monument.
According to Geri Malandra, all the Buddhist caves at Ellora were an intrusion in a place that was already an established Brahmanical Tirtha (Hindu pilgrimage site), and not the other way around. Furthermore, given that both the Hindu and Buddhist caves were predominantly anonymous, with no donative inscriptions having been discovered for the Buddhist Ellora caves other than those of Hindu dynasties that built them, the original intent and nature of these cave temples is speculative.
The Hindu temple housed in Cave 15 has an open court with a free-standing monolithic mandapa at the middle and a two-storeyed excavated temple at the rear. Large sculptural panels between the wall columns on the upper floor illustrate a wide range of themes, including the ten avatars of Vishnu. An inscription of Dantidurga, critical to establishing the age of the temple, is on the back wall of the front mandapa. According to Coomaraswamy, the finest relief of this cave is the one depicting the death of Hiranyakashipu, where Vishnu in man-lion (Narasimha) form, emerges from a pillar to lay a fatal hand upon his shoulder. It is a Rastrakoot dynasty sculpture. Other reliefs in Cave 15 include the Gangadhara, marriage of Shiva and Parvati, Tripurantika of Shakti tradition, Markendeya, Garuda, aspects of life, Nandi in mandapa, dancing Shiva, Andhakasura, Govardhanadhari, Gajendravarada and others. The panels are arranged in dyads, which states Carmel Berkson, reinforce each other by displaying "cooperative but also antagonistic energy" with a mutuality of power transference.
Other Hindu caves
Other notable Hindu caves are the Ravan ki Khai (Cave 14) and the Nilkantha (Cave 22), both of which house numerous sculptures, Cave 25 in particular features a carving of Surya in its ceiling.
The Buddhist monuments: Caves 1–12
These caves are located on the southern side and were built either between 630 and 700 CE, or 600–730 CE. It was initially thought that the Buddhist caves were the earliest structures that were created between the fifth and eighth centuries, with caves 1–5 in the first phase (400–600) and 6–12 in the later phase (650–750), but modern scholars now consider the construction of Hindu caves to have been before the Buddhist caves. The earliest Buddhist cave is Cave 6, then 5, 2, 3, 5 (right wing), 4, 7, 8, 10 and 9, with caves 11 and 12, also known as Do Thal and Tin Thal respectively, being the last.
Eleven out of the twelve Buddhist caves consist of viharas, or monasteries with prayer halls: large, multi-storeyed buildings carved into the mountain face, including living quarters, sleeping quarters, kitchens, and other rooms. The monastery caves have shrines including carvings of Gautama Buddha, bodhisattvas and saints. In some of these caves, sculptors have endeavoured to give the stone the look of wood.
Caves 5, 10, 11 and 12 are architecturally important Buddhist caves. Cave 5 is unique among the Ellora caves as it was designed as a hall with a pair of parallel refectory benches in the centre and a Buddha statue in the rear. This cave, and Cave 11 of the Kanheri Caves, are the only two Buddhist caves in India arranged in such a way. Caves 1 through 9 are all monasteries while Cave 10, the Vīśvakarmā Cave, is a major Buddhist prayer hall.
Caves 11 and 12 are three-storied Mahayana monastery caves with idols, mandalas carved into the walls, and numerous goddesses, and Bodhisattva-related iconography, belonging to Vajrayana Buddhism. These are compelling evidence to suggest that Vajrayana and Tantra ideas of Buddhism were well established in South Asia by the 8th-century CE.
The Vishvakarma Cave
Notable among the Buddhist caves is Cave 10, a chaitya worship hall called the 'Vishvakarma cave', built around 650 CE. It is also known as the "Carpenter's Cave", because the rock has been given a finish that has the appearance of wooden beams. Beyond its multi-storeyed entry is a cathedral-like stupa hall also known as chaitya-griha (prayer house). At the heart of this cave is a 15-foot statue of Buddha seated in a preaching pose.
Cave 10 combines a vihara with a chapel-like worship hall that has eight subsidiary cells, four in the back wall and four in the right, as well as a portico in the front. It is the only dedicated chaitya griha amongst the Buddhist caves and is constructed along similar lines to Caves 19 and 26 of Ajanta. Cave 10 also features a gavaksha, or chandrashala, arched window and a side connection to Cave 9 of Ellora.
The main hall of the Visvakarma cave is apsidal in plan and is divided into a central nave and side aisles by 28 octagonal columns with plain bracket capitals. In the apsidal end of the chaitya hall is a stupa on the face of which a colossal high seated Buddha in vyakhyana mudra (teaching posture). A large Bodhi tree is carved at his back. The hall has a vaulted roof in which ribs (known as triforium) have been carved in the rock imitating the wooden ones. The friezes above the pillars are Naga queens, and the extensive relief artwork shows characters such as entertainers, dancers and musicians.
The front of the prayer hall is a rock-cut court entered via a flight of steps. The entrance of the Cave has a carved facade decorated with numerous Indian motifs including apsaras and meditating monks. On either side of the upper level are pillared porticos with small rooms in their back walls. The pillared verandah of the chaitya has a small shrine at either end and a single cell in the far end of the back wall. The corridor columns have massive squared shafts and ghata-pallava (vase and foliage) capitals. The various levels of Cave 10 also feature idols of male and female deities, such as Maitreya, Tara, Avalokitesvara (Vajradhamma), Manjusri, Bhrkuti, and Mahamayuri, carved in the Pala dynasty style found in eastern regions of India. Some southern Indian influences can also be found in various works in this cave.
The Jain monuments: Caves 30–34
At the north end of Ellora are the five Jain caves belonging to the Digambara sect, which were excavated in the ninth and early tenth centuries. These caves are smaller than the Buddhist and Hindu caves but nonetheless feature highly detailed carvings. They, and the later-era Hindu caves, were built at a similar time and both share architectural and devotional ideas such as a pillared veranda, symmetric mandapa and puja (worship). However, unlike the Hindu temples, emphasis is placed on the depiction of the twenty-four Jinas (spiritual conquerors who have gained liberation from the endless cycle of rebirths). In addition to these Jinas, the works at the Jain temples include carvings of gods and goddesses, yaksa (male nature deity), yaksi (female nature deity) and human devotees prevalent in Jain mythology of 1st millennium CE.
According to Jose Pereira, the five caves were actually 23 distinct excavations, over different periods. A 13 of these are in Indra Sabha, 6 in Jagannatha Sabha and rest in the Chhota Kailash. Pareira used numerous sources to conclude that the Jain caves at Ellora likely began in the late 8th century, with construction and excavation activity extending beyond the 10th century and into the 13th century before coming to a halt with the invasion of the region by the Delhi Sultanate. This is evidenced by votive inscriptions dated to 1235 CE, where the donor states to have "converted Charanadri into a holy tirtha" for Jains by gifting the excavation of lordly Jinas.
Particularly important Jain shrines are the Chhota Kailash (cave 30, 4 excavations), the Indra Sabha (cave 32, 13 excavations) and the Jagannath Sabha (cave 33, 4 excavations); cave 31 is an unfinished four-pillared hall, and shrine. Cave 34 is a small cave, which can be accessed through an opening in the left side of Cave 33.
The Jain caves contain some of the earliest Samavasarana images among its devotional carvings. The Samavasarana is of particular importance to Jains being the hall where the Tirthankara preaches after attaining Kevala Jnana (liberating omniscience). Another interesting feature found in these caves is the pairing of sacred figures in Jainism, specifically Parsvanatha and Bahubali, which appear 19 times. Other artworks of significance include those of deities Sarasvati, Sri, Saudharmendra, Sarvanubhuti, Gomukha, Ambika, Cakresvari, Padmavati, Ksetrapala and Hanuman.
Chhota Kailasha: Cave 30
The Chhota Kailasha, or the little Kailasha, is so named due to the similarity of the carvings to those in the Kailasha temple. This temple was likely built in the early 9th century, concurrent with the construction of the lower level of the Indra Sabha, some decades after the completion of the Kailasha Temple. It features two larger-than-life size reliefs of dancing Indra, one with eight arms and another with twelve, both adorned with ornaments and a crown; Indra's arms are shown in various mudra reminiscent of the dancing Shiva artworks found in nearby Hindu caves. However, the iconography has several differences that indicate this cave shows a dancing Indra and not a dancing Shiva. The Indra panels at the entrance also feature other deities, celestials, musicians and dancers.
Art historian Lisa Owen has raised questions concerning whether music and dance were part of 9th-century Jainism, given that Jain theology focuses on meditative asceticism. Rajan, for example, has proposed that Cave 30 May have originally been a Hindu monument that was later converted into a Jain temple. However, Owen suggests that the celebration-filled artwork in this temple is better understood as part of the Samavasarana doctrine in Jainism.
The overlap between Jain and Hindu mythologies has caused confusion, given Book Three of the Hindu Mahabharata describes Indra's abode as one filled with a variety of heroes, courtesans, and artisans, within a paradise-like setting. This imagery is repeated throughout Cave 30, similar to the Hindu caves, setting the context of the temple. However, the symbolism closer to the centre of the temple is more aligned with the core ideas of Jainism; a greater prevalence of meditating images and Jinas – the place where the Jain devotee would perform his or her ritual abhisheka (worship).
Cave 31
Cave 31, consisting of four pillars, a small shrine a number of carvings, was not completed. Carvings of Parshvanatha, guarded by yaksha Dharanendra with his 7 hoods, and Gommateshvara were made into the left and right walls of the hall, respectively, while within the shrine resides an idol of Vardhamana Mahavir Swami. The idol is seated in a padmasan position on a lion-throne and a chakra is seen in the middle panel of the throne. The figure of yaksha Matanga on an elephant is on the left side of shrine while one of yakshi Siddhaiki, seated in savya-lalitasana on a lion with a child on her lap, is on the right.
The Indra Sabha: Cave 32
The Indra Sabha (Cave 32), excavated in the 9th century, is a two-storey cave with a monolithic shrine in its court. 19th-century historians confused the Jain Yaksas for alternate images of Indra that were found in Buddhist and Hindu artworks, thus leading to the temple being given the misnomer "Indra Sabha". Indra is an important deity in all three major religions, but is of particular importance in Jainism as not only is he one of 64 deities who reign over the heavens, he is, specifically, the king of the first Jain heaven, Saudharmakalpa, and the chief architect of the celestial assembly hall according to the Adipurana, a Jain holy text.
The Indra Sabha Jain temple is historically significant as it contains evidence, in the form of layered deposits and textual records, of active worship inside by the Jain community. In particular, rituals were known to have been held in the upper level, where the artwork may have played a central role.
As with many caves in Ellora, numerous carvings adorn the temple, such as those of the lotus flower on the ceiling. On the upper level of the shrine, excavated at the rear of the court, is an image of Ambika, the yakshini of Neminath, seated on her lion under a mango tree, laden with fruit. The centre of the shrine presents Sarvatobhadra, where four Tirthankaras of Jainism – Rshibha (1st), Neminatha (22nd), Parsvanatha (23rd) and Mahavira (24th) are aligned to the cardinal directions, forming a place of worship for devotees.
The Jagannatha Sabha: Cave 33
The Jagannatha Sabha (Cave 33) is the second-largest Jain cave at Ellora and dates to the 9th century according to the inscriptions on the pillars. It is a two-storeyed cave with twelve massive pillars and elephant heads projecting towards a porch, all carved from a single rock. The hall has two heavy square pillars in front, four in the middle area, and a pillared interior square principal hall with fluted shafts, all intricately carved with capitals, ridges and brackets. Inside the major idols are of Parshvanatha and Mahavira, the last two Tirthankaras in Jainism.
Cave 34
Certain inscriptions in Cave 34, or J26 according to historian José Pereira, are not deciphered as yet but were likely to have been executed between 800 and 850 CE. Other inscriptions, such as the one by Sri Nagavarma, are thought to date from the 9th or 10th century.
This cave features a large seated Parshvanatha Jina with four camara attendants, two of whom hold fly-whisks and seemingly emerge from the back of the Jina's throne. As with many other Jain excavations, a large pair of yaksa-yaksi is also found in this cave near the Jina. In the back of the cave is a bearded figure with a bowl containing round sacrificial offerings, which have shapes reminiscent of pindas (rice balls) or laddus (sweetmeat). This suggests the scene may be related to Jain devotional worship, possibly a shraddha ceremony. The Parshvanatha in the cave is paired with a standing Gommateshvara, and accompanied by other carvings showing musicians playing a variety of instruments such as horns, drums, conchs, trumpets, and cymbals. A particularly notable feature of the cave is a giant, open lotus carving on its ceiling and rooftop, which is found in only one other Jain excavation and one Hindu Cave 25 in all of Ellora. The placement of the lotus on the cave rather than a sculpture symbolizes that the temple is a divine place.
Rock carved image of Lord Parshvanath
On the hill to the northeast of the main complex of caves is a Jain temple containing a rock-carved image of Lord Parshvanath from the Rashtrakuta period with an inscription dated 1234 A.D. The well-preserved image is flanked by Dharaıendra and Padmavati. The inscription mentions the site as Charana Hill, a holy site. It is still in active worship and thus not protected by the ASI. Six hundred steps must be climbed to reach it. It is managed by a Jain Gurukul in the village.
Visitors, desecration and damage
There have been several records written in the centuries following their completion indicating that these caves were visited regularly, particularly as it was within sight of a trade route; for example, Ellora was known to have been frequented by Buddhist monks in the 9th and 10th centuries. It is mistakenly referred to by the 10th-century Baghdad resident Al-Mas‘udi as "Aladra", site of a great temple, a place of Indian pilgrimage and one with thousands of cells where devotees live; in 1352 CE, the records of Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah mention him camping at the site. Other records were written by Firishta, Thevenot (1633–67), Niccolao Manucci (1653–1708), Charles Warre Malet (1794), and Seely (1824). Some accounts acknowledge the importance of Ellora but make inaccurate statements regarding its construction; for example, a description of the caves by Venetian traveller Niccolao Manucci, whose Mughal history was well received in France, wrote that the Ellora caves "...were executed by the ancient Chinese" based on his assessment of the workmanship and what he had been told. Ellora was a well-known site in Mughal times: the emperor Aurangzeb used to picnic there with his family, as did other Mughal nobles. Mustaid Khan, a courtier of Aurangzeb, stated that people visited the area in all seasons but especially during the monsoon. He also spoke of "many kinds of images with lifelike forms" carved on all the ceilings and walls, but noted that the monuments themselves were in a state of "desolation in spite of its strong foundations."
The Lilacharitra, a Marathi text dated to the late 13th century CE, is the first report stating that active use of Ellora ceased in the 13th century. Islamic court records indicated that Deogiri, the capital of the Yadava dynasty, and about 10 kilometres from Ellora, had come under sustained attack during this period and subsequently fell to the Delhi Sultanate in 1294 CE. According to José Pereira, there is evidence that work in the Jain caves at Ellora had flourished under Singhana, who ruled the Yadava dynasty between ~1200 and 1247 CE, and these caves were in use by Jain visitors and worshippers into the 13th century. However, Jain religious activity ceased after the region came under Islamic rule in the late 13th century.
The Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monuments at Ellora show substantial damage, particularly to the idols, whereas intricate carvings on the pillars, and of natural objects on the walls, remain intact. The desecration of idols and images was traced to the 15th to 17th centuries when this region of the Deccan peninsula was subjected to iconoclasm by Muslim armies. According to Geri Malandra, such devastation by Muslims stemmed from the perceived offense caused by "the graphic, anthropomorphic imagery of Hindu and Buddhist shrines". Muslim historians of the Islamic Sultanate period mention Ellora in their descriptions of the widespread damage and fanatical destruction of idols and artwork of the region, with some Muslims of this era being known to have expressed concern regarding the wanton damage and "deplored it as a violation of beauty", according to Carl Ernst.
Ellora inscriptions
Several inscriptions at Ellora date from the 6th century onwards, the best known of which is an inscription by Rashtrakuta Dantidurga (c. 753–757 CE) on the back wall of the front mandapa of Cave 15 stating that he had offered prayers at that temple. Jagannatha Sabha, Jain cave 33, has 3 inscriptions that give the names of monks and donors, while a Parshvanath temple on the hill has a 1247 CE inscription that gives the name of a donor from Vardhanapura.
The Great Kailasa temple (Cave 16) is attributed to Krishna I (c. 757–783 CE), the successor and uncle of Dantidurga. A copper plate inscription found in Baroda, Gujarat, states that a great edifice was built on a hill by Krishnaraja at Elapura (Ellora):
Painted carvings and paintings
The carvings at Ellora were at one time profusely painted. The rock was covered with a lime plaster which was painted. The plaster and the paint has survived in places.
In popular culture
The famous Bengali filmmaker (and author) Satyajit Ray wrote the crime thriller novel Kailashey Kelenkari in 1974, featuring fictional detective Feluda. In the novel, Feluda travels to the Ellora caves to uncover a smuggling racket involving illegal trade of historical artifacts from Indian temples, including the largest cave at Ellora, the Kailasa Temple. Satyajit's son Sandip Ray adapted the novel into a movie of the same name in 2007.
In Art and Literature
Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 contains a plate of 'Skeletal Group in the Ramedwur, Caves of Ellora, supposed to represent the nuptials of Siva and Parvati' by George Cattermole, engraved by W. Kelsall, accompanied by a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon paraphrased from a translation from the Siva-Pooraun. This is from cave 21.
See also
References
Bibliography
External links
Ellora Caves in UNESCO List
Layout, floor plan and description of each Ellora cave, Deepanjana and Arno Klein
Photographs of Ellora, Getty Images
Paintings of the caves as illustrations to , a poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon:
Dus Awtar, by George Cattermole, engraved by William Woolnoth.
Dher Warra, also by George Cattermole, engraved by William Woolnoth.
Excavated Temple of Kylas, by Samuel Prout, engraved by E Challis.
Lost ancient cities and towns
Indian architectural history
Shiva temples in India
Hindu temples in Maharashtra
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India
Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India
Buddhist monasteries in India
Archaeological sites in Maharashtra
Caves of Maharashtra
World Heritage Sites in Maharashtra
Indian rock-cut architecture
Buddhist caves in India
6th-century Hindu temples
7th-century Hindu temples
8th-century Hindu temples
8th-century Jain temples
Jain rock-cut architecture
Caves containing pictograms in India
Hindu cave temples in India
World Heritage Sites in India
Jain caves in India
sa:अजिण्ठा-वेरूळ
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Russian%20War%20of%201792
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Polish–Russian War of 1792
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The Polish–Russian War of 1792 (also, War of the Second Partition, and in Polish sources, War in Defence of the Constitution) was fought between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on one side, and the Targowica Confederation (conservative nobility of the Commonwealth opposed to the new Constitution of 3 May 1791) and the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great on the other.
The war took place in two theaters: a northern in Lithuania and a southern in what is now Ukraine. In both, the Polish forces retreated before the numerically superior Russian forces, though they offered significantly more resistance in the south, thanks to the effective leadership of Polish commanders Prince Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko. During the three-month-long struggle several battles were fought, but no side scored a decisive victory. The largest success of the Polish forces was the defeat of one of the Russian formations at the Battle of Zieleńce on 18 June; in the aftermath of the battle the Polish highest military award, Virtuti Militari, was established. The Russians' greatest success in this war was the Battle of Mir on 11 June (O.S. 31 May). The war ended when the Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski decided to seek a diplomatic solution, asked for a ceasefire with the Russians and joined the Targowica Confederation, as demanded by the Russian Empire.
Background
Decline of the Commonwealth
By the early 18th century, the magnates of Poland and Lithuania controlled the state – or rather, they managed to ensure that no reforms would be carried out that might weaken their privileged status (the "Golden Freedoms"). Through the abuse of the liberum veto rule which enabled any deputy to paralyze the Sejm (Commonwealth's parliament) proceedings, deputies bribed by magnates or foreign powers or those simply content to believe they were living in an unprecedented "Golden Age", paralysed the Commonwealth's government for over a century.
The idea of reforming the Commonwealth gained traction from the mid-17th century; it was however viewed with suspicion not only by its magnates but also by neighboring countries, which had been content with the deterioration of the Commonwealth and abhorred the thought of a resurgent and democratic power on their borders. With the Commonwealth Army reduced to around 16,000, it was easy for its neighbors to intervene directly (The Imperial Russian Army numbered 300,000 troops overall; The Prussian Army and Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire, 200,000 each).
Attempts at reform
A major opportunity for reform presented itself during the "Great Sejm" of 1788–92. Poland's neighbors were preoccupied with wars and unable to intervene forcibly in Polish affairs. The Russian Empire and Archduchy of Austria were engaged in hostilities with the Ottoman Empire (the Russo-Turkish War, 1787–1792 and the Austro-Turkish War, 1787–1791); the Russians also found themselves simultaneously fighting in the Russo-Swedish War, 1788–1790. A new alliance between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussia seeming to provide security against Russian intervention, and on 3 May 1791 the new constitution was read and adopted to overwhelming popular support.
With the wars between Turkey and Russia and Sweden and Russia having ended, Tsarina Catherine was furious over the adoption of the document, which she believed threatened Russian influence in Poland. Russia had viewed Poland as a de facto protectorate. "The worst possible news have arrived from Warsaw: the Polish king has become almost sovereign" was the reaction of one of Russia's chief foreign policy authors, Alexander Bezborodko, when he learned of the new constitution. The Kingdom of Prussia was also strongly opposed to the new Polish constitution, and Polish diplomats received a note that the new constitution changed the Polish state so much that Prussia did not consider its obligations binding. Just like Russia, Prussia was concerned that the newly strengthened Polish state could become a threat and the Prussian Foreign Minister, Friedrich Wilhelm von Schulenburg-Kehnert, clearly and with rare candor told Poles that Prussia did not support the constitution and refused to help the Commonwealth in any form, even as a mediator, as it was not in Prussia's interest to see the Commonwealth strengthened so that it could threaten Prussia in some future. The Prussian statesman Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg expressed the fears of European conservatives: "The Poles have given the coup de grâce to the Prussian monarchy by voting a constitution", elaborating that a strong Commonwealth would likely demand the return of the lands Prussia acquired in the First Partition.
The Constitution was not adopted without dissent in the Commonwealth itself, either. Magnates who had opposed the constitution draft from the start, namely Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Seweryn Rzewuski, and Szymon and Józef Kossakowski, asked Tsarina Catherine to intervene and restore their privileges such as the Russian-guaranteed Cardinal Laws abolished under the new statute. To that end these magnates formed the Targowica Confederation. The Confederation's proclamation, prepared in Saint Petersburg in January 1792, criticized the constitution for contributing to, in their own words, "contagion of democratic ideas" following "the fatal examples set in Paris". It asserted that "The parliament ... has broken all fundamental laws, swept away all liberties of the gentry and on the third of May 1791 turned into a revolution and a conspiracy." The Confederates declared an intention to overcome this revolution. We "can do nothing but turn trustingly to Tsarina Catherine, a distinguished and fair empress, our neighboring friend and ally", who "respects the nation's need for well-being and always offers it a helping hand", they wrote. The Confederates aligned with Tsarina Catherine and asked her for military intervention. On 18 May 1792, Russian ambassador to Poland, Yakov Bulgakov, delivered a declaration of war to the Polish Foreign Minister Joachim Chreptowicz. Russian armies entered Poland and Lithuania on the same day, starting the war.
Opposing forces
The Russian army numbered nearly 98,000. It was commanded by generals-in-chief Mikhail Krechetnikov and Mikhail Kakhovsky. The Russians also had an advantage in combat experience. The Russian plan called for Kakhovsky to advance through Ukraine, taking Kamieniec Podolski, Chełm and Lublin, and approach Polish capital of Warsaw from the south. Krechetnikov was to advance through Minsk, Wilno, Brześć Litewski and Białystok, and approach Warsaw from the north, where he was to link with Kakhovsky. Whereas the Russians had good intelligence network in Poland, and were mostly aware of Polish army distribution and strength; the Poles had much less intelligence, receiving contradictory and often erroneous reports, and unsure whether the war would even start up to the point the Russian troops crossed the border.
Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was the commander-in-chief of the Polish forces, but in practice he delegated this position to his nephew, Prince Józef Poniatowski. Poniatowski had in theory at his disposal a 48,000 strong Crown army and the Lithuanian army more than half that size to confront them. In practice, Polish forces, still forming following the reforms of the Constitution of 3 May (which specified an army size of 100,000) numbered only 37,000. The army was in the midst of reorganizing, with key documents on unit numbers and composition passed as recently as in April; it was also short on equipment and experienced personnel.
In the southeast corner of the country – the Ukrainian lands – the Polish forces were initially concentrated separately in three regions of the expected front, under Tadeusz Kościuszko, Michał Wielhorski and Prince Poniatowski herself. The Polish Crown army in Ukraine, led by Prince Poniatowski, and supported by Kościuszko, was about 17,000, 21,000 or 24,000 strong (Derdej distinguishes between the primary force of 17,000 and Prince Michał Lubomirski's reserve division, of 4,500). They were faced on this southeastern war theater with a nearly four times larger enemy army under General Mikhail Kakhovsky, who had about 64,000 men under his command. Kakhovsky's forces were divided into four corps: 1st, 18,000 strong, under the command of General Mikhail Golenishchev-Kutuzov, 2nd, under General Ivan Dunin, 3rd, under General Wilhelm Derfelden, and 4th, under General Andrei Levanidov. The Targowica Confederates did not represent any real strength; and their attempts to gather popular support in Poland upon crossing borders failed miserably, with only few dozens joining at first; later the number would grow but not significantly, and even the Russians saw them as not having any military value, keeping them from the frontlines.
In Lithuania, Commonwealth Lithuanian Army numbered about 15,000, with an additional Crown detachment of about 3,000. They were commanded by Duke Louis of Württemberg. Württemberg made no plans for the war, and the troops were not readied for action by the time the war started. The Russian army in that theatre under General Mikhail Krechetnikov was 33,700 strong or 38,000 strong. The Russian army was also divided into four corps: 1st under one of Targowica Confederate leaders, Szymon Kossakowski 7,300 strong, 2nd under General Boris Mellin, 7,000 strong, 3rd under General Yuri Dolgorukov, 15,400 strong, and 4th under General Ivan Fersen, 8,300 strong.
Additional Polish forces, about 8,000 strong, were to concentrate in Warsaw under command of King Poniatowski as reserve.
Tadeusz Kościuszko proposed a plan where the entire Polish army would be concentrated and would engage one of the Russian armies, in order to assure numerical parity and to boost the morale of mostly inexperienced Polish forces with a quick victory; this plan was however rejected by Prince Poniatowski. (Only a few months before, however, both commanders had the opposite idea – Poniatowski wanted the troops concentrated, and Kościuszko, dispersed). Poniatowski also planned to avoid serious engagements in the first phase of the war, hoping to receive the expected Prussian reinforcements of 30,000 which would bring parity to the two sides.
War
Southern theater
The first Russian forces crossed the border in Ukraine on the night of 18/19 May 1792. The Russians in that theater would encounter significantly more resistance than they expected, as Commonwealth's top commanders, Prince Poniatowski and Kościuszko were stationed there. Kościuszko joined Prince Poniatowski near Janów on 29 May. The Crown Army was judged too weak to oppose the four columns of enemy armies advancing into West Ukraine and began a fighting withdrawal to the western side of the Southern Bug River, towards Lubar and Połonne, with Kośiuszko commanding the rear guard. Poniatowski, in face of a significant numerical inferiority of his forces, and promised reinforcements by King Poniatowski, decided to abandon Ukraine and move to Volhynia, where Połonne was to be fortified as a major defensive point, and where Lubomirski was tasked with gathering supplies.
On 14 June Wielhorski's unit was defeated at the Battle of Boruszkowce. On 17 June Poniatowski finally received awaited reinforcements, about 2,000 troops led by Michał Lubomirski. Next day the Poles, led by Prince Poniatowski, defeated one of the Russian formations of general Irakly Morkov at the Battle of Zieleńce on 18 June. The victory was celebrated by King Poniatowski, who sent the new Virtuti Militari medals for the campaign leaders and soldiers, as "the first since John III Sobieski".
The Russian forces, however, kept advancing. The Polish army, under the command of Józef Poniatowski, retreated in good order, yielding to the more powerful enemy as necessary to avoid annihilation. In early July, near Dubno, Prince Poniatowski and Kościuszko were betrayed by Michał Lubomirski, who was tasked with King Poniatowski with resupplying the troops; instead Lubomirski joined the Russian side and either hid the supplies for the Polish army, or outright passed them to the Russians. Lubomirski, however, was a powerful magnate, and it took until late May for the King officially to relieve him of his command. Within about a month of the Russian invasion, the Poles had mostly retreated from Ukraine. On 7 July Kościuszko's forces fought a delaying battle with the Russians at Volodymyr-Volynskyi (Battle of Włodzimierz). Meanwhile, Poniatowski's army retreated to the Bug River, where Kościuszko's units on 18 July fought the Battle of Dubienka, which was a draw. With about 5,300 troops Kościuszko defeated the attack of 25,000 Russians under General Mikhail Kakhovsky. Kośicuszko then had to retreat from Dubienka, as the Russians begun flanking his positions crossing the nearby Austrian border. Although the Poles had to retreat from the Bug River line, they were not defeated so far, and a decisive battle or battles at more favorable locations closer to Warsaw were expected.
Northern theater
In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania the Russians crossed the Commonwealth border four days later than in the south, on 22 May. Poland's ally, the Kingdom of Prussia, broke its alliance with Poland and the Prussian commander of the Lithuanian army, Duke Württemberg, betrayed the Polish-Lithuanian cause by refusing to fight the Russians. He never reached the frontlines, feigned illness in Wołczyn, and issued contradictory orders to his troops.
Thus the Army of Lithuania did little to oppose the advancing Russians, and kept withdrawing before their advance. Minsk was abandoned, after some skirmishes, on 31 May. Only after a change of commander on 4 June, did the Army, now under General Józef Judycki, try to stand and fight the Russians. The Russians however defeated Judycki at the Battle of Mir on 11 June and kept advancing through the Grand Duchy. The Commonwealth army retreated towards Grodno. On 14 June the Russians took Wilno, after only a small skirmish with local garrison; on 19 June, incompetently defended Nieśwież; and on 20 June, Kaunas, this time without any opposition. Judycki, disgraced, was replaced by Michał Zabiełło on 23 June. Nonetheless, since Mir, no decisive engagements occurred in the northern theater, as Polish army withdrew in relative order towards Warsaw, after minor defeat at Zelwa, eventually taking defensive positions along the Bug river near Brest. Russians took Grodno on 5 July and Białystok on 17 July. On 23 July the Russians took Brest, defeating the local garrison, but on 24 they were defeated near Krzemień-Wieś; this last battle was the first significant Commonwealth victory on the northern front.
War ends
While Prince Poniatowski and Kościuszko considered the outcome of the war still open, and were planning to use the combined Polish-Lithuanian forces to defeat the still separate Russian forces, King Poniatowski, with the consent of the Guardians of the Laws (cabinet of ministers) decided to ask for a ceasefire. Tsarina Catherine demanded that the King Poniatowski joins the pro-Russian aristocratic faction, the Targowica Confederation; with his cabinet split, he gave in to her demand around 22–23 July, which effectively forced Prince Poniatowski to terminate military resistance. The last military confrontation of the war was fought on 26 July at Markuszów in Lublin province, where an enemy attack was repelled by Polish cavalry led by Poniatowski.
At the time King Poniatowski decided to sue for peace, the Polish army was still in good fighting condition not having suffered from any major defeat nor from lack of supplies. King Poniatowski thought that due to Russian numerical superiority defeat was nonetheless imminent, and more could be gained through negotiations with the Russians, with whom he hoped a new alliance could be formed. Although subsequent events would prove him wrong, the question of whether this could have been foreseen, and prevented through continued military resistance, has been subject to much debate among historians.
The Polish military was widely dissatisfied with the ceasefire; Kościuszko, Prince Poniatowski and many others would criticize the King's decision and many, including Kościuszko, would resign their commission in the coming weeks. Prince Poniatowski even considered rebelling against his uncle's orders, and even issued orders to bring the King to the army's camp by force if necessary, as was postulated by the more radical faction. Ultimately he decided not to continue fighting against his uncle's will, and the order was rescinded at the last moment before the departure of the group charged with capturing the King.
Aftermath
Most Polish historians agree that the Polish capitulation was a mistake both from the military perspective, and the political one. In the realm of military, the Poles had reasonable chances to defend the Vistula river line, and exhaust the Russian invading forces. From the political one, showing willingness to fight could have persuaded the partitioning powers that their plan was too costly.
King Poniatowski's hopes that the capitulation would allow an acceptable diplomatic solution to be worked out were soon dashed. With new deputies bribed or intimidated by the Russian troops, a new session of parliament, known as the Grodno Sejm, took place in fall 1793. On 23 November 1793, it concluded its deliberations under duress, annulling the constitution and acceding to the Second Partition. Russia took of the Commonwealth's territory, while Prussia took . This event reduced Poland's population to a third of what it was before the First Partition. The rump state was garrisoned by Russian troops and its independence was strongly curtailed.
This outcome came as a surprise to most of the Targowica Confederates, who had wished only to restore the status quo ante bellum (Commonwealth magnate-favoring Golden Freedoms) and had expected that the overthrow of the 3 May Constitution would achieve that end, and nothing more. The last bid to restore the reformed Commonwealth came with the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794. The uprising failed and resulted in the Third Partition in 1795, in which the country lost all its remaining territories and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist.
See also
Partitions of Poland
Notes
References
Further reading
Adam Wolański, Wojna polsko-rosyjska 1792 r, Wydawnictwo Volumen, Warszawa 1996,
Andrzej Grabski et al., Zarys dziejów wojskowości polskiej do roku 1864. Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej. Warszawa 1966.
Antoni Juszczyński, Marian Krwawicz, Wypisy źródłowe do historii polskiej sztuki wojennej. Polska sztuka wojenna w latach 1764–1793. Zeszyt dziewiąty. Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej. Warszawa 1957.
Polish–Russian wars
1792 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Conflicts in 1792
Warfare of the early modern period
Wars involving Poland
Wars involving the Russian Empire
Wars involving the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth–Russian Empire relations
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion%20%28comics%29
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Hyperion (comics)
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Hyperion is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, of which there are several notable versions. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema, the original Hyperion made his debut in The Avengers #69 (October 1969). The alternate versions are each from a different dimension of the Marvel Multiverse, and consist of both heroes and villains. Thomas says that the character was intended as a pastiche of DC's iconic hero Superman.
The first Hyperion, Zhib-Ran, was a member of Squadron Sinister, a team created by the Grandmaster to fight against a team of Avengers gathered by the time travelling Kang. Two years after the character's first appearance, a heroic version appeared as a founding member of the alternate-reality Squadron Supreme. This incarnation of the character was a major character in the 1985 series Squadron Supreme, which fleshed out the characterization of Hyperion and the other Squadron Supreme members. In 2003 Marvel Comics launched Supreme Power, a new take on the Squadron Supreme universe, where Hyperion is raised by the United States government to be a super-powered operative. Yet another alternate Hyperion joined the Avengers and later the Earth-616 version of the Squadron Supreme.
Publication history
The first iteration of Hyperion, created by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema, debuted in The Avengers #69 as a member of the Squadron Sinister. The team was loosely based on heroes from DC Comics' Justice League of America, with Hyperion based on Superman.
Two years later, Thomas and penciller John Buscema created an alternate, heroic version of the Squadron Sinister called the Squadron Supreme, once again in the title The Avengers, using characters with the same names as those of the Squadron Sinister (this caused confusion in Marvel's production department, as the covers of The Avengers #85 and #141 claimed the issues featured appearances by the Squadron Sinister when it was in fact the Squadron Supreme that appeared in both issues). In the 12-issue Squadron Supreme limited series (Sept. 1985-Aug. 1986) Mark Gruenwald picked up from where Earth-712 was last seen in The Defenders #114 and revealed this Hyperion's origins.
The character is re-imagined for Marvel's MAX imprint title Supreme Power, where he is an alien who has been raised by the government. This iteration received a spinoff miniseries, Supreme Power: Hyperion, which showed a dystopian possible future.
Another Hyperion joins the Avengers in Jonathan Hickman's The Avengers vol. 5 #1 (Dec. 2012). Hickman described the decision to use a new Hyperion, rather than an existing one:
This is yet another parallel universe Hyperion. This is not King Hyperion, or Supreme Power Hyperion, this is not Gruenwald's Hyperion. This is Hyperion without all that baggage. This is Hyperion with a fresh slate, for a very specific purpose. He comes out of what the big story is behind the whole Avengers three-year plan that I have. He's very important, very pivotal, and I think people are really going to dig where we go with that. He's not going to be our poor analogue for Superman.
A pastiche of Hyperion, "Hyperius", appears in DC Comics' Final Crisis and The Multiversity, part of a group of recursive homages to other companies' pastiches of DC characters.
Fictional character biography
Squadron Sinister
The Squadron Sinister are assembled by the cosmic entity the Grandmaster to battle the champions of the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror, the superhero team the Avengers. Hyperion (Zhib-Ran) is apparently brought from a microverse. The Avengers defeat the Squadron and thwart the Grandmaster, with Thor shrinking Hyperion and trapping him in a glass sphere. The Squadron reappears in the title Defenders, reunited by the alien Nebulon. The villains receive greater power in exchange for the planet Earth, and create a giant laser cannon in the Arctic to melt the polar ice caps, which would cover the entire planet in water. The superhero team the Defenders prevent the scheme and defeat the villains (and Nebulon), with the Hulk overpowering Hyperion. After this defeat Hyperion and his two remaining teammates are teleported off world by Nebulon, and later return to Earth. Acquiring an energy-draining weapon, the villains plan to threaten the Earth once again but are defeated by the Defenders and the Avenger Yellowjacket.
The character battles Thor once again and encounters the Earth-712 version of Hyperion. He becomes involved with Thundra, but the relationship ends when she discovers a means of returning to her own dimension. The Earth-712 Master Menace transports Hyperion to his universe and informs him that he is an inorganic duplicate created by the Grandmaster modeled on the Earth-712 Hyperion. The Squadron Sinister Hyperion then impersonates the Squadron Supreme Hyperion for several weeks before dying in battle against the original. The Grandmaster briefly resurrects the character as part of a group called the Legion of the Unliving to combat the Avengers.
A new Hyperion is made when the Grandmaster reforms the Squadron Sinister. He is joined by a new Doctor Spectrum (Alice Nugent, former lab assistant of Henry Pym); the Whizzer (now called Speed Demon), and Nighthawk. This Hyperion originated from the Microverse, as the original Hyperion had believed himself to have been. The Grandmaster increases the Squadron Sinister's powers and they battle the New Thunderbolts. Thunderbolts team leader Baron Zemo defeats the Grandmaster, and in the ensuing chaos Hyperion and his teammates scatter and escape.
Squadron Supreme (Earth-712)
Hyperion, also known as Mark Milton, is a founding member of his reality's Squadron Supreme and the last known Eternal left on his Earth. Four Avengers from the Earth-616 universe accidentally arrive in this Squadron's reality, and the two groups first battle and then work together to stop the global threat posed by the mutant Brain-Child.
Hyperion and the Squadron Supreme are manipulated by the Serpent Crown into battling the Avengers. The Defenders travel to their world to fight the villain Overmind and his ally Null, the Living Darkness, who have placed the Squadron under their control.
Following the societal instability caused by Overmind's takeover of the planet, Hyperion and other Squadron members resolve, against their teammate Nighthawk's advice, to assume control of their United States government, instituting programs aimed at increasing quality of life; for instance Hyperion helps establish a behavior modification program, which the team uses to brainwash the Institute of Evil and numerous other criminals. He becomes trapped in an inter-dimensional zone and is impersonated by the Squadron Sinister Hyperion (Zhib-Ran). Forced to ally himself with Master Menace to escape, Hyperion battles Zhib-Ran to the death; although he wins, he is blinded in the fight. After a battle to the death with Nighthawk and the Redeemers, a team formed to stop the domineering Squadron, Hyperion relents and relinquishes power.
Hyperion and the other surviving members of the Squadron Supreme travel into space to protect their planet from the expanding Nth Man, and are exiled to the Earth-616 universe. The team encounters the hero Quasar, and take up residence at the government facility Project Pegasus. Quasar and the Eternal Makkari rescue the Squadron when the team is captured by the cosmic entity the Stranger; Makkari realizes that Hyperion is an Eternal and teaches him how to restore his eyesight. The entire Squadron later assists the Avengers against the villain Imus Champion before finding the means to return to their universe. Once home, the team disbands, but Hyperion reunites them when he discovers a corrupt government has filled the power vacuum they left. With the aid of inter-dimensional adventurers the Exiles, Hyperion and the Squadron expose the government to a global audience.
Earth-712 was eventually destroyed by an Incursion, a collision between two realities. Hyperion and Power Princess were the last two survivors of their team. A fatally injured Hyperion urged Zarda to escape their reality before it was destroyed.
Supreme Power
This Hyperion was sent to Earth in a spacecraft, and seized shortly after by U.S. government agents who raised him in a tightly controlled, isolated environment. As an adult, he became a covert agent used in strict secrecy, but eventually a reporter came too close to the truth, and the decision was made to make his existence public, largely so he could be used as a distraction from the government's even more closely guarded secret super-operative, Joe Ledger. He briefly allies himself with Nighthawk and Blur to find and defeat the super-powered serial killer Michael Redstone. As Hyperion discovers that he has been systematically lied to his entire life,<ref>Supreme Power #2-9. Marvel Comics.</ref> he becomes disillusioned with the government and eventually openly rebels. When the government attempts to blackmail him into returning by revealing his alien status to the public, he responds by smashing into the North Pole from space, creating a 10.5 seismic event.Supreme Power: Hyperion #1. Marvel Comics.
In the Supreme Power: Hyperion miniseries, a hastily assembled team of superhumans is sent by the government to retrieve him, and the resulting battle—through an interaction of Hyperion's "flash vision" eye-beams, Nuke's radiation blast, and Arcanna's reality manipulation—sends the combatants into what appears to be an alternate timeline where Hyperion and the Squadron Supreme rule a dystopian world. This causes Hyperion (on his counterpart's advice) to rethink his ideas about power, humanity, and teamwork, leading him to surrender to the Squadron from his world. Emil Burbank later deduces that it was not an alternate world they traveled to, but their own future; Burbank tells no one of his discovery.
Along with the rest of his team, save Nighthawk, Hyperion was killed by the Cabal during an Incursion.
Squadron Supreme (Earth-616)
This Hyperion was sent to his reality's Earth as a baby, the only survivor of a race of Eternals from a dying world. He was raised by a man named "Father", who named him Marcus Milton and taught him the morals of society. As an adult, he became the superhero named Hyperion and protected the world alongside the Squadron Supreme. When his reality collided with another, Hyperion was the only survivor, floating around in the void that had been his universe until a group of A.I.M. scientists pulled him into the Earth-616 reality. Hyperion was in the captivity of A.I.M. until he was freed by the Avengers and offered a place amongst them. Hyperion is among the superheroes that joined the Avengers due to the threat of Ex Nihilo on Mars. Hyperion was with the Avengers when A.I.M. was sighted in the Savage Land trying to extract the formula from one of the Garden's evolution pods. Hyperion later joins the Earth-616 version of the Squadron Supreme along with other various heroes who survived their home realities' destruction. This new incarnation of the Squadron Supreme are more dangerous than the Earth-712 and Supreme Power versions as they swear to protect Earth by any means necessary. Their first public battle is the destruction of Atlantis, which Hyperion enacts himself as well as severing Namor's head with his atomic vision, killing him instantly in retaliation for the King of Atlantis' role in the annihilation of Doctor Spectrum's home reality. After the public death of Namor the Squadron Supreme become a very controversial team which puts them at odds with the Avengers. Hyperion is convinced to take on a secret identity and later decides to take a job as a truck driver.
Squadron Supreme of America
A variation of the Mark Milton version of Hyperion appears as a member of the Squadron Supreme of America. This version is a simulacrum created by Mephisto and programmed by the Power Elite. Hyperion was programmed to be a mild-mannered man raised by farmers who had the strength of an Eternal. In his personal time, he works as a history teacher at Buscema High School in Kensington, Maryland.
In the team's first mission, Hyperion and the Squadron Supreme of America fought Namor and the Defenders of the Deep, when they targeted a Roxxon oil platform off the coast of Alaska. Hyperion had Orka tied up in chains.
Then, the Squadron Supreme visited another oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The Squadron Supreme then made short work of Namor and the Defenders of the Deep.
During the War of the Realms storyline, Mark was teaching a class when a code red was issued. He and other members of the Squadron Supreme of America were summoned to Washington D.C., where Phil Coulson brought them up to speed with Malekith the Accursed's invasion. Hyperion and the Squadron Supreme of America fight an army of Rock Trolls and Frost Giants. After the Squadron Supreme caused the Frost Giants to retreat, Phil Coulson sends them to Ohio which has become a battleground.
Hyperion was with the Squadron Supreme attempting to apprehend Black Panther, when he infiltrated the Pentagon to confront Phil Coulson. Hyperion states that the Squadron Supreme are the United States' sanctioned superhero team in light of the Avengers becoming an "anti-American" team.
Powers and abilities
Hyperion is a member of the race of superhumans known as the Eternals. As a result, he has superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, reflexes, flight. All versions of Hyperion possess these superhuman attributes, and in a few cases powerful breath. Each also has greatly enhanced sensory perceptions which extends to being able to perceive the entire electromagnetic spectrum (IR, UV vision; radio hearing and radar). Their "atomic vision" allows them to fire beams of heat from their eyes.
The heroic Earth-712 version of Hyperion also possesses the ability to use cosmic energy to augment his life force granting him great longevity and regenerative abilities. Most of the powers and vitality of Hyperion and his alternative versions are diminished when exposed to "argonite radiation."
Reception
Accolades
In 2015, Entertainment Weekly ranked Hyperion 72nd in their "Let's rank every Avenger ever" list.
In 2017, CBR.com ranked Hyperion 5th in their "15 Most Overpowered Avengers" list.
In 2018, CBR.com ranked Hyperion 7th in their "25 Most Powerful Avengers Ever" list and 14th in their "Marvel's 20 Strongest Villains" list.
In 2019, CBR.com ranked Hyperion 7th in their "10 Best New Avengers Of The Decade" list.
In 2021, CBR.com ranked Hyperion 5th in their "Marvel: The 10 Strongest Male Avengers" list and 5th in their "Marvel: 10 Fastest Villains In The Comics" list.
In 2021, Screen Rant included Hyperion in their "10 Most Powerful Members Of The Squadron Supreme" list and in their "16 Most Powerful Cosmic Characters In Marvel Comics" list.
In 2022, CBR.com ranked Hyperion 4th in their "10 Scariest Avengers" list and 7th in their "Strongest Fighters In The Avengers" list.
Other versions
Exiles
King Hyperion was a member of the reality-hopping team known as Weapon X. He is incredibly ruthless and seeks to conquer alternate Earths, but is eventually defeated by Blink and an alternate version of Gambit. Although his body is blown to pieces, Hyperion survives, regenerating and eventually regaining his full power. He seeks revenge on the Exiles, only to be engaged in battle by two alternate versions of himself, including the Earth-712 version. King Hyperion is then exiled to his home reality, where Earth was completely destroyed by nuclear weapons in an attempt to destroy him years prior. He somehow escapes, and is later seen in the mainstream Earth-616 reality's Russia, battling the Winter Guard and the Blue Marvel. He is imprisoned in the Raft, and Luke Cage nominates him for the Thunderbolts program. King Hyperion tells the team that he is a heroic iteration, and that the Hyperion who fought Blue Marvel had switched places with him upon defeat. This is a lie, and he turns on the Thunderbolts during their first mission together. He is soon brought down by Ghost, who uses the nanites in King Hyperion's spine to dose him with argonite. After that, Hyperion is subject to Man-Thing's touch, which burns anyone who feels fear.
Marvel Zombies Supreme
Scientists in the mainstream 616 reality graft the DNA of the Earth-712 Squadron Supreme members to normal human corpses and zap them with radiation to create a Squadron Supreme for their reality in an attempt to attain disease-curing knowledge of genetics. The bodies are reanimated as zombies, and, believing themselves to be the original Squadron Supreme, they attempt to escape the lab facility. Hyperion is successful and goes on an eating rampage in Kansas, but eventually finds enough willpower to realize deep in his mind the immorality of his appetite-driven actions, and thus in turn stopping himself through eating cattle infected with mad cow disease to kill himself.
Paradise X
In the Paradise X miniseries, a version of Hyperion is recruited by X-51 for his squadron of interdimensional heralds. in his reality, almost all superheroes perished in a nuclear attack by Earth's governments. He later kills Kulan Gath, who is responsible for the deaths of many of another reality's heroes.
Secret Wars 2015
Another version of Hyperion appears on Battleworld during Secret Wars in the four issue mini-series Squadron Sinister. He and his Squadron have been annexing other domains of Battleworld. Nighthawk secretly works against Hyperion, framing the Whizzer for treachery so that Hyperion incinerates him, and causing Doctor Spectrum to flee when he is also framed. Nighthawk later shoots Hyperion with an argonite gun, and holds his own in a fight with him using Doctor Spectrum's power prism until Hyperion is so weakened by the argonite that Nighthawk simply strangles him to death with his bare hands.
In other media
Television
Hyperion appears in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "Whom Continuity Would Destroy!", voiced by Travis Willingham. He, Nighthawk, and Power Princess are pulled from their reality by the Grandmaster to fight Iron Man, the Hulk, and the Scarlet Witch.
Hyperion appears in Avengers Assemble, voiced by Brian Bloom. This version is an alien from another planet alongside the Squadron Supreme, who thought the only way to bring peace was to rule over their people like tyrants and destroyed their own planet when the population refused to blindly obey them. Hyperion first appears in a self-titled season one episode and became a member of the Red Skull's Cabal until the latter betrayed them. In season two, Hyperion reunites with the Squadron Supreme and attempt to subject the Earth to their tyranny, only to be defeated by the Avengers and remanded to the Vault.
Video games
Hyperion appears as an unlockable character in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
Hyperion appears as an unlockable character in the IOS/Android game Marvel: Future Fight.
Hyperion appears as a playable character available via DLC in Lego Marvel's Avengers.
Hyperion appears as a playable character in the IOS/Android game Marvel: Contest of Champions''.
References
External links
Hyperion at Marvel.com
Hyperion from Marvel Wikia
Hyperion of Earth-712 at Marvel Wiki
Hyperion (Squadron Sinister version) at Marvel Wiki
King Hyperion at Marvel Wiki
Zombie Hyperion at Marvel Wiki
Hyperion of Earth-13034 at Marvel Wiki
Hyperion (Squadron Supreme of America version) at Marvel Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by John Buscema
Characters created by Roy Thomas
Comics characters introduced in 1969
Comics characters introduced in 1971
Eternals (comics)
Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Marvel Comics characters with accelerated healing
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman senses
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
Marvel Comics extraterrestrial superheroes
Marvel Comics superheroes
Squadron Supreme
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashraf%20Ghani
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Ashraf Ghani
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Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (born 19 May 1949) is an Afghan former politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.
Ghani was born in Logar, Afghanistan. After his grade-school education in Afghanistan, he spent much of his time abroad, studying in Lebanon and the United States. After receiving his PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University in 1983, he taught at various institutions and was an associate professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. For much of the 1990s, he worked at the World Bank. In December 2001, he returned to Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban government. He then served as finance minister in Hamid Karzai's cabinet. He resigned in December 2004 to become the dean of Kabul University. In 2009, Ghani ran in the 2009 Afghan presidential election but came in fourth.
In 2014, Ghani became president after winning the controversial 2014 Afghan presidential election. The election was so disputed that negotiations between Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah were mediated by the United States. Ghani became president and Abdullah chief executive, with power split 50-50. On 18 February 2020, Ghani was re-elected after a delayed result from the 2019 presidential elections. He was sworn in on 9 March 2020. As president, Ghani was known for his intensity and energetic speeches. He aimed to transform Afghanistan into a technocratic state, winning him support from youth and urban demographics. His cabinets were relatively young and well-educated. Ghani made efforts to make peace with Taliban insurgents and improving relations with Pakistan. However many of his promises, such as fighting corruption and turning the country into a trade hub between central and south Asia, were left unfulfilled. His position was also weakened by political rivalries, his attempt to lessen the power of ex-warlords, and an uneasy relationship with the United States regarding the war. He was also criticized for being aloof and short-tempered, including being in denial during the Taliban's offensive in 2021.
On 15 August 2021, his term ended abruptly, as the Taliban took over Kabul. Ghani and staff fled Afghanistan and took refuge in the United Arab Emirates. He later stated he left in order to avoid further violence, and that staying and dying would have accomplished nothing but adding another tragedy to Afghanistan's history.
Early life (1949–1983)
Ghani was born on 19 May 1949 in the Logar Province in the Kingdom of Afghanistan to Shah Pesand, a clerk worker, and Kawbaba Lodin, who hailed from Kandahar. He belongs to the Ahmadzai Pashtun tribe.
Education
Ghani's grade-school education was mostly done in Afghanistan. He attended secondary-level schooling in Kabul. But for the 1966–1967 school year, Ghani studied as a foreign exchange student at Lake Oswego High School (LOHS) in Lake Oswego, Oregon under the name Ashraf Ahmad. The American Field Service sponsored his foreign exchange stay. He served on the student council.
In 1973, he received a Bachelor of Arts in political studies from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. There, he met his future wife, Rula. From 1973 to 1977, Ghani served on the faculty of Kabul University and Aarhus University in Denmark in 1977.
In 1977, he received a Master's in cultural anthropology from Columbia University on a government scholarship.
While Ghani originally intended to stay for two years, the outbreak of the 1978 Saur Revolution led to much of his male family being imprisoned. He stayed at Columbia and received a PhD in cultural anthropology in 1983. His doctoral thesis was titled 'Production and domination: Afghanistan, 1747–1901'. His thesis advisors included Conrad M. Arensberg, Richard Bulliet, Morton Fried, and Robert F. Murphy.
Career before returning to Afghanistan (1983–2001)
Academic career (1983–1991)
In 1983, after receiving his PhD, he taught briefly at University of California, Berkeley, and then at Johns Hopkins University as an associate professor from 1983 to 1991. His academic research was on state-building and social transformation. In 1985, he completed a year of fieldwork researching Pakistani madrassas as a Fulbright Scholar.
World Bank (1991–2001)
In 1991, Ghani became Lead Anthropologist at the World Bank. During this time, he spent five years working in China, India, and Russia working on various projects. After the mid-nineties, he switched to working on the Bank's social policy, reviewing country strategies, and designing reform programs. While working for the Bank, he attended the leadership training programs of Harvard-INSEAD and World Bank-Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Return to Afghanistan (2001–2013)
In December 2001, he finally returned to Afghanistan after 24 years of absence. After the ousting of the Taliban that year, Ghani became a key figure in the Afghan Interim Administration, which lasted from December 2001 until July 2002.
He left his job at the World Bank and joined the United Nations as Special Adviser to Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations Secretary-General's special envoy to Afghanistan. In this role, he worked on design and implementation of the Bonn Agreement, which outlined the post-Taliban government of Afghanistan. During this time, he also worked pro bono as Chief Adviser to then-interim president Hamid Karzai. He approved the constitution and worked on preparing the Loya Jirgas that eventually elected Karzai.
Minister of Finance (2002–2004)
On 2 June 2002, Ghani became finance minister of the new Transitional Afghan government under President Karzai. This government would last until 2004, when it was to be replaced by a "fully representative government".
He carried out extensive reforms, including issuing a new currency, computerizing treasury operations, instituting a single treasury account, adopting a policy of balanced budgets and using budgets as the central policy instrument, centralizing revenue collection, tariff reform and overhauling customs. He instituted regular reporting to the cabinet, the public and international stakeholders as a tool of transparency and accountability, and required donors to focus their interventions on three sectors, improving accountability with government counterparts and preparing a development strategy that held Afghans more accountable for their own future development. He assisted with the National Solidarity Program, which covered 13,000 of the country's estimated 20,000 villages.
Chancellor of Kabul University (2004–2008)
After Karzai was elected in October 2004, Ghani had declined to join his cabinet and instead asked to be appointed to the chancellorship at Kabul University. From 22 December 2004 to 21 December 2008, Ghani thus served as Chancellor of Kabul University. He focused on rebuilding the university and its resources after years of conflict and neglect under the Taliban government.
In January 2005, Ghani co-founded the Institute for State Effectiveness with Clare Lockhart, of which he was chairman. The institute focused on the role of the state and transparency in governance. The organization's work was discussed at the UN and World Bank in September 2005. With Lockhart, he later published the book Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World in 2008.
In 2005, he became a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent initiative hosted by the United Nations Development Programme.
Throughout 2005, Ghani gave many keynote speeches across the world, including the American Bar Association's International Rule of Law Symposium, the Trans-Atlantic Policy Network, the annual meeting of the Norwegian Government's development staff, CSIS's meeting on UN reform, the UN–OECD–World Bank's meeting on Fragile States and TED Global.
He also regularly gave interviews and contributed to the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
At the end of 2006, the Financial Times ran a front-page report speculating that Ghani was a top candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary-general of the United Nations. He was quoted as saying, "I hope to win, through ideas."
2009 presidential election
In January 2009, an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included Ghani on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the 2009 Afghan presidential election.
On 7 May 2009, Ashraf Ghani registered as a candidate in the 2009 Afghan presidential election. Ghani's campaign emphasized the importance of a representative administration, good governance, a dynamic economy and employment opportunities for the Afghan people. Unlike other major candidates, Ghani asked the Afghan diaspora to support his campaign and provide financial support. He appointed Mohammed Ayub Rafiqi as one of his vice president candidate deputies, and hired Clinton campaign chief strategist James Carville as a campaign advisor.
Preliminary results placed Ghani fourth in a field of 38, securing roughly 3% of the votes.
Chairman of Transition Coordination Commission (2010–2013)
From 2010 to 1 October 2013, he served as chairman of the Afghan Transition Coordination Commission (TCC), which was responsible for transferring power from ISAF/NATO troops to Afghan Security Forces. He travelled across Afghanistan extensively during this time.
On 28 January 2010, Ghani attended the International Conference on Afghanistan in London, pledging his support to help rebuild their country. Ghani presented his ideas to Karzai as an example of the importance of cooperation among Afghans and with the international community, supporting Karzai's reconciliation strategy. Ghani said hearing Karzai's second inaugural address in November 2009 and his pledges to fight corruption, promote reconciliation and replace international security forces persuaded him to help.
Ghani resigned his post on 1 October 2013 in order to run for president in 2014.
Presidency (2014–2021)
After announcing his candidacy for the 2014 elections, Ghani tapped General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a prominent Uzbek politician and former military official in Karzai's government, and Sarwar Danish, an ethnic Hazara who served as the justice minister in Karzai's cabinet, as his vice presidential candidates.
After none of the candidates managed to win more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the election, Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the two frontrunners from the first round, contested in a runoff election, which was held on 14 June 2014.
Initial results from the run-off elections showed Ghani as the overwhelming favourite to win the elections. However, allegations of electoral fraud resulted in a stalemate, along with threats of violence and the formation of a parallel government by the camp of his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah. On 7 August 2014, US Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Kabul to broker a deal that outlined an extensive audit of nearly 8 million votes and formation of a national unity government with a new role for a chief executive officer who would carry out meaningful functions within the president's administration. After a three-month audit process, which was supervised by the United Nations with financial support from the U.S. government, the Independent Election Commission announced Ghani as president after Ghani agreed to a national unity deal. Initially, the election commission said it would not formally announce specific results. It later released a statement that said Ghani managed to secure 55.4% and Abdullah Abdullah secured 43.5% of the vote, although it declined to release the individual vote results. In September 2019, an explosion near an election rally attended by President Ashraf Ghani killed 24 people and injured 31 others, but Ghani was unhurt.
Ghani signed a law in September 2020 requiring mothers' names to be added to children's ID cards, in addition to fathers' names, which was seen as a win for women's rights activists in Afghanistan.
At age 65, Ghani became the oldest inaugurated Afghan ruler since the foundation of the Durrani Empire in 1747. At his 2019 re-election, at age 70, he overtook Mohammed Daoud Khan to become the oldest incumbent president.
Economy and trade
During his tenure, Ghani strengthened ties with Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, with which it has made deals to increase mutual trading. New trade routes have also been launched within the wider region. The Chabahar Port in Iran allows increased trading with India whilst avoiding Pakistani territory. Plans for a railway line from Khaf, Iran to Herat, Afghanistan were set in motion in 2018, with the railway being completed in 2020. In 2017, a railway line from Turkmenistan was extended to Aqina in Afghanistan, the precursor of the "Lapis Lazuli" transport corridor that was signed by Ghani that same year and would link Afghanistan to the Caucasus and the Black Sea. Other regional projects include the CASA-1000 hydroelectricity transmission from Central Asia, and the TAPI gas pipeline, expected to be completed by 2018 and 2019 respectively. In January 2018, at the inauguration of the Khan Steel iron smelting plant in Kabul, Ghani said that he is aiming for Afghanistan to become a steel exporter.
In 2015, a survey conducted by the Afghan news channel TOLO News showed that the popularity of Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan had fallen dramatically, with only 27.5% of respondents claiming that they were satisfied with his leadership.
Relations with Pakistan and India
Since his election, Ghani wanted to improve relations with Pakistan, which in turn could pave the way for peace talks with the Taliban. He refused to recognize the border with Pakistan, known as the Durand Line, which Pakistan views as an existential issue. He made his first visit to Pakistan on 14 November 2014, meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. However, after many terror attacks in Afghanistan which were largely blamed on Pakistan, and failed Taliban peace talks, Ghani grew increasingly cold to Pakistan. Ghani claimed that Pakistan had hit an "undeclared war of aggression" against Afghanistan. Following two deadly Taliban/Haqqani attacks in Kabul in January 2018, Ghani called Pakistan the "center of the Taliban". Tolo News while quoting an unnamed source alleged that Ashraf Ghani had refused to take a call from the Pakistani prime minister, instead he sent a NDS delegation to hand over evidence that the terrorists were supported by Pakistan. However, Afghan envoy Omar Zakhilwal rejected such reports regarding Ghani's phone call rejection with Pakistan prime minister. He stated that no phone call took place between the two leaders and that such reports are baseless. At a July 2021 conference in Tashkent, Ghani accused Pakistan of fomenting violence in Afghanistan through the Taliban; Pakistan accused Afghanistan of helping insurgent groups inside Pakistan (the Tehreek-e-Taliban and the Balochistan Liberation Army).
One of Ghani's major objectives was to improve South Asian ties to transform the region's economy. On his first official visit to India he envisioned "breakfast in Delhi, lunch in Peshawar, and dinner in Kabul–that's the world we seek!" He voiced the idea that a stable Afghanistan can act as a bridge between Central, South, and West Asia, given the country's centrist location.
Ghani had strong ties with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. After Ghani's escape from Afghanistan, Modi spoke of his friendship with him on NPR.
Relations with Taliban
In an interview with Vice News, Ghani said that his 'heart breaks for [the] Taliban'. He further stated that 'Talibans are Afghans and he is president of all Afghans'. Ashraf Ghani also said that he is willing to offer Afghan passports to the Taliban and to recognise them as a legitimate political group in Afghanistan, as an attempt to strike a peace deal with them.
In March 2021, in an attempt to advance peace talks, Ghani expressed his intentions of convincing the Taliban to hold fresh elections and allow forming of a new government through a democratic process.
Ghani blamed the Taliban for the 2021 Kabul school bombing, but Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied involvement in the attack, in a message released to the media. Many of the Kabul residents held Ghani responsible for the attack and raised loud chants against the Afghan government and security forces.
On 2 August 2021, Ghani blamed the sudden withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan for the advance of the Taliban and said the latter had not cut ties with terrorist organizations and had escalated attacks against women, which the Taliban denied. On 11 August 2021, Ghani appealed to local warlords and private militias to fight the Taliban and also appealed to a popular uprising against the Taliban. On the same day, Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan reported that the Taliban would not negotiate or hold peace talks with the government as long as Ghani remains as the president.
Flight from Afghanistan
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan on 15 August and Ghani was deposed. That day, Ghani left Afghanistan with his wife and two close aides to Uzbekistan as the Taliban captured Kabul. The Arg, the presidential palace, was captured a few hours later by the group. Afghan officials stated that Ghani had left the presidential palace Sunday morning to go to the US embassy. He has since been described as the former president. A senior cabinet minister said that Ghani fled to Tajikistan, however it was then claimed that he landed in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan.
Later that day, Ghani wrote on his Facebook that he thought it was better for him to leave in order to avoid bloodshed and called on the Taliban to protect civilians and said the Taliban now faced a "historic test". On 18 August 2021, the United Arab Emirates acknowledged that Ghani and his family were in that country for "humanitarian considerations." He was granted stay by the government on humanitarian grounds.
On 17 August, the Taliban announced that they were actively working to form a government that would be announced over the coming days. The same day, first vice president Amrullah Saleh asserted that he was acting president, claiming that if the president is absent, escapes, resigns or dies then the first vice president becomes acting president. In an 18 August taped address from the UAE, Ghani said he fled to avoid being hanged, and vowed to eventually return to Afghanistan.
Former MP Elay Ershad, who had worked as Ghani's spokeswoman, was scathing in criticism. She said he was "gutless" for fleeing the country. Afghanistan's Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mohammad Zahir Aghbar, stated that Interpol should apprehend Ghani for embezzling public funds. The Russian embassy in Kabul alleged that Ghani fled with "four cars and a helicopter" full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in. Ashraf Ghani, speaking on 18 August 2021 in UAE, has stated that the accusations are baseless. To this day, no evidence of the accusation has been presented. A former senior official stated that Ghani left in haste. He said "He went to Termez in Uzbekistan, where he spent one night and then from there to the UAE (United Arab Emirates). There was no money with him. He literally just had the clothes he was wearing."
On 8 September 2021, Ghani released a video where he apologized to the Afghan people and repeated that he left to avoid "bloody street fighting". He also strongly denied stealing money from the country when he fled. Ghani said that "leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens."
The United Nations removed Ghani's name from its list of heads of state on 15 February 2022. In May 2022, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released a report on the collapse of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan government. The SIGAR described Ghani as a "paranoid president... afraid of his own countrymen" and that many of Ghani's dismissals of top military generals "undermined morale" of the ANA. The SIGAR report also reported that Ghani feared that the US was "plotting a coup" against him.
SIGAR released a report on 9 August 2022 on the investigation of Ghani's flight from Kabul. The report could not conclude the Russian embassy claim that he fled with bags of millions of dollars, but added that it was "unlikely to be true" that he and his aides "managed to pack tens of millions in cash", citing difficulties in vehicular transportation, helicopter load, and the short period of time. On the anniversary of Ghani's departure, he commented:
He also rejected once again the reported millions of cash he flew in, citing a SIGAR report from June 2022 which found that the rumored amount would have been difficult to conceal: "it would be somewhat larger than a standard American three-seater couch. This block would have weighed 3,722 pounds, or nearly two tonnes. The Mi-17 helicopters that the group flew on do not have separate cargo holds. Therefore, all of the cargo would have been visible in the cabin next to the passengers."
Political views
Ghani is a progressive modernist with the belief and goal to "transform Afghanistan from a tribal, patronage-based society to a modern technocratic state". He is a fond admirer of both King Amanullah Khan, who was a progressive Afghan monarch in the 1920s, and General Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, a former prime minister of the Kingdom of Afghanistan, who served as the first president of the Republic of Afghanistan in the 1970s.
Personal life
Ashraf Ghani is married to Rula Saade, who was born into a Lebanese Christian family. The couple married after they met during their studies at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon during the 1970s. They eventually settled in the United States and obtained U.S. citizenship. However, Ghani renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2009 so he could run in Afghan elections.
Ashraf and Rula Ghani have two children, a daughter, Mariam, a Brooklyn-based visual artist, and a son, Tarek, who was a national security and foreign policy advisor to 2020 presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg. Both were born in the United States and carry U.S. citizenship and passports. In an unusual move for a politician in Afghanistan, Ghani at his presidential inauguration in 2014 publicly thanked his wife, acknowledging her with an Afghan name, Bibi Gul. "I want to thank my partner, Bibi Gul, for supporting me and Afghanistan," he said. "She has always supported Afghan women and I hope she continues to do so."
Ashraf Ghani also owns 200 acres of land in Surkhab area of Logar province. Abdul Baqi Ahmadzai, who is close to Ashraf Ghani, claims that Ashraf Ghani inherited a lot of land from his father. However, Ashraf Ghani bought this 200 acres of land separately in Logar province.
Ghani lost most of his stomach after developing cancer in the 1990s. It is said that Ghani wakes up every morning before five, and reads for two to three hours.
He is the older brother of Hashmat Ghani Ahmadzai, an Afghan politician who is the Grand Council Chieftain of the Kuchis. Unlike his brother, Hashmat Ghani did not flee Afghanistan. When interviewed, he said, "If I were to flee what would become of my people, my tribe. My roots are here, what kind of message would that send if I just fled and left my people in their time of need?"
Controversy
On 2 February 2020, Ashraf Ghani made controversial remarks while talking about Timur and Muhammad of Ghor which angered the Uzbek population of Afghanistan. He made those remarks while delivering a speech to a group of Afghan students on History, Culture, and the National Identity. Ghani stated that Muhammad of Ghor destroyed Afghanistan's central irrigation system while Genghis Khan demolished the irrigation system of the northern provinces. Ghani also referred to Turkic conqueror Amir Timur by his Persian-origin epithet "Timur Lang" (Timur the Lame) and stated that Timur wiped-out the irrigation system for Sistan, Farah, and Helmand provinces. His remarks regarding Timur were considered offensive to Uzbeks, according to experts, and drew condemnation from Afghanistan's Uzbek population.
Following his remarks, residents of Faryab province staged protests and demanded an apology from Ashraf Ghani. The protesters threatened that they would take serious action if Ghani did not apologize for his remarks. Abdul Rashid Dostum, former vice president of Afghanistan and an ethnic Uzbek, also demanded an apology from Ashraf Ghani. Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj, spokesperson of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, said that "Ghani has a personal bias towards historic figures, honorable ethnicities, the history and culture of the people who live in Afghanistan. This is not his first time." However, in a statement, the Afghan government palace defended Ghani's remarks and stated that "what Ghani said about Timur was not offensive or insulting".
Publications
Ghani is the coauthor with Clare Lockhart of Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World (2008). Along with Lockhart, he was listed on the 'Top 100 global thinkers list' for 2010 by Foreign Policy.
Notes
See also
Politics of Afghanistan
Economy of Afghanistan
References
External links
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan: Office of the President
Profile: Ashraf Ghani – BBC News
Afghan Elections Dossier – Ashraf Ghani, August 2009 – Radio France Internationale
AFGHANISTAN'S THEORIST-IN-CHIEF; President Ashraf Ghani is an expert on failed states. Can he save his country from collapse? 4 July 2016 The New Yorker issue by George Packer
BBC Radio 4 Profile
1949 births
2000s in Afghanistan
2010s in Afghanistan
20th-century Afghan politicians
20th-century anthropologists
21st-century Afghan writers
21st-century anthropologists
21st-century heads of state of Afghanistan
Afghan Muslims
Afghan Sunni Muslims
Afghan anthropologists
Afghan anti-communists
Afghan expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
Afghan expatriates in the United States
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampi
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Hampi
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Hampi or Hampe (), also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Hampi (City), Ballari district now Vijayanagara district, east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi predates the Vijayanagara Empire; it is mentioned in the Ramayana and the Puranas of Hinduism as Pampa Devi Tirtha Kshetra. Hampi continues to be an important religious centre, housing the Virupaksha Temple, an active Adi Shankara-linked monastery and various monuments belonging to the old city.
Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century. It was a fortified city. Chronicles left by Persian and European travellers, particularly the Portuguese, say that Hampi was a prosperous, wealthy and grand city near the Tungabhadra River, with numerous temples, farms and trading markets. By 1500 CE, Hampi-Vijayanagara was the world's second-largest city, after Beijing, and probably India's richest at that time, attracting traders from Persia and Portugal. The Vijayanagara Empire was defeated by a coalition of Muslim sultanates; its capital was conquered, pillaged and destroyed by sultanate armies in 1565, after which Hampi remained in ruins.
Located in Karnataka near the modern-era city of Hosapete, Hampi's ruins are spread over and it has been described by UNESCO as an "austere, grandiose site" of more than 1,600 surviving remains of the last great Hindu kingdom in South India that includes "forts, riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas, memorial structures, water structures and others".
Etymology
Location
Hampi is situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in the eastern part of central Karnataka near the state border with Andhra Pradesh. It is from Bengaluru, and from Hubli. The closest railway station is in Hosapete (Hospet), away, and the closest airport is Jindal Vijaynagar Airport in Toranagallu, which has connections to Bengaluru. Overnight buses and trains also connect Hampi with Goa and Bengaluru. It is southeast of the Badami and Aihole archaeological sites.
The synonym Hampi—traditionally known as Pampa-kshetra, Kishkindha-kshetra or Bhaskara-kshetra—is derived from Pampa, another name of the goddess Parvati in Hindu theology. According to mythology, the maiden Parvati (who is a reincarnation of Shiva's previous wife, Sati) resolves to marry the loner ascetic Shiva. Her parents learn of her desire and discourage her, but she pursues her desire. Shiva is lost in yogic meditation, oblivious to the world; Parvati appeals to the gods for help to awaken him and gain his attention. Indra sends Kamadeva — the Hindu god of desire, erotic love, attraction, and affection—to awake Shiva from meditation. Kama reaches Shiva and shoots an arrow of desire. Shiva opens his third eye in his forehead and burns Kama to ashes.
Parvati does not lose her hope or her resolve to win over Shiva; she begins to live like him and engage in the same activities—asceticism, yogin and tapasya—awakening him and attracting his interest. Shiva meets Parvati in disguised form and tries to discourage her, telling her Shiva's weaknesses and personality problems. Parvati refuses to listen and insists in her resolve. Shiva finally accepts her and they get married. Kama was later brought back to life after the marriage of Shiva and Parvati. According to Sthala Purana, Parvati (Pampa) pursued her ascetic, yogini lifestyle on Hemakuta Hill, now a part of Hampi, to win and bring ascetic Shiva back into householder life. Shiva is also called Pampapati (meaning "husband of Pampa"). The river near the Hemakuta Hill came to be known as Pampa river. The Sanskrit word Pampa morphed into the Kannada word Hampa and the place Parvati pursued Shiva came to be known as Hampe or Hampi.
The site was an early medieval era pilgrimage place known as Pampakshetra. Its fame came from the Kishkindha chapters of the Hindu epic Ramayana, where Rama and Lakshmana meet Hanuman, Sugriva and the monkey army in their search for kidnapped Sita. The Hampi area has many close resemblances to the place described in the epic. The regional tradition believes that it is that place mentioned in the Ramayana, attracting pilgrims. It was brought to light by an engineer named colonel Colin Mackenzie during the 1800s.
Ancient to 14th century CE
Emperor Ashoka's Rock Edicts in Nittur and Udegolan—both in Bellary district 269-232 BCE—suggest this region was part of the Maurya Empire during the 3rd century BCE. A Brahmi inscription and a terracotta seal dating to about the 2nd century CE have been found during site excavations. The town is mentioned in Badami Chalukya's inscriptions as Pampapura, dating from between the 6th and 8th centuries.
By the 10th century, it had become a centre of religious and educational activities during the rule of the Hindu kings Kalyana Chalukyas, whose inscriptions state that the kings made land grants to the Virupaksha temple. Several inscriptions from the 11th to 13th centuries are about the Hampi site, with a mention of gifts to goddess Hampa-devi. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, Hindu kings of the Hoysala Empire of South India built temples to Durga, Hampadevi and Shiva, according to an inscription dated about 1,199 CE. Hampi became the second royal residence; one of the Hoysala kings was known as Hampeya-Odeya or "lord of Hampi". According to Burton Stein, the Hoysala-period inscriptions call Hampi by alternate names such as Virupakshapattana, Vijaya Virupakshapura in honour of the old Virupaksha (Shiva) temple there.
14th century and after
The armies of the Delhi Sultanate, particularly those of Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq, invaded and pillaged South India. The Hoysala Empire and its capital Dvarasamudra in southern Karnataka was plundered and destroyed in the early 14th century by the armies of Alauddin Khalji, and again in 1326 CE by the army of Muhammad bin Tughlaq.
The Kampili kingdom in north-central Karnataka followed the collapse of Hoysala Empire. It was a short-lived Hindu kingdom with its capital about from Hampi. The Kampili kingdom ended after an invasion by the Muslim armies of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. The Hindu women of Kampili committed jauhar (ritual mass suicide) when the Kampili soldiers faced defeat by Tughlaq's army. In 1336 CE, the Vijayanagara Empire arose from the ruins of the Kampili kingdom. It grew into one of the famed Hindu empires of South India that ruled for over 200 years.
The Vijayanagara Empire built its capital around Hampi, calling it Vijayanagara. Many historians propose that Harihara I and Bukka I, the founders of the empire, were commanders in the army of the Hoysala Empire stationed in the Tungabhadra region to ward off Muslim invasions from the Northern India. Some claim that they were Telugu people, who took control of the northern parts of the Hoysala Empire during its decline. As per some of the texts such as Vidyaranya Kalajana, Vidyaranya Vritanta, Rajakalanirnaya, Pitamahasamhita, Sivatatvaratnakara, they were treasury officers of Pratap Rudra, the King of Kakatiya Kingdom. When Muhammad Bin Tughlaq came looking for Baha-Ud-Din Gurshasp (who was taking refuge in the court of Pratap Rudra), Pratap Rudra was overthrown and Kakatiya was destroyed. During this time the two brothers Harihara I and Bukka I, with a small army came to the present site of Vijayanagara, Hampi. Vidyaranya, the 12th Jagadguru of the Śringeri Śarada Pītham took them under his protection and established them on the throne and the city was called Vidyanagara in A.D. 1336.
They expanded the infrastructure and temples. According to Nicholas Gier and other scholars, by 1500 CE Hampi-Vijayanagara was the world's second-largest medieval-era city after Beijing, and probably India's richest. Its wealth attracted 16th-century traders from across the Deccan area, Persia and the Portuguese colony of Goa. The Vijayanagara rulers fostered developments in intellectual pursuits and the arts, maintained a strong military and fought many wars with sultanates to its north and east. They invested in roads, waterworks, agriculture, religious buildings and public infrastructure. This included, states UNESCO, "forts, riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas (halls for people to sit), memorial structures, gateways, check posts, stables, water structures, and more". The site was multi-religious and multi-ethnic; it included Hindu and Jain monuments next to each other. The buildings predominantly followed South Indian Hindu arts and architecture dating to the Aihole-Pattadakal styles, but the Hampi builders also used elements of Indian architecture in the Lotus Mahal, the public bath and the elephant stables.
According to historical memoirs left by Portuguese and Persian traders to Hampi, the city was of metropolitan proportions; they called it "one of the most beautiful cities". While prosperous and in infrastructure, the Muslim-Hindu wars between Muslim Sultanates and Vijayanagara Empire continued. In 1565, at the Battle of Talikota, a coalition of Muslim sultanates entered into a war with the Vijayanagara Empire. They captured and beheaded the king Aliya Rama Raya, followed by a massive destruction of the infrastructure fabric of Hampi and the metropolitan Vijayanagara. The city was pillaged, looted and burnt for six months after the war, then abandoned as ruins, which are now called the Group of Monuments at Hampi.
Archaeological site
Hampi and its nearby region remained a contested and fought-over region claimed by the local chiefs, the Hyderabad Muslim nizams, the Maratha Hindu kings, and Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan of Mysore through the 18th century. In 1799, Tipu Sultan was defeated and killed when the British forces and Wadiyar dynasty aligned. The region then came under British influence. The ruins of Hampi were surveyed in 1800 by Scottish Colonel Colin Mackenzie, first Surveyor General of India. Mackenzie wrote that the Hampi site was abandoned and only wildlife live there. The 19th-century speculative articles by historians who followed Mackenzie blamed the 18th-century armies of Hyder Ali and the Marathas for the damage to the Hampi monuments.
The Hampi site remained largely ignored until the mid-19th century, when Alexander Greenlaw visited and photographed the site in 1856. He created an archive of 60 calotype photographs of temples and royal structures that were standing in 1856. These photographs were held in a private collection in the United Kingdom and were not published until 1980. They are the most valuable source of the mid-19th-century state of Hampi monuments to scholars.
A translation of the memoirs written by Abdul Razzaq, a Persian envoy in the court of Devaraya II (1424–1446), published in the early 1880s described some monuments of the abandoned site. This translation, for the first time, uses Arabic terms such as "zenana" to describe some of the Hampi monuments. Some of these terms became the names thereafter. Alexander Rea, an officer of the Archaeological Survey department of the Madras Presidency within British India, published his survey of the site in 1885. Robert Sewell published his scholarly treatise A Forgotten Empire in 1900, bringing Hampi to the widespread attention of scholars. The growing interest led Rea and his successor Longhurst to clear and repair the Hampi group of monuments.
The site is significant historically and archaeologically, for the Vijayanagara period and before. The Archaeological Survey of India continues to conduct excavations in the area.
Description
Hampi is located in hilly terrain formed by granite boulders The Hampi monuments comprising the UNESCO world heritage site are a subset of the wider-spread Vijayanagara ruins. Almost all of the monuments were built between 1336 and 1570 CE during the Vijayanagara rule. The site has about 1,600 monuments and covers .
The Hampi site has been studied in three broad zones; the first has been named the "sacred centre" by scholars such as Burton Stein and othersl; the second is referred to as the "urban core" or the "royal centre"; and the third constitutes the rest of metropolitan Vijayanagara. The sacred centre, alongside the river, contains the oldest temples with a history of pilgrimage and monuments pre-dating the Vijayanagara empire. The urban core and royal centre have over sixty ruined temples beyond those in the sacred centre, but the temples in the urban core are all dated to the Vijayanagara empire. The urban core also includes public utility infrastructure such as roads, an aqueduct, water tanks, mandapa, gateways and markets, monasteries This distinction has been assisted by some seventy-seven stone inscriptions.
Most of the monuments are Hindu; the temples and the public infrastructure such as tanks and markets include reliefs and artwork depicting Hindu deities and themes from Hindu texts. There are also six Jain temples and monuments and a Muslim mosque and tomb. The architecture is built from the abundant local stone; the dominant style is Dravidian, with roots in the developments in Hindu arts and architecture in the second half of the 1st millennium in the Deccan region. It also included elements of the arts that developed during the Hoysala Empire rule in the south between the 11th and 14th century such as in the pillars of Ramachandra temple and ceilings of some of the Virupaksha temple complex. The architects also adopted an Indo-Islamic style in a few monuments, such as the Queen's bath and Elephant stables, which UNESCO says reflects a "highly evolved multi-religious and multi-ethnic society".
Hindu monuments
Virupaksha temple and market complex
The Virupaksha temple is the oldest shrine, the principal destination for pilgrims and tourists, and remains an active Hindu worship site. Parts of the Shiva, Pampa and Durga temples existed in the 11th-century; it was extended during the Vijayanagara era. The temple is a collection of smaller temples, a regularly repainted, high gopuram, a Hindu monastery dedicated to Vidyaranya of Advaita Vedanta tradition, a water tank (Manmatha), a community kitchen, other monuments and a -long ruined stone market with a monolithic Nandi shrine on the east end.
The temple faces eastwards, aligning the sanctums of the Shiva and Pampa Devi temples to the sunrise; a large gopuram marks its entrance. The superstructure is a pyramidal tower with pilastered storeys on each of which is artwork including erotic sculptures. The gopuram leads into a rectangular court that ends in another, smaller gopuram dated to 1510 CE. To its south side is a 100-column hall with Hindu-related reliefs on all four sides of each pillar. Connected to this public hall is a community kitchen, a feature found in other major Hampi temples. A channel is cut into the rock to deliver water to the kitchen and the feeding hall. The courtyard after the small gopuram has dipa-stambha (lamp pillar) and Nandi.
The courtyard after the small gopuram leads to the main mandapa of the Shiva temple, which consists of the original square mandapa and a rectangular extension composed of two fused squares and sixteen piers built by Krishnadevaraya. The ceiling of the open hall above the mandapa is painted, showing the Shaivism legend relating to Shiva-Parvati marriage; another section shows the legend of Rama-Sita of the Vaishnavism tradition. A third section depicts the legend of the love god Kama shooting an arrow at Shiva to get him interested in Parvati, and the fourth section shows the Advaita Hindu scholar Vidyaranya being carried in a procession. According to George Michell and other scholars, the details and colour hues suggest all the ceiling paintings are from a 19th-century renovation, and the themes of the original paintings are unknown. The mandapa pillars have outsized yalis, mythical animal melding the features of a horse, lion and other animals with an armed warrior riding it—a characteristic Vijayanagara feature.
The sanctum of the temple has a mukha-linga; a Shiva linga with a face embossed with brass. The Virupaksha temple also has smaller shrines for two aspects of Parvati-Pampa and Bhuvaneshwari to the north of the main sanctum. Bhuvaneshwari shrine is of Chalukyan architecture and it uses granite instead of pot stone. The compound has a northern gopura, smaller than the eastern gopura, that opens to the Manmatha tank and a pathway to the river with stone reliefs related to the Ramayana. To the west of this tank are shrines of Shaktism and Vaishnavism traditions, such as those for Durga and Vishnu respectively. Some of the shrines on this pilgrim's path were whitewashed in the 19th century under orders of the British India officer F.W. Robinson, who sought to restore the Virupaksha temple complex; whitewashing of this cluster of historic monuments has continued as a tradition.
According to local tradition, the Virupaksha is the only temple that continued to be a gathering place of Hindus and frequented by pilgrims after the destruction of Hampi in 1565. The temple attracts large crowds; an annual fête with a chariot procession to mark the marriage of Virupaksha and Pampa is held in spring, as is the solemn festival of Maha Shivaratri. The temple has attracted criticism from tourists for its treatment of resident elephant, Lakshmi, who lives at the back of the temple in a narrow alleyway.
Krishna temple, market, Narasimha and linga
The Krishna temple, also called Balakrishna temple, on the other side of Hemakuta hill, is about south of Virupaksha temple. It is dated to 1515 CE; this part of the Hampi complex is called Krishnapura in inscriptions. In front of the ruined temple is a long market street, also referred to locally as the bazaar. Between the colonnaded stone shop ruins is a broad road that allowed chariots to transport goods to and from the market, and hosted ceremonial functions and festive celebrations. To the north of this road and middle of the market is a large Pushkarani—a public utility-stepped water tank with an artistic pavilion in its centre. Next to the tank is a public hall (mandapa) for people to sit.
The temple opens to the east; it has a gateway with reliefs of all ten avatars of Vishnu starting with Matsya at the bottom. Inside is the ruined temple for Krishna and small, ruined shrines for goddesses. The temple compound is layered into mandapas, including an outer and an inner enclosure. The compound has two gopuram entrances. Inside, a 25 (5x5)-bay open mandapa leads to a 9 (3x3)-bay enclosed mandapa. The original image of Balakrishna (baby Krishna) in its sanctum is now in a Chennai museum. A modern road passes in front of the eastern gopura, linking Kamalapuram to Hampi. The western gopuram has friezes of battle formation and soldiers.
South of the Krishna temple's exterior are two adjacent shrines, one containing the largest monolithic Shiva Linga and the other with the largest monolithic Yoga-Narasimha avatar of Vishnu in Hampi. The Shiva Linga stands in water in a cubical chamber and has three eyes sketched on its top. South of this is the shrine for a -high Narasimha—the man-lion avatar of Vishnu—seated in a yoga position. The Narasimha monolith originally had goddess Lakshmi with him, but it shows signs of extensive damage and a carbon-stained floor—evidence of attempts to burn the shrine down. The statue has been cleaned and parts of the shrine have been restored.
Achyutaraya temple and market complex
The Achyutaraya temple, also called the Tiruvengalanatha temple, is about east of Virupaksha temple and a part of its sacred centre is close to the Tungabhadra River. It is referred to be in Achyutapura in inscriptions and is dated to 1534 CE. It is one of the four largest complexes in Hampi. The temple is unusual because it faces north. It is dedicated to Vishnu. In Vijayanagara times, the temple was traditionally approached from the river, first past a ceremonial tank then along the market street with a broad road. The temple had an outer gopuram leading into a courtyard with a 100-column hall and an inner gopuram leading to the Vishnu temple. On each side of each pillar in the 100-column hall are reliefs of avatars of Vishnu; other deities such as Shiva, Surya, Durga; scenes of daily life—rishi, amorous couples, jokers; people in yoga asanas; people in namaste poses; and Vijayanagara emblems.
The temple gateway shows the Vijayanagara dynastic emblems; a boar from Varaha, a sword, the sun and the moon. The temple and the market street are ruined but their layout suggests it was a major market with streets provided for chariot traffic.
Vitthala temple and market complex
The Vitthala temple and market complex is over north-east of the Virupaksha temple near the banks of the Tungabhadra River. It is the most artistically sophisticated Hindu temple in Hampi, and is part of the sacred centre of Vijayanagara. It is unclear when the temple complex was built, and who built it; most scholars date it to a period of construction in the early-to-mid-16th century. Some of the books mention that its construction began during the time of Devaraya II and continued during the reign of Krishnadevaraya, Achuytaraya, and probably Sadasivaraya and it stopped probably due to the destruction of the city in 1565. The inscriptions include male and female names, suggesting that the complex was built by multiple sponsors. The temple was dedicated to Vitthala, a form of Krishna also called Vithoba. The temple opens to the east, has a square plan and features an entrance gopuram with two side gopurams. The main temple stands in the middle of a paved courtyard and several subsidiary shrines, all aligned to the east. The temple is a unified structure in a courtyard measuring 500 by 300 feet which is surrounded by a triple row of pillars. It is a low structure of one storey with an average height of 25 height. The temple has three distinct compartments: a garbhagriha, an ardhamandapa and a mahamandapa (or sabha mandapa).
The Vitthala temple has a Garuda shrine in the form of a stone chariot in the courtyard; it is an often-pictured symbol of Hampi. Above the chariot is a tower, which was removed during 1940s, as per historian Dr.S.Shettar. In the front of the stone chariot is a large, square, open-pillared, axial sabha mandapa, or community hall. The mandapa has four sections, two of which are aligned with the temple sanctum. The mandapa has 56 carved stone beams of different diameters, shape, length and surface finish that produces musical sounds when struck; according to local traditional belief, this hall was used for public celebrations of music and dancing. It is classified as Karakkoil, a temple fashioned after temple chariots which are taken in procession around the temple during festivals.
The mandapa links to an enclosed pradakshina patha for walking around the sanctum. Around this axial mandapa are (clockwise from east); the Garuda shrine, the Kalyana mandapa (wedding ceremonies), the 100-columned mandapa, the Amman shrine and the Utsav mandapa (festival hall). The walled enclosure covers about with colonnaded verandahs lining the compound walls. In the south-east corner is a kitchen with a roof window (clerestory).
Outside the temple compound, to its east-south-east, is a colonnaded market street almost long; all of which is now in ruins. To the north is another market and a south-facing shrine with reliefs of Ramayana scenes, Mahabharata scenes and of Vaishnava saints. The north street ended in a temple honouring the Hindu philosopher Ramanuja. The region around the Vitthala temple was called Vitthalapura. It hosted a Vaishnava matha (monastery), designed as a pilgrimage centre centred around the Alvar tradition. It was also a centre for craft production according to inscriptions found.
Hemakuta hill monuments
The Hemakuta hill lies between the Virupaksha temple complex to the north and the Krishna temple to the south. It is a collection of modestly sized monuments that are the best-preserved examples of pre-Vijayanagara and early-Vijayanagara temples and construction. The site has several important inscriptions, is easily accessible and provides views of the some parts of Hampi and the fertile, agricultural valley that separates the sacred centre from the urban core with its royal centre.
The hill has more than thirty small-to-moderate-sized temples, together with water cisterns, gateways, and secular pavilions. The latest examples are dated to the early 14th century. Some of the structures are differently-sized prototypes of temples or mandapas, assembled from blocks of stones. Others are completed monuments of different designs, such as the Phamsana style. Two temple groups in this style look similar; each has a triple vimana consisting of square sanctums with each set connected to its own shared square mandapa. The towers (shikaras) on these are pyramidal granite structures consisting of eleven stacked, shrinking squares and a top in the Deccan-style square kalasha finial. Both sets are Shiva temples with triple linga; early sources misidentified these as Jain temples because of their simple exterior and interior walls. One of these groups has a historically important inscription that records that Kampila built the monument in the early 14th century. This inscription links Hampi with the Kampili kingdom and suggests an association of the Kampili history with that of Vijayanagara Empire that followed it. The style of temples on the Hemakuta hill suggest it may have been a study centre for experimenting with different types of Hindu temples. The styles present include those of the Chalukya period, the Rashtrakuta period and later periods. It may also have been the template for the original Virupaksha temple, which was later greatly expanded with gopuram, mandala and other additions. A similar monument dedicated to Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu, is located east of Hampi; an inscription near it states that it was operating in 1379 CE.
The Hemakuta hill also has monuments with two monolithic Ganesha; the Kadalekalu Ganesha and the Sasivekalu Ganesha. The Kadalekalu Ganesha, named after Ganesha's gram-shaped belly, is in the middle of Hampi's sacred centre on the east side of the hill near Matanga. A colonnaded, open mandapa leads to the sanctum, which houses a monolithic image of Ganesha more than high, which was carved in-situ from extant rock. Ganesha's tusk and other parts have been damaged, but the left hand—which holds a rice cake treat with his trunk reaching out for it—has survived.
The Sasivekalu Ganesha, named after Ganesha's mustard seed-shaped belly, is near the Krishna temple south-west of the Kadalekalu Ganesha. It is a -high monolith that was also carved in-situ from extant rock. The Sasivekalu Ganesha is carved with his mother Parvati, in whose lap he sits. She is only visible from the back of the statue. The monument is housed inside an open-pillared mandapa; the left hand and tusk have been damaged.
Hazara Rama temple
The Hazara Rama temple, referred to as the Ramachandra temple in inscriptions, occupied the western part of the urban core in the royal centre section of Hampi. This temple was dedicated to Rama of the Ramayana fame, and an avatar of Vishnu. It was the ceremonial temple for the royal family. The temple is dated to the early 15th century and is attributed to Devaraya I. The temple's outer walls portray the Hindu Mahanavami (Dasara) and the spring Holi festival procession and celebrations in parallel bands of artwork. The lowest band shows marching elephants, above it are horses led by horsemen, then soldiers celebrated by the public, then dancers and musicians, with a top layer depicting a boisterous procession of the general public. The depiction mirrors the description of festivals and processions in surviving memoirs of Persians and Portuguese who visited the Vijayanagara capital.
The inner walls of the temple has friezes containing the most extensive narration of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The temple has an entrance mandapa and a yajna ceremony hall, whose ceiling is designed to ventilate fumes and smoke through the roof. Inside the main mandapa are four intricately carved pillars in the Hoysala style; these carving include depictions of Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita of Vaishnavism, Durga as Mahishasuramardini of Shaktism and Shiva-Parvati of Shaivism. Images are missing from the square sanctum. The temple has a smaller shrine with friezes depicting the legends of Vishnu avatars.
This ruined temple complex is well known for its thousands of carvings and inscriptions, its elaborate frescoes depicting Hindu theosophy and its sprawling courtyard laid with gardens.
Kodandarama temple and riverside monuments
The Kodandarama temple complex lies near the Tungabhadra River, and is north of Achyutaraya temple. The temple overlooks Chakratirtha, where the Tungabhadra turns northwards towards the Himalayas. The river banks, considered holy, accommodate a Vijayanagara-era ghat and mandapa facilities for bathing. In front of the temple is a dipa stambha (lighting pillar) under a Pipal tree, and inside is a sanctum dedicated to Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman. Nearby, and continuing until Kotitirtha to its north, are a number of smaller shrines, dedicated to Vitthala, Anjaneya, Shiva and other deities. On the rock face are reliefs of Anantashayana Vishnu (reclining Vishnu creating the cosmic cycle, Ranganatha), friezes narrating the legends of Narasimha and Prahlada, and the twenty-four avatars of Vishnu according to the Puranic tradition of Vaishnavism. Near the river is a rock carved with Shaivism's 1,008 lingas.
Pattabhirama temple complex
The Pattabhirama temple complex is in the southern suburban centre outside the sacred centre and the urban core, about from the ASI Hampi museum. It was at the nucleus of economic and cultural activity of this suburb, now located north-east of Kamalapura. The complex, also known as Varadevi Ammana Pattana, was likely built in the early 16th century and dedicated to Rama (Vishnu avatar). The complex has a main temple, a colonnaded courtyard inside an enclosure and a 64 (8x8 square)-pillared and roofed mandapa in front of the sanctum. The complex and the sanctum face east; the normal entrance was through the eastern gopura. The ruins suggest the gopuram had six tiers. The Pattabhirama temple included a 100-pillared hall—likely a feeding hall—attached to the southern wall of the enclosed compound. The pillars have reliefs depicting Hindu themes which include gods, goddesses, a scene from a Hindu text, yoga and namaste.
Mahanavami platform, public square complex
The Mahanavami platform, also called the "Great Platform", "Audience Hall", "Dasara" or "Mahanavami Dibba" monument, is within a enclosure at one of the highest points inside the royal centre (urban core). It has ceremonial structures. It is mentioned in the memoirs of foreigners who visited Vijayanagara, some calling it the "House of Victory". The largest monument in this complex has three ascending square stages leading to a large, square platform that likely had a wooden mandapa above it. This was burnt down during the destruction of Hampi.
The two lower levels of the platform is made of granite. It has reliefs—possibly a catalogue of 14th-century royal activities—and lines of marching animals including elephants, horses and camels. Reliefs on the south side show musicians and dancers, including female stick-dancers. The third level reliefs show a battle procession, couples and scenes of common citizens celebrating Holi (Vasantotsava) by throwing water at each other. Near the great platform is an audience hall, which also probably had a wooden pavilion, evidenced by 100 stone stubs; this too was burnt down.
South of the platform is an aqueduct leading water to large, symmetrical, stepped tank made of granite that was excavated by archaeologists in the 1980s. The complex has another large water pool—possibly for water sports—a garden and various mandapa. there is a ruined temple-like monument near the step tank.
Water infrastructure
The Square Water Pavilion, also called the Queen's Bath, is in the south-east of the royal centre. It has a pavilion, a water basin and a method of moving fresh water to it and taking away wash water and overflows. The basin is enclosed within an ornate, pillared, vaulted bay. Nearby are ruins of the aqueduct. The modern name of this building, the Queen's bath, is probably a misnomer because this was a public bath for men and travellers. The building's interior arches show influence of the Indo-Islamic style, reflecting an era in which Hindu and Muslim arts influenced each other in India.
The Vijayanagara empire built an extensive water infrastructure, some examples of which—including the Manmatha tank near Virupaksha temple, which is dated to about the 9th century—predates the Vijayanagara. According to an inscription found there, the Manmatha tank was upgraded and a Durga shrine added in 1199 CE. The inclusion of artwork at the tank, such as a warrior fighting a lion, is dated to the 13th century, when Hoysalas frequented Hampi.
The Hampi monuments include aqueducts to carry water to tanks and other parts of the city, as well as drains and channels to remove water overflow. Excavations in the 1980s near the Mahanavami platform in the urban core revealed a large, square-stepped tank that was fed by an aqueduct. The tanks were public utilities; some were perhaps used for royal ceremonies.
Archaeological excavations in 1990 revealed twenty-three wells and cisterns in the Hampi-Vijayanagara metropolis. Of these, thirteen were found outside the city walls in the suburbs, and ten inside. Of these were twelve at roadsides, eight near temples, ten in residential areas and two were used for irrigation within the urban core. More water structures were found in Daroji valley for agriculture. According to archaeologists Kathleen Morrison and Carla Sinopoli, the Hampi water infrastructure was for the use of travellers, rituals, domestic use and irrigation.
Fountains and community kitchen
Several major temples in Hampi have an embedded kitchen and 100-or-more-pillared feeding halls. Hampi also had a dedicated public Bhojana shala (house of food) where numerous thali (dish) were carved in series in a rock on both sides of a water channel. One example is found near an octagonal fountain in the south of the royal centre; according to epigraphical sources, this Hampi bhojan shala was a utada kaluve or "canal connected with eating".
Elephant stables and enclosure
In the east of the royal centre lies the Gajashala, or elephant stables, which consist of eleven square chambers aligned north–south. The openings to the stables are arched; above ten chambers are alternating fluted and plain domes. In the middle of the stables are stairs to reach the roof.
The enclosure is close to the elephant stables; it was thus named in a Persian memoir whose 19th-century translation was an early introduction to Hampi ruins for many. The enclosure contains the Lotus Mahal, the latter being a two-storeyed pavilion in the royal centre. The Lotus Mahal combines a symmetrical, square, Hindu mandala design with lobed arches, vaults, and domes of the Indo-Islamic style. Its basement and pyramidal towers are based on Hindu temple architecture. Like almost all of the structures in Hampi's royal centre, this monument has no inscriptions nor epigraphs mentioning it and therefore dating it and establishing its function with evidence has been difficult. The Lotus Mahal and other structures in the Hampi urban core, however, were not built with Muslim patronage, unlike the tombs in the various Muslim quarters of the city. These buildings reflect the assimilative approach of the Vijayanagara Hindu rulers. Lotus Mahal looks like a syncretic, congested space and its purpose is unclear. Speculations include it being a council hall.
Other Hindu temples and monuments
In the sacred centre near the southern banks of the Tungabhadra River and close to the Vitthala temple complex, are gateways and a monument now called the King's Balance. The latter is similar to those found at the entrances of South Indian Hindu temples for the tula-purush-dāna or thulabharam ceremonies in which a person gives a gift by weight equal to, or greater than, their body weight.
The Vijayanagara rulers built forts, fortified gateways and watchtowers after their dynasty was founded from the ruins of war and for security from repeated raids and invasion. Hindu-style corbelled arches are the most common gateways and watchtowers in Hampi. One such gateway is located south-east of Ganagitti Jain temple; it incorporate a central barbican wall designed to entrap and confuse a stranger aiming for a surprise, while frequent visitors knew the three changes of direction before the gateway. These functional Hindu monuments are identifiable by a legendary Hindu character incorporated into them, such as of Bhima of the Mahabharata's Pandava fame. Another such gate is found on the north-east road to Talarighat Hindu monument and the Vitthala temple.
The Hampi site has over 1,600 surviving ruins—mostly Hindu—spread over a wide area. Other significant monuments include a temple near the octagonal bath for Saraswati, a Hindu goddess of knowledge and music; a temple in the suburbs for Ananthasayana Vishnu; an Uddana Virbhadra temple for Shiva and Vishnu; a shrine for Kali, the fierce form of Durga unusually shown holding a ball of rice and a ladle; an underground temple in the royal centre; a Sugriva cave temple; the Matanga hill monuments; the Purandaradasa temple dedicated to the scholar-musician famed for the Carnatic music tradition; the Chandrashekhara temple for Shiva near the Queen's bath monument; and the Malyavanta hill dedicated to Rama-Sita-Lakshmana and Shiva. The Malyavanta hill features several shrines including the Raghunatha temple and a row of Shiva lingas carved in stone.
Jain monuments
Reliefs of Jain temples at Hampi include Hemkut Jain temples, Ratnantraykut, Parsvanath Charan and Ganagitti Jain temples. Most of the idols are now missing from these temples, which were built in the 14th century.
Ganagitti temple complex
The Ganigitti Jain temple is near Bhima's gate in the south-east of the urban core section of Hampi. In front of it is a monolithic lamp pillar. The temple faced north; it is dated to 1385 CE, during the rule of Hindu king Harihara II, based on an inscription in the temple. It is dedicated to Tirthankara Kunthunatha and has plain walls, a pillared mandapa and a square sanctum from which the Jina's statue is missing. There are capitals on the pillars and the doorways have decoration. Over the sanctum is a Dravidian-style, narrowing square, pyramidal tower. Other monuments in the temple compound are in ruins.
Other Jain temples and monuments
A cluster of Jain east of the elephant stables. One north-facing temple is dedicated to Parshvanatha Tirthankara. It was built by King Devaraya II and dates to 1426 CE, per an inscription in the temple. In front of the temple are two ruined temples; one of Shiva and the other dedicated to Mahavira. Jain Tirthankaras are also included in reliefs inside Hindu temples.
Muslim monuments
The Hampi site includes a Muslim quarter with Islamic tombs, two mosques and a cemetery. These are neither in the sacred centre nor in the royal centre of the Hampi site. Some Muslim monuments are a part of the urban core while others are in the suburbs where most Vijayanagara residents lived. These are in the north-east valley of the urban core, where settlements of Hindus and Jains are also found. Much of this region is deeply silted and the soil conceals abandoned temples, roads, water tanks, gateways and residential quarters.
Ahmad Khan mosque and tomb
There is a Muslim monument in the south-east of the urban core on the road from Kamalapura to Anegondi, before Turuttu canal in the irrigated valley. This monument was first built in 1439 by Ahmad Khan, a Muslim officer in the army of Hindu king Devaraya II. The monuments include a mosque, an octagonal well, and a tomb. The mosque lacks a dome and is a pillared pavilion, while the tomb has a dome and arches. Other Muslim monuments and a graveyard were added later near the Ahmad Khan's legacy.
Reception
In the memoirs of Niccolò de' Conti, an Italian merchant and traveller who visited Hampi about 1420, the city had an estimated circumference of and it enclosed agriculture and settlements in its fortifications. In 1442, Abdul Razzaq, who visited from Persia, described it as a city with seven layers of forts, with outer layers for agriculture, crafts and residence, the inner third to seventh layers very crowded with shops and bazaars (markets).
In 1520, Domingo Paes, a Portuguese traveller, visited Vijayanagara as a part of trade contingent from Portuguese Goa. He wrote his memoir as Chronica dos reis de Bisnaga, in which he stated Vijayanagara was "as large as Rome, and very beautiful to the sight ... the best provided city in the world". According to Paes, "there are many groves within it, in the gardens of the houses, many conduits of water which flow into the midst of it, and in places there are lakes ...".
Cesare Federici, an Italian merchant and traveller, visited a few decades after the 1565 defeat and collapse of the Vijayanagara Empire. According to Sinopoli, Johansen, and Morrison, Federici described it as a very different city. He wrote, "the citie of Bezeneger (Hampi-Vijayanagara) is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but emptie, and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygres and other wild beasts".
The historian Will Durant, in his Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization recites the story of Vijayanagara and calls its conquest and destruction a discouraging tale. He writes, "its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace" may at any time be overthrown by war and ferocious violence.
See also
Anegundi
Bukka
Kanakagiri
Krishna Deva Raya
Suratrana
Vidyaranya
Vijayanagara Empire
Vijayanagara Architecture
Notes
References
Bibliography
S.Srinivasachar, T.S.Satyan, Hampi : The fabled capital of the Vijayanagara Empire, (Directorate of Archaeology and Museums), Govt. of Karnataka, 1995
A.N. Longhurst, Hampi Ruins Described and Illustrated, (Laurier Books Ltd., 1998)
The Ruins of Hampi:Travel Guide
Karnataka State Gazetteer 1983.
External links
Hampi Museum, Archaeological Survey of India
Group of Monuments at Hampi, UNESCO World Heritage List
Vijayanagara Research Project, Penn Museum
Fields of Victory: Vijayanagara , Kathleen Morrison, UC Berkeley
World Heritage Sites in India
Vijayanagara Empire
Archaeological sites in Karnataka
Former capital cities in India
Ghost towns in India
Tourist attractions in Karnataka
Forts in Karnataka
10th-century Hindu temples
World Heritage Sites in Danger
Architecture in India
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattadakal
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Pattadakal
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Pattadakal, also called Raktapura, is a complex of 7th and 8th century CE Hindu and Jain temples in northern Karnataka, India. Located on the west bank of the Malaprabha River in Bagalkot district, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is from Badami and about from Aihole, both of which are historically significant centres of Chalukya monuments. The monument is a protected site under Indian law and is managed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
UNESCO has described Pattadakal as "a harmonious blend of architectural forms from northern and southern India" and an illustration of "eclectic art" at its height. The Hindu temples are generally dedicated to Shiva, but elements of Vaishnavism and Shaktism theology and legends are also featured. The friezes in the Hindu temples display various Vedic and Puranic concepts, depict stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, as well as elements of other Hindu texts, such as the Panchatantra and the Kirātārjunīya. The Jain temple is only dedicated to a single Jina. The most sophisticated temples, with complex friezes and a fusion of Northern and Southern styles, are found in the Papanatha and Virupaksha temples. The Virupaksha temple is an active house of Hindu worship.
The Mallaprabha River, a tributary of the Krishna River cutting across the valley of mountains surrounded and the plains has great importance and place in this history of south India. The origin of this river is from Kanakumbi, Belagavi district, in the western ghats region flows towards the eastern side. Just before reaching Pattadakal it starts flowing from south to north. As per the Hindu tradition, a river that flows in the north direction is also called Uttarvahini Ganga.
Location
The Pattadakal monuments are located in the Indian state of Karnataka, about southeast of Belgaum, northeast from Goa, from Badami, via Karnataka state highway SH14, and about from Aihole, set midst sandstone mountains and Malaprabha river valley. In total, there are over 150 Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist monuments, and archaeological discoveries, dating from the 4th to 10th century CE, in addition to pre-historic dolmens and cave paintings that are preserved at the Pattadakal-Badami-Aihole site.
Nearby airports to Pattadakal
Sambra Belgaum Airport (IATA Code: IXG), a 3-hour drive to the west, which operates daily flights to Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.
Hubballi airport is also 3 hrs drive from Pattadkal. Hubballi airport is well connected to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi
Access to the site by train is also possible via an Indian Railways service that stops at Badami on the Hubballi-Solapur line.
History
Pattadakal ("Stone of coronation") was considered a holy place, being where the Malaprabha river turned northwards towards the Himalayas and the Kailasha mountain (uttara-vahini). As its name implies, it was used during the Chalukya dynasty for coronation ceremonies, such as that of Vinayaditya in the 7th century CE. Other names this place was known by were Kisuvolal meaning "valley of red soil", Raktapura meaning "city of red", and Pattada-Kisuvolal meaning "red soil valley for coronation". The site, states Archaeological Survey of India, is mentioned in texts by Srivijaya and is referred to by Ptolemy as "Petirgal" in his Geography.
The early rulers of the Chalukya during the 5th – 6th century were Vaishnavites (a community that believes and offers prayers to Lord Vishnu, followers of Vaishnavism) and then converted themselves into Shivaites (a community that believes and offer prayers to Lord Shiva and followers of Shivaism). Hence the temples in and around this compound are dedicated to Lord Shiva.
Pattadakal became, along with nearby Aihole and Badami, a major cultural centre and religious site for innovations in architecture and experimentation of ideas. The rule of the Gupta Empire during the 5th century brought about a period of political stability, during which Aihole became a locus of scholarship. The experimentations in architecture extended into Badami over the course of the next two centuries. This culture of learning encompassed Pattadakal in the 7th century which became a nexus where ideas from northern and southern India fused. It was during this latter period that the Chalukya empire constructed many of the temples in Aihole-Badami-Pattadakal region.
After the fall of the Chalukya Empire, the region was annexed by the Rashtrakuta kingdom, who would rule over the region into the 10th century. In the 11th century, and into the 12th century, the region came under the rule of the Late Chalukyas (Western Chalukya Empire, Chalukyas of Kalyani), an offshoot of the Early Chalukya Empire. Although the area was not a capital region, nor in proximity to one, numerous sources such as inscriptions, contemporaneous texts and the architectural style indicate that, from the 9th to 12th centuries, new Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples and monasteries continued to be built in the Pattadakal region. Historian George Michell attributes this to the presence of a substantial population and its burgeoning wealth.
In the advent of the 14th century, Pattadakal, the Malaprabha valley, as well as much of the Deccan region, was subject to raids and plunder by the Delhi Sultanate armies that devastated the region. This period ended with the rise of the Vijayanagara Empire. It was responsible for the construction of forts for the protection of the monuments, as evidenced by inscriptions in the fort at Badami. Pattadakal was a part of the border region that witnessed wars between Vijayanagara and the Sultanates to its north. Following the collapse of Vijayanagara Empire in 1565, Pattadakal was annexed by the Sultanate of Bijapur, which was ruled by the Adil Shahi dynasty. In the late 17th century, the Mughal Empire, under Aurangzeb, gained control of Pattadakal from the Sultanate. After the collapse of the Mughal Empire, Pattadakal came under the control of the Maratha Empire. It later changed hands, yet again, when Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan wrested control of it in late 18th century but would lose it when the British defeated Tipu Sultan and annexed the region.
The monuments at Pattadakal are evidence of the existence, and the history, of interaction between the early northern and southern styles of Hindu arts. According to T. Richard Blurton, the history of temple arts in northern India is unclear as the region was repeatedly sacked by invaders from Central Asia, particularly during the Muslim incursions from the 11th century onward. The subsequent "warfare has greatly reduced the quantity of surviving examples". The Pattadakal monuments completed in 7th and 8th century are among the earliest surviving examples of these early religious arts and ideas.
Prehistoric Monuments
Based on some recent findings by Archeologist and pre-historian Prof. Ravi Korisettar published works for National Institutes of Advance studies, India, the Early Chalukyan artisans were not the first to build monuments in the Malaprabha Valley. At Bachinnagudda, just a couple of kilometres west of Pattadakallu, along the road leading to Badami, is a rough-looking monument believed to date back to the Iron Age (approximately 1200 BCE – 500 BCE). This monument, called a dolmen, belongs to a class of structures called megaliths, which were erected all over southern India mostly during the Iron Age and the succeeding Early Historic period.
Description
Site layout
There are ten major temples at Pattadakal, nine Hindu and one Jain, along with numerous small shrines and plinths. Eight of the major temples are clustered together, a ninth one about half a kilometer south of this cluster, and the tenth, a Jain temple, located about a kilometer to the west of the main cluster. The Hindu temples are all connected by a walkway, while the Jain temple has road access.
Style
The Pattadakal monuments reflect a fusion of two major Indian architectural styles, one from north India (Rekha-Nagara-Prasada) and the other from south India (Dravida-Vimana). Four temples were built in the Chalukya Dravida style, four in the Nagara style of Northern India, while the Papanatha temple is a fusion of the two. The nine Hindu temples are all dedicated to Shiva, and are on the banks of Malaprabha river. The oldest of these temples is Sangameshwara, which was built during the reign of Vijayaditya Satyashraya, between 697 and 733 CE. The largest of these temples in Pattadakal is the Virupaksha Temple, which was built between 740 and 745 CE.
The last temple built in the Group of Monuments is the Jain temple, known locally as the Jain Narayana temple, which was likely built in the 9th century during the reign of Krishna II of Rashtrakutas. Its style is patterned on the lines of the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram.
The temple structures were built using the sandstones found abundantly locally at Pattadakkal. Some of the sculptures are carved from polished black granite.
Kadasiddheshwara temple
A relatively small temple, the Archaeological Survey of India has dated it to around the mid-7th century CE, but George Michell dates it to the early 8th century. The temple faces east and is built around a square garbha griha (sacrum sanctum). It houses a linga on a peetha (platform); there is a mantapa around the sacrum center. Much of the temple has been eroded or was damaged in the following centuries. The Shikhara (spire) is a northern Nagara style (Rekhanagara) with a sukanasa projection on the east. The sukanasa has a damaged Nataraja accompanied by Parvati.
The outer walls of the Kada Siddheshwara sanctum feature images of Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati) on its north, Harihara (half Shiva, half Vishnu) to its west and Lakulisha to the south. Mounted on a lintel at the sanctum entrance is Shiva and Parvati flanked by Brahma and Vishnu on either side. The steps at the sanctum entrance are flanked by the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna, with attendants.
Jambulingeshwara temple
Another small temple, the Jambulingeshwara temple, also called the Jambulinga temple, is variously estimated by ASI and Michell to have been complete between mid 7th and early 8th century, respectively. The temple is built around a square garbha griha (sacrum sanctum), whose outer walls feature intricate devakoshtha (linteled niches with decorated frames with Hamsa and mythical makaras). Inside the frames are images of Vishnu on its north, Surya (Sun god) to its west and Lakulisha to the south. The temple also experiments with the idea of projecting sukanasa from the shikhara in front, over the mandapa. The temple still faces east, greeting the sunrise. The Nandi too is provided with a raised platform which is in ruins and the Nandi image shows signs of erosion. The dancing Shiva Nataraja with Parvati and Nandi by his side on the frontal arch sukanasa is better preserved.
The style of the temple is northern rekha-nagara with a curvilinear profile of squares diminishing as they rise towards the sky. The amalaka and kalasha of the northern style, however, are damaged and not in place. The entrance of the Jambulingeshwara mandapa is decorated with three shakhas, each with purnakumbhas below their capitals. A swan themed frieze covers the passageway with the faint remains of the carvings of swans, kutas and salas.
Galaganatha Temple
The Galaganatha temple lies to the east of the Jambulingeshwara temple. Unlike the previous two temples, ASI estimates this temple to be from the mid-8th century, whereas Michell states that it is likely from late 7th century. The temple is a northern rekha-nagara style with a linga, and a vestibule (antarala) within the temple sanctum (garbha griha). Outside the temple is a seated Nandi that faces the sanctum.
The sanctum has a covered circumambulatory path (pradakshina patha), indicating that this Hindu tradition was well established by 7th to 8th century. Various mandapas exist in this temple, such as a social or community hall (sabha mantapa), used for ceremonial functions, and a mukha mantapa, of which only the foundation remains. The entrance to the mantapa is flanked by the river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna.
The Galagatha temple is mostly in ruins, except for the southern part which contains a carved slab showing an eight-armed Shiva killing the demon Andhaka, while wearing a garland of skulls as a yajnopavita (sacred thread across the chest).
According to Michell, the Galaganatha temple is notable for being almost an exact copy of the Svarga Brahma temple of Alampur in Andhra Pradesh, a temple that is dated to 689 CE. Given both Alampur and Pattadakal were a part of the Badami Chalukya kingdom, an exchange of ideas is likely. The basement of the eastern moulding is notable for depicting friezes of Panchatantra fables, such as that of the mischievous monkey and the fable of two-headed bird.
Chandrashekhara Temple
Chandrashekhara temple is a small east facing temple without a tower. It is situated on the south side of the Galaganatha temple. This temple has been dated by Michell to the late 9th or early 10th century, whereas the ASI dates it to the mid-8th century.
The temple has a garbha griha with a Shiva linga and a closed hall; a Nandi sits on a platform to the east facing the linga. It is laid out within a space 33.33 feet in length and 17.33 in breadth, on an adhishthana (platform based on certain design rules in Hindu texts). Detailed Pilasters, yet lacking in ornamentation, decorate the exterior walls of the temple. There is a devakostha (niche) in the walls on either side of the Chandrashekhara temple sanctum. The temple lacks a lintel, but features a dvarapala (guardian) on each side of the entrance; the door frames are carved with shakhas.
Sangameshwara Temple
Sangameshwara temple, also called the Vijayeshvara temple, is a large, Dravida style east facing temple located on the south side of the Chandrashekhara temple. Inscriptions at the temple, and other evidence, date it to between 720 CE and 733 CE. The death of its patron king, Vijayaditya, in 734 CE resulted in the temple being left unfinished, although work continued intermittently in later centuries. During the Badami Chalukya reign, between 543-757 CE, other important Sangameshwara temples were built, such as the one at KuDavelli; in modern times, this temple was relocated to Alampur, after extensive restoration work. The inscriptions found in this and other temples mention sponsor names from different centuries, including those of Hindu queens, suggesting they actively supported the temple architecture and arts.
Although the temple is not the largest among those at Pattadakal it is nonetheless of imposing proportions. The temple has a square layout, with an east facing sanctum. The sanctum, surrounded by a covered pradakshina patha (circumambulatory path) lit by three carved windows. Inside the sanctum is a Shiva Linga. In front of the sanctum is a vestibule that is flanked on each side by smaller shrines. These shrines once contained carvings of Ganesha and Durga, but the carvings have since gone missing. Further east of the hall is a seated Nandi. Past the vestibule is a mandapa within which are sixteen massive pillars set in groups of four, which may have been added after construction of the temple was completed.
The vimana superstructure above the temple and the outer walls of the temple are well preserved. The vimana is a two tiered structure, crowned with a square kuta-sikhara and kalasha. The temple walls contain many devakostha (niches) carved with images of Vishnu and Shiva, some of which are in various stages of completion. The temple is built on a raised moulded base, with decorative friezes of elephants, yali and makara mythical creatures. Above the kapota (eaves) are detailed friezes of ganas (playful dwarfs), who are portrayed as if they are struggling to hold the weight of the temple structure. The parapet displays hara (various kinds of string in Hindu temple texts) of various styles, including karnakutas (square), and salas (oblong), which flow with the design below them and are decorated with kudus.
Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism themes are presented in the carvings at the temple. The Shaiva iconography includes a dancing Nataraja, Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati as essential halves of each other), Shiva with Bhringi, Shiva spearing the demon Andhaka, and the yogi, Lakulisha. The Vaishnava iconography includes avatars of Vishnu such as Varaha lifting goddess earth (Bhudevi).
Excavations into the foundations of its ruined hall, in 1969 and 1971, revealed the archaeologically significant discovery of a brick temple structure beneath the hall. This discovery led to the proposal that Sangameshwara had been built over an older temple, possibly dating to the 3rd century CE.
Kashi Vishwanatha Temple
Also known as Kashivishweswara, the Kashi Vishwanatha temple is another of the smaller temples at Pattadakal. The temple has been variously dated to the late 7th century, early 8th century or the mid-8th century.
Much like the other temples, the core of the Kashi Vishwanatha temple is the square garbha griha (sanctum), which houses a linga. To the east of the garbha griha is the moulded platform of a Nandi-mantapa, featuring the image of a seated Nandi. The temple also features a pranala, a stone structure used to drain out water used during devotional activities, and an antarala, or foyer, connecting to a mantapa with a ruined entrance porch. The river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna are still visible at the entrance to the mantapa. The temple sits on a raised platform, with five layers of mouldings, decorated with 8th-century carvings of horses, elephants, lions, peacocks, and flowery vine designs. The wall surfaces have pilaster pairs supporting chaitya-style arches. The entrance door features a Shaiva dvarapala (guardian) on each side.
Sculptures of Ardhanariswara (half-Shiva, half-Parvati) and Lakulisha are carved into the northern wall of the temple mantapa, but these have been damaged and defaced. The kapota (cornice) are decorated with motifs and carved with ganas (playful dwarfs) carrying garlands; brackets show flying couples and kirtimukhas.
The superstructure, displaying a well developed North Indian Rekha-Nagara style, is a rising five stage projection of centered squares with a complex pattern of interlocking gavakshas, but the amalaka and kalasha are now missing. The sukanasa, mounted on a spire in front of the temple, is of a dancing Uma-Maheshwara (Parvati-Shiva) set inside a chaitya-arch.
Inside the temple are pillars and pilasters intricately carved with friezes depicting the Bhagavata Purana (Vaishnavism), the Shiva Purana (Shaivism) and the Ramayana. One frieze shows the demon Ravana lifting mount Kailasha, others show the playful pranks of Krishna, while another narrates the Kalyansundarmurti (marriage of Shiva and Parvati). One relief in particular shows Shiva coming out of the cylindrical linga. The mandapa ceiling has carvings of Shiva, Nandi and Parvati holding Kartikeya. This image is concentrically surrounded by the ashta-dikpalas (eight directional guardians).
Trailokeshwara Temple
Trillokeshwara temple is a mid-8th-century Shiva temple sponsored by queen Trailokyamahadevi. It is located south of the Kashi Vishwanatha temple, southwest of the Sangameshwara temple and in close proximity to Virupaksha. The temple was built about the same time as the Virupaksha temple, with a similar design and layout, but is somewhat smaller and has a few important differences.
The temple reflects a fully developed South Indian vimana style architecture. Its garbha griya (sanctum) has a Shiva linga, and features a circumambulatory path (pradakshina patha). In front of the sanctum is an antechamber (antarala) with small shrines for Durga as Mahishasuramardini killing the buffalo demon and another for Ganesha on each side, both currently empty. A Nandi-mantapa is included in the temple wherein Nandi faces the sanctum. Access to the sanctum is through a pillared sabha-mantapa (community hall) with entrance porches, enclosures (prakara) and a gateway (pratoli).
The temple, though similar to the Virupaksha temple, experiments with new architectural ideas that makes it distinct. The depiction of a dancing Shiva, as Nataraja, in the Mallikarjuna temple is set in the shallow arch of the sukanasa. As another example, the topmost storey of the shikara superstructure of this temple lacks hara elements (threads), while its roof is hemispherical unlike the square roof of the Virupaksha temple.
The use of stone carvings for storytelling is prevalent throughout the temple. The legends of Hindu epics and the Puranas are depicted on the temple pillars in the community hall. These stories span all major traditions within Hinduism, including Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism. The rasa lila of Krishna, whose stories are found in the Bhagavata Purana, are shown on friezes as are Hindu fables from the Panchatantra. Like other Hindu temples, the friezes of the Mallikarjuna temple show kama and mithuna scenes of amorous couples. In other places, artha scenes such as a worker walking with an elephant carrying a log and single women with different emotional expressions are carved into stone; one of these women carries an 8th-century musical instrument.
Virupaksha Temple
The Virupaksha temple, located to the immediate south of the Mallikarjuna temple, is the largest and most sophisticated of the monuments at Pattadakal. In inscriptions, it is referred to as "Shri Lokeshvara Mahasila Prasada", after its sponsor Queen Lokmahadevi, and is dated to about 740 CE. It was constructed after the successful military campaigns of King Vikramaditya II against the Pallavas (4th-9th centuries CE) and the inscription mentions grant to the "musicians of the temple" by the Queen and also disclosing the identity of the chief architect "Gunda Anivaritacharya" to the architect and by giving him honour of perijereppu patta by king Vikramaditya-II. The temple is notable for its range, and quality, of construction exemplifying a well developed Dravidian architectural style, as well as the inscribed names of the artists beneath the panels they worked on.
As is common with other temples at Pattadakal, the Virupaksha temple was built facing east centred around a square garbha griha (sanctum), with a Shiva Linga, surrounded by a covered circumabulatory path (pradakshina patha). In front of the sanctum is an antarala with two small shrines within which are facing images of Ganesha and Parvati, in her Durga aspect as Mahishasuramardini killing the buffalo demon. The external Nandi pavilion is aligned on an east-west axis, as are the mantapa and antechamber. The temple site forms a rectangle consisting of fused squares bounded by walls, which are decorated with carvings. Within the compound are smaller shrines, of which there were once 32, based on the foundation footprint layout, but most have since been lost. The entrance leads to a mantapa with 18 columns (4-5-aisle-5-4, with a 4x4 set forming the inner mantapa and two leading to the darshana space).
The tower above the sanctum is a three-storey pyramidal structure, with each storey bearing motifs that reflect those in the sanctum below. However, for clarity of composition, the artisans had simplified the themes in the pilastered projections and intricate carvings. The third storey is the simplest, having only parapet kutas, a kuta roof with each face decorated with kudus – a structure common in later Dravidian architecture Hindu temples. A kalasha-like pot, found in festivals, social ceremonies and personal rituals such as weddings, crowns the temple. The top of this pot is above the temple pavement, the highest for any pre-9th century South Indian temple. The sukanasa on the tower is large, exceeding half the height of the superstructure, to aid visibility from a distance.
The sanctum walls, and also those of the nearby mantapa space, are decorated with intricately detailed carvings.
These carvings depict images of Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism deities, and themes, such as Narasimha and Varaha (Vaishaivism), Bhairava and Nataraja (Shaivism), Harihara (half Shiva-half Vishnu), Lakulisa (Shaivism), Brahma, Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi, and others. According to George Michell, the carvings on the walls and porch of the Virupaksha temple exterior are "vehicles for diverse sculptural compositions, by far the most numerous found on any Early Chalukya monument". Other than Hindu gods and goddesses, numerous panels show depict people either as couples, in courtship and mithuna, or as individuals wearing jewellery or carrying work implements.
The temple has numerous friezes spanning a variety of topics such as, for example, two men wrestling, rishi with Vishnu, rishi with Shiva, Vishnu rescuing Gajendra elephant trapped by a crocodile in a lotus pond, scenes of hermitages, and sadhus seated in meditative yoga posture. Vedic deities such as Surya riding the chariot with Aruna, Indra on elephant and others are carved in stone. A few depict scenes from the Ramayana such as those involving hanuman sitting on a high chair made of his own magic tail and higher than the height of the ravana's throne, golden deer, Hanuman, Sugriva, Vali, Ravana and Jatayu bird, Sita being abducted, the struggles of Rama and Lakshmana. Other friezes show scenes from the Mahabharata, Vasudeva jailed in by Kamsa and birth of Sr krishna, Krishna's playful life story in the Bhagavata Purana and the Harivamsa as well as fables from the Panchatantra and other Hindu texts.
The temple contains historically significant inscriptions that provide hints about the society and culture of 8th-century India. For example, one inscription mentions a grant to the "musicians of the temple" by the queen.
The famous Kailasha temple at Ellora Caves was modeled after this temple, although the Virupaksha temple was itself modeled after the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram.
Papanatha temple
The Papanatha temple is situated apart from the main cluster of eight monuments. It is about half kilometer to the south of Virupaksha and has been dated towards the end of the Early Chalukya rule period, approximately mid-8th century. The temple is noted for its novel mixture of Dravida, and Nagara, Hindu temple styles.
The unusual layout of the temple is possibly due to its construction, which occurred in three stages, but there is a lack of epigraphical evidence to support this hypothesis. Its architectural and sculptural details do show a consistent and unified theme, indicative of a plan. The temple is longer, incorporating two interconnected mantapas, one with 16 pillars and another with 4 pillars. The decorations, parapets and some parts of the layout are Dravida in style, while the tower and pilastered niches are of the Nagara style.
Like the other temples, the Papanatha temple faces east towards the sunrise and has a Shiva linga in its garbha griya (sanctum) except there is no Nandi-mandapa. Instead, there is an image of Nandi housed in the sabha mantapa facing the sanctum. The temple walls are notable for the carved deities and themes of Shaivism and Vaishnavism; Durga is depicted in one of the niches. Intricately carved panels are displayed on the walls, depicting legends such as the Ramayana and excerpts of the Kiratarjuniya.
The centre of the ceiling is decorated with an elaborate Shiva Nataraja, while other ceiling slabs show Vishnu; one panel shows him in a reclining Anantasayana pose. Outside, in the mandapas, are images of single women and couples, in courtship and different stages of mithuna. Many panels show musicians with different types of musical instruments.
Jain Narayana Temple
The Jaina temple at Pattadakal was built during the 9th century, possibly with sponsorship from the Rashtrakuta King Krishna II or the Kalyani Chalukyas. Unlike the other nine temples, the Narayana temple lacks Hindu deities and intricate panels of the other nine, but instead has a statue of a Jina carved into the north side kapota eave.
Like the Hindu temples, this temple also features a square sanctum, a circumambulatory path, an antechamber, a mantapa and a porch. The mantapa is divided into seven bays at the north and south walls, with narrow niches containing seated Jinas. The bays are in the North Indian style, and the tower storey has a carved square shikhara.
The mantapa has a row of lathe-turned sandstone pillars. The kakshasana are decorated with the figures of dancers, purna-ghata, nidhis, vyalas but some of the artwork is only partially finished. The entrance features carvings of a life-sized elephant torso with riders. According to Adam Hardy, the niches of this Jain temple mantapa may have previously featured images.
The Archaeological Survey of India has conducted excavations at the site yielding evidence of an older temple and Jaina presence. According to the ASI, the excavations uncovered "the remains of a large temple complex built in bricks and also a beautiful sculpture of Tirthankara standing in sama-bhanga indicating the existence of a temple, probably belonging to before or beginning of the early Chalukyan rule".
Other monuments and inscriptions
A number of inscriptions in the old Kannada language have been found at Pattadakal, notably in the Virupaksha, Sangameshwara and Papanatha temples. These inscriptions are an important source of information regarding the grants made by King Vikramaditya, and Vijayaditya, various queens, and others, for the construction and operation of the temple.
They have also provided valuable insight into the evolution of various written Indian scripts. As an example, one particular 8th century column is inscribed in two Sanskrit scripts, the northern Indian Siddhamatrika script and the southern Indian Kannada script.
Other notable monuments at Pattadakal include a monolithic stone pillar bearing numerous inscriptions, the Naganatha temple, the Mahakuteshwara temple, which also bears numerous inscriptions, as well as several small shrines dedicated to Shiva. Near the Virupaksha, Sangameshwara and Mallikarjuna temples is a Shaiva stone pillar, featuring a trident emblem. The pillar bears inscriptions stating it was erected by Jnana Shivacharya from Mrigathanikahara, located on the north bank of the Ganges, and that he had gifted a parcel of land to the Vijayeshwara.
In 2008, Upinder Singh wrote that S. Venkateshaiah, a senior archaeologist with the ASI had located the quarry where the stones were sourced some 5 kilometers away from the Pattadakal. The site is notable for sketches of Shiva, Nandi, Durga, Ganesh, trident, peacock, swastika, symbols and inscriptions. Some of these may be emblems of guilds (sanghata) that quarried and supplied the stones for temples.
Significance
According to art historian Cathleen Cummings, the monuments at Pattadakal are a historically significant example of religion, society, and culture, particularly Hindu and Jain, in the Deccan region and is an expression of Hindu kingship and religious worldview of 8th-century India. She writes that the artisans express the conflicting concepts of Dharma (duty, virtue, righteousness) and Moksha (liberation) in Hindu theology, particularly Pashupata Shaivism. Furthermore, she states that the significance lies not just within individual images but also in their relative location and sequence as well how it expresses the historic tension in Hindu religious tradition between the stately life of the householder and the life of the renouncer monk.
The expression of Dharma, particularly raja-dharma (royal authority and duty) as exemplified by Rama, and Moksha are seen throughout the various temples at Pattadakal. The former is depicted in various friezes using examples of the life story of Rama from the Ramayana, while the latter is expressed with images of Lakulisha, Nataraja, Yoga, and numerous ascetics. Other imagery that is particularly prevalent at Pattadakal is that between Purusha and Prakriti, the soul and the matter, the masculine, and the feminine.
The temples at Pattadakal are symbolic of the Chalukya inclination towards integration, and experimentation, resulting in a merging of the Northern and Southern Indian architectural styles. This is particularly evident when the architecture at Pattadakal, Aihole and Badami are viewed together. Aihole, in the 5th century, served as the incubator for the concepts that would lead to this integration of styles. These concepts were further refined in Badami during the 6th and 7th centuries. The culmination of this is, as described by UNESCO, "the apogee of an eclectic art which, in the 7th and 8th centuries, achieved a harmonious blend of architectural forms from the north and south of India".
Early medieval era music and arts
Among the sculptures at Pattadakal is one of a long neck lute (Sitar-like) dated to the 10th century. The site also shows friezes with more conventional musical instruments, but the long neck lute suggests there was a tradition of musicians innovating with new instrument designs. Another example are the 7th-century stick zithers found carved in the bas-relief at Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.
See also
Aihole
Alampur group of temples, Telangana
Badami cave temples
Ellora Caves
Gajendragad
Lakkundi
List of State Protected Monuments in Karnataka
Mahadeva Temple (Itagi)
Mahakuta group of temples
Sirpur Group of Monuments
Sudi
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Pattadakal World Heritage Site
Pattadakal Photo gallery
Pattadakal Karnataka Government of Tourism
World Heritage Sites in India
Hindu temples in Bagalkot district
Tourist attractions in Karnataka
Archaeological sites in Karnataka
Former capital cities in India
8th-century Hindu temples
8th-century Jain temples
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%20scale
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O scale
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O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scale in the United States and remained so until the early 1960s. In Europe, its popularity declined before World War II due to the introduction of smaller scales.
O gauge had its heyday when model railroads were considered toys, with more emphasis placed on cost, durability, and the ability to be easily handled and operated by pre-adult hands. Detail and realism were secondary concerns, at best. It still remains a popular choice for those hobbyists who enjoy running trains more than they enjoy other aspects of modeling, but developments in recent years have addressed the concerns of scale model railroaders making O scale popular among fine-scale modellers who value the detail that can be achieved.
The size of O is larger than OO/HO layouts, and thus is a factor in making the decision to build an O gauge layout.
Collecting vintage O gauge trains is also popular and there is a market for both reproduction and vintage models.
History
The name for O gauge and O scale is derived from "0 [zero] gauge" or "Gauge 0" being smaller than Gauge 1 and the other then-existing standards. It was created in part because manufacturers realized their best selling trains were those built in the smaller scales.
In the United States, manufacturers such as the Ives Manufacturing Company, American Flyer, and Lionel Corporation used O gauge for their budget line, marketing either Gauge 1 or 'Wide gauge' (also known as 'standard gauge') as their premium trains. One of the Lionel Corporation's most popular trains, the 203 Armoured Locomotive, was O gauge and ran on tracks with rails spaced 1.25 inches apart. The Great Depression wiped out demand for the expensive larger trains, and by 1932, O gauge was the standard, almost by default.
Because of the emphasis on play value, the scale of pre-World War II O gauge trains varied. The Märklin specifications called for 1:43.5 scale. However, many designs were 1:48 scale or 1:64 scale. Early Marx Trains and entry-level trains, usually made of lithographed tin plate, were not scaled at all, made to whimsical proportions about the same length of an HO scale ("half O") piece, but about the same width and height of an O scale piece. Yet all of these designs ran on the same track, and, depending on the manufacturer(s) of the cars, could sometimes be coupled together and run as part of the same train.
After World War II, manufacturers started paying more attention to scale, and post-war locomotives and rolling stock tended to be larger and more realistic than their earlier counterparts. This has been reflected in the change of name from O gauge to O scale: gauge describes merely the distance between the rails, while scale describes the size ratio of a model as it relates to its real-world prototype.
Since the early 1990s, O scale manufacturers have begun placing more emphasis on realism, and the scale has experienced a resurgence in popularity, although it remains less popular than HO or N scale. However, newer manufacturers including MTH Electric Trains, Lionel, LLC, Atlas Model Railroad Co and Weavermodels are making very exact, 1:48 scale models of trains.
In the United Kingdom the dominant O gauge manufacturer before World War II was Meccano Ltd. who from 1920 produced a range of clockwork and electric models under the "Hornby" name.
Standards
The differences in the various O gauge and O scale standards can be confusing. O gauge model railroad tracks typically have their rails spaced apart with the United States National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) standard allowing spacings between 31.75 mm and 32.64 mm.
Scale and gauge
Scale refers to the size of the model relative to the actual full-sized object being represented, while gauge is the width of the model track. Most commercially produced model track is a compromise between appearance and a trouble-free running surface.
Scale
Scale is the ratio of a model dimension to the real life dimension. O Scale in the UK is commonly 1:43.5 or 7 mm to the foot, in continental Europe it is commonly 1:45 or 1:43.5 is also used particularly in France, and in the USA 1:48. Each region tends to design models to its own scale. The NMRA and the MOROP maintain detailed standards for a variety of scales to help model makers create interoperable models.
Gauge
Gauge refers to the distance between the inside edges of the load-bearing rails. Various sizes of track gauge exist around the world and the normal O gauge track represents the Standard gauge of . "O gauge" refers to tracks that are nominal nominal according to older standards of NMRA, current standards of BRMSB and NEM. apart current standards of NMRA. When used as a narrow-gauge track, O gauge allows scales such as 1:32 representing gauge track. 1:20 representing narrow-gauge railways.
Regional model manufacturers design their O-scale rolling stock with minor regional scale differences — manufacturers support their rolling stock with track made to the same regional scales, so there is no universal width for O-gauge model track. Models could represent the real-world standard gauge track spacing of by choosing various spacings such as at 1:48 scale, at 1:45.2 scale, at 1:44.8 scale, at 7 mm:1 ft scale, and at 1:43.5 scale. Model makers choose their scale based on many considerations including the existing marketplace, aesthetic concerns and compatibility with existing models.
Wide- or narrow-gauge track
Some O-scale modelers choose to model prototypes at other than standard gauge and follow wide gauge (also known as broad-gauge) or narrow-gauge railroads. There is no standard for wide- or narrow-gauge model track, and modelers wishing to portray such railway track either build their own, or more commonly accept the shortcomings of appropriately wider or narrower gauge model track. , and are the more popular track widths used by indoor enthusiasts modeling narrow gauge. Differences in regional scales give different prototype gauges to these different model track widths.
For example, using specially manufactured gauge track, scaled at 7 mm to the foot (with appropriately spaced, larger sleepers, etc.) underneath:
UK O scale rolling stock (1:43.5), it becomes a narrow-gauge track of , and is referred to as "O 16.5". Modelers portray gauges between and .
European O scale rolling stock (1:45 or 1:43.5 in France), it becomes a narrow-gauge track of , and is referred to as "Oe" portraying a , and prototype. Modelers portray gauges between 650 mm and 800 mm prototype.
United States O scale rolling stock (1:48), it becomes a narrow-gauge track of , and is referred to as "On 2½" (or On30, as in 30 inches).
Om gauge
The Om gauge (O-22.5 gauge) includes the actual narrow-gauges from 850 to 1250 mm and with it the metric gauge. This applies to both 1:43.4 and 1:45 scale model trains. Metric model railroaders generally use the 0m scale with a gauge of 22.5 mm. The starting point is the NEM standards concerning 0m gauge that were created at the end of the 1950s.
O-27 gauge
O-27 gauge is variant whose origins are slightly unclear. Some historians attribute its creation to A. C. Gilbert Company's American Flyer, but Ives Manufacturing Company used O-27 track in its entry-level sets at least a decade before Gilbert bought Flyer.
The modern standard for O-27, however, was formalized after 1938 by Gilbert, who scaled the locomotives and rolling stock to 1:64 scale. After World War II, this practice was continued by Louis Marx and Company, who used it throughout its product line, and Lionel, who used it for its entry-level trains. O-27 track is spaced at the same width as regular O gauge track, but is slightly shorter in height and has thinner rails than traditional O gauge track. A shim underneath the O-27 track enables the use of O and O-27 track together.
The O-27 name comes from the size of the track's curves. A circle made of eight pieces of standard 45-degree curved O gauge track will have a diameter. A circle made of 8 pieces of 45-degree curved O-27 track is smaller, with a diameter. Full-sized O cars sometimes have difficulty negotiating the tighter curves of an O-27 layout.
Although the smaller, tin lithographed cars by American Flyer, Marx, and others predate the formal O-27 standard, they are also often called O-27, because they also operate flawlessly on O-27 track. Marx may have dedicated its entire line to O-27, but only the Lionel Corporation remains to produce O-27 track and trains. Its tubular rail is a standard of the tinplate era.
Super-O gauge
"Super-O gauge" is a variant whose origin stems from Lionel's desire to create a more realistic looking track and improve sagging sales in the late 1950s.
Exact scale standards
Dissatisfaction with these standards led to a more accurate standard for wheels and track called Proto:48 This duplicates to exact scale the AAR track and wheel standards. In the United Kingdom a similar ScaleSeven system exists.
The track gauge normally used for O of 32 mm or the near-approximation inch is for Standard gauge () approximately equivalent to at 1:48 scale, at 1:45 and at 1:43.5.
Possibly because of the large size of American railroad systems, accurate scale modeling in standard gauge O gauge is rare in the United States, though narrow-gauge modeling is much more common.
Four common narrow-gauge standards exist, and the differences among On3, On2, On30, and On18 are frequent sources of confusion. On3 is exact-scale 1:48 modeling of gauge prototypes, while On30 is 1:48 modeling of gauge prototypes, On2 is 1:48 modeling of gauge prototypes, and On18 is 1:48 modeling of gauge prototypes. On30 is also sometimes called On2½.
Because On30's gauge closely matches that of HO track, On30 equipment typically runs on standard HO scale track. While many On30 modelers scratchbuild their equipment, commercial offerings in On30 are fairly common and sometimes very inexpensive, with Bachmann Industries being the most commonly found manufacturer.
Hobbyists who choose to model in any of these O gauge standards nevertheless end up building most, if not all, of their equipment either from kits or from scratch.
Power supply
Models that are either built to 1:43 scale, 7 mm:1 foot (1:43.5), 1:45 scale, or 1:48 scale can run on realistic-looking two-rail track using direct current (Commonly known as 2-Rail O), or on a center third power rail or a center stud supply system. If modeling such a system, an external third rail or overhead supply may be employed.
While two-rail O has traditionally been more popular in Europe, and alternating current powered three-rail more popular in the United States, two-rail O is currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity in the United States, due to increased availability of ready-to-run models from several manufacturers. The recent development of Digital Command Control (DCC) power systems with built in sound have also increased the popularity of two rail O scale models.
Die-cast metal models compatible with O scale
Many manufacturers produce die-cast models of trucks, cars, buses, construction equipment and other vehicles in scales compatible with or similar to O scale model trains. These are available in 1:43 scale, 1:48 scale and 1:50 scale. Manufacturers include Conrad, NZG, Corgi, TWH Collectibles. Ertl, and many others. These are popular with collectors and easy to find.
Geographical area
European (other than UK and former USSR)
0 scale is one of the scales defined by the NEM as 1:45 scale. However, for historical reasons they use the number "zero" rather than the letter as the name for the scale.
A situation similar to that in Britain exists in continental Europe, although the market revolves less around kits and more around expensive hand-built metal models for the deep-pocketed collector. Additionally, Czech Republic-based Electric Train Systems started manufacturing and selling lithographed tin 1:45 scale trains in 1991, citing O gauge's advantages over smaller sizes for non-permanent floor layouts and outdoor layouts. The Spanish company Paya produces a smaller line of tinplate trains, based on designs dating back to 1906.
In Germany a narrow-gauge train set is produced by Fleischmann, running on track, this scale is called "0e" ( prototype). The trains are marketed as children's toy trains (Magic Train), but are accurately built after Austrian prototypes and increased the interest in building narrow-gauge layouts in Germany and Austria significantly. Since 2006 there are again some reasonably priced O-scale plastic models available, manufactured by DCC developer Lenz.
In the 1970s both Italian branches of Rivarossi and Lima produced large quantities of "0" models, mainly Italian and German trains, later on coaches and wagons from Switzerland. In the late 1970s hand made models of the Orient Express could be found in several German hobby stores, along with other highly detailed accessories. Special brands for high procession were Lemaco, Fulgurex, Euro Train, Markscheffel & Lennartz, making models in small quantities.
Former Soviet Union
Between 1951 and 1969, a limited number of O gauge train sets were manufactured in the Soviet Union. Utilizing the same track and voltage as their U.S. counterparts, the colorful locomotives and cars resembled pre-World War II designs from U.S. manufacturers Lionel and American Flyer and the couplers were nearly identical to those of pre-war American Flyer. Some differences in U.S. and Soviet railroading were evident from comparing the Soviet sets with U.S. sets, particularly in the design of the boxcar, which looked like an American Flyer boxcar with windows added, reflecting the Soviets' use of box cars to haul livestock, as well as merchandise.
Much like their U.S. counterparts, Soviet O gauge trains were toys, rather than precision-scaled models.
Specifications
scale ratio: 1:48
gauge: 32 mm
prototype gauge:
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, O gauge equipment is produced at a scale of 1:43.5, which is 7 mm to the foot (using the common British practice of modelling in metric prototypes originally produced using Imperial measurements). It is often called 7 mm scale for this reason.
Although toy trains were historically produced to this scale, O gauge's popularity across the whole of Europe reduced after World War II, and the standard is rarer than in the United States. Modelling in O gauge almost died out in Britain but enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s as modellers developed a new appreciation for the level of accurate detailing possible in this scale. Some ready to run models are produced in this scale but most are available only as kits for assembly by the modeller or a professional model-builder. O gauge is considered an expensive scale to model in although the necessarily smaller scope of a larger-scaled layout mitigates this to some extent. The two dominant British manufacturers, Bassett-Lowke and Hornby, ceased production of O gauge trains in 1965 and 1969, respectively. However, ACE Trains and for a while a revived Bassett-Lowke are once again producing tinplate O gauge sets, many of them reproductions of classic Hornby and Bassett-Lowke designs, and Heljan also recently joined the market producing O gauge Diesel locomotives.
A true-to-prototype version of British 7 mm O gauge exists, called ScaleSeven (S7) which uses 33 mm gauge to represent British standard gauge in a scale of 1:43.5.
The British 1:43.5 rail scale gave birth to series of die cast cars and model commercial vehicles of the same scale which gradually grew in popularity and spread to France, the rest of Europe and North America at the same time that the rail models were becoming less popular.
7 mm scale is also popular for modelling narrow-gauge railways, a section of the hobby supported by the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association.
United States
In the United States, O gauge is defined as 1:48 (0.25 inches to the foot, "quarter inch scale" - 1/4 inch equals one foot). This is also a common dollhouse scale, giving more options for buildings, figures, and accessories. Many O gauge layouts are also accessorized with 1:43.5 scale model cars.
While 1:48 is a very convenient scale for modeling using the Imperial system (a quarter-inch equals one scale foot), the discrepancy between O gauge in the United States and O gauge in Europe is attributed to Lionel misreading the original Märklin specifications.
Although Lionel is the most enduring brand of O gauge trains, a variety of manufacturers made trains in this scale. Prior to World War I, the majority of toy trains sold in the United States were German imports made by Märklin, Bing, Fandor, and other companies. World War I brought a halt to these German imports, and protective tariffs after the war made it difficult for them to compete.
In between the two world wars, shorter-lived companies such as Dorfan, Hafner, Ives, and Joy Line competed with Lionel, Louis Marx and Company, American Flyer and Hornby. Many of these pre-war trains operated by clockwork or battery power and were made of lithographed tin. The sizes of the cars varied widely, as the standard for O gauge was largely ignored. Dorfan went out of business in 1934, while Ives was bought by Lionel, and Hafner and Joy Line were bought by Marx. Hornby withdrew from the U.S. market in 1930 after selling its U.S. factory to the A. C. Gilbert Company.
As early as 1938, the survivors Lionel, Marx, and American Flyer faced competition from Sakai, a Tokyo-based Japanese toy company who sold trains priced at the low end of the market. The product designs most closely resembled Lionel, but with Märklin-like couplers and detail parts that appeared to be copied from Ives. "Seki", another Japanese company, was an entirely different and independent company.
Between 1946 and 1976, the primary U.S. manufacturers of O gauge trains were Lionel and Marx, with American Flyer switching to the more-realistic S scale and the rest of the companies out of business.
Toy maker Unique Art produced a line of inexpensive O gauge trains from 1949 to 1951, but found itself unable to compete with Marx. Marx continued to make clockwork and battery-powered trains and lithographed cars into the 1970s, along with more realistic offerings that were sometimes difficult to distinguish from Lionel.
Sakai re-entered the U.S. market after World War II, selling trains that were often nearly identical to Marx designs and sometimes undercutting Marx's prices, from 1946 to 1969.
A company called American Model Toys brought out a line of realistic, detailed cars beginning in 1948. In 1953 it released a budget line. It ran into financial difficulty, reorganized under the name Auburn Model Trains, and ended up selling its line to Nashville, Tennessee-based Kusan, a plastics company who continued its production until 1961. The tooling was then sold to a small company run by Andrew (Andy) Kriswalus in Endicott, New York, who operated as Kris Model Trains, or KMT. Andy Kriswalus only produced the box, stock, and refrigerator cars from the Kusan dies, and on some of these cars he mounted die-cast trucks from the Kusan tooling. After Kriswalus' death, the tooling was sold to K-Line and Williams Electric Trains, who continued to use it to produce parts of their budget lines.
From O gauge's beginnings up until the mid-1970s, the various manufacturers' trackside accessories would interoperate with one another, but the train cars themselves used couplers of differing designs, often making it difficult or impossible to use different manufacturers' cars together. The post-War consolidation did little to improve matters: Marx used three different standards, depending on the product line, and Lionel used two, so frequently the companies' own entry-level products were incompatible with their high-end products, let alone with the competition. Hobbyists who wanted differing standards to interoperate had to resort to replacing couplers.
After Marx went out of business in 1978, K-Line bought much of Marx's tooling and entered the marketplace. K-Line's early offerings changed little from the old Marx designs, other than a new brand name and a Lionel-compatible coupler, making K-Line's offerings completely interoperable with Lionel.
As O gauge regained popularity in the 1990s it also started to regain manufacturers, and as of late 2003, no fewer than six companies market O gauge locomotives and/or cars, all theoretically interoperable with one another.
Lionel equipment retains a large collector following. Equipment from shorter-lived manufacturers prior to World War II is also highly sought after, while American Flyer and Marx are less so. Post-War Marx is gaining in popularity after years of being derided by serious collectors. There is little collector interest in Sakai today, possibly because of difficulty identifying the equipment and because the brand is much less widely known than its U.S. counterparts.
In the recent years there has been a movement called 3-Rail Scale. It is three-rail trains on high-rail track, but with scale couplers and other more prototypical details, like fixed pilots and scale wheels. Most 3-Rail scale modelers use Kadee brand scale couplers.
The biggest makers of American O scale trains today are Lionel, LLC, MTH Electric Trains, Atlas O, and Weaver Models.
In popular culture
This scale and gauge was used to model the Skarloey Railway locomotives and rolling stock for series 4 of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. However, the construction of the engines resulted in difficulties during filming. Series 5 introduced new models of the engines and rolling stock, which were bigger than the gauge 1 standard gauge engines and stock but still ran on O gauge track. They were used up until series 12 before the move to CGI animation. The small scale models occasionally still appeared, usually when interacting with gauge 1 standard gauge engines in series 5, 7 (stock footage), 9 and 10 and Calling All Engines!.
See also
3 ft gauge rail modelling – representing narrow gauge
On2 gauge - representing narrow gauge
On30 gauge – narrow gauge modeling in O Scale using H0 scale track
OO gauge
HO gauge
Rail transport modelling scales
SE scale
References
External links
The Gauge 0 Guild, the main British society
"About Gauge" guide from Lionel discussing O versus O27 gauge
O Scale Trains
Lionel Super-O Track An Historical Perspective
Lionel Super "O" Track
Model railroad scales
Scale model scales
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonian%20toothfish
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Patagonian toothfish
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The Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides), also known as Chilean sea bass, mero, icefish, and Antarctic cod, is a species of notothen found in cold waters () between depths of in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most Subantarctic islands.
The average weight of a commercially caught Patagonian toothfish is , depending on the fishery, with large adults occasionally exceeding . They are thought to live up to 50 years and to reach a length up to . Several commercial fisheries exist for Patagonian toothfish, which are detailed below.
A close relative, the Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni), is found farther south around the edges of the Antarctic shelf, and a Marine Stewardship Council-certified fishery is active in the Ross Sea; it is also sometimes marketed as Chilean sea bass.
Taxonomy
The Patagonian toothfish was first formally described in 1898 by the Swedish zoologist Fredrik Adam Smitt with the type locality given as Puerto Toro at 55°24'S, 68°17'W on the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego. Smitt also described the new genus Dissostichus for this new species, meaning that the Patagonian toothfish is the type species of this genus by monotypy. The specific name eleginoides means having the form of, i.e. having a similar shape to, Eleginops.
Description
The Patagonian toothfish has a streamlined, fusiform body that has a depth that fits into its standard length 5 to 6.4 times. It has a flattened head with a wide, flat area between the eyes. The snout is longer than the diameter of the eyes. The mouth is large, extending past the middle of the eye. There are two rows of teeth in the upper jaw, the teeth in the outer row being the larger and canine-like. The lower jaw has a row of spaced canine-like teeth. Additional canine-like teeth are found outside the teeth rows at the joint of the upper and lower jaws. There are two lateral lines; both made up of tubed scales, an upper one and another along the mid flanks. The upper lateral line has 88-104 scales while the lower line has 61-77 scales. The first dorsal fin has 8 to 10 spines; the second dorsal fin has 28 to 30 soft rays, while the anal fin also has 28-30 soft rays. The caudal fin is emarginate. The pectoral fins are large and shaped like fans. The head and body are covered in ctenoid scales except for the front of the head. This species attains a maximum total length of although is more typical, and a maximum published weight of . The overall colour is brownish-grey with darker blotches.
Distribution and habitat
The Patagonian toothfish is found in the southeastern Pacific and southwestern Atlantic Oceans. It occurs in southern Chile around the coast of Patagonia, in Argentina, and the Falkland Islands. It has also been recorded at Macquarie Island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean at South Georgia and from the sub-Antarctic islands and seamounts of the Indian Sector. There is a single record of a vagrant from the Davis Strait in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean off Greenland, it is thought that this individual migrated over and that it transited across the tropical areas in deep, cold regions of the Ocean. The juveniles are semi-pelagic becoming demersal at depths between . Adults move to deeper habitats, being found at depths in excess of .
Biology
Patagonian toothfish spawn in deep water (around 1,000 m) during the austral winter, producing pelagic eggs and larvae. Larvae switch to a demersal habitat at around 100 m (1 year old) and inhabit relatively shallow water (<300 m) until 6–7 years of age when they begin a gradual migration into deeper water. As juveniles in shallow water, toothfish are primarily piscivorous, consuming the most abundant, suitably sized local prey. With increasing size and habitat depth, the diet diversifies and includes more scavenging of squid, fish, and crustaceans. In turn, toothfish constitute a small part of the diets of sperm whales, southern elephant seals, and colossal squid.
As most toothfish fisheries are managed in accordance with Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) regulations and conservation measures, CCAMLR adopts an “ecosystem approach”, which requires that all other living resources of the Southern Ocean are treated as an integrated system where effects on predator, prey, and related species are considered, and decisions on sustainable harvesting levels are made based on sound, internationally peer-reviewed scientific advice.
Fisheries and fisheries management
Commercial name
The Patagonian and the Antarctic toothfishes are sometimes sold under the culinary name "Chilean sea bass" in the United States and Canada.
The name "Chilean seabass" was invented by a fish wholesaler named Lee Lantz in 1977. He was looking for a name to make it attractive to the American market. He considered "Pacific sea bass" and "South American sea bass" before settling on "Chilean sea bass".<ref name="knecht">G. Bruce Knecht, Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish", 2006. . p. 9</ref> In 1994, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted "Chilean seabass" as an "alternative market name" for Patagonian toothfish, and in 2013 for Antarctic toothfish.
In the UK, the approved commercial designations for D. eleginoides and D. mawsoni are "icefish" and "toothfish". This has created some confusion, as a genuine "icefish" (Champsocephalus gunnari) caught in subantarctic waters does not resemble toothfish in any way.
In Singapore, the Patagonian toothfish is marketed as a type of cod fish.
Management
Commercial fishing of toothfish is managed by the CCAMLR inside the CCAMLR Convention Area, which spans the Antarctic continent and waters between the 45th and 60th parallels south. Some fisheries inside territorial waters within the convention area (e.g. Crozet, Prince Edward, and Marion Islands) are managed separately by countries with territorial waters taking CCAMLR management practices into account. Toothfish fisheries outside the CCAMLR Convention Area in the coastal waters of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are managed by the relevant coastal state. However, these fisheries are still subject to the CCAMLR Catch Documentation Scheme, which tracks the trade of toothfish from the point of unloading to the point of final consumption.
In the legal toothfish fisheries managed by CCAMLR and countries with territorial waters, the most common method is fishing by longlines (where a long "mainline" is set in the water, with many baited hooks coming off that line). A small quantity of toothfish is caught by trawling (where a net is towed behind the boat for short periods). For all methods of legal fishing for toothfish, the interactions with, and risks to, seabirds are minimal. This is a result of requirements for legal operators to use mitigation devices or approaches, such as:
Seasonal fishery closures during the summer due to increases in seabird abundance for chick rearing
No setting of hooks during the daytime
No fishing without having a bird-scaring line trailing out the back of the boat to keep birds away from the hooks
Bird exclusion devices or "Brickle curtains" to be used on 100% of hauls
Boats must use weighted longlines so that the baits and hooks sink before the birds can grab them;
Limitations on release of offal overboard at the same time as the setting or hauling of lines (to avoid attracting seabirds when they may otherwise be vulnerable to the baits and hooks)
In 2011, the CCAMLR Scientific Committee Chair, David Agnew, was quoted as saying, “levels of seabird mortality are negligible in most areas”, with the one region yet to achieve these "near zero" results, having reduced seabird interactions by over 98% from their peak levels, and have continued to improve each year. Nevertheless, interactions between the fishery and marine mammals such as sperm whales, orca, fur seals, and elephant seals are not uncommon and can be fatal.van den Hoff et al. 2017
Trawling generally catches toothfish in the smaller size range, which requires calculations to be made at the annual stock assessment meetings of CCAMLR to take these catches of smaller-sized fish into account, and lowers the overall available catch of toothfish by trawl. CCAMLR has prohibited all trawl fishing in high seas waters and exploratory fisheries.
Compliance
To minimize the risk of long-term adverse effects on target species, bycatch species, and marine ecosystems, CCAMLR uses several compliance systems to monitor fishing activities in the convention area. These include:
Vessel licensing
Monitoring of transhipments
Vessel and port inspection systems
Automated satellite-linked vessel-monitoring systems
Catch document scheme (CDS): The scheme for Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) and Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) was one measure that ensured reductions in illegal fishing for toothfish and reduced the scope for trade in illegally caught fish. The CDS is an innovative online catch document information system (Dissostichus Catch Document) developed to identify legal toothfish harvested, which tracks toothfish from the point of landing throughout the trade cycle to the point of sale. The CDS requires verification and authorization by national authorities at regular intervals in the trade cycle. Identification of the origin of toothfish entering the ports and markets of CDS parties is essential.
Legal fishing
The Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators, Inc. (COLTO) is a toothfish fishing industry group whose members represent around 80% of the legal toothfish catch worldwide. Seven of the fisheries that COLTO members fish are now independently certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) as sustainable and well-managed fisheries. Commercial fishing of Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish is managed by CCAMLR around most of the Subantarctic and Antarctic regions, but a fishery that lies within a nation's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is managed by that nation, taking into account management recommendations and approaches by CCAMLR.
In 2004, the South Georgia toothfish fishery (CCAMLR Statistical Division 48.3) was the first toothfish fishery to be MSC-certified and was recertified in 2009 and 2014, as all MSC-certified fisheries must be audited annually and fully reassessed every five years. The South Georgia fishery is managed by the UK overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The Ross Sea fishery (CCAMLR Statistical Division 88.1 and 88.2) was the second toothfish fishery to be independently evaluated and certified by the MSC as sustainable and well-managed in 2010 and recertified in 2015. This fishery catches mainly Antarctic toothfish, a close relative of the Patagonian toothfish.
The Heard Island and McDonald Islands fishery (CCAMLR Statistical Division 58.5.2) was certified as a sustainable and well-managed fishery by the MSC in March 2012 (and recertified in 2017) and is operated under Australian jurisdiction in a manner consistent with CCAMLR regulations. Two Australian companies operate four vessels - Austral Fisheries and Australian Longline.
The Macquarie Island toothfish fishery is within the Australian EEZ and is situated outside the CCAMLR Convention Area within FAO Statistical Area 81, though it is managed in a complementary way with the conservation measures adopted by CCAMLR. In May 2012, this was the fourth toothfish fishery to gain MSC certification (and recertified in 2017). Two Australian companies are allocated quota in this fishery.
France regulates Patagonian toothfish in the waters surrounding the French islands in the South Indian Ocean, with scientific oversight from the National Museum of Natural History. These fisheries are located around the Kerguelen Islands (CCAMLR Statistical Division 58.5.1) and the Crozet Islands (CCAMLR Statistical Division 58.6). Six fishing companies based out of Reunion Island have been granted authorisations. The Kerguelen Island fishery was certified by the MSC in September 2013 (recertified in 2018) and the Crozet Islands fishery was certified by the MSC in 2017.
The Falkland Islands, a self-governing British Overseas Territory, also has a toothfish fishery and was awarded MSC certification in 2014. The Falklands do not fall in the CCAMLR Convention area, though regulations on fishing methods, science, and management mirror CCAMLR requirements. The Total Allowable Catch (TAC) is caught by a sole longline vessel.
Combined, over 50% of all legally harvested toothfish is independently assessed and certified by the MSC as being from sustainable and well-managed fisheries.
The Chilean toothfish fishery is separated into two separate fleets. The "artisanal fleet" of small boats operates in the region north of 47°S inside the Chilean EEZ, and six vessels from the "industrial fleet" operate south of 47°S inside the Chilean EEZ, as well as on the high seas both within and outside CCAMLR waters. The TAC for the industrial fleet is determined each year by the Chilean government based on biological studies carried out by both public and private, scientific bodies. Since 2006, artisanal fleet catches have fluctuated between 2,091t and 1,558t per annum.
The Argentine Federal Fisheries Council manages Argentina's toothfish fishery off its coastline under recommendations from the National Fisheries Research Institute. The Argentine TAC is caught by five vessels.
The Prince Edward and Marion Islands toothfish fishery is managed and regulated by Branch Fisheries, part of the South African Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. The South African Marine Resource Authorities fully supports and follows all CCAMLR conservation measures. The TAC is fished by two vessels belonging to two fishing companies/cooperatives, with catches having been restricted significantly following excessive illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in those waters in the late 1990s. TACs from this fishery have slowly started to increase as the stock begins to recover.
The global toothfish catch is around 30,000 tonnes, with around 80% of this coming from COLTO members and around half being independently certified as coming from sustainable and well-managed fisheries by the Marine Stewardship Council.
Illegal fishing
In the late 1990s to early 2000s, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing for toothfish nearly collapsed some fisheries in the Southern Ocean. However, since 2005, because of CCAMLR member nations, government patrol vessels, NGOs, media exposure, and trade and port state measures, IUU fishing has been all but eliminated from within countries' EEZs, and until 2015, a relatively small portion of IUU fishing still occurred in high seas areas. In 2014 and 2015, several major campaigns tried to eliminate IUU fishing for toothfish. This included the Sea Shepherd campaign, "Operation Icefish", which pursued one of the vessels, the Thunder, for 110 days before it was scuttled. Operations by the Royal New Zealand Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, Interpol, and governments of Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia all combined to successfully apprehend, arrest and prosecute all of the remaining 6 IUU vessels fishing illegally for toothfish on the high seas.
At the peak of IUU fishing, illegal catches were estimated to be 32,000 tonnes in 1997, with about 55 vessels believed to be active. By 2010, IUU catches had fallen to an estimated 1,615 tonnes, all taken in high-seas areas, with just four IUU fishing vessels reported to be active. This decreased IUU fishing by over 95% since the mid-1990s. CCAMLR estimated in 2012 that 90% of IUU catches at the time were of Antarctic toothfish, not Patagonian toothfish.
CCAMLR annually reviews information on IUU fishing activities in the convention area and has established a contracting party and a noncontracting party IUU vessel list (CCAMLR Conservation Measure 10-06 and Conservation Measure 10–07). Vessels included on the IUU lists have engaged in IUU activities in the convention area and undermined the effectiveness of conservation measures, thereby threatening toothfish stocks, marine habitats, and bycatch species. Vessels are included on the IUU vessel lists after a consensus decision based on set criteria from the commission. This measure, combined with additional surveillance by member nations' catch documentation schemes, has played a significant part in the reduction of IUU fishing for toothfish.
In the past, France sold some fishing rights to Japanese and other foreign fisheries, but because of IUU fishing, rights are now reserved for French fishers based at Réunion Island. Because of the previous poaching, the French Navy and Australian Customs vessels still work in concert, patrolling both French and Australian EEZs, having made numerous arrests and seizures in the late 1990s to early 2000s. An Australian Customs vessel, the Southern Supporter, was involved in the renowned chase and apprehension of an IUU vessel in the 2003 Viarsa incident that stretched over 7,200 km.
TACs for legal operators in CCAMLR are set, taking into account the estimated IUU catches from past years and any IUU activity that may be occurring in the different fisheries. In some fisheries, this has meant a considerable reduction in legal catches – an example of this is the Australian Heard Island and McDonald Islands fishery, where the legal TAC was 3,800 t in 1996/97. This was dropped to a minimum of 2,427 t by 2006/07, with a substantial portion of that decline attributed to the IUU catches taken from the fishery between 1996 and 2002. Since then, no IUU fishing has occurred in that fishery, and the legal TAC has steadily increased.
In addition to the catch documentation system mentioned above, USA regulations do not allow toothfish imports without valid Dissostichus catch documents; dealer permits and preapproval certificates must be issued in advance by NOAA. In addition, toothfish must be caught from vessels equipped with satellite-linked automated VMSs that track vessel movements from port to port to ensure compliance with set quotas and boundaries. All vessel VMS data must be reported to the centralized CCAMLR system, with confirmation to USA required that it has occurred, for any products from those boats to be imported into the United States.
As revealed by the "black spider memos", Charles, Prince of Wales, was worried about the future for the species. An open reply noted that sea birds had been protected in toothfish fisheries globally and that IUU fishing was virtually eliminated.
The EU has also imposed requirements against IUU fishing that include:
Only marine fisheries products validated as legal by the relevant flag state or exporting state can be imported or exported from the EU.
A European blacklist covers IUU vessels and states that turn a blind eye to illegal fishing activities.
EU operators who fish illegally anywhere in the world, under any flag, face substantial penalties proportionate to the economic value of their catch, which deprive them of any profit.
Seafood chooser organizations
Patagonian toothfish is listed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium on its Seafood Watch list and pocket guides. In April 2013, Seafood Watch produced an updated report, indicating new ratings for some fisheries, which allocates about 78% of toothfish caught worldwide, which are:
Best Choice – Heard Island and McDonald Islands Fishery (Australia), Macquarie Island Fishery (Australia), Falkland Islands Fishery
Good Alternative – South Georgia Fishery, Kerguelen Islands Fishery (France), Ross Sea Antarctic toothfish Fishery
Avoid – Prince Edward & Marion Island Fishery (South Africa), Chile, Crozet Islands Fishery (France)
Not Rated – Argentina
In 2010, Greenpeace International added the Patagonian toothfish to its seafood red list. "The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries." Greenpeace have not updated their rating of toothfish since the 2013 Monterey Bay Aquarium review.
See also
Toothfish Day
References
Further reading
Clover, Charles. 2004. The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat. Ebury Press, Africa and London.
Knecht, G. Bruce. 2006. Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish''. Rodale Books, New York.
External links
BBC News: Toothfish at risk from illegal catches
Traffic.org: Patagonian Toothfish: Are Conservation and Trade Measures Working?
Patagonian toothfish at CSIRO
WGBH Forum Network: Hooked; Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish G. Bruce Knecht, senior reporter, Wall Street Journal G. Bruce Knecht | Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish | WGBH Forum Network | Free Online Lectures
U.S. Dept. of Commerce Chilean Sea Bass Frequently Asked Questions
COLTO (Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators) website
Dissostichus
Commercial fish
Fish of Argentina
Fish of Chile
Fauna of Patagonia
Fauna of the Falkland Islands
Fauna of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Fauna of the Crozet Islands
Fauna of Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Taxa named by Fredrik Adam Smitt
Fish described in 1898
Fish of the Southern Ocean
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles%20of%20Narvik
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Battles of Narvik
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The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940, as a naval battle in the Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian town of Narvik, as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War.
The two naval battles in the Ofotfjord on 10 April and 13 April were fought between the British Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine, while the two-month land campaign was fought between Norwegian, French, British, and Polish troops against German mountain troops, shipwrecked Kriegsmarine sailors and German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger) from the 7th Air Division. Although defeated at sea off Narvik, losing control of the town of Narvik and being pushed back towards the Swedish border, the Germans eventually prevailed because of the Allied evacuation from Norway in June 1940 following the Battle of France.
Narvik provided an ice-free harbour in the North Atlantic for iron ore transported by rail from Kiruna in Sweden. Both sides in the war had an interest in securing this iron supply for themselves and denying it to the enemy, thereby setting the stage for one of the biggest battles since the Invasion of Poland.
Prior to the German invasion, British forces had considered Narvik as a possible landing point for an expedition to help Finland in the Winter War. Such an expedition also had the potential of taking control of the Swedish mines and opening up the Baltic for the Allies.
German invasion
On 1 March 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Norway, codenamed Operation Weserübung as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, and openly discussed, Franco-British occupation of Norway. This operation would involve most of the Kriegsmarine. Participating units were divided into five groups, which were to occupy six of the main Norwegian ports.
Group I departed Bremerhaven on 6 April. It consisted of 10 German destroyers of the 1934A and 1936 classes Georg Thiele, Wolfgang Zenker, Bernd von Arnim, Erich Giese, Erich Koellner, Diether von Roeder, Hans Lüdemann, Hermann Künne, Wilhelm Heidkamp (flagship) and Anton Schmitt, commanded by Kommodore Friedrich Bonte. Each of the warships carried around 200 soldiers (a total of 1,900 mountain troops (Gebirgsjäger) from the 139th Mountain Regiment (Gebirgsjägerregiment) of the 3rd Mountain Division commanded by General Eduard Dietl). The troop-carrying destroyers were escorted most of the way by the battlecruisers and .
In the early morning of 9 April, the destroyers of Group I passed the Vestfjorden and arrived at the Ofotfjorden leading to Narvik, in fog and heavy snow. In Ofotfjord, they captured three Norwegian patrol boats (Senja, Michael Sars and Kelt). Before capture Kelt managed to send a message to the coastal defence ship HNoMS Norge, alerting the local Norwegian naval commander of the incoming vessels. The German ships Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Koellner and Hermann Künne landed their soldiers in Herjangsfjord (a northern branch of Ofotfjorden) in order to capture a Norwegian regimental supply base at Elvegårdsmoen. Hans Ludemann and Hermann Künne also landed their troops in order to engage the nearby Norwegian forts (which turned out to be non-existent). Diether von Roeder remained in Ofotfjord in order to ensure German control of the sea. Erich Giese was delayed by engine trouble and did not join the main force for some time.
The main defence of Narvik were the old coastal defence ships Eidsvold and her sister ship Norge. Having been alerted by Kelt, both Norwegian ships prepared for combat: the guns were loaded and life preservers issued to the crew. Around 04:15, the Germans spotted Eidsvold, and Eidsvold immediately signalled the leading German destroyer with an aldis lamp. When the Germans failed to respond to the signal, a warning shot was fired across their bow.
The Germans had orders to occupy Norway peacefully if at all possible, so the German flagship Wilhelm Heidkamp stopped and signalled that it would send an officer to negotiate. A small launch ferried Korvettenkapitän Gerlach over to Eidsvold. Gerlach was taken to the bridge to speak to Captain Odd Isaachsen Willoch.
Gerlach tried to convince Willoch that the Germans had arrived as friends, but that the Norwegians had to hand over their warships to the German armed forces. Captain Willoch asked for time to consult his commander, Captain Per Askim, the commander of Norge. This request was refused by the Germans, but while Willoch had been talking to the German officer, the radio officer on board Eidsvold had communicated the events to Askim. Askim's response to the German demands and order to Willoch came immediately; Willoch and Eidsvold was to open fire. Willoch responded to Askim; "I am attacking." While this was going on, the German destroyer Wilhelm Heidkamp had positioned herself off the port side of Eidsvold and trained her torpedo launchers on the Norwegian ship.
Gerlach tried once again to convince Willoch to surrender, but Willoch refused. As Gerlach left Eidsvold, he fired a red flare, indicating that the Norwegians intended to fight. At this point, Captain Willoch shouted: ("Man the guns. We're going to fight, boys!"). Eidsvold turned towards the closest destroyer and accelerated, closing the distance to Wilhelm Heidkamp to while the battery commander ordered the port battery (three guns) to open fire.
The Germans, afraid that Eidsvold might ram the destroyer, fired four torpedoes from Wilhelm Heidkamp at the old ship. Two of the torpedoes hit before the port guns could fire. The Norwegian ammunition magazine was ignited and Eidsvold was blown in two. The forward part of the ship sank in seconds, the stern followed in minutes, propellers still turning. At around 04:37, she was gone. 175 Norwegian sailors died in the freezing water, including Captain Willoch, with just eight surviving.
Deeper inside the fjord, the explosions were heard aboard Norge, but nothing could be seen until two German destroyers suddenly appeared out of the darkness and Captain Per Askim of Norge gave orders to open fire at 04:45. Four rounds were fired from the guns (one from the fore gun and three from the aft) as well as seven or eight rounds from the starboard guns, against the German destroyer Bernd von Arnim, at a range of about . Due to the difficult weather conditions, the guns' optical sights were ineffective: the first salvo fell short of the target and the next ones overshot it.
The German destroyers waited until they were alongside the pier before returning fire. Bernd von Armin opened fire with her guns as well as with machine guns, but the weather gave the Germans problems as well. The destroyer also fired three salvoes of two torpedoes each. The first two salvoes missed, but the last struck Norge midships and she sank in less than one minute. Ninety of the crew were rescued, but 101 perished in the battle which had lasted less than 20 minutes. The destruction of Norge signalled the end of Norwegian resistance in the port.
Much of the Norwegian garrison at Narvik awoke to the sound of gunfire and were unprepared to face the Germans. Many were surrounded and disarmed as they scrambled to occupy defensive positions. The commander-in-chief of the Narvik area, Colonel Konrad Sundlo, is often cited as the reason for the quick capitulation. Described by Kriegsmarine Admiral Erich Raeder as "an officer with reportedly pro-German feelings," he quickly withdrew from the area following the naval engagement and began negotiations with the Germans. After the initial loss of Narvik, Norwegian General Carl Gustav Fleischer sent out a communiqué, part of which read:
Sundlo was charged with treason for the surrender of Narvik after the war, but these charges were dismissed. Instead he was found guilty of negligence for failing to adequately prepare for Narvik's defence, and on charges of cooperating with the Germans during the occupation.
The morning of the German attack four Norwegian steamers were anchored in Narvik; the Cate B, the Eldrid, the Haalegg and the Saphir. In addition to the Norwegian vessels, four foreign, neutral ships were present; the Dutch steamer Bernisse, and the three Swedish steamships Boden (), Oxelösund () and Strassa (). As well as neutral ships, the warring parties had vessels at Narvik, riding anchor in the same port. The British had five steamers in the harbour; the Blythmoor, the Mersington Court, the North Cornwall, the Riverton, and the Romanby. As the German flotilla seized Narvik, there were 11 German merchant steamers at the port town; the Aachen, the Altona, the Bockenheim, the Hein Hoyer, the Martha Henrich Fisser, the Neuenfels, the Odin, the Lippe, the Frielinghaus, the Planet, and the replenishment oiler/maintenance ship . Jan Wellem, a converted former whale factory ship, awaited the arrival of the German warships, which she was tasked to refuel. Working in the harbour were the Swedish tugs Diana () and Styrbjörn (). As the German destroyers entered the harbour, the captain of Bockenheim, who assumed that the intruding warships were British, beached and scuttled his vessel. In total, 25 ore ships had been riding at anchor in Narvik at the outset of the fighting, 10 of which were German.
The German destroyers were now short of fuel and had only one fuel tanker in support–the ex-whale factory ship Jan Wellem that had been despatched to Narvik, accordingly to some sources from the secret German naval base Basis Nord at Zapadnaya Litsa in the Soviet Union, where she had been based since 4 February 1940. Another source indicates that she departed Murmansk in the evening of the 6 April and that Basis Nord was never even established. She had arrived off Narvik from the north on 8 April, and had been stopped by the Norwegian patrol boat Kvitøy. Jan Wellem was allowed entry to Narvik by the regional Norwegian naval command, where she was inspected. Her captain claimed that she was carrying of fuel oil and 8,098 crates of food provisions and that she was on her way to Germany. A second tanker, the Kattegat which had sailed to Norway from Wilhelmshaven, had been sunk in the Glomfjord in the evening of 9 April. Kattegat had been stopped by the Norwegian fishery protection ship HNoMS Nordkapp, the Norwegian ship first trying to take the tanker as a prize, but due to the large German crew could not control it all the way to Bodø, in the end sinking Kattegat by firing four rounds into the tanker's water line.
Kattegat had been delayed from reaching Narvik in time by the British 8 April mining operations off Norway. A third tanker—Skagerrak—had also been despatched to Norway, in support of the German landings at Trondheim, but she was intercepted by the British cruiser , on 14 April, after she had been redirected by German naval command to a waiting position at sea. When the British warship tried to board Skagerrak her crew scuttled her at . Both Kattegat and Skagerrak, which were sister ships, were inspected at Kopervik by the Norwegian torpedo boat Stegg, on 5 and 7 April respectively. The captain of Kattegat told the Norwegians that he was headed to Narvik for further orders, and the captain of Skagerrak claimed Murmansk as their destination, and inspections revealed that both tankers had a full load of fuel oil. Skagerrak also carried of food provisions, which was claimed as supplies for German merchant ships. The food crates were labelled "Wehrmacht". According to the German plan the destroyers were supposed to have been refuelled by two tankers, Kattegat and Jan Wellem, each receiving some of fuel oil.
The flotilla was then to be on its way back to Germany by the evening of 9 April. The plan failed because only Jan Wellem made it to Narvik. Refuelling with just one tanker was difficult; only two destroyers could be refuelled simultaneously, taking seven or eight hours. At arrival in Narvik, the destroyers were almost out of fuel. Making the refuelling more challenging was the fact that Jan Wellem had only improvised refuelling arrangements and inferior pumping equipment. While two destroyers were being refuelled at a time, a third was on guard in fjord, the remaining seven being spread around in the nearby area. By 04:00 on 10 April, Jan Wellem had managed to fully refuel three of the German destroyers, and was in the process of refuelling two more.
In the meantime, British forces had tried to engage the Kriegsmarine, but for the most part, unsuccessfully. On 8 April, the British G-class destroyer engaged the heavy cruiser and two destroyers, and was lost, ramming and damaging Hipper in the battle. On the 9 April morning, the British battlecruiser exchanged artillery salvos with the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which were screening the destroyers. During the battle one of the artillery shells from Renown damaged the fire control system on Gneisenau, the British battlecruiser was also hit two times and slightly damaged. After that the German battleships withdrew from the battle at high speed. The destroyers' main mission had been completed, however, as they had succeeded in landing the invasion force.
First naval Battle of Narvik
The day after the German invasion, the Royal Navy took an opportunity to defeat the Kriegsmarine. The 2nd Destroyer Flotilla—under Commodore Bernard Warburton-Lee and comprising five H-class destroyers ( (flagship), , , and —moved up the fjord in the early morning. The German destroyers Hermann Künne and Hans Lüdemann were anchored alongside the tanker Jan Wellem and refuelling when the British destroyer attack began at 04:30. The German picket ship (Diether von Roeder) had left its post to refuel, and as the British flotilla approached Narvik, they surprised and engaged a German force at the entrance to the harbour and sank the two destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp (killing Commodore Bonte) and Anton Schmitt, heavily damaged Diether von Roeder and inflicted lesser damage on two others. They also exchanged fire with German invasion troops ashore but did not have a landing force aboard and therefore turned to leave. Before the destroyers left the scene, Hostile fired her torpedoes at the merchant ships in the harbour. In total, eleven merchant ships (six German, one British, two Swedish and two Norwegian) were sunk during the British sortie into the harbour.
The British flotilla was then engaged by three more German destroyers (Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Koellner and Erich Giese) emerging from the Herjangsfjord, led by Commander Erich Bey and then two more (Georg Thiele and Bernd von Arnim) coming from Ballangen Bay, under Commander Fritz Berger. In the ensuing battle, two British destroyers were lost: the flotilla leader HMS Hardy, which was beached in flames and HMS Hunter, which was torpedoed and sunk. A third—HMS Hotspur—was also damaged badly by a torpedo. Hotspur and the remaining British destroyers left the battlefield, damaging Georg Thiele as they did so. The German destroyers—now short of fuel and ammunition—did not pursue and the British ships were able to sink the ammunition supply ship which they encountered on their way out of the fjord. Soon, the German naval forces were blocked in by British reinforcements, including the cruiser . During the night of 11–12 April, while manoeuvring in Narvik harbour, Erich Koellner and Wolfgang Zenker ran aground. Wolfgang Zenker damaged her propellers and was restricted to a speed of . Erich Koellner was much more badly damaged, so the Germans planned—when she was repaired enough to move—to moor her at Tårstad in the same capacity as Diether von Roeder, as an immobile defence battery.
As the British destroyers left the Vestfjorden outside Narvik, two German submarines— and —fired torpedoes at them but German torpedoes at the time had severe problems with their magnetic detonator systems—possibly due to the high northern latitude: all of them failed and either did not detonate at all or detonated well before reaching their targets.
Both the German naval commander—Kommodore Friedrich Bonte (on Wilhelm Heidkamp)—and the British commander—Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee (on Hardy)—were killed in the battle. Warburton-Lee was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, Bonte the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Second naval Battle of Narvik
The Royal Navy considered it imperative, for morale and strategic purposes, to defeat the Germans in Narvik, so Vice Admiral William Whitworth was sent with the battleship and nine destroyers; four Tribal-class (, , Punjabi, and ) and five others (HMS Kimberley, , , Forester and Foxhound), accompanied by aircraft from the aircraft carrier . These forces arrived in the Ofotfjord on 13 April to find that the eight remaining German destroyers—now under the command of Fregattenkapitän Erich Bey—were virtually stranded due to lack of fuel and were short of ammunition.
Before the battle, Warspite launched its catapult plane (a float-equipped Fairey Swordfish, L 9767), which bombed and sank , anchored in the Herjangsfjord near Bjerkvik. Most of the crew survived and were rescued by German mountain troops. This was the first U-boat to be sunk by an aircraft during the Second World War and the only instance where an aircraft launched from a battleship sank a U-boat.
In the ensuing battle, three of the German destroyers were sunk by Warspite and her escorts and the other five were scuttled by their crews when they ran out of fuel and ammunition. First to go was Erich Koellner which tried to ambush the Allied forces but was spotted by Warspites Swordfish and subsequently torpedoed and shelled by the destroyers and battleship. The destroyer's commander, Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, and the surviving members of his crew, were captured by Norwegian forces. Then Wolfgang Zenker, Bernd von Arnim, Hans Ludemann and Hermann Künne engaged the British forces but only managed to lightly damage HMS Bedouin. British aircraft from Furious tried to engage the German destroyers but were unsuccessful; two were lost. Wolfgang Zenker tried to torpedo Warspite.
Finally, when the German destroyers were low on ammunition, they retreated, except for Hermann Künne, which had not received the order. Hermann Künne was fired upon by the pursuing HMS Eskimo, but she took no hits. Out of ammunition but undamaged, Hermann Künne was scuttled by her crew in Trollvika in the Herjangsfjord. After scuttling the ship, the crew placed demolition depth charges on the ship, attempting to sink her in Trollvika's shallow waters. Eskimo, still in hot pursuit, launched a torpedo which hit Hermann Künne, setting her on fire. Whether the German ship's own depth charges or the torpedo from Eskimo was the source of the explosion is unclear. Eskimo was in turn ambushed by Georg Thiele and Hans Ludemann, losing her bow but surviving. Diether von Roeder and Erich Giese, both suffering engine problems, fired upon the British forces while still docked, damaging Punjabi and Cossack but they were both sunk before they could cause further damage. That was the last German counter-attack.
Shore batteries and installations were also very badly damaged by Warspites guns. On the Allied side, the damage to HMS Eskimo kept her in Norway until 31 May 1940. German submarines again suffered torpedo failures, when and fired at the departing Warspite on 14 April.
The remaining German destroyers (Wolfgang Zenker, Georg Thiele, Bernd von Arnim and Hans Lüdemann) retreated into Rombaksfjord and were scuttled soon after. The only German ship which survived within the port area was the submarine U-51.
The Germans lost over 1,000 men, a U-boat, and eight destroyers. With the losses from the previous battle this constituted 50% of the Kriegsmarine's destroyer strength.
It was reported by the Germans that shipwrecked Germans from Erich Giese were fired upon by British artillery and machine guns during the engagement.
About 2,600 survivors were organised into an improvised marine infantry unit, the Gebirgsmarine and fought with the 139. Gebirgsjägerregiment in the subsequent land battle. Although unsuited for combat in the mountainous terrain around Narvik, the shipwrecked sailors manned the two FlaK guns and the 11 light anti-aircraft guns salvaged from the ships sunk during the naval battles and conducted defensive operations. The sailors were armed from the stocks captured at the Norwegian army base Elvegårdsmoen, more than 8,000 Krag-Jørgensen rifles and 315 machine guns intended for the mobilisation of Norwegian army units in the Narvik area.
Later naval operations
After the naval battles of Narvik, the port and its surroundings remained in German hands, as no Allied forces were available to be landed there. Naval operations were limited at this stage to shore bombardment, as Narvik was not a primary Allied objective.
Among others, the Polish destroyers Grom, Burza and Błyskawica took part in these operations, during which Grom was sunk by German aircraft on 4 May 1940, with the loss of 59 sailors.
Land battle
During the Norwegian Campaign, Narvik and its surrounding area saw significant fighting, initially from 9 April between German and Norwegian forces, subsequently between Allied and German forces, conducted by the Norwegian 6th Division of the Norwegian Army as well as by an Allied expeditionary corps until 9 June 1940. Unlike the campaign in southern Norway, the Allied troops in Narvik would eventually outnumber the Norwegian troops. Five nations participated in the fighting. From 5–10 May, the fighting in the Narvik area was the only active theatre of land war in the Second World War.
At the outset, the position of the German commander—Dietl—was not good: his 2,000 troops were outnumbered. After the German destroyers had been sunk, however, about 2,600 German sailors joined in the land battle. Another 290 German specialists travelled via Sweden posing as health care workers. During the last three to four weeks, the Germans were also reinforced by about 1,000 men air dropped over Bjørnfjell, thus bringing the total number of Germans to around 5,600. Their position and outlook changed from good to dire several times. On occasions, the entire operation was controlled directly from the German High Command in Berlin; Hitler's mood was reportedly swinging heavily and he repeatedly contemplated withdrawal. Intelligence agents captured later in the war also stated that Dietl himself had been considering crossing the Swedish frontier with his troops to be interned, until the German agent Marina Lee infiltrated Auchinleck's headquarters at Tromsø and obtained the British battle plan; however, the accuracy of this allegation has been questioned. The Norwegian force—under General Carl Gustav Fleischer—eventually reached 8,000–10,000 men after a few weeks. The total number of Allied troops in the campaign—in and around Narvik—reached 24,500 men.
The early phase of the invasion was marked by the German advantage of surprise. Norwegian troops in northern Norway had been called out on a three-month neutrality watch during the winter of 1939/1940, and so they had trained together. From 9–25 April, the Norwegian forces suffered three catastrophes. First, the forces protecting Narvik were unable to resist the Germans due to the commanding officer—the later NS Hird commander Colonel Konrad Sundlo—refusing to fight the invaders; second, around 200 soldiers from the Narvik garrison who had escaped capture and were blocking the railway to Sweden were caught by surprise while resting at Bjørnfjell, most of the men being captured; third, I/IR12 (1st battalion of Infantry Regiment 12) sent to hold Gratangsbotn was attacked by surprise while in camp, suffering casualties that ruined its spirit and effectively knocked it out of the remainder of the campaign.
From Denmark, a battalion-sized detachment of the Luftwaffe's Regiment General Göring, commanded by Hauptmann Kluge was sent by sea to Oslo, in April, being engaged alongside the Army first in the advance to Trondheim, then north up into the Arctic Circle to take the port of Bodø and relieve the pressure on the beleaguered élite Gebirgsjäger further north at Narvik.
Due to mounting Norwegian pressure and difficulties with bringing up supplies to the forward lying troops, the Germans abandoned Gratangsbotn and withdrew from the hill Lapphaugen and the valley Gratangsdalen, following the Battle of Gratangen. In the beginning of May, the Norwegians started an advance southwards towards Narvik. Once it became clear that the Allies would mount the main invasion of Narvik itself in mid-May, the Norwegian direction altered towards Bjørnfjell. The British arrived first and set up headquarters in Harstad on 14 April. In the following days, three battalions were deployed mainly at Sjøvegan, Skånland (where a naval base was established) and at Bogen. Later, they were deployed south of Ofotfjord, at Ballangen and Håkvik.
The initial British detachment was reinforced on 28 April by a French expeditionary force (Corps expéditionnaire français en Scandinavie, CEFS), led by General Antoine Béthouart and composed of mountain troops. Three battalions of Alpine troops and two battalions of 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion were deployed both north and south of the Ofotfjord, but later, the north would be the main French area of operation. Four Polish battalions arrived on 9 May. They were first deployed north of the Ofotfjord, but later redeployed to the area south of the fjord. In early June they were formed into the Polish Podhale Independent Highland Brigade under General Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko and part of CEFS.
In addition, the Allies had difficulty in deciding how best to retake Narvik and the iron ore railway. There was no unified command for the troops facing the Germans at Narvik: the Norwegians and the Allies retained separate commanders and cooperation between them was not always smooth. Even within the British forces, the Army and Navy commanders—Major-General Pierse J. Mackesy and Admiral of the Fleet William Boyle, Lord Cork—had difficulty cooperating: Cork advocated a swift and direct attack from the sea while Mackesy advocated a cautious approach from both sides of the Ofotfjord. Consequent to this, on 21 April, Lord Cork was given supreme command of all Allied forces.
In the second week of May, the Norwegian advances against the Germans east of Gratangseidet were the most significant movements on the Narvik front. In addition, on the Norwegians' right flank French alpine troops advanced up the Laberg valley, supported by a company of Norwegian ski troops. In the south, the Allies did not have much success, and in the north of the Ofotfjord, they were not making any progress. The Norwegians continued their successful mountain campaign, and in mid-May the Allies took the initiative and achieved significant victories. Both Paris and London had been growing impatient with the slow progress in Narvik, and the French commander—Béthouart—had pressed for more action.
The cautious approach on land was abandoned and an amphibious attack was launched at around midnight on 12 May. This was directed at Bjerkvik and was preceded by a naval bombardment from British warships in Herjangsfjord. Then landing craft put ashore French Foreign Legionnaires, supported by five French Hotchkiss H39 light tanks of the 342e CACC (Compagnie Autonome de Chars de Combat/ Independent Tank Company), which successfully attacked Bjerkvik, the Elvegårdsmoen army camp and advanced northeast to where the Germans were withdrawing and south along the east side of Herjangsfjord. The plan also required Polish troops to advance toward Bjerkvik from land on the west side of the fjord, but heavy terrain delayed them and they did not arrive before Bjerkvik was taken. It had also been part of the plan for French and Norwegian troops to advance from the north in order to box the Germans in, but cooperation problems between the Norwegian and French commanders left a gap through which the Germans escaped. Despite this, the Allies had a clear path north of Narvik and planned to attack over Rombaksfjord.
It had been anticipated in London that as the buildup of troops in Narvik slowly continued, a corps headquarters would be needed to exercise effective control. On 11 May, Lieutenant-General Claude Auchinleck arrived in Narvik, and on 13 May assumed leadership of the Allied land and air forces (under Lord Cork's overall command), which at this time was designated the North-Western Expeditionary Force. It was clear to the Allies that once Narvik was captured, its long-term retention would depend on permanently holding the town of Bodø to the south in Nordland which was on the route of the German advance from Trondheim. Consequently, Auchinleck redeployed all British troops to concentrate on this southern enterprise, and appointed French Brigadier-General Béthouart—an expert in both mountain and winter warfare—to command the French and Polish troops, which would be responsible for operations in the Narvik area in conjunction with Norwegian forces.
Again, the attack was stalled while the Allies waited for air support to be fully established from Bardufoss. At 23:40 on 27 May, a naval bombardment commenced from the north. Two French and one Norwegian battalions would be transported across the Rombaksfjord and advance on Narvik from the north. In the south, the Polish battalions would advance toward Ankenes and inner Beisfjord. The maximum capacity of the landing barges was 290 men, and these troops could not be reinforced for 45 minutes. These first troops were able to get a foothold on Ornes by the time the rest of the French and the Norwegians were landed. The French moved west toward the city and east along the railway. The Norwegians moved toward Taraldsvik mountain, circled around and moved down toward the city. The German commander decided to evacuate before 07:00 and retired along Beisfjord. This was the first major Allied victory on land.
Operation Alphabet
It seemed now that it was only a matter of time before the Germans would have to surrender. They were pushed from the north by the Norwegians, from the west by the French and from the southwest by the Poles. It appeared that Bjørnfjell would be the Germans' last stand, but events elsewhere in Europe came to their rescue. London had already secretly decided to evacuate on 24 May and that became apparent in the following days. On the night of 24/25 May, Lord Cork received orders to retreat, but under cover so the Germans would be prevented from interfering. The Allied commanders agreed that an attack on Narvik would disguise the retreat and allow the destruction of the iron ore harbour.
The Norwegian government and commanders were first told in early June and the news was met with disbelief and bitterness. The Norwegians still hoped to defeat the Germans alone and, as late as 5 June, one of the two Norwegian brigades was ordered to attack. The Norwegian government also explored the possibility of creating a neutral, but free Northern Norway. This plan proved futile, and on 7 June the King and government were evacuated to Britain. All Allied troops were evacuated from Narvik between 4 and 8 June.
Three Polish passenger ships, MS Sobieski, Batory and Chrobry, took part in the evacuation operation. Chrobry was sunk on 14–15 May by German bombers. On 8 June, General Dietl retook Narvik, and on 10 June the last Norwegian forces in Norway surrendered.
Operation Juno
On 7 June, the British aircraft carrier had taken on board 10 Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes from 46 Squadron and 263 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF). These were flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation. Glorious left a larger convoy to proceed independently. The next day, while sailing through the Norwegian Sea to return to Scapa Flow, the carrier and her escorts—the destroyers and —were intercepted by the German battlecruisers and . The carrier and her escorts were sunk with the loss of more than 1,500 men. Scharnhorst was badly damaged by a torpedo from Acasta and both German vessels were hit by a number of medium shells. The damage to the German ships was sufficient to cause the Germans to retire to Trondheim, which allowed the safe passage of the evacuation convoy through the area later that day.
Aftermath
The British had drafted plans to land in Narvik before the German invasion; troops and supplies had been loaded onto ships when they executed their mining operation on 8 April. These had been hastily unloaded when German ships were spotted northbound because the British thought that the German ships were trying to break into the Atlantic to avoid being trapped in German ports and wanted all their ships available to intercept the German fleet. The confusion dogged the troops for weeks, men and equipment were shipped to Norway separately without clear landing sites and orders were changed while en route. It became apparent that the Allies were confused by the many small and large fjords and bays and could not decide where it would be best to start; British, French and Polish units rapidly relieved each other which added to the lack of local knowledge.
The cold and snow was a common enemy for all troops at Narvik but most of the Allies were poorly prepared for it. The Norwegians were the only ones fully equipped with skis and able to use them. The British tried skis but their troops were largely untrained and supply was scarce. German sailors faced the same problems, even within the Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops) and French mountain specialists, only a few units were equipped with skis and the Polish mountain brigade had no mountain training.
Most troops were untested in battle. The Gebirgsjäger had participated in the invasion of Poland and some of the troops that had been air dropped over Bjørnfjell had fought in the Netherlands. Some of the French Foreign Legionnaires came directly from fighting in North Africa and most of the Polish officers and many of the soldiers had participated in the defence of Poland, some even in the Spanish Civil War and were highly motivated.
The Allies had sea and air superiority until the very last stage of the operation, but did not take full advantage. The Germans lost the naval battle, but achieved the main goal of their operation: the successful Operation Weserübung and occupation of Norway. Around Narvik, German naval losses were high: they lost 10 destroyers (50 percent of their entire destroyer force), one submarine, and several support ships. In exchange, they sank one aircraft carrier, four Allied destroyers and damaged several others. The reason for this defeat lay in the German plans, which made it impossible for the destroyers to retire quickly, even if they had had adequate supplies. This was compounded by the design of German destroyers: despite their relatively large size and armament, they had inadequate fuel and ammunition storage. The British forces achieved an indisputable local naval victory but were unprepared to follow it up with any land operation. This allowed the Germans to consolidate their foothold in Norway and made the subsequent Allied counter-invasion more difficult.
Post-war
In 1964, a war museum opened in Narvik; since 2016, the collections have been displayed in the Narvik War Museum—located inside the Narvik War and Peace Centre.
Parts of the bow of the German destroyer Georg Thiele remain visible above the water in Rombaksbotn to this day. The wrecks at Narvik remain popular diving spots, although some are off-limits because they still contain undetonated ammunition. Three of the German destroyers were raised in 1964 and moved to Framnesodden, near Eidsvoid, to clear the shipping lane. The destroyers Anton Schmitt, Diether von Roeder, and Wilhelm Heidkamp rest in of water there and were opened for diving. A number of other wrecks are also accessible, but most have been preserved as historic sites and it is forbidden to dive to them.
Medals
At least 1,200 French, British, and Polish participants in the battle were awarded the Norwegian War Cross for their contribution to the battle. Among the Norwegians who took part in the battle, only the top two military leaders were awarded the medal. Norwegian media has complained about this limited award.
All German forces (8,577 military personnel) who partook in the battles of Narvik were awarded with the Narvik Shield.
See also
List of Norwegian military equipment of World War II
List of British military equipment of World War II
List of French military equipment of World War II
List of German military equipment of World War II
Notes
References
1940 in Norway
Battles and operations of World War II involving Norway
Battles and operations of World War II involving Poland
Battles of World War II involving Germany
Battles of World War II involving France
Battles involving the French Foreign Legion
Military history of Norway
Narvik
Naval battles and operations of the European theatre of World War II
Norwegian campaign
Military operations directly affecting Sweden during World War II
History of Nordland
Narvik
April 1940 events
May 1940 events
June 1940 events
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian%20Soviet%20Socialist%20Republic
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Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; ; ), also known as Soviet Lithuania or simply Lithuania, was de facto one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944–1990. After 1946, its territory and borders mirrored those of today's Republic of Lithuania, with the exception of minor adjustments of the border with Belarus.
During World War II, the previously independent Republic of Lithuania was occupied by the Red Army on 16 June 1940, in conformity with the terms of the 23 August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and established as a puppet state on 21 July. Between 1941 and 1944, the German invasion of the Soviet Union caused its de facto dissolution. However, with the retreat of the Germans in 1944–1945, Soviet hegemony was re-established and continued for forty-five years. As a result, many Western countries continued to recognize Lithuania as an independent, sovereign de jure state subject to international law, represented by the legations appointed by the pre-1940 Baltic states, which functioned in various places through the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service.
On 18 May 1989, the Lithuanian SSR declared itself to be a sovereign state, though still part of the USSR. On 11 March 1990, the Republic of Lithuania was re-established as an independent state, the first Soviet Republic to leave Moscow and leading other states to do so. Considered illegal by the Soviet authorities, the country was recognized by the Western powers immediately prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union itself recognized Lithuanian independence on 6 September 1991.
History
Background
On 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which contained agreements to divide Europe into spheres of influence, with Lithuania falling into Germany's sphere of influence. On 28 September 1939, the USSR and Germany signed the Frontier Treaty and its secret protocol, by which Lithuania was placed in the USSR's sphere of influence in exchange for Germany gaining an increased share of Polish territory, which had already been occupied. The next day, the USSR offered Lithuania an agreement on the establishment of Soviet military bases in its territory. During the negotiations, the Lithuanian delegation was told of the division of the spheres of influence. The Soviets threatened that if Lithuania refused to host the bases, Vilnius could be annexed to Belarus (at that time the majority of population in Vilnius and Vilnius region were Polish people). In these circumstances a Lithuania–USSR agreement on mutual assistance was signed in Moscow on 10 October 1939, allowing a Soviet military presence in Lithuania. A total of 18,786 Red Army troops were deployed at strategically important locations within the country: Alytus, Prienai, Gaižiūnai, and Naujoji Vilnia. This move effectively ended Lithuanian neutrality and brought it directly under Soviet influence.
Occupation and annexation
While Germany was conducting its military campaign in Western Europe in May and June 1940, the USSR invaded the Baltic states. On 14 June 1940, an ultimatum was served to Lithuania on the alleged grounds of abduction of Red Army troops. The ultimatum said Lithuania should remove officials that the USSR found unsuitable (the Minister of the Interior and the Head of the Security Department in particular), replace the government, and allow an unlimited number of Red Army troops to enter the country. The acceptance of the ultimatum would have meant the loss of sovereignty, but Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov declared to diplomat Juozas Urbšys that, whatever the reply may be, "troops will enter Lithuania tomorrow nonetheless". The ultimatum was a violation of every prior agreement between Lithuania and the USSR and of international law governing the relations of sovereign states.
The last session of the government of the Republic of Lithuania was called to discuss the ultimatum, with most members in favour of accepting it. On 15 June, President Smetona left for the West, expecting to return when the geopolitical situation changed, leaving Prime Minister Antanas Merkys in Lithuania. Meanwhile, the 8th and 11th armies of the USSR, comprising a total of 15 divisions, crossed the border. Flying squads took over the airports of Kaunas, Radviliškis, and Šiauliai. Regiments of the Red Army disarmed the Lithuanian military, took over its assets, and supported local communists.
Under pressure from Moscow, on 17 June 1940, Merkys appointed Justas Paleckis Prime Minister and resigned soon after. Paleckis then assumed presidential duties, and Vincas Krėvė was appointed Prime Minister. The Communist Party was legalized again and began publication of its papers and staging meetings to support the new government. Opposition organizations and newspapers were outlawed, and ties abroad cut. On 14–15 July, elections to the People's Parliament took place. The only contender was the Union of Working People of Lithuania, which had been founded by far-left radicals and their supporters. Citizens were mandated to vote, and the results of the elections were likely falsified. At its first meeting on 21 July, the new Parliament declared that Lithuania had expressed its will to become part of the USSR. Resolutions to start the country's Sovietisation were passed the same day. On 3 August, a Lithuanian delegation of prominent public figures was dispatched to Moscow to sign the document by which Lithuania acceded to the USSR. After the signing, Lithuania was annexed to the USSR. On 25 August 1940, an extraordinary session of the People's Parliament ratified the Constitution of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR), which in form and substance was similar to the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union.
German invasion and the second Soviet occupation
On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR and occupied all of Lithuania within a month. The Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), a resistance organisation founded in Berlin and led by Kazys Škirpa whose goal was to liberate Lithuania and re-establish its independence, cooperated with the Nazis. The LAF was responsible for killing many Lithuanian Jews (during the first days of the Holocaust in Lithuania). Škirpa was named prime minister in the Provisional Government of Lithuania; however, the Germans placed him under house arrest and dissolved the LAF on 5 August 1941. During the German occupation, Lithuania was made part of the Reichskommissariat Ostland. Between July and October 1944, the Red Army entered Lithuania once again, and the second Soviet government began. The first post-war elections took place in the winter of 1946 to elect 35 representatives to the LSSR Supreme Council. The results were again likely falsified to show an attendance rate of at over 90% and to establish an absolute victory for Communist Party candidates. The LSSR Supreme Council under Paleckis was formally the supreme governmental authority; in reality, power was in the hands of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, a post held by Antanas Sniečkus until 1974.
Red Army crimes
Upon recapturing Lithuania from the retreating Germans in 1944, the Red Army immediately began committing war crimes. The situation was so extreme that even Sniečkus complained to Lavrentiy Beria on 23 July that "If such robbery and violence continues in Kaunas, this will burst our last sympathy for the Red Army". Beria passed this complaint on to Joseph Stalin.
In a special report on the situation in the Klaipėda Region, the head of the local NKGB operational group wrote that In the same report, the mass rape of Lithuanian women in the Klaipėda and Šilutė regions was reported. In Klaipėda Lithuanian men aged 17 to 48 were arrested and deported. In December 1944, Chief of the Priekulė KGB Kazakov wrote to the LSSR Minister of the Interior Josifas Bertašiūnas that due to the soldiers' violence most of the houses in Priekulė were unsuitable for living in: windows were knocked out, fireplaces disassembled, furniture and agricultural inventory broken up and exported as scrap. Many Red Army soldiers engaged in robbery, rape, and murder, and Lithuanians who saw soldiers at night would often run from their homes and hide.
Other regions of the LSSR also suffered heavily. For example, on 26 December 1944, Kaunas' NKGB representative Rodionov wrote to the USSR and LSSR Ministers of the Interior that due to the violence and mass arrests by the counterintelligence units of SMERSH, many Kaunas inhabitants were forced into crime. Eleven SMERSH subdivisions did not obey any orders, not even those from the NKGB. Chief of the Vilnius Garrison, P. Vetrov, in his order described discipline violations: on 18 August a soldier went fishing with explosives in the Neris river; on 19 August a fifteen-minute firefight took place between the garrison soldiers and prison guards; on 22 August drunk officers shot at each other. On 1 October 1944, Chief of the Kaunas NKVD G. Svečnikov reported that on the night of 19 October two aviation unit soldiers killed the Mavraušaitis family during a burglary. On 17 January 1945, Chairman of the Alytus Executive Committee requested the LSSR People's Commissars Council to withdraw the border guards unit, which was sent to fight the Lithuanian partisans, because it was burning not only the enemy's homes and farms, but also those of innocent people. They were also robbing local inhabitants cattle and other property.
Sovietisation
The Sovietisation of Lithuania began with the strengthening of the supervision of the Communist Party. Officials were sent from Moscow to set up bodies of local governance. They were exclusively Lithuanian, with trustworthy Russian specialists for assistants – it was these who were in effective control. By the spring of 1945, 6,100 Russian-speaking workers had been sent to Lithuania. When the Soviets reoccupied the territory, Lithuanians were deprived of all property except personal belongings. This was followed by collectivisation, which started in 1947, with people being forced to join kolkhozes. Well-off farmers would be exiled, and the livestock of the peasants from the surrounding areas would be herded to their properties. Since kolkhozes had to donate a large portion of their produce to the state, the people working there lived in poorer conditions than the rest of the nation. Their pay would often be delayed and made in kind and their movement to cities was restricted. This collectivisation ended in 1953.
Lithuania became home to factories and power plants, in a bid to integrate the country into the economic system of the USSR. The output of major factories would be exported from the republic as there was a lack of local demand. This process of industrialisation was followed by urbanisation, as villages for the workers had to be established or expanded in the vicinity of the new factories, resulting in new towns such as Baltoji Vokė, Naujoji Akmenė, Elektrėnai and Sniečkus or expansion of old ones such as Jonava. Residents would be relocated from elsewhere in the LSSR, and from other USSR republics. By 1979, more than half of population lived in urban areas.
All symbols of the former Republic of Lithuania were removed from public view by 1950, and the country had its history rewritten and its achievements belittled. The veneration of Stalin was spread and the role of Russia and the USSR in the history of Lithuania was highlighted. People were encouraged to join the Communist Party and communist organisations. Science and art based on communist ideology and their expression controlled by censorship mechanisms. People were encouraged into atheism in an attempt to secularise Lithuania, with monasteries closed, religion classes prohibited and church-goers persecuted.
Armed resistance
The second Soviet occupation was followed by armed resistance in 1944–1953, aiming to restore an independent Lithuania, re-establish capitalism and eradicate communism, and bring back national identity and freedom of faith. Partisans were labelled bandits by the Soviets. They were forced into the woods and into armed resistance by the Soviet rule. Armed skirmishes with the Red Army were common between 1944 and 1946. From the summer of 1946 a partisan organisational structure was established, with units of 5–15 partisans living in bunkers. Guerrilla warfare with surprise attacks was the preferred tactic. In 1949 the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters under Jonas Žemaitis–Vytautas was founded. Partisan units became smaller still, consisting of 3 to 5 partisans. Open fighting was a rarity, with sabotage and terrorism preferred. Despite guerrilla warfare failing to achieve its objectives and claiming the lives of more than 20,000 fighters, it demonstrated to the world that Lithuania's joining the USSR had not been a voluntary act and highlighted the desire of many Lithuanians to be independent.
Deportations
In the fall of 1944, lists of 'bandits' and 'bandit family' members to be deported appeared. Deportees were marshaled and put on a USSR-bound trains in Kaunas in early May 1945, reaching their destination in Tajikistan in summer. Once there, they employed as forced labour at cotton plantations. In May 1945, a new wave of deportations from every county took place, enforced by battlegroups made of NKVD and NKGB staff and NKVD troops – the destruction battalions, or istrebitels. On 18–21 February 1946, deportations began in four counties: Alytus, Marijampolė, Lazdijai, and Tauragė.
On 12 December 1947 the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party resolved that actions against supporters of resistance were too weak and that additional measures were in order. A new series of deportations began and 2,782 people were deported in December. In January–February 1948, another 1,134 persons were exiled from every county in Lithuania. By May 1948, the total number of deportees had risen to 13,304. In May 1948, preparations for very large-scale deportations were being made, with 30,118 staff members from Soviet organisations involved. On 22–23 May 1948, a large-scale deportation operation called Vesna began, leading to 36,932 arrests, a figure that later increased to 40,002.
The second major mass deportation, known as Operation Priboi, took place on 25–28 March 1949, during which the authorities put 28,981 persons into livestock cars and dispatched them deep into the USSR. Some people went into hiding and managed to escape the deportations, but then a manhunt began in April. As a result, another two echelons left for the remote regions of the USSR. During March–April 1949, a total of some 32,000 people were deported from Lithuania. By 1952, 10 more operations had been staged, but of a smaller scale. The last deportations took place in 1953, when people were deported to the district of Tomsk and the regions of Altai and Krasnoyarsk.
Dissident movement
Even after the guerrilla resistance had been quelled, Soviet authorities failed to suppress the movement for Lithuania's independence. Underground dissident groups had been active from the 1950s, publishing periodicals and Catholic literature. They fostered national culture, celebrated historical events, instigated patriotism and encouraged hopes for independence. In the 1970s, dissidents established the Lithuanian Liberty League under Antanas Terleckas. Founded in Vilnius in the wake of an international conference in Helsinki, Finland, which recognised the borders established after the Second World War, the Lithuanian Helsinki Group demanded that Lithuania's occupation be recognised as illegal and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact be condemned. The dissidents ensured that the world would receive information about the situation in the LSSR and human rights violations, which caused Moscow to soften the regime. In 1972, young Romas Kalanta immolated himself in Kaunas in a public display of protest against the regime. This was followed by public unrest, demonstrating that a large portion of the population were against the regime.
The Catholic Church took an active part in opposing the Soviets. The clergy published chronicles of the Catholic Church of Lithuania that were secretly distributed in Lithuania and abroad. The faithful would gather in small groups to teach children religion, celebrate religious holidays, and use national and religious symbols. The most active repressed figures of the movement were Vincentas Sladkevičius, Sigitas Tamkevičius, and Nijolė Sadūnaitė.
Collapse of Soviet rule
In the 1980s, the USSR sank into a deep economic crisis. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected head of the USSR's Communist party and undertook internal reforms which had the effect of liberalising society (whilst actually increasing the economic chaos) and a new approach to foreign policy that effectively ended the Cold War. This encouraged the activity of anti-communist movements within the USSR, the LSSR included. On 23 August 1987, the Lithuanian Liberty League initiated an unsanctioned meeting in front of the monument to Adomas Mickevičius in Vilnius. At the meeting, the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact was condemned for the first time in public. The meeting and the speeches made at it were widely reported by western radio stations. Also meeting was reported by Central Television and even TV Vilnius.
In May 1987, the Lithuanian Cultural Fund was established to engage in environmental activity and the protection of Lithuanian cultural assets. On 3 June 1988, the Lithuanian Reformation Movement (LRM) was founded; its mission was to restore the statehood of Lithuania; LRM supporters formed groups across Lithuania. On 23 August 1988, a meeting took place at Vingis Park in Vilnius, with a turnout of about 250,000 people. On 23 August 1989, marking 50 years of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and aiming to draw the world's attention to the occupation of the Baltic states, the Baltic Way event was staged. Organised by the Lithuanian Reformation Movement, the Baltic Way was a chain of people holding hands that stretched for nearly to connect the three Baltic capitals of Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn. It was a display of the aspiration of the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian people to part ways with the USSR. The LSSR de facto ceased to exist on 11 March 1990, with the Reconstituent Seimas declaring Lithuania's independence restored. It took the line that since Lithuania's membership in the USSR was a violation of international law, it was reasserting an independence that still legally existed. Therefore, the Reconstituent Seimas argued that Lithuania did not need to follow the formal procedure of secession from the USSR.
Independence restored
Lithuania declared the sovereignty of its territory on 18 May 1989 and declared independence from the Soviet Union on 11 March 1990 as the Republic of Lithuania. Lithuania was the first Baltic state to assert state continuity and the first Soviet Republic to declare full independence from the Union (though Estonia was the first Soviet Republic to assert its national sovereignty and the supremacy of its national laws over the laws of the Soviet Union). All of the Soviet Union's claims on Lithuania were repudiated as Lithuania declared the restitution of its independence. The Soviet Union claimed that this declaration was illegal, as Lithuania had to follow the process of secession mandated in the Soviet Constitution if it wanted to leave.
Lithuania contended that the entire process by which Lithuania joined the Soviet Union violated both Lithuanian and international law so it was merely reasserting an independence that previously existed. The Soviet Union threatened to invade, but the Russian SFSR's declaration of sovereignty on 12 June meant that the Soviet Union could not enforce Lithuania's retention. While other republics held the union-wide referendum in March to restructure the Soviet Union in a loose form, Lithuania, along with Estonia, Latvia, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova did not take part. Lithuania held an independence referendum earlier that month, with 93.2% voting for it.
Iceland immediately recognised Lithuania's independence. Other countries followed suit after the failed coup in August, with the State Council of the Soviet Union recognising Lithuania's independence on 6 September 1991. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist on 26 December 1991.
It was agreed that the Soviet Army (later the Russian Army) must leave Lithuania because it was stationed without any legal reason. Its troops withdrew in 1993.
Politics
First secretaries of the Communist Party of Lithuania
The first secretaries of the Communist Party of Lithuania were:
Antanas Sniečkus, 1940–1941; 1944–1974
Petras Griškevičius, 1974–1987
Ringaudas Songaila, 1987–1988
Algirdas Brazauskas, 1988–1989
Economy
Collectivization in the Lithuanian SSR took place between 1947 and 1952.
The 1990 per capita GDP of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was $8,591, which was above the average for the rest of the Soviet Union of $6,871. This was half or less of the per capita GDPs of adjacent countries Norway ($18,470), Sweden ($17,680) and Finland ($16,868). Overall, in the Eastern Bloc, systems without competition or market-clearing prices became costly and unsustainable, especially with the increasing complexity of world economics. Such systems, which required party-state planning at all levels, collapsed under the weight of accumulated economic inefficiencies, with various attempts at reform merely contributing to the acceleration of crisis-generating tendencies.
Lithuania accounted for 0.3 percent of the Soviet Union's territory and 1.3 percent of its population, but it generated a significant amount of the Soviet Union's industrial and agricultural output: 22 percent of its electric welding apparatus, 11.1 percent of its metal-cutting lathes, 2.3 percent of its mineral fertilizers, 4.8 percent of its alternating current electric motors, 2.0 percent of its paper, 2.4 percent of its furniture, 5.2 percent of its socks, 3.5 percent of underwear and knitwear, 1.4 percent of leather footwear, 5.3 percent of household refrigerators, 6.5 percent of television sets, 3.7 percent of meat, 4.7 percent of butter, 1.8 percent of canned products, and 1.9 percent of sugar.
Lithuania was also a net donor to the USSR budget. It was calculated in 1995 that the occupation resulted in 80 billion LTL (more than 23 billion euros) worth of losses, including population, military, and church property losses and economic destruction among other things. Lithuania mostly suffered until 1958 when more than a half of the annual national budgets was sent to the USSR budgets, later this number decreased but still remained high at around 25% of the annual national budgets until 1973 (totally, Lithuania sent about one third of all its annual national budgets money to the USSR budgets during the whole occupation period).
In astronomy
A minor planet, 2577 Litva, discovered in 1975 by a Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh is named after the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
See also
History of Lithuania
People's Seimas
People's Government of Lithuania
Lithuanian People's Army
Notes
References
External links
1978 Constitution of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
Lithuania: An Encyclopedic Survey - a 1986 English-language Soviet work.
Republics of the Soviet Union
Communism in Lithuania
Former client states
Former socialist republics
Former unrecognized countries
Political history of Lithuania
Occupation of the Baltic states
Soviet military occupations
1945 establishments in Lithuania
1990 disestablishments in Lithuania
States and territories established in 1940
States and territories disestablished in 1990
1940 establishments in the Soviet Union
1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union
20th century in Lithuania
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving%20Fisher
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Irving Fisher
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Irving Fisher (February 27, 1867 – April 29, 1947) was an American economist, statistician, inventor, eugenicist and progressive social campaigner. He was one of the earliest American neoclassical economists, though his later work on debt deflation has been embraced by the post-Keynesian school. Joseph Schumpeter described him as "the greatest economist the United States has ever produced", an assessment later repeated by James Tobin and Milton Friedman.
Fisher made important contributions to utility theory and general equilibrium. He was also a pioneer in the rigorous study of intertemporal choice in markets, which led him to develop a theory of capital and interest rates. His research on the quantity theory of money inaugurated the school of macroeconomic thought known as "monetarism". Fisher was also a pioneer of econometrics, including the development of index numbers. Some concepts named after him include the Fisher equation, the Fisher hypothesis, the international Fisher effect, the Fisher separation theorem and Fisher market.
Fisher was perhaps the first celebrity economist, but his reputation during his lifetime was irreparably harmed by his public statement, just nine days before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, that the stock market had reached "a permanently high plateau". His subsequent theory of debt deflation as an explanation of the Great Depression, as well as his advocacy of full-reserve banking and alternative currencies, were largely ignored in favor of the work of John Maynard Keynes. Fisher's reputation has since recovered in academic economics, particularly after his theoretical models were rediscovered in the late 1960s to the 1970s, a period of increasing reliance on mathematical models within the field. Interest in him has also grown in the public due to an increased interest in debt deflation after the Great Recession.
Fisher was one of the foremost proponents of the full-reserve banking, which he advocated as one of the authors of A Program for Monetary Reform where the general proposal is outlined.
Biography
Fisher was born in Saugerties, New York. His father was a teacher and a Congregational minister, who raised his son to believe he must be a useful member of society. Despite being raised in religious family, he later on became an atheist. As a child, he had remarkable mathematical ability and a flair for invention. A week after he was admitted to Yale College his father died, at age 53. Irving then supported his mother, brother, and himself, mainly by tutoring. He graduated first in his class with a BA degree in 1888, having also been elected as a member of the Skull and Bones society.
In 1891, Fisher received the first PhD in economics granted by Yale. His faculty advisors were the theoretical physicist Willard Gibbs and the sociologist William Graham Sumner. As a student, Fisher had shown particular talent and inclination for mathematics, but he found that economics offered greater scope for his ambition and social concerns. His thesis, published by Yale in 1892 as Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices, was a rigorous development of the theory of general equilibrium. When he began writing the thesis, Fisher had not been aware that Léon Walras and his continental European disciples had already covered similar ground. Nonetheless, Fisher's work was a very significant contribution and was immediately recognized and praised as first-rate by such European masters as Francis Edgeworth.
After graduating from Yale, Fisher studied in Berlin and Paris. From 1890 onward, he remained at Yale, first as a tutor, then after 1898 as a professor of political economy, and after 1935 as professor emeritus. He edited the Yale Review from 1896 to 1910 and was active in many learned societies, institutes, and welfare organizations. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1912. He was president of the American Economic Association in 1918. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1927. The American Mathematical Society selected him as its Gibbs Lecturer for 1929. A leading early proponent of econometrics, in 1930 he founded, with Ragnar Frisch and Charles F. Roos the Econometric Society, of which he was the first president.
Fisher was a prolific writer, producing journalism as well as technical books and articles, and addressing various social issues surrounding the First World War, the prosperous 1920s and the depressed 1930s. He made several practical inventions, the most notable of which was an "index visible filing system" which he patented in 1913 and sold to Kardex Rand (later Remington Rand) in 1925. This, and his subsequent stock investments, made him a wealthy man until his personal finances were badly hit by the Crash of 1929.
Fisher was also an active social and health campaigner, as well as an advocate of vegetarianism, prohibition, and eugenics. In 1893, he married Margaret Hazard, a granddaughter of Rhode Island industrialist and social reformer Rowland G. Hazard. He died of inoperable colon cancer in New York City in 1947, at the age of 80.
Economic theories
Utility theory
James Tobin, writing on the contributions of John Bates Clark and Irving Fisher to neoclassical theory in America argues that American economists contributed in their own way to the preparation of a common ground after the neoclassical revolution. In particular Clark and Irving Fisher "brought neoclassical theory into American journals, classrooms, and textbooks, and its analytical tools into the kits of researchers and practitioners." Already in his doctoral thesis, "Fisher expounds thoroughly the mathematics of utility functions and their maximization, and he is careful to allow for corner solutions." Already then, Fisher "states clearly that neither interpersonally comparable utility nor cardinal utility for each individual is necessary to the determination of equilibrium."
In reviewing the history of utility theory, economist George Stigler wrote that Fisher's doctoral thesis had been "brilliant" and stressed that it contained "the first careful examination of the measurability of the utility function and its relevance to demand theory." While his published work exhibited an unusual degree of mathematical sophistication for an economist of his day, Fisher always sought to bring his analysis to life and to present his theories as lucidly as possible. For instance, to complement the arguments in his doctoral thesis, he built an elaborate hydraulic machine with pumps and levers, allowing him to demonstrate visually how the equilibrium prices in the market adjusted in response to changes in supply or demand.
Interest and capital
Fisher is probably best remembered today in neoclassical economics for his theory of capital, investment, and interest rates, first exposited in his The Nature of Capital and Income (1906) and elaborated on in The Rate of Interest (1907). His 1930 treatise, The Theory of Interest, summed up a lifetime's research into capital, capital budgeting, credit markets, and the factors (including inflation) that determine interest rates.
Fisher saw that subjective economic value is not only a function of the amount of goods and services owned or exchanged, but also of the moment in time when they are purchased with money. A good available now has a different value than the same good available at a later date; value has a time as well as a quantity dimension. The relative price of goods available at a future date, in terms of goods sacrificed now, is measured by the interest rate. Fisher made free use of the standard diagrams used to teach undergraduate economics but labeled the axes "consumption now" and "consumption next period" (instead of the usual schematic alternatives of "apples" and "oranges"). The resulting theory, one of considerable power and insight, was presented in detail in The Theory of Interest.
This model, later generalized to the case of K goods and N periods (including the case of infinitely many periods) has become a standard theory of capital and interest, and is described in Gravelle and Rees, and Aliprantis, Brown, and Burkinshaw. This theoretical advance is explained in Hirshleifer.
Fisher saw that his theory, via economic policy, was making an impact on society as a whole. Once he brought out his Quantity Theory of Money, it started to bring economic models to life. One of the strongest points that Fisher brings out in discussing interest rates was the power of impatience.
Monetary economics
Fisher's research into the basic theory of prices and interest rates did not touch directly on the great social issues of the day. On the other hand, his monetary economics did and this grew to be the main focus of Fisher's mature work.
It was Fisher who (following the pioneering work of Simon Newcomb) formulated the quantity theory of money in terms of the "equation of exchange:" Let M be the total stock of money, P the price level, T the number of transactions carried out using money, and V the velocity of circulation of money, so that:
Later economists replaced T by the real output Y (or Q), usually quantified by the real Gross domestic product (GDP).
Fisher's Appreciation and Interest was an abstract analysis of the behavior of interest rates when the price level is changing. It emphasized the distinction between real and nominal interest rates:
where is the real interest rate, is the nominal interest rate, and the inflation is a measure of the increase in the price level. When inflation is sufficiently low, the real interest rate can be approximated as the nominal interest rate minus the expected inflation rate. The resulting equation is known as the Fisher equation in his honor.
Fisher believed that investors and savers – people in general – were afflicted in varying degrees by "money illusion"; they could not see past the money to the goods the money could buy. In an ideal world, changes in the price level would have no effect on production or employment. In the actual world with money illusion, inflation (and deflation) did serious harm. For more than forty years, Fisher elaborated his vision of the damaging "dance of the dollar" and devised various schemes to "stabilize" money, i.e. to stabilize the price level. He was one of the first to subject macroeconomic data, including the money stock, interest rates, and the price level, to statistical analyses and tests. In the 1920s, he introduced the technique later called distributed lags. In 1973, the Journal of Political Economy posthumously reprinted his 1926 paper on the statistical relation between unemployment and inflation, retitling it as "I discovered the Phillips curve". Index numbers played an important role in his monetary theory, and his book The Making of Index Numbers has remained influential down to the present day.
Fisher's main intellectual rival was the Swedish economist Knut Wicksell. Fisher espoused a more succinct explanation of the quantity theory of money, resting it almost exclusively on long run prices. Wicksell's theory was considerably more complicated, beginning with interest rates in a system of changes in the real economy. Although both economists concluded from their theories that at the heart of the business cycle (and economic crisis) was government monetary policy, their disagreement would not be solved in their lifetimes, and indeed, it was inherited by the policy debates between the Keynesians and monetarists beginning a half-century later.
Debt-deflation
Following the stock market crash of 1929, and in light of the ensuing Great Depression, Fisher developed a theory of economic crises called debt-deflation, which attributed the crises to the bursting of a credit bubble. Initially, during the upswing over-confident economic agents are lured by the prospect of high profits to increase their debt in order to leverage their gains. According to Fisher, once the credit bubble bursts, this unleashes a series of effects that have serious negative impact on the real economy:
Debt liquidation and distress selling.
Contraction of the money supply as bank loans are paid off.
A fall in the level of asset prices.
A still greater fall in the net worth of businesses, precipitating bankruptcies.
A fall in profits.
A reduction in output, in trade and in employment.
Pessimism and loss of confidence.
Hoarding of money.
A fall in nominal interest rates and a rise in deflation-adjusted interest rates.
Crucially, as debtors try to liquidate or pay off their nominal debt, the fall of prices caused by this defeats the very attempt to reduce the real burden of debt. Thus, while repayment reduces the amount of money owed, this does not happen fast enough since the real value of the dollar now rises ('swelling of the dollar').
This theory was largely ignored in favor of Keynesian economics, in part because of the damage to Fisher's reputation caused by his public optimism about the stock market, just prior to the crash. Debt-deflation has experienced a revival of mainstream interest since the 1980s, and particularly with the Late-2000s recession. Steve Keen predicted the 2008 recession by using Hyman Minsky's further development of Fisher's work on debt-deflation. Debt-deflation is now the major theory with which Fisher's name is associated.
Stock market crash of 1929
The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression cost Fisher much of his personal wealth and academic reputation. He famously predicted, nine days before the crash, that stock prices had "reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." Irving Fisher stated on October 21 that the market was "only shaking out of the lunatic fringe" and went on to explain why he felt the prices still had not caught up with their real value and should go much higher. On Wednesday, October 23, he announced in a banker's meeting "security values in most instances were not inflated." For months after the Crash, he continued to assure investors that a recovery was just around the corner. Once the Great Depression was in full force, he did warn that the ongoing drastic deflation was the cause of the disastrous cascading insolvencies then plaguing the American economy because deflation increased the real value of debts fixed in dollar terms. Fisher was so discredited by his 1929 pronouncements and by the failure of a firm he had started that few people took notice of his "debt-deflation" analysis of the Depression. People instead eagerly turned to the ideas of Keynes. Fisher's debt-deflation scenario has since seen a revival since the 1980s.
Constructive Income Taxation
Lawrence Lokken, the University of Miami School of Law professor of economics, credits
Fisher's 1942 book with the concept behind the Unlimited Savings Accumulation Tax, a reform introduced in the United States Senate in 1995 by Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia), and Senator Bob Kerrey (D-Nebraska). The concept was that unnecessary spending (which is hard to define in a law) can be taxed by taxing income minus all net investments and savings, and minus an allowance for essential purchases, thus making funds available for investment.
Social and health campaigns
In 1898, Fisher was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his father. He spent three years in sanatoria, finally making a full recovery. That experience sparked in him a vocation as a health campaigner. He was one of the founders of the Life Extension Institute, under whose auspices he co-authored the bestselling book How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science, published in 1915. He advocated regular exercise and the avoidance of red meat, tobacco, and alcohol. In 1924, Fisher wrote an anti-smoking article for the Reader's Digest, which argued that "tobacco lowers the whole tone of the body and decreases its vital power and resistance ... [it] acts like a narcotic poison, like opium and like alcohol, though usually in a less degree".
Fisher supported the legal prohibition of alcohol and wrote three booklets defending prohibition in the United States on grounds of public health and economic productivity. As a proponent of Eugenics he helped found the Race Betterment Foundation in 1906. He also defended eugenics, serving in the scientific advisory board of the Eugenics Record Office and as first president of the American Eugenics Society.
When his daughter Margaret was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Fisher had her treated at the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton, whose director was the psychiatrist Henry Cotton. Cotton believed in a "focal sepsis" theory, according to which mental illness resulted from infectious material in the roots of teeth, bowel recesses, and other places in the body. Cotton also claimed that surgical removal of the infected tissue could alleviate the patient's mental disorder. At Trenton, Margaret Fisher had sections of her bowel and colon removed, which eventually resulted in her death. Irving Fisher nonetheless remained convinced of the validity of Cotton's treatment.
Selected publications
Fisher, Irving Norton, 1961. A Bibliography of the Writings of Irving Fisher (1961). Compiled by Fisher's son; contains 2425 entries.
Primary
1892. Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices. Scroll to chapter links.
1896. Appreciation and Interest. Link.
1906. The Nature of Capital and Income. Scroll to chapter links.
1907. The Rate of Interest. Extracts from Preface and Appendix to ch. VII.
1910, 1914. Introduction to Economic Science. Section links.
1911a, 1922, 2nd ed. The Purchasing Power of Money: Its Determination and Relation to Credit, Interest, and Crises. Scroll to chapter links from Library of Economics and Liberty (LE&L). Full text of 1920 edition online via FRASER
1911b, 1913. Elementary Principles of Economics. Scroll to chapter links.
1915. How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science (with Eugene Lyon Fisk). Link.
1918, "Is 'Utility' the Most Suitable Term for the Concept It is Used to Denote?" American Economic Review, pp. 335–37]. Reprint.
1921a. "Dollar Stabilization," Encyclopædia Britannica 12th ed.. XXX, pp. 852–853. Reprint page links from LE&L.
1921b, The Best Form of Index Number, American Statistical Association Quarterly. 17(133), pp. pp. 533–537.
1922. The Making of Index Numbers: A Study of Their Varieties, Tests, and Reliability. Scroll to chapter links,
1923, "The Business Cycle Largely a 'Dance of the Dollar'," Journal of the American Statistical Association, 18, pp. 1024–28. Link.
1926, "A Statistical Relation between Unemployment and Price Changes," International Labour Review, 13(6), p pp. 785–92. Reprinted as 1973, "I Discovered the Phillips Curve: A Statistical Relation between Unemployment and Price Changes'," Journal of Political Economy, 81(2, Part 1), p pp. 496–502.
1927, "A Statistical Method for Measuring 'Marginal Utility' and Testing the Justice of a Progressive Income Tax" in Economic Essays Contributed in Honor of John Bates Clark .
1928, The Money Illusion, New York: Adelphi Company. Scroll to chapter-preview links.
1930a. The Stock Market Crash and After.
1930b. The Theory of Interest. Chapter I. Chapter links, each numbered by paragraph via LE&L.
1932. Booms and Depressions: Some First Principles. full text online via FRASER.
1933b. Stamp Scrip. full text online
1935. 100% Money. full text online
1942. "Constructive Income Taxation: A Proposal for Reform." New York: Harper & Brothers.
1996. The Works of Irving Fisher. edited by William J. Barber et al. 14 volumes London : Pickering & Chatto.
See also
Chicago plan
Eugenics in the United States
Ham and Eggs Movement, California pension reform plan, 1938–40
Library of Economics and Liberty
Marginalism
Milton Friedman
2018 Swiss sovereign-money initiative
References
Further reading
Allen, Robert Loring (1993). Irving Fisher: A Biography
Dimand, Robert W. (2020). "J. Laurence Laughlin versus Irving Fisher on the quantity theory of money, 1894 to 1913." Oxford Economic Papers
Dimand, Robert W. (2003). "Irving Fisher on the International Transmission of Booms and Depressions through Monetary Standards." Journal of Money, Credit & Banking. Vol: 35#1 pp 49+. online edition
Dimand, Robert W. (1993). "The Dance of the Dollar: Irving Fisher's Monetary Theory of Economic Fluctuations," History of Economics Review 20:161–172.
Dimand, Robert W. (1994). "Irving Fisher's Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions," Review of Social Economy 52:92–107
Dimand, Robert W., and Geanakoplos, John (2005). "Celebrating Irving Fisher: The Legacy of a Great Economist" American Journal of Economics & Sociology, Jan 2005, Vol. 64 Issue 1, pp. 3–18
(1958). The Economic Mind in American Civilization, vol. 3.
Fellner, William, ed. (1967). Ten Economic Studies in the Tradition of Irving Fisher
Fisher, Irving Norton (1956). My Father Irving Fisher.
Schumpeter, Joseph (1951). Ten Great Economists: 222–38.
Schumpeter, Joseph (1954). A History of Economic Analysis (1954)
Thaler, Richard (1999). "Irving Fisher: Behavioral Economist," American Economic Review.
Tobin, James (1987). "Fisher, Irving," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Vol. 2: 369–76. Reprinted in American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Jan, 2005, 17 pages.
Tobin, James (1985). "Neoclassical Theory in America: J. B. Clark and Fisher" American Economic Review (Dec 1985) vol 75#6 pp. 28–38 in JSTOR
External links
Archive for the History of Economic Thought at McMaster University
New School for Social Research website:
Irving Fisher, 1867–1947. Includes a photograph of the young Fisher. For a photograph of the older man, see Irving Fisher on the Portraits of Statisticians page.
Irving Fisher's Theory of Investment.
Irving Fisher Papers (MS 212). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
Herbert Scarf, William C.Brainard, "How to Compute Equilibrium Prices in 1891". Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper 1272, August 2000 – for the description of Fisher's hydraulic apparatus.
Works by or about Irving Fisher on FRASER
American atheists
Economists from New York (state)
American statisticians
Neoclassical economists
1867 births
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American temperance activists
Activists from New York (state)
Tobacco researchers
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Presidents of the American Economic Association
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People from Saugerties, New York
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Mathematicians from New York (state)
Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School alumni
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Members of Skull and Bones
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel%20Carnahan
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Mel Carnahan
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Melvin Eugene Carnahan (February 11, 1934 – October 16, 2000) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 51st Governor of Missouri from 1993 until his death in 2000. A Democrat, he held various positions, including stints as a state Representative, where he rose to the position of majority leader, as State Treasurer and as Lieutenant Governor. He was elected Governor of Missouri in 1992 and re-elected in 1996. In 2000, he ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent John Ashcroft in a hotly contested race. During the final weeks of the campaign, Carnahan was killed in a plane crash on his way to a campaign event. However, he was elected posthumously to the U.S. Senate, and his widow, Jean, served in his stead until a special election was held in 2002.
Early life and education
Carnahan was born in Birch Tree, Missouri, and grew up on a small farm near Ellsinore, Missouri, He was the son of Kathel (Schupp) and A. S. J. Carnahan, and had one sibling, an older brother Robert "Bob" Carnahan. Carnahan's father was the superintendent of Ellsinore schools who, in 1944, was elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1945 to 1947 and 1949 to 1961. He would later become the U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone under John F. Kennedy. When he was 12, Carnahan traveled with his father across the district, attending local events. In 1948, because his father was running for congress, Carnahan was present for Harry Truman's last campaign stop in St. Louis. Carnahan would later reflect that it was from his father that he developed a desire for public service.
Carnahan moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in 1945 and returned in 1949, the year he met his future wife Jean. There he graduated from Anacostia High School in 1952 and earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in business administration from George Washington University in 1954. He married Jean Anne Carpenter that same year and also entered the United States Air Force during the Korean War. He failed the physical due to passing out during a blood test. As a result, he served as a special agent for the Office of Special Investigation, rising to the rank of First Lieutenant. In 1956, he and his wife moved back to his home state of Missouri. He received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia, Missouri, in 1959, graduating with the highest honors. He then moved to Rolla, the largest city in his father's congressional district.
Early political career
State legislator
Carnahan's political career started in 1960 at the age of 26 when he was elected to serve as a municipal judge in Rolla. Two years later he was elected as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives representing the Rolla area. In 1964, he was elected by the Democratic caucus to be assistant floor leader to majority leader H.P Patterson. A few months later, Paterson died and Carnahan was elected by the caucus to be his successor.
During his tenure, the state was forced to redraw its legislative districts due to a federal court ruling the districts suffered from malapportionment. Carnahan helped conceive a redistricting plan, though it was rejected by voters in a special election. He later clashed with Democratic Governor Warren Hearnes over his reapportionment plan for state districts, in which Hearnes would pick the members of the independent committee, as opposed to the legislature. Eventually, a compromise was reached, leading to the creation of a new redistricting commission.
In 1966, Carnahan ran for the state Senate, running in the 20th district. In the Democratic primary, he faced Gene Sally, a former state representative, a former state senator and an appointee of Governor Hearnes to a state commission. Carnahan defeated Sally in what his wife Jean later described as one of the most hard fought races he had run. Carnahan faced Republican state senator Don Owens in the general election. The district was considered more Democratic leaning, but was thought to be competitive. In November, Carnahan was defeated by Owens. Carnahan later reflected on the defeat, saying "Strangely enough, I value the experience of losing. It does something to you, but it gives perspective."
After his defeat, and after his term in the state house expired, Carnahan returned to practicing law in Rolla. He also held a role in the charcoal company his father founded, until giving away his share of the company to his brother in 1975. He would also become president of the Rolla school board. During his tenure on the board, he brought in a new superintendent and helped raise funds to build a new junior high.
State Treasurer
In 1979, Carnahan announced his return to politics by declaring his bid for Missouri State Treasurer, also intended as a launching pad for a future gubernatorial run. He had briefly considered a bid for Missouri's 8th congressional district being vacated by Richard Ichord, the man who beat his father in 1960, but passed on it.
In the Democratic primary, he faced state Representative and former House Majority Whip Ed Sweeney. Sweeney attacked Carnahan as being beholden to banking interests, in part due to donations from banking interests. Carnahan criticized Sweeney for being hypocritical due to seeking out banking interests himself, albeit unsuccessfully. Carnahan defeated Sweeney and faced former state senator Gerald Winship for the general election. Carnahan focused his campaign on continuing the work of outgoing Treasurer James Spainhower and refrained from personal attacks on his opponent. He won and was back in elected office for the first time since 1966. He served in that post from 1981 to 1985. During his tenure, he activated a policy would give state funds to banks that gave agricultural related loans.
In 1984 Carnahan ran for Governor of Missouri. During his campaign, Carnahan walked from St. Louis to Kansas City to meet voters. The walk began in May and ended in June, with Carnahan having walked over 300 miles. That August, Carnahan lost the Democratic primary election to then-Lieutenant Governor Kenneth Rothman, who lost the general election that year to state Attorney General John Ashcroft. That same year, he took a public stand against Missouri ballot issues, Amendments 5 and 7, which would legalize parimutuel betting and create a state lottery, though conceded during his gubernatorial campaign that he would implement them if the public supported them. Both amendments would pass with over 60% of the vote.
Lieutenant Governor
After his defeat, Carnahan returned to practicing law in Rolla. In 1986, he was sought by Democrats to run for Missouri's 8th congressional district against incumbent Bill Emerson. He did not run, and Wayne Crits would ultimately become the Democratic nominee. During this time, Carnahan also expressed interest at the prospect of becoming chair of the Missouri Democratic Party. Instead, after initially expressing a lack of interest in running, Carnahan waited until 1988, and made his second comeback to electoral politics by running forand winning the job of Lieutenant Governor. The role of Lieutenant Governor had been seen as largely irrelevant, and some officials even proposed doing away with the position. Nevertheless, Carnahan fought for more funding for the office, and to expand his staffing, and his access to state planes. He also expressed interest in using the office for highway development.
Carnahan's election to the Lieutenant Governorship was the sole Democratic statewide win that year. In 1990, a brief dispute emerged when Carnahan, as acting governor, signed legislation into law, but Republican Secretary of State Roy Blunt refused to authorize any of what he signed. Republican Governor John Ashcroft called upon the Supreme Court of Missouri to clarify the Lieutenant Governor's role while the Governor was out of state. A circuit judge eventually ruled the Governor was in charge, a ruling later affirmed by the state's Supreme Court. This time together would later be speculated to be the beginning of a bitter rivalry between Ashcroft and Carnahan.
While serving as Lieutenant Governor, Carnahan endorsed Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton for president in the Missouri primary.
Governor of Missouri
In 1989, Carnahan announced his intent to run for Governor in 1992. He faced Mayor of St. Louis Vincent C. Schoemehl in the Democratic primary, who referred to him as a "redneck from Rolla". Carnahan won the Democratic nomination by a wide margin, sweeping all but one county. Carnahan faced Republican state Attorney General William L. Webster in the general election. Webster's campaign was hurt by controversy surrounding the state's Second Injury Fund. In the general election, held November 3rd, Carnahan was elected as Governor of Missouri, amidst a strong Democratic performance in the state.
First term (1993-1997)
Carnahan was sworn into office on January 11, 1993. On January 15, 1993, four days after his swearing in, Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder struck down the states method of public school funding. In response to the ruling, Carnahan later signed into law the "Outstanding Schools Act", a bill which created a new method of distributing aid to schools and proposed education reforms. Among the reforms in the bill included smaller classrooms, putting computers in classrooms and supporting vocational programs. The bill raised income and corporate taxes by $310 million.
The tax increases became subject to criticism from U.S. Representative Mel Hancock, who contended the tax increases violated the state's Hancock amendment, of which Hancock was the namesake. Consequently, Hancock was able to put an amendment on the 1994 ballot that would require voter approval to raise taxes. Carnahan opposed the amendment, claiming the amendment would force the state to cut anywhere from $1 billion to $5 billion, affecting schools and state troopers, and campaigned against the amendment. The amendment, which had been opposed by retiring U.S. Senator John Danforth, was defeated by a nearly 40 point margin. In the aftermath, Carnahan worked to convince lawmakers to support an annual cap on tax increases.
Carnahan also had to deal with natural disasters such as the Great Flood of 1993, one of the deadliest floods in U.S. History. Carnahan would travel across the state surveying damage, and also called a special session of the state legislature to figure out how to pay for the damage. As a result of the floods, Carnahan also oversaw the buyout various towns affected, including as the city of Pattonsburg, and the city of Bellefontaine Neighbors. His actions in the crisis earned him praise from other governors, and earned him the position of Vice Chairman of the Democratic Governor's Association. He would eventually rise to the position of chair of the organization and held a spot on the Executive Committee of the National Governor's Association.
Also during his first term, Carnahan oversaw the impeachment of Secretary of State Judith Moriarty, who had backdated election papers for her son. Carnahan appealed to Moriarty to resign, but she refused. Consequently Carnahan called for a special session for her impeachment. Moriarty was impeached and removed from office. Carnahan appointed her replacement, Bekki Cook. In 1995 Carnahan appointed Ronnie L. White to the Missouri Supreme Court, the first black judge to be appointed to the court. White would later become the state's first black chief justice, and eventually, a federal judge.
Second term (1997-2000)
On November 5, 1996, Carnahan defeated Republican State Auditor Margaret B. Kelly to win a second term in office. In 1997, Carnahan passed a cut on the state's grocery tax and on private pensions. Carnahan also made further tax cuts in 1998, increasing tax credits for the elderly and disabled. and in 1999, which included a increase in income tax exemptions for the first time in over 50 years. Also in 1999, Carnahan signed legislation that would give tax credits on prescription drugs to elderly citizens. By the end of 1999, the tax cuts totaled about $1.3 billion. In addition to taxes, Carnahan also signed into law a bill expanding Medicaid coverage for children in poverty, which was estimated to insure over 90,000 children.
In 1998, Carnahan made his second appointment to the Missouri Supreme Court, appointing Michael A. Wolff, a former Attorney General candidate, and legal advisor to Carnahan. He would later serve as chief justice on the court from 2005 to 2007. In 1999, parts of the state were affected by a severe drought, affecting the production of crops such as soybeans. Carnahan declared all 114 counties a disaster area, and sought federal help and assistance to severely affected counties. The drought would not subside until the summer of 2000.
In 1999, Carnahan, a death penalty supporter, commuted the death sentence of a Missouri inmate, Darrell Mease, after Pope John Paul II requested he do so during his visit to St. Louis. This move was controversial, with 34% of voters saying in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch poll that they were more likely to vote against Carnahan in his U.S. Senate bid. That same year, Carnahan opposed a proposition which would have allowed Missourians to carry concealed weapons. The against campaign, which was ran by Carnahan's daughter Robin, won by a 2 point margin, in spite of being vastly outspent. Carnahan had vetoed three abortion bills in 1997, but the issue would resurface again in 1999. That year, the Missouri legislature proposed a bill which banned what was referred to as partial-birth abortions. Carnahan vetoed the bill, due to its language, which he argued went farther than restricting just partial birth abortion, and because the bill lacked exceptions for protecting the mother's health. However, his veto would be overridden by the legislature, making him only the seventh governor since Missouri statehood to have a veto overridden.
Potential U.S. Senate bids
In 1992, supporters of his primary rival Vince Schoemehl encouraged him to run against Senator Kit Bond. In 1994, with Senator John Danforth, retiring, Carnahan was again looked at as a contender, but would decline to run for the open seat that John Ashcroft would ultimately win, opting for re-election. However, Carnahan vowed to campaign vigorously against Ashcroft. In 1998, again against Bond, Carnahan was seen as a potential candidate, and himself said that he was 'very likely' to look at a bid. Again, he declined to run.
2000 U.S. Senate election
On November 4, 1998, Carnahan announced his intention to challenge the incumbent John Ashcroft for his senate seat in 2000. It had long been speculated that neither man particularly liked each other, though both would deny having any rivalry. The campaign became heated and intense, becoming one of the most hotly contested races in the nation. It was a race marked by negative campaigning, with Carnahan being attacked for his actions as governor, and for other incidents, such as photos resurfacing of him performing in blackface in 1960. Carnahan responded by attacking Ashcroft for being out of step with Missourians, while also defending his record as a "moderate, progressive" one. During the campaign, Carnahan made a whistle stop train tour, an homage to Harry S. Truman, who held the Senate seat decades prior. In October, Carnahan had trailed in the polls.
Death and aftermath
Early in the evening of October 16, Carnahan, his son Randy, and his campaign advisor Chris Sifford left from St. Louis, to attend a campaign event in New Madrid. However, the twin-engine Cessna 335 airplane he was flying on, which was piloted by Randy, crashed near Hillsboro, Missouri, killing all three people on board the plane. The NTSB later ruled the crash was due to Randy growing disoriented, and was made worse due to inclement weather and instrument failure.
The presidential debate, held the next day in St. Louis, opened with a moment of silence and both candidates made remarks about Carnahan's death. A memorial service for Carnahan was held in the State Capitol in Jefferson City on October 20. His service was attended by federal and state politicians such as President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, former U.S. Senator Thomas Eagleton, and Governor Roger B. Wilson. At the funeral, President Clinton said: "I loved the guy, and anybody who thinks he was dull never looked him straight in the eye, because he had steel and passion and fire, and I think he rather enjoyed being underestimated by the people who disagreed with him."
Lieutenant Governor Roger B. Wilson ascended to the governorship to serve out the balance of Carnahan's term the day following the plane crash. Because Missouri election law would not allow Carnahan's name to be removed from the November 7, 2000, ballot, Governor Wilson promised to appoint his widow Jean to the seat, if it became vacant, as a result of Mel Carnahan's win in the election. Carnahan's campaign continued, using the slogan "I'm Still with Mel." Carnahan became the first person in U.S. history to a win a U.S. Senate election posthumously. His death was thought to have helped other races down-ballot, including that years race for Governor. Jean Carnahan was then appointed to the Senate and served until November 2002, when she was defeated in a special election by Republican Jim Talent.
Awards and recognitions
In 1965, Carnahan received an award from Missouri House Speaker Thomas C. Graham, recognizing him as the chamber's most outstanding Democrat. Also during his tenure as a state legislator, he received the St. Louis Globe-Democrat's Meritorious Service award twice.
The Armory and Reserve Center in Rolla Missouri was renamed in honor of him in 2001, as The Mel Carnahan Armory and Reserve Center. That same year, the U.S. Court House and Custom House in St. Louis was planned to be renamed to the Carnahan Courthouse, though it was not officially called such until 2002. A high school, Carnahan High School of the Future, was named after him in 2003. The garden in the Missouri Capitol was renamed after him, and a bust of him was placed there in 2023.
Personal life
Carnahan married Jean Carpenter in Washington, D.C. on June 12, 1954. They had four children who all became lawyers. Russ Carnahan, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Missouri's 3rd District (2005–2013); Tom Carnahan, founder of Wind Capital Group, which builds wind farms; Robin Carnahan, former Missouri Secretary of State (2005–2013), 2010 U.S. Senate Nominee, and current Administrator of General Services; and Roger "Randy" Carnahan, who piloted the plane and perished in the same crash that killed his father. The family also had a Newfoundland dog named Beaumont. The family was involved with Mel's campaigns, including waiting in line for days before filing opened to ensure Carnahan's name would appear first on the primary ballot for Treasurer in 1980.
Carnahan was noted for having an upright image coupled with a laid back personality, generally being free of scandal, and never smoking or drinking. This lead many supporters to wear straight arrow pins to highlight this. However, he also had a more humorous side, including once granting a pardon to a boy who sought one after lying to his parents. Carnahan and his family were active members of the First Baptist Church of Rolla, where he served as an ordained deacon and he and his wife taught Sunday School. In his spare time, Carnahan was a pilot.
References
External links
National Governors Association
2000 U.S. Senate Campaign Website (Archived)
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1934 births
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Accidental deaths in Missouri
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark%20Viduka
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Mark Viduka
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Mark Antony Viduka ( ; born 9 October 1975) is an Australian former soccer player who played as a centre forward. Viduka captained the Australia national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which remains their joint-best performance to date. His four goals in the UEFA Champions League are the most scored by any Australian player.
Club career
Melbourne Knights
In 1993, Viduka started his professional career in Australia for Melbourne Knights (which up until the 1993 season was known as Melbourne Croatia) and became an Australian international in June of the following year. In his two seasons with the Knights, he was top goal scorer in the National Soccer League (NSL) and was twice awarded the Johnny Warren Medal for NSL Best Player of the Year in 1993–94 and 1994–95. His time at Melbourne Knights included one NSL title in the 1994–95 season. The grandstand at Knights' Stadium, home of the Knights, was renamed the "Mark Viduka Stand" in his honour and paid for with his transfer money.
Dinamo Zagreb
In 1995, Viduka moved to Croatia to play with Croatia Zagreb (now Dinamo Zagreb). He spent three-and-a-half seasons with the club, helping it to win three doubles in Croatia between 1996 and 1998. He was also part of the Croatia Zagreb team that reached the third round of the UEFA Cup in 1997 and went on to make his UEFA Champions League group stage debut with the club a year later. He won the Best Foreigner Footballer Award in the Croatian League in his time at Zagreb.
Celtic
Celtic bought Viduka in December 1998 for £3.5 million. In the same month as his signing, Celtic announced that Viduka had quit the club without kicking a ball for them, citing stress as his reason.
A week later, Croatia Zagreb complained that it had not received the agreed fee for the player. These issues were eventually resolved and Viduka made his first appearance in a Celtic shirt on 16 February 1999, scoring for the under-21 team as an over-age player in a 4–2 victory against Motherwell. After making his first team debut against Dundee United on 27 February 1999, his first goals for the club came when he scored a brace against Greenock Morton in the Scottish Cup on 8 March 1999. He was voted Scottish Player of the Year for 1999–2000 after scoring 27 goals in his first full season at Celtic Park. He was regarded as a skilled player, with Josip Šimunić noting his ability to hold the ball up well and bring other players into the game.
In February 2000, lower league team Inverness Caledonian Thistle defeated Celtic in a shock upset in the third round of the Scottish Cup. During half time Viduka reportedly threw his boots in the bin and refused to play in the second half after an altercation with assistant coach, Eric Black. The match ended 3–1 with Celtic fans in uproar.
In March 2000, Viduka assisted Celtic to win Scotland's 1999-2000 Scottish League Cup. He left after his first full season at the club.
Leeds United
Leeds United manager David O'Leary signed Viduka just before the 2000–01 season for £6 million. At Leeds, he was expected to line up in a three-pronged attack alongside the previous season's top scorer Michael Bridges and Australia teammate Harry Kewell, but injuries to those two saw him form a partnership with Alan Smith in Leeds' Champions League matches, while Robbie Keane – signed on loan from Inter Milan as cover for Bridges – also benefited in their Premier League matches together in the second half of the season. In his first season, Viduka scored 22 goals, including all four in a memorable 4–3 win over Liverpool at Elland Road. He signed a five-year deal in the summer of 2001 and would star in both domestic competitions and Europe, with Leeds finishing in the country's top four in 2000–01, and fifth in 2001–02. In the summer of 2001, Viduka was the subject of interest from A.C. Milan, whom he supported as a child, but the move ultimately did not happen, and held talks with Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, but decided against moving across the Pennines to join Leeds' rivals.
In the 2002–03 campaign, Viduka scored another 22 goals, including a hat-trick in a 6–1 win at Charlton Athletic and the winner in a 3–2 victory at Arsenal on the penultimate day of the season that effectively saved United from relegation.
However, the club's financial crisis continued, and resulted in the sale of key players including Harry Kewell and Robbie Keane. In the 2003–04 season, Viduka was again top scorer at Leeds, finishing the season strongly as was the case in the previous season, as interim manager Eddie Gray attempted to steer the club away from the Premier League trap door following the departure of Peter Reid in November after eight months as manager.
However, during his final appearance in the jersey, Leeds were relegated in a 4–1 loss to Bolton Wanderers at Reebok Stadium. After scoring a penalty, Viduka was sent off following two yellow cards. He was sold to Middlesbrough in the summer of 2004 as United's financial difficulties deepened.
Middlesbrough
Following Middlesbrough's League Cup victory in 2004, the club qualified for the 2004–05 UEFA Cup. The squad was bolstered with a number of high-profile signings to cope with the increased fixture list and to ensure it could compete on the European stage. Viduka was signed from Leeds for £4.5 million and unveiled as one of the marquee signings of the summer.
Viduka's debut season at Middlesbrough was initially impressive, albeit frustrated by injuries. However, in his second season, the 2005–06 season, Viduka was in sensational form in all competitions for Middlesbrough, reaching double figures early on in the season, including a stunning volley away at Birmingham. He played an important part in helping the club reach the League Cup quarter final, FA Cup semi final and UEFA cup final. Viduka helped to spearhead a European campaign which saw the club overturn a three-goal deficit in the quarter and semi final second legs of the competition to proceed to the final. Middlesbrough eventually lost in the final to Sevilla on 10 May 2006, a result which Viduka has since said took him four months to get over.
In August 2006, he was awarded the number 9 shirt at Middlesbrough, his preferred number at all his previous clubs. Viduka's third season at Middlesbrough was his most prolific, scoring 19 goals in all competitions. With his contract due to expire at the end of the 2006–07 season, Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate expressed his interest in retaining Viduka. Southgate reiterated his wish to retain Viduka's services and revealed he would offer him a new contract. Given his impressive haul for the season, Viduka attracted interest from a number of clubs who were hoping to sign him on a free transfer as he became out-of-contract. Viduka joined north-east rivals Newcastle United on a free transfer on 7 June 2007.
Viduka remains Middlesbrough's top goalscorer at the Riverside, and regularly features in Middlesbrough fan polls for top XI Riverside era players.
Newcastle United
In signing for Newcastle, Viduka became manager Sam Allardyce's first signing at the club. His contract was for two years, with the option of a third year. He made his Newcastle debut in a Premier League match at Bolton on 11 August and scored his first goal on 26 August against his former club Middlesbrough.
On 23 September, he scored a further two goals against West Ham United to bring his tally up to three for Newcastle. On 23 December, he again scored two goals against Derby County. After an injury lay off over the new year, Viduka was brought back into the side by new manager Kevin Keegan, where he played as part of a 4–3–3 formation along with Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins. This new formation brought about a change of fortune for Newcastle as the three strikers rescued them from a relegation battle, with Viduka scoring two more goals over the rest of the season and setting up others for Martins and Owen before picking up an Achilles' heel injury before the last game of the season.
Viduka made his return to the first team after six months out injured at former club Middlesbrough, coming on for Martins as a substitute on 29 November 2008. This was a great relief for manager Joe Kinnear, who stated that he had previously feared the Australian's career might have been prematurely ended by his injury woes. Later, Kinnear suggested to reporters that Viduka might call time on his career at the end of the 2008–09 season. Viduka, however, later expressed his desire to continue playing past this season after acquiring a groin injury in late December. After returning from injury, he was immediately used by newly appointed coach Alan Shearer in an attempt to prevent the team's relegation. After playing a man of the match performance in the 3–1 victory against his former team Middlesbrough, Mark appeared to have scored his first goal of the season against Fulham. Match referee Howard Webb, however, ruled that Kevin Nolan impeded goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer disallowing the goal. He was released following Newcastle's relegation.
International career
Viduka was available to be selected to Australia, Croatia and Ukraine due to his origins, and he began his international career with Australia in a friendly series against South Africa at the age of 18 in June 1994. The first game was played in Adelaide and the second game was played in Sydney. Australia won both games 1–0. He scored his first international goal in October 1997 in the 23rd minute of a friendly game against Tunisia.
In 1996, Viduka joined the Olyroos as they competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics. In Australia's first group game they lost to France 2–0. In their second group match they defeated Saudi Arabia 2–1. Viduka scored Australia's second goal in the 63rd minute with a clever back flick past the goalkeeper. In Australia's final group game Viduka made a contribution early in the game with an assist to Aurelio Vidmar in the 3rd minute. Despite Australia's early 0–2 lead, Spain made a spirited comeback and won 3–2. Due to the losses to France and Spain the Olyroos did not progress further in the tournament.
Viduka featured in the two World Cup qualifiers against Iran in 1997. Australia failed to qualify. Viduka was also a part of the Australia team that competed in the 1997 Confederations Cup. He scored Australia's opening goal in a 3–1 win over Mexico in Australia's first group game. However, in the final against Brazil he was sent off in the 24th minute after receiving a red card. Australia went on to lose the encounter 6–0.
In 1999, Viduka featured in a friendly against Brazil. The game was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and concluded with a 2–2 draw. Viduka assisted Paul Agostino with the first goal of the game. He also appeared in friendly matches against Hungary and Czech Republic in 2000. Defeating Hungary 3-0 and losing to Czech Republic 3–1. That same here Viduka once again joined the Olyroos in the 2000 Olympic Games in his home country of Australia. In 2001, he played alongside Australia as they competed against Uruguay in a two leg World Cup Qualifier. Australia lost on aggregate 3–1. This meant Viduka and Australia spent another World Cup on the sidelines.
In 2003, Viduka scored his third international goal in a friendly against Ireland. Australia would go on to lose the match 2–1.
Viduka began captaining Australia in September 2005 in place of the injured Craig Moore, the regular captain. His first game as captain was in a World Cup Qualifier against Solomon Islands in Sydney, in which Australia won 7–0. He scored 2 goals on the occasion including a spectacular bicycle-kick goal. Viduka would go on to score a third goal only to be denied a hat-trick after being ruled offside. It was his first time playing against a team from the Oceana region. In October 2005, he continued his captaincy when he led Australia to a 5-0 crushing of Jamaica at Craven Cottage in a friendly game. In the 47th minute of the game Archie Thompson crossed to Viduka, who controlled the ball, thought about appealing for handball but then had time to crash the ball into the net.
Viduka thrived under Guus Hiddink's tenure as coach of the national squad and led Australia as it qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany over a two-leg qualifier against Uruguay. In the second leg, during the first half a swift flick kick from Viduka found Harry Kewell inside the box. Kewell scuffed his shot but the ball bounced kindly to Mark Bresciano who went on to score the goal that forced the Qualifier to go to a penalty shoot out. Viduka would go on to miss his penalty, however Australia went on to win the shootout anyway.
It was the first time in 32 years that Australia qualified to participate in the World Cup. On 21 May 2006, he was named as the Australian captain for the World Cup.
In a lead up to the World Cup, Viduka captained Australia to friendly matches against the Netherlands and Greece. The Greece game was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Australia won 1–0. Australia's game with the Netherlands ended with a 1–1 draw. After trailing 1-0 Australia earned a penalty in the second half. Viduka took the spot kick, only to hit the top bar. However Tim Cahill scored of the rebound. Viduka also led Australia's national team to their first World Cup finals victory with a 3–1 win over Japan in June 2006, as well as guiding them through an encounter with Brazil, losing 2–0, and a controversial bout with Croatia, ending with a 2–2 draw. He then led Australia into the second round, where they lost their round of 16 match to Italy. Although a regular scorer in the Premier League, Viduka has struggled to score any significant goals for the Socceroos, and the 2006 World Cup was no different.
Viduka considered retiring from international competition after the 2006 World Cup, citing increasing family commitments as the primary reason. In September 2006, however, he confirmed that he would continue playing for Australia and intended to compete in the 2007 Asian Cup. In a friendly against Singapore, a week before the start of the Asian Cup, Viduka scored two headed goals in a 3–0 victory for Australia; former Leeds teammate Harry Kewell scored the third. It was the second time he scored two goals in an international match, having previously done so against the Solomon Islands in 2005.
On Australia's first ever Asian Cup participation, Viduka captained the side and he scored their solitary goal against Iraq, a game which they ultimately lost 1–3. In the next match, he scored two goals against co-host team Thailand, defeating them 4–0; other goals scored by Michael Beauchamp and Harry Kewell and making them fall out of the remaining competition. At one stage, he led the goalscoring at the Asian Cup tournament, although his team was eliminated in the quarter-finals in a penalty shootout against Japan. Subsequent to that loss, question marks hang over whether Viduka will continue his international career. Two years on from the 2007 Asian Cup, he was still yet to return for the Socceroos, either stating he had injuries or club commitments. He missed World Cup Qualifiers against Qatar, Bahrain and Japan, even though fully fit and asked to play by then-Socceroos manager Pim Verbeek. Questions were raised over his commitment to the national team, even by other members of the squad. Despite calls from Adrian Alston, Graham Arnold and Viduka's then-agent Steve Kutner for Viduka to be selected for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Viduka had already decided to retire, aged 34.
Personal life
Viduka and his wife Ivana have three sons together: Joseph (born November 2002), Lucas (born September 2006) and Oliver (born May 2008). His father Joe immigrated to Australia from Croatia in the 1960s, and Croatian footballer and Ballon d'Or winner Luka Modrić is his cousin.
Viduka currently lives in Zagreb, where he owns a coffee shop and enjoys making coffee.
Viduka had a song written about him by English singer/songwriter and Middlesbrough fan Alistair Griffin (who also previously co-wrote the football song recorded by Terry Venables). The song lyrics were written to the tune of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate embraced the tune as a way of raising money for his chosen charity, Macmillan Cancer Support. Leonard Cohen gave permission for the song to be released as a charity download single.
Viduka was a huge AC Milan fan as a kid as he grew up watching Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit.
Viduka has been a member of Melbourne City FC since its inaugural season. He is affectionately referred to by his nicknames "V-Bomber" and "Big Dukes" in Australia.
Career statistics
Club
International
Source:
Honours
Melbourne Knights
National Soccer League: 1994–95
National Soccer League Cup: 1994–95
NSL Minor Premiership: 1993–94, 1994–95
Dinamo Zagreb
Prva HNL: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98
Croatian Cup: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98
Celtic
Scottish League Cup: 1999–2000
Australia U20
OFC U-20 Championship: 1994
Australia U23
OFC U-23 Championship: 1996
Individual
Oceania Footballer of the Year: 2000
Australian Sports Medal: 2000
SPFA Players' Player of the Year: 2000
NSL Top Goalscorer: 1993–94, 1994–95
NSL U21 Player of the Year: 1993–94, 1994–95
Johnny Warren Medal: 1993–94, 1994–95
SPL Top Goalscorer: 1999–00
Australian Institute of Sport 'Best of the Best':<ref>Australian Institute of Sport 'Best of the Best' </</ref> 2001.
Alex Tobin OAM Medal: 2011
FFA Hall of Fame: 2014
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductee: 2021
References
External links
OzFootball profile
Statistics at footballdatabase.com
1975 births
Living people
1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players
2006 FIFA World Cup players
2007 AFC Asian Cup players
Australia men's youth international soccer players
Australia men's under-20 international soccer players
Australia men's international soccer players
Australian expatriate men's soccer players
Australian expatriate sportspeople in England
Australian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland
Soccer players from Melbourne
Australian people of Croatian descent
Australian people of Ukrainian descent
Celtic F.C. players
Croatian Football League players
Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia
Expatriate men's footballers in England
Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland
Men's association football forwards
Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Leeds United F.C. players
Melbourne Knights FC players
Middlesbrough F.C. players
National Soccer League (Australia) players
Newcastle United F.C. players
GNK Dinamo Zagreb players
Olympic soccer players for Australia
Premier League players
Scottish Premier League players
Australian Institute of Sport soccer players
Scottish league football top scorers
Melbourne City FC non-playing staff
Australian men's soccer players
Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%20of%20New%20Mexico
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University of New Mexico
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The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, one of two flagship universities in the state, and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 students in 2021.
UNM comprises twelve colleges and schools, including a medical school and the only law school in New Mexico. It offers 215 degree and certificate programs, including 94 baccalaureate, 71 master and 37 doctoral degrees. The main campus spans in central Albuquerque, with branch campuses in Gallup, Los Alamos, Rio Rancho, Taos, and Los Lunas.
UNM is identified as having "very high research activity" by the Carnegie Classification. According to the National Science Foundation, it spent over $243 million on research and development in 2021, ranking 103rd in the U.S. UNM is classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) by the U.S. Department of Education, with nearly half its students being Hispanic.
UNM's 16 varsity sports programs, known as the Lobos, compete in NCAA Division I (FBS for football) and are members of the Mountain West Conference; the school has won national championships in skiing and cross country running. UNM's official colors are cherry and silver. The school has approximately 200,000 alumni worldwide.
History
Founding
The University of New Mexico was founded on February 28, 1889, with the passage of House Bill No. 186 by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of New Mexico, which stipulated that:Said institution is hereby located at or near the town of Albuquerque, in the county of Bernalillo within two miles north of railroad avenue in said town, upon a tract of good high and dry land, of not less than twenty acres suitable for the purposes of such institution.The bill also university when New Mexico became a state. Bernard Shandon Rodey, a judge of the territory of New Mexico, pushed for Albuquerque as the location of the university and was one of the authors of the statute that created UNM, earning him the title of "Father of the University." Two years later, Elias S. Stover became the first president of the University and the following year the university's first building, Hodgin Hall, opened.
Early growth
The third president of UNM, William G. Tight, who served from 1901 to 1909, introduced many programs for students and faculty, including the first fraternity and sorority. Tight introduced the Pueblo Revival architecture for which the campus has become known. During Tight's term, the first Pueblo Revival style building on campus, the Estufa, was constructed, and the Victorian-style Hodgin Hall was plastered over to create a monument to Pueblo Indian culture. However, Tight was vilified for his primitivism and was removed from office for political reasons, though history would vindicate him as the Pueblo Revival style became the dominant architectural style on campus.
Under David Ross Boyd, the university's fifth president, the campus was enlarged from 20 to and a federal land grant was made to the university. In 1922, the university was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. During this time, more facilities were constructed for the university, but it was under the tenure of James F. Zimmerman, the university's seventh president, that the university underwent its first major expansion. Under Zimmerman, many new buildings were constructed, student enrollment increased, new departments were added, and greater support was generated for scientific research. Among the new buildings constructed were Zimmerman Library, Scholes Hall, the first student union building (now the anthropology complex), the university's first gymnasium and its first stadium. John Gaw Meem, an architect based in Santa Fe, was contracted to design many of the buildings constructed during this period and is credited with imbuing the campus with its distinctive Pueblo Revival style.
World War II and beyond
During World War II, UNM was one of 131 U.S. colleges and universities that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
In 1945, the university hired John Philip Wernette to be its eighth president. Upon arrival, Wernette focused on improving the university's faculty, programs, and services. He instituted an eighteen-point program of procedures for the selection of new faculty and appointed a committee to ensure better teaching candidates for faculty members. He also developed a program for faculty advancement. Offices of the General Placement Bureau, Veterans Assistance, and Testing and Counseling Services were formed to assist students and Wernette required all seniors in 1946 to take the Graduate Record Examinations test to provide the school with a measurement of how well it was educating its students. The university started the Law School and School of Business Administration during his tenure.
In 1947, Wernette came into conflict with the Board of Regents over the hiring of two faculty members he thought were unqualified. His contract was not renewed by the Board the following year. Thomas L. Popejoy was appointed in 1948 as Wernette's successor, being the first native New Mexican to serve as university president. Holding his position for the next twenty years, Popejoy presided over a period major growth for the university. During this time, enrollment jumped from nearly 5,000 to more than 14,000; new programs such as medicine, nursing, dental, and law were founded; and numerous new facilities were constructed, including Mesa Vista Hall, Mitchell Hall, Johnson Gymnasium, new dormitories, the current student union building, the College of Education complex, the business center, the engineering complex, the Fine Arts Center, the Student Health Center, University Stadium, University Arena (now officially known by its nickname of The Pit), and North Campus. This period also saw the foundation of UNM's branch facilities in Los Alamos and Gallup and the acquisition of the D.H. Lawrence Ranch north of Taos.
During the early 1970s, two sit-in protests at UNM led to a response from law enforcement officers. On May 5, 1970, protestors against the Vietnam War and the Kent State massacre occupied the Student Union Building. The National Guard was ordered to sweep the building and arrest those inside; eleven students and journalists were bayonetted when those outside did not hear the order to disperse given inside. On May 10, 1972, a peaceful sit-in protest near Kirtland Air Force Base led to the arrest of thirty-five people and was pushed back to UNM, leading to eight more arrests. The following day, tear gas was used against hundreds of demonstrators on campus and the situation continued to deteriorate, leading the university to declare a state of emergency.
New programs and schools were created in the 1970s and the university gained control over the hospital on North Campus. New facilities for the medical and law schools were constructed on North Campus and new Main Campus buildings were constructed on the site of the now demolished Zimmerman Field, including Ortega Hall, Woodward Hall, the Humanities building, and the Art building. The campus also underwent a new landscaping plan, which included the construction of the duck pond west of Zimmerman Library and the conversion of many streets to pedestrian malls in order to make a more pedestrian-friendly campus.
At the end of the decade, the university was implicated in a recruiting scandal dubbed "Lobogate" by the press. An FBI wiretap on the phone of a prominent Lobo booster recorded a conversation in which basketball head coach Norm Ellenberger arranged with assistant coach Manny Goldstein to transfer bogus credits from a California junior college to the office of the UNM registrar. Subsequent investigation turned up a manufactured college seal from Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, along with blank transcripts and records of previous forgery. Further investigation uncovered alleged incentives like cars and apartments doled out to prime players and exposed a vast network of sports gambling. The scandal forced Ellenberger to resign and defined the term of William E. Davis, UNM's eleventh president.
Recent history
The university has continued to grow, with expanding enrollment and new facilities. In the 1980s, dramatic expansion occurred at the medical center, business school, and engineering school. The Centennial Library was also constructed. During the 1990s, an Honors College was founded, and the university completed construction of a new bookstore and Dane Smith Hall. The Research Park at South Campus was also expanded.
By this point, the university had one of the largest student and faculty populations of Hispanics and Native Americans in the country. A study released in 1995 showed that the number of full-time Hispanic faculty at UNM was four times greater than the national average and the number of Native American teachers five times greater. The schools of law and business had some of the largest Hispanic student populations of any university in the country.
In the first decade of the 2000s, major expansion began on medical facilities on North Campus. The current visitor center, a new engineering center, and George Pearl Hall were constructed. Renovations and expansions were undertaken on several buildings on Main Campus, along with the creation of a branch campus in Rio Rancho. This wave of construction is continuing at present with more projects ongoing.
In 2016, UNM was the first university in the country to launch a Signature School Program with the Central Intelligence Agency, which enables students to interact with analysts and learn how to join the CIA once they graduate.
In 2017, the campus became smoke and tobacco free, with the exception of a few designated smoking areas located near the residence halls. The New Mexico Department of Health assisted in the effort, paying for signs and stickers around campus as well as a PSA shown during orientation.
Into the 21st century, UNM has become a major contributor to New Mexico's burgeoning bioscience sector: The university's health sciences and biomedical engineering programs have helped launch 39 health-related startups since 2013, as well as 40 tech startups during the same period. Bioscience ventures accounted for 17 of 29 companies, or 58%, that formed from UNM-based research and technology between 2019 and 2022. The school has launched several programs and initiatives aimed at fostering more technology startups, often in collaboration with local, state, and federal agencies as well as other southwestern universities.
Campus
UNM's main campus is located on in Albuquerque on the heights a mile east of Downtown Albuquerque. It is split in three parts – central, north, and south. The central campus is situated between Central Avenue on the south, Girard Boulevard on the east, Lomas Boulevard on the north, and University Boulevard on the west, and is home to the main academic university. The North Campus, which includes the medical, nursing, pharmacological, and law schools as well as the University of New Mexico Hospital, is located on the north side of Lomas across from the central campus. The South campus is located a mile south of the central campus, centered around the intersection of University Boulevard and Avenida César Chavez, and includes most of UNM's athletic facilities. The central campus is noted for its unique Pueblo Revival architectural style, with many of the buildings designed by former university architect John Gaw Meem, who is credited with imbuing the campus with its distinctive Southwestern feel. The central campus is also home to the University of New Mexico Arboretum, which contains some 320 species of woody plants.
Eight university buildings are listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places, including Hodgin Hall, the university's first building, and two adjacent structures, the Art Annex and Sara Reynolds Hall. The Estufa, one of the first Pueblo Revival style structures in the country and the first on campus, is also on the list. Other structures on the registry are Carlisle Gymnasium, Jonson Gallery, Scholes Hall, and the University House.
The central campus is home to four museums: the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in the anthropology building, the Geology and Meteorite Museums in Northrop Hall, the Southwest Biology Museum in the CERIA building, and the University Art Museum in the Center for the Arts.
In an effort to promote sustainability and lessen the environmental impact of the campus, UNM has been reducing the campus energy usage through monitoring and retrofitting cooling, heating, water, and lighting technologies. Due to these efforts, the university's grade on the College Sustainability Report Card 2009 improved from a "C" to a "B" according to the Sustainable Endowments Institute. Since 2008, following an executive order that all new state buildings over must meet LEED silver at minimum, all new construction on campus has been registered for LEED status. So far, an expansion of Castetter Hall and the Technology and Education Center are the only LEED-certified buildings on campus, with a Gold and Platinum rating respectively. Several other buildings are currently registered for LEED status.
Libraries
The primary UNM library units are the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, the Law Library, and the University Libraries, which consists of:
Centennial Science and Engineering Library
Center for Southwest Research (special collections and archives—housed in Zimmerman Library)
Fine Arts and Design Library
Parish Memorial Business and Economics Library
Zimmerman Library (for humanities and social sciences)
Departmental libraries include:
The Bunting Visual Resources Library (College of Fine Arts and the School of Architecture and Planning)
Bureau of Business & Economic Research
Center for Development and Disability Information Network Library
Clark Field Archives & Library (Maxwell Museum and Department of Anthropology)
LGBTQ Resource Center
Language Learning Center
Museum of Southwestern Biology (Department of Biology)
Native American Studies Library
Women's Resource Center Library
Academics
The University of New Mexico offers more than 215 degree and certificate programs, including 94 baccalaureate, 71 masters and 37 doctoral degrees, through 12 colleges and schools:
Rankings
In its list of "Best Colleges" in the U.S. for 2022, U.S. News & World Report ranked UNM as tied for 212th among national universities, tied for 107th among public universities, and tied at 90th for "Top Performers on Social Mobility". Several graduate programs are highly ranked nationally, including family medicine (7th), graduate clinical training (8th), nuclear engineering (14th), and primary care (16th); among the graduate programs in the top 100 nationwide are electrical engineering (63), computer engineering (69), chemical engineering (77), and physics (77).
UNM ranks 8th in the "Military Friendly" rating, which denotes institutions that excel in accommodating, aiding, and retaining students who are military veterans.
The University of New Mexico Model United Nations, known as World Affairs Delegation or WAD, team is one of the top ranked teams in the country, with multiple awards at several different competitions, most notably, the Harvard World Model United Competition in Geneva, Switzerland and Puebla, Mexico. Most recently, the team won the Diplomacy Award and The Resolution Fellowship, both in Panama City, Panama. They have also competed and won awards at the St. Mary's University Model Organization of American States Conference.
Admissions
Admission to UNM is rated "selective" by U.S. News & World Report, with an acceptance rate of 65% according to The Princeton Review. For Fall 2019, the school received 12,181 freshmen applications, of which 5,973 were admitted (49.0%) and 2,594 enrolled. The average GPA of enrolled freshmen was 3.44, while the middle 50% range of SAT composite scores were 1000–1290, 520–640 for evidence-based reading and writing, and 520–630 for math. The middle 50% range of the ACT Composite score was 19–25.
Athletics
UNM's NCAA Division I program (FBS for football) offers 18 varsity sports. The teams are known as the Lobos, who compete in the Mountain West Conference. Two human mascots, referred to as Louie Lobo and Lucy Lobo, rouse crowds at New Mexico athletic events. The official school colors are cherry and silver.
The Lobos have won national championships in skiing and cross country running.
Rivalries
UNM maintains strong athletic rivalries with New Mexico State University. The UNM-NMSU rivalry is called the Rio Grande Rivalry, a competitive series based on points awarded to the winners of head-to-head competitions between the two universities in every sport. A rotating trophy is granted to the winning university for a period of one year, until the award presentation the following year. The rivalry is celebrated at UNM by the Red Rally, a large bonfire that takes place the Thursday before the UNM-NMSU football game.
Basketball
The Lobo men's basketball team is famous for its venue, The Pit. It may be best known as the site of the 1983 NCAA basketball championship, in which North Carolina State University, coached by Jim Valvano, upset the University of Houston.
The UNM women's basketball team has won the Mountain West championship for four of the past five years, and have gone to the NCAA Tournament for the past six consecutive years.
Cross country
The UNM women's cross-country team won the NCAA championship in 2015 and 2017. Lobo Ednah Kurgat also won the individual title in 2017, and UNM's Weini Kelati won in 2019.
Football
The Lobo football team plays at University Stadium which is located across the street from The Pit.
The team has been to six bowl games since 1997 after a 35-year bowl drought. Placekicker Katie Hnida made history in the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl when she became the first woman to play in an NCAA Division I-A game, attempting but missing an extra point in the Lobos's 27–13 loss to UCLA. She later attempted and made two extra points in UNM's 72–8 victory over Texas State.
New Mexico also lost its 2003 and 2004 bowl games, making its record in bowl games 2–8–1. The football team went to the first year of the New Mexico Bowl in 2006 and lost to San Jose State University 20–12. In 2007 the Lobos finished the regular season 8–4 and were invited to the New Mexico Bowl for the second straight season. The Lobos shut out the favored Nevada Wolf Pack 23–0 to win their first bowl game since the 1961 Aviation Bowl.
Skiing
New Mexico won the National title for Division I Skiing in 2004, defeating then No. 1 ranked University of Denver. In 2017, the team was eliminated and then reinstated. The men's and women's ski teams were eliminated effective fall 2019.
Soccer
The men's soccer team was National Runner-up in Division I Soccer losing in extra time to the University of Maryland in 2005 as the No. 2 seed, the highest ranking for a UNM soccer team in school history. The men's soccer team was eliminated from the UNM sports programs in 2019.
Student life
The main university campus is located in the lower Heights of Albuquerque just east of Downtown Albuquerque and is the focal point for the neighborhoods surrounding it; the neighborhoods to the immediate south and west are home to a large population of students. However, the vast majority of UNM's student population live off-campus around the Albuquerque metropolitan area, with only just over 2,000 living in on-campus housing.
The Student Union Building (SUB) is a major activity center for students on-campus, with a food court, a movie theater, event facilities, student government and organization offices, student services, and recreation areas. Another major hotspot for students is the popular Frontier Restaurant, a late-night eatery located across Central Avenue from main campus and a popular meeting spot for students. The Duck Pond is a popular relaxation spot for students and local residents, particularly in the warmer months.
Student organizations
There are over 400 student-run organizations on campus, which include academic, athletic, ethnic, honorary, political, religious, and service groups, as well as fraternities and sororities.
Student government
ASUNM
The Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM) is the undergraduate student government of UNM, with an elected student body president, vice-president, student court, and 20 senators. Senators are elected to two-semester terms. There are two elections each school year; in each, 10 senators are elected. Many candidates run in slates. There are different agencies within ASUNM, such as Lobo Spirit and Community Experience.
GPSA
The Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) is the graduate student government of UNM, led by an elected president and a representative council from the different schools of study on campus since 1969.
Greek life
The University of New Mexico is home to several fraternities and sororities, around 5% of the UNM student body is involved in Greek life. Of the fraternity's on campus, Pi Kappa Alpha is the oldest fraternity on campus being founded in 1911. Sigma Chi was founded in 1916 being the second oldest fraternity on campus. The Sigma Chi house is the largest fraternity house in the state of New Mexico, as well being located on 1855 Sigma Chi road, the only Sigma Chi chapter in the country, with that address. Both Kappa Sigma and Phi Delta Theta are two of the older fraternity's on campus, as they were founded in 1925 and 1946 respectively. Both Kappa Kappa Gamma and Alpha Chi Omega were founded in 1918, being the two oldest Panhellenic Sororities at The University of New Mexico. Followed behind Chi Omega founded in 1925 and Pi Beta Phi in 1946.
Interfraternity CouncilFraternities:
Alpha Tau Omega
Phi Delta Theta
Pi Kappa Alpha
Pi Kappa Phi
Sigma Chi
Kappa Sigma
Beta Theta Pi
College Panhellenic CouncilSororities:
Alpha Chi Omega
Chi Omega
Pi Beta Phi
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Multicultural Greek CouncilFraternities:
Alpha Phi Alpha
Beta Sigma Epsilon
Kappa Alpha Psi
Lambda Theta Phi
Omega Delta Phi
Omega Psi Phi
Phi Beta Sigma
Phi Iota Alpha
Multicultural Greek CouncilSororities:
Alpha Kappa Alpha
Alpha Pi Omega
Gamma Alpha Omega
Delta Sigma Theta
Kappa Delta Chi
Lambda Theta Alpha
Theta Nu Xi
Zeta Phi Beta
Traditions
The Hanging of the Greens is a celebration held in early December for the holiday season, when the campus is decorated with thousands of farolitos and a procession of carolers winds through the campus to the University House, which is opened for visitors and where cocoa and bizcochitos are served.
Homecoming Week is held each fall to welcome back alumni. Over the course of the week, the student body elects a Homecoming King and Queen and six attendants (three male and three female) to serve as the homecoming court.
Lobo Day is a celebration for the founding date of the university on February 28, 1889. The tradition in recent years has included a large group photo of students taken in the Student Union Building, which is posted on a wall in the building.
Red Rally is a large bonfire and rally held on the Thursday before the football match with UNM's rival New Mexico State University. During Red Rally, a large effigy of an Aggie, the mascot of NMSU, is burned to the ground.
UNM Fiestas are an end-of-the year celebration held in the spring which includes a community service event called Spring Storm and a large concert.
Welcome Back Days are held during the first week of the school year and welcomes new and returning students to the university, and includes free food, entertainment, and information on the university's programs and organizations.
Media
UNM owns and operates KUNM-FM, one of two National Public Radio stations in Albuquerque. In 2008, KUNM-FM won 16 Associated Press awards, including Station of the Year. UNM also owns and operates the University of New Mexico Press, its publishing arm established in 1929. With Albuquerque Public Schools, UNM also operates New Mexico PBS, Albuquerque's public television station which currently broadcasts in High Definition Digital on two channels, English and Spanish. The Daily Lobo is UNM's student-run daily newspaper and is a publication serving the metro area.
People
Alumni
Faculty
Presidents
Notes
See also
List of colleges and universities in New Mexico
University of New Mexico–Gallup
University of New Mexico–Los Alamos
University of New Mexico–Taos
University of New Mexico–Valencia
University of New Mexico–West
References
Further reading
Bellmore, Audra, "The University of New Mexico's Zimmerman Library: A New Deal Landmark Articulates the Ideals of the PWA," New Mexico Historical Review 88 (Spring 2013), 123–63.
External links
UNM Athletics website
1889 establishments in New Mexico Territory
Buildings and structures in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Education in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Education in Bernalillo County, New Mexico
Education in McKinley County, New Mexico
Education in Taos County, New Mexico
Education in Valencia County, New Mexico
Educational institutions established in 1889
New Mexico
Tourist attractions in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Public universities and colleges in New Mexico
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlboro
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Marlboro
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{{Infobox brand
| name = Marlboro
| logo =
| image =
| caption =
| producttype = Cigarette
| currentowner =
| producedby =
| origin = United States
| introduced =
| related =
| previousowners =
| trademarkregistrations =
| ambassadors =
| tagline = "Mild As May", "Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro country" (1966), "You get a lot to like with a Marlboro", "You Decide" " Pursue Flavor"| website =
| footnotes = Carcinogenicity: IARC group 1
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Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US except Canada where the brand is owned and manufactured by Imperial Tobacco Canada. Marlboro's largest cigarette manufacturing plant is located in Richmond, Virginia.
History
In 1846, British tobacconist Philip Morris opened a shop on Bond Street, London, selling tobacco and rolled cigarettes. After his death from lung cancer in 1873, his brother Leopold and widow Margaret continued the business, growing it and opening a factory on Great Marlborough Street, London, from which the name was taken.
A New York subsidiary was opened in 1902 to sell many of its cigarette brands. The name '"Marlboro"' was registered in the US in 1908 although no cigarette was marketed under this name until 1923. In 1924, the brand was launched. They were first marketed as "America's luxury cigarette" and were mainly sold in hotels and resorts.
Around the 1930s, it was starting to be advertised as a women's cigarette, based on the slogan "Mild As May". Advertising for the cigarette was primarily based on how ladylike the filter cigarette was, in an attempt to appeal to the mass market. To this end, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it "Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips".
However, as early as 1885, a brand called "Marlborough" was already being marketed as a "ladies' favorite" by Philip Morris & Co.
Shortly before World War II, the brand's sales stagnated at less than 1% of tobacco sales in the US and was briefly withdrawn from the market. After the war, Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfield were the only common cigarettes.
After scientists published a major study linking smoking to lung cancer in the 1950s, Philip Morris repositioned Marlboro as a men's cigarette in order to fit a market niche of men who were concerned about lung cancer while also concerned with masculinity if they smoked a filtered cigarette usually marketed to women. The Leo Burnett advertising agency solved the problem by a new style of advertising that dispensed with copy and created a visual personality for the brand. Marlboro ads now featured masculinity. The Marlboro Man was a sea captain, gunsmith, athlete and cowboy.
Part of Marlboro's rise in market share was its ability to produce "milder, more aromatic, sweeter, and less harsh" cigarettes by adding ammonia to the tobacco. Further usage of diammonium phosphate allowed Marlboro to free base the nicotine in tobacco, allowing for more efficient delivery. Marlboro kept this process secret for many years, as freebasing is the same process used to produce crack cocaine from normal cocaine. Some experts have called the product that Marlboro sold "crack tobacco."
In the late 1960s, Marlboro "Longhorn 100's" were introduced. Although color-coded with gold, they were full flavor cigarettes, not lights. In 1972, Marlboro became the best-selling brand of tobacco in the world.
In order to comply with a 2006 court ruling in United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al., Philip Morris (and all other cigarette companies) are now prevented from using words such as "Lights", "Ultra-Lights", "Medium", "Mild", or any similar designation that may yield an impression of being safer than regular full flavored cigarettes. Thus Marlboro and other cigarette companies use only color-coding instead; for example, Marlboro Lights are now called Marlboro Gold Pack.
Philip Morris responded to the popularity of Pall Mall, the number three brand, by pushing Marlboro Special Blends, a lower-priced cigarette.
In 2013, Philip Morris International introduced "Marlboro 2.0". The pack design was changed; the dark red was replaced with a lighter red, the "Marlboro" and Philip Morris logo became ribbed and transparent, and around 2017 a special "Smart SEAL" was introduced to keep the stored cigarettes fresh for a longer period of time. The Marlboro 2.0 packs are mainly available in Europe and some parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, but not in the US, Canada and Australia (due to plain packaging) and New Zealand.
In 2015, Philip Morris announced they would introduce a "Firm Filter" to their Marlboro Red, Gold, Silver Blue, Ice Blast and White Menthol variants. Philip Morris managing director for the UK and Ireland, Martin Inkster, said that the Firm Filter technique was added to "offer quality you can feel and it is a cleaner way to stub out your cigarette".
In January 2023 the US Food Drug Administration approved of marketing around the U.S. for multiple Marlboro Vape Heatsticks, Sienna Heatstick, Amber Heatstick & Bronze Heatstick.
Advertising
In the 1920s, advertising for the cigarette was primarily based on how ladylike the filter cigarette was, in an attempt to appeal to the mass market. To this end, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it "Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips".
The red and white package was designed by designer Frank Gianninoto. The repositioning of Marlboro as a men's cigarette was handled by Chicago advertiser Leo Burnett. The proposed campaign was to present a lineup of manly figures: sea captains, weightlifters, war correspondents, construction workers, etc. The cowboy was to have been the first in this series. While Philip Morris was concerned about the campaign, they eventually gave the green light.
Marlboro's market share rose from less than one percent to the fourth best-selling brand. This convinced Philip Morris to drop the lineup of manly figures and stick with the cowboy, later known as the Marlboro Man. From 1963, the television advertisements used Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven.
Over the years, Philip Morris has made many billboard, poster and magazine adverts.
Philip Morris also made various sports-related billboards, stickers and other memorabilia throughout the years, mainly promoting the Marlboro brand via its McLaren and Ferrari teams partnerships in places like Russia and Monaco.
Through licensees, Philip Morris sells various merchandising products, such as lighters, ashtrays, sunglasses and other accessories, which are sometimes given away to the target group as part of marketing promotions. In 1983, the campaign "Marlboro Adventure Team Adventure Camp" was launched, for which the participants had to apply, there was a collection of clothing and accessories.
Sport sponsorship
According to Ellen Merlo, vice president of marketing services at Philip Morris, quoted in a 1989 Marlboro advertisement:We perceive Formula One and Indy car racing as adding, if you will, a modern-day dimension to the Marlboro Man. The image of Marlboro is very rugged, individualistic, heroic. And so is this style of auto racing. From an image standpoint, the fit is good.
Formula One
Marlboro is known for its association with motor racing. This started in the season with the sponsorship of Formula One team BRM. The first win for a Marlboro-sponsored F1 car was achieved at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix by Jean-Pierre Beltoise driving for BRM. In and , the cigarette giant backed the Frank Williams Racing Cars team, whose cars were registered as Iso-Marlboro.
In the 1974 season, Marlboro became associated with the McLaren team. The team won their first World Constructors' Championship as well as first World Drivers' Championship (for Emerson Fittipaldi) in the first season of the partnership between McLaren and Marlboro. The team won another drivers title in for James Hunt. Following that, the partnership went through a dry patch until Ron Dennis's Project Four Organization took over the team in . Marlboro-sponsored McLaren triumphed F1 for much of the 1980s and early 1990s, with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna between them winning the Drivers' Championship all but one year from to . After the departure of Ayrton Senna at the end of the season, Marlboro McLaren never won a race again. Marlboro ended their sponsorship of the team at the end of the season, which ended the red and white McLaren livery. McLaren was sponsored by West from the start of the season onwards. McLaren and Marlboro had the longest sponsorship deal between a team and its title sponsor in F1, which lasted for 23 consecutive seasons (–).
Over the years, McLaren altered the Marlboro livery to comply with regional anti-tobacco sponsorship laws which were in place in countries like France, the UK and later Germany. The Marlboro logo was replaced by a chevron in , with a barcode in and and from to or with "McLaren" in and from to and to . At the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix, Keke Rosberg's car was painted yellow and white rather than red and white, to advertise Marlboro Lights.
Marlboro also sponsored Scuderia Ferrari's drivers since the season (the brand appeared only on helmets and suits) but only in Marlboro became a minor sponsor on Ferrari's Formula One cars. Until then, Enzo Ferrari allowed only technical suppliers brands to appear on his team cars. In , Marlboro became the main sponsor, eventually becoming the title sponsor in when the team was officially renamed as "Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro". Marlboro remained Ferrari's title sponsor until the 2011 European Grand Prix and the main sponsor until the end of the season.
Over the years, Ferrari, just like McLaren, had to alter the Marlboro livery in various ways to comply with regional anti-tobacco sponsoring laws which were in place in countries like France, the UK and later Germany. The Marlboro logo was removed completely or replaced with a white space from to (The Ferrari cars had white spaces over Marlboro occasionally in and ), changed to a "bar code" from to 1999 and in and , or the text was removed while keeping the chevron with the driver's name () and in the team member clothing, the Marlboro logo became a white square with a red stripe above with the driver's written name from the 1980s until . The team used a special livery for the 2001 Italian Grand Prix in remembrance of the September 11 attacks in the US; both cars ran without any sponsorship livery and sported matte black nose-cones. In the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix the cars sported black nosecones as a sign of mourning for Pope John Paul II.
In September 2005, Ferrari signed an extension of their sponsorship arrangement with Marlboro until 2011. This agreement came at a time when tobacco sponsorship had become wholly banned in the European Union and other F1 teams ended their relationships with tobacco companies. In reporting the deal, F1 Racing magazine judged it to be a "black day" for the sport, putting non-tobacco funded teams at a disadvantage and discouraging other brands from entering a sport still associated with tobacco. The magazine estimated that in the period between 2005 and 2011, Ferrari received $1 billion from the agreement. Depending on the venue of races and the particular national laws, the Marlboro branding became largely subliminal in most countries.
In mid-2006, special "racing editions" of Marlboro Red were sold in the UK, with a Ferrari-inspired design, although the Ferrari name and badge were not used. In April 2008, Marlboro displayed explicit on-car branding on Ferrari for the last time, then permanently replaced with a variety of barcodes in place of it. Since then, there were calls from leading health officials, the European Commissioner for Health and influential doctors for a review of the subliminal advertising contract Marlboro has with Advertising Guerrilla and Ferrari, due to the implications of influencing the purchase of cigarettes with possible subliminal advertising, as no tobacco products can be promoted in sporting events in Europe. The Ferrari team claimed the barcode was part of the car design, not an advertising message.
The controversial barcode design was removed by Ferrari for the start of the Spanish Grand Prix in the 2010 season, but the barcode remained on drivers' team gear. In January 2011, the Scuderia Ferrari presented a new logo for its racing team. This logo is considered by an F1-website as an advertisement for Marlboro, evocating the top-left corner design of a Marlboro cigarettes pack.
In June 2011, Ferrari extended its partnership with Marlboro through to the end of 2015, despite cigarette advertising being banned in the sport. The deal has been subsequently renewed for three more years, through 2018. In February 2018, Philip Morris renewed their partnership deal with Ferrari until the end of 2021. While the logo, which has been in place since 2011, has been removed on this year's car. Before 2018 Japanese Grand Prix, Ferrari launches their revised SF71H livery featuring PMI's Mission Winnow brand.
Marlboro had provided financial support to many racing drivers, the most illustrious of whom are Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Häkkinen. From 1970 until the mid-1990s, the logos of the cigarettes could be present on the combinations of the drivers if they were not present on the cars. Marlboro has also sponsored many grand prix races up until 2005.
Marlboro also sponsored a multitude of other, smaller teams in Formula One. It was the main sponsor of Alfa Romeo F1 Team between and , although unable to match up to its pre-war and 1950s heyday, the team only achieving one pole position, one fastest lap and four podium finishes. In the Italian clothing brand Benetton took over Alfa Romeo's livery sponsorship, which they held until the withdrawal of Alfa Romeo from Formula One at the end of . The Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode at certain races, due to tobacco or alcohol sponsorship bans in place.
Marlboro sponsored the BMS Scuderia Italia team from until , when Chesterfield became their main sponsor. The livery was similar to the Ferrari and Alfa Romeo ones. The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was removed.
Marlboro sponsored the Arrows F1 (by the time known as "Footwork") team in . While Ruffles, a potato chips brand sponsored the car, Marlboro sponsored the drivers helmets.
Marlboro sponsored the EuroBrun team in . The ER188, driven by Oscar Larrauri, Stefano Modena and Gregor Foitek, featured the Marlboro logo on the helmets of the drivers, as well as the Marlboro logo and name on the side of the cars.
Marlboro sponsored the Fittipaldi Automotive team in . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the helmets of the drivers.
Marlboro sponsored the Forti F1 team in and . The logo was displayed on the top side of the car, as well as on the helmets of the drivers.
Marlboro sponsored the Merzario team from until the team's collapse in . The Marlboro logo were displayed on the front, side and on the drivers helmets.
Marlboro sponsored the Minardi team in . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode.
Marlboro sponsored the Onyx Grand Prix team in and . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode, but the Chevron logo was retained.
Marlboro sponsored Team Rebaque in . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was removed.
Marlboro sponsored the Rial Racing team in and . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets. In some races where explicit tobacco sponsoring was forbidden, the Marlboro logo was replaced with a barcode.
Marlboro sponsored the Spirit Racing team in and . The Marlboro logo was displayed on the front and side of the cars and on the drivers helmets.
GP2
From 2005 to 2007, GP2 Series team ART Grand Prix was sponsored by Marlboro. The Marlboro logos were prominently shown on the car in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, but in 2007 the team only sponsored the brand on the rear wing. In countries where the sponsoring of tobacco was forbidden, the Marlboro logos were replaced with a barcode.
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Marlboro entered the Grand Prix motorcycle racing in the seventies as personal sponsor of riders like Giacomo Agostini, Angel Nieto and Jarno Saarinen. In 1976, Marlboro backed Agostini's team, who raced MV Agusta bikes with little factory support.
Since 1983, the cigarette brand sponsored the Yamaha 500 cc works team, which was managed by Agostini until 1989 and then by Kenny Roberts until 1996. During that period, the Japanese bikes won six World Championships and, as a result of their sponsorship, Marlboro decals on race replica bikes became one of the most popular decal kits that were available.
In the 1990s, Marlboro's livery also appeared on other bikes, especially the Hondas entered by Team Pileri (from 1992 to 1995), Pons Racing (in 1993) and Erv Kanemoto's team (in 1997 and 1998) who achieved the 1997 250 cc World Championship with Max Biaggi.
The Yamaha works team was again associated with Marlboro between 1999 and 2002.
Marlboro sponsored the Ducati Corse MotoGP team from 2003. Casey Stoner took his first MotoGP title in 2007. As of the 2009 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season they were only allowed to brand the bikes at one round, in Qatar at the Losail International Circuit, using the barcode in other races. The controversial barcode design was then removed by Ducati for the start of the French motorcycle Grand Prix in the 2010 season. In January 2011 the Ducati Team presented a new logo which was regarded as a subliminal advertisement for Marlboro, evocating the top-left corner design of a Marlboro cigarettes pack, similar to the one used by Ferrari.
In January 2018, it was speculated that Ducati would carry sponsorship by Philip Morris' heat-not-burn brand iQOS instead, bypassing currently in-place laws that prohibit specific advertising of tobacco products.
Superbike World Championship
Marlboro sponsored the Yamaha Dealer Team from its inaugural season in 1988 to 1990.
CART/IndyCar
Marlboro sponsorship in IndyCar dates back to 1986 when the livery appeared on the Emerson Fittipaldi's car entered by Patrick Racing. In 1990 Penske Racing hired Fittipaldi and started a 20 years-long association with Marlboro and its distinctive red and white livery. However, in the 2007 season Marlboro logos were hidden and subsequently replaced with Team Penske branding but the team retained the color scheme as Philip Morris USA was still Penske's main sponsor (similar case to Scuderia Ferrari and Ducati MotoGP Team that had Marlboro sponsorship but both Ferrari and Ducati teams forced to hide the Marlboro logos due to anti-tobacco advertising law).
2009 was the final year of the Penske-Marlboro association.
24 Hours of Le Mans
Since their start in Formula One, Marlboro has also sponsored numerous teams and races, from Joest Racing in Group C in 1983 to Toyota at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999 (despite a tobacco ban in France).
Masters of Formula 3
Marlboro sponsored the Marlboro Masters Formula Three race in Zandvoort.
World Rally Championship
Marlboro has a long history in rallying sponsorship, including the factory World Rally Championship teams of Lancia (between 1972 and 1974), Mitsubishi (from to ) and Peugeot (from to ). The cigarette brand appeared on helmets and suits of some of the best rally drivers, being personal sponsor of Markku Alén, Timo Salonen, Juha Kankkunen, Miki Biasion and others. Between 1987 and 1992, Marlboro backed Carlos Sainz, appearing on his cars (Ford Sierra in 1987–88 and then Toyota Celica since 1989). In 1993 the cigarette brand started an association with Belgian rally driver Freddy Loix, who was racing for Opel in the Belgian rally championship. Between 1996 and 1998 Loix raced with Toyota Team Belgium in the WRC, carrying the Marlboro livery on his car. In 1999 he moved to Mitsubishi Ralliart works team, with the iconic livery remaining on successive Lancer Evolutions until the marque's temporary WRC withdrawal at the end of 2002.
Marlboro also sponsored the cars of Emirati rally driver Mohammed bin Sulayem and has sponsored a number of rallies including the Safari Rally (between 1982 and 1990), the Rally Argentina, the Rally of Lebanon, the Jordan Rally, and the UAE Desert Challenge.
Australian touring car racing
Marlboro was the naming rights sponsor of the Holden Dealer Team from 1974 until 1984.
IMSA SportsCar
Marlboro sponsored the Italo-American IMSA SportsCar Le Mans GT team Risi Competizione since 2004 but Risi Competizione opting to invisible the Marlboro logo due to the team respecting Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement regulations and also ban of cigarette advertising in sports.
Badminton
Marlboro sponsored the Thomas and Uber Cup from 1984 to 1990, as well as the Sudirman Cup from 1991 to 1995 and 2001 to 2013.
Products
Phillip Morris markets cigarettes, snus, and HeatSticks under the Marlboro brand.
International cigarette varieties
Philip Morris International organized Marlboro products into three divisions—Flavor line, which are original red full flavor cigarettes, Gold line are former lights, and Fresh line comprises flavored cigarettes.
In the UK, the company sells Marlboro Red, Gold, Touch and Silver King Size. In May 2020, all brands of menthol cigarettes, including Marlboro Menthol and Marlboro Ice Blast Capsule cigarettes were banned in the European Union.
In the Philippines, Marlboro has 5 cigarette variants, Marlboro Classic (also known as Marlboro Red), Marlboro Gold (first known and well-known as Marlboro Lights), Marlboro Black Menthol (simply Marlboro Black), Marlboro Purple Fusion (or Purple Mix) and Marlboro Ice Blast Mega (known as Marlboro Blue, a companion brand of Fortune Mint Splash in the Philippines).
Marlboro in Canada
Philip Morris sold the Canadian rights to the "Marlboro" name to Imperial Tobacco Canada in 1932. After the brand's successful American relaunch in the 1950s, Philip Morris tried several legal manoeuvres in attempting to reacquire the Canadian rights. Imperial Tobacco continued to sell a line of cigarettes under the Marlboro name in Canada, albeit with different packaging from that of the Philip Morris product. Philip Morris retains the rights to the "rooftop" trade dress and other elements of Marlboro's branding which were developed after the 1932 sale and has used that trade dress in Canada in combination with the names "Matador" or occasionally "Maverick" for a line of Virginia blend cigarettes.
In 2006, Philip Morris International's Canadian affiliate Rothmans, Benson & Hedges introduced a new product with the "rooftop" trade dress, and marked as being the "World Famous Imported Blend", but not bearing any actual brand name. This led to a legal challenge from Imperial, contending that the new packaging created customer confusion by merely suggesting the Marlboro brand, thereby infringing on Imperial's Canadian trademark rights. Canada's Federal Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Imperial in June 2012. The judgment noted that Canadian regulations which (in most cases) prohibit the public display of tobacco products at retail locations – i.e., customers must ask for a brand by name – exacerbated the situation, as there were now two products that customers might be referring to when asking for "Marlboro". Though PMI is expected to appeal, shortly after the ruling it began using the brand name "Rooftop" on packaging for the previously unbranded cigarettes.
Morley
Morley is a fictional brand of cigarettes whose packaging resembles Marlboro's original packaging. The fictional brand has appeared in various television shows, films, and video games that otherwise have no apparent connection to each other. The name "Morley" is a play on "Marleys", a nickname for Marlboro cigarettes. Morleys appear at least as far back as 1960, in Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. There is also a Morley Lights version, in a gold and white package (similar to Marlboro Lights), marked "Lights".
The Morley packaging is sold to production companies by the Earl Hays Press, a century-old Hollywood prop packaging service.
Using non-brand name products like Morley cigarettes dates back to early American television. Cigarette companies often sponsored entire TV shows and advertised through product placement, but if no cigarette companies agreed to pay, producers instead used a non-brand product. This concept was later expanded to TV shows, films, video games and other media.
See also
Marlboro Friday, sales campaign
Marlboro Man
References
Further reading
Hafez, Navid, and Pamela M. Ling. "How Philip Morris built Marlboro into a global brand for young adults: implications for international tobacco control." Tobacco control 14.4 (2005): 262-271. online
Starr, Michael E. "The Marlboro man: Cigarette smoking and masculinity in America." Journal of Popular Culture 17.4 (1984)): 45-57.
Stevenson, Terrell, and Robert N. Proctor. "The secret and soul of Marlboro: Phillip Morris and the origins, spread, and denial of nicotine freebasing." American journal of public health'' 98.7 (2008): 1184-1194. online
External links
Cigarette brands
Philip Morris brands
Products introduced in 1924
American brands
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social%20Democratic%20Party%20of%20Croatia
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Social Democratic Party of Croatia
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The Social Democratic Party of Croatia (, SDP) is a social-democratic political party in Croatia. The SDP is anti-fascist, progressive, and strongly pro-European. The SDP was formed in 1990 as the successor of the League of Communists of Croatia, Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, which had governed Croatia within the Yugoslav federation since World War II.
The party first won the elections in 2000 and formed a coalition government headed by Ivica Račan. After losing the 2003 general election, the party remained in opposition for eight years. In the 2011 parliamentary election, SDP won 61 out of 151 seats in the Croatian Parliament, and managed to form the 12th Croatian Government under Zoran Milanović with its partners from the Kukuriku coalition. After SDP and its coalition partners failed to achieve an agreement on forming a new government following the 2015 general election, the party returned to the opposition. Former SDP member and presidential candidate Ivo Josipović served as the third President of Croatia from 2010 to 2015. Another SDP member, Neven Mimica was the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development at the Juncker Commission.
The SDP is a member of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Progressive Alliance (PA), and the Socialist International (SI).
History
Early 1990s
The SDP was established on 3 November 1990 by the social democratic faction of the former League of Communists of Croatia (SKH), the Croatian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ).
If SDP is claimed successor of Austria-Hungary's Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia founded on 8 and 9 September 1894, it was the oldest social democratic party in Yugoslavia, before become Communist Party of Croatia as part of League of Communists of Yugoslavia, founded date of modern day social-democratic party is taken on 3 November 1990.
SKH delegation led by Ivica Račan, along with their Slovenian counterparts, had abandoned the 14th congress of SKJ in January 1990 following a dispute with the Serbian delegation led by Slobodan Milošević over how SFR Yugoslavia should be reorganized.
At the same time, Croatia was preparing for its first multi-party election following the decision made by SKH in December 1989 which envisioned elections in April and May 1990. In February 1990 the SR Croatia parliament adopted amendments to the constitution which enabled a multi-party system. That same month SKH had rebranded themselves as the "Party of Democratic Reform" (Stranka demokratskih promjena or SDP) and went on to run in the 1990 election as SKH-SDP, coming in second behind the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) with 26 percent of votes and a total of 107 seats in all three houses of parliament which had 351 seat.
On 3 November 1990, the party was officially established in its current form, by dropping the initialism SKH from its name. In the August 1992 election, the first election held according to the new Constitution of Croatia which had been adopted on 22 December 1990, SDP won 5.52% of the popular vote and a total of 11 seats in the 138-seat parliament. In 1993 the party re-branded themselves again and changed their name to the "Social Democratic Party" (Socijaldemokratska partija), the name they kept to this day.
Merger with SDH
In 1990, a parallel Social Democratic Party of Croatia (, SDSH) was founded. It was later renamed to the Social Democrats of Croatia (Socijaldemokrati Hrvatske, SDH). Like most parties created at the time, it was opposed to the communist government and wanted Croatia to secede from Yugoslavia, yet it had the distinction of being one of the few to present itself as left-wing. The party founders included many prominent intellectuals, including Antun Vujić and Miroslav Tuđman. This party claimed that it was continuing tradition of the historical Social Democratic Party of Croatia, created in 1894 and merged in 1919 into the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
In the first 1990 Croatian parliamentary election, SDSH joined the centrist Coalition of People's Accord and fared badly, winning only 21 out of 351 seats. However, its position was strong enough to warrant ministerial posts in the national unity government of Franjo Gregurić which was in power from July 1991 to August 1992. However, its two ministers Bosiljko Mišetić and Zvonimir Baletić defected to the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) soon after their appointment.
Before the 1992 parliamentary and presidential elections, SDSH was involved in bitter dispute with the SDP over its rebranding into the Social Democratic Party of Croatia. SDSH claimed that its name was stolen. The election showed SDP to be much stronger party than SDSH, which failed to win parliament seats. At the same time, SDSH leader Antun Vujić finished last in the 1992 presidential race, winning a meagre 0.7 percent of the vote. This ultimately led to SDSH and SDP patching their differences and former being incorporated into the latter in April 1994.
In the following 1995 election, SDP won 8.93 percent of the popular vote and a total of 10 seats in the parliament, coming in fourth behind the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS).
2000–2003 government
In August 1998, SDP and HSLS leaders Ivica Račan and Dražen Budiša signed a coalition agreement and proceeded to run together in the January 2000 parliamentary elections. The SDP-HSLS coalition won the election with 38.7% of the vote and 71 out of 151 seats. SDP and HSLS then formed a six-way centre-left coalition government along with the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), the Liberal Party (LS), Croatian People's Party (HNS), and the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS). Račan, as the leader of the strongest party, became prime minister in the first Račan cabinet. This period was marred with constant disagreements among coalition members on various issues. The constitution was changed several times.
Račan had initially offered the post of Speaker of Parliament to Budiša, but Budiša declined hoping to win the upcoming 2000 presidential election. Following Budiša's defeat to Stjepan Mesić in February 2000, Budiša continued to serve as member of Croatian parliament. In July 2001, he opposed Račan government's decision to extradite Croatian army generals which were wanted because of, later in 2013 dismissed, charges for committing war crimes during Croatian War of Independence to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which caused considerable turmoil within HSLS.
In June 2001, the Istrian regionalist party Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) withdrew from the coalition government and its chairman Ivan Jakovčić resigned his post as Minister of European Integration, citing criticism of the way they governed Istria on the regional level which had been coming from other parties within the ruling coalition. The uneasy coalition broke apart in early July 2002 when Račan formally handed in his resignation following HSLS refusal to support the agreement made with Slovenia concerning the two countries' joint control of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant.
In late July 2002, the second Račan cabinet was formed, with members of the remaining four parties of the original coalition (following the departure of IDS and HSLS) plus two minor liberal parties which had splintered from HSLS, the Party of Liberal Democrats (Libra) and the Liberal Party (LS). This cabinet remained in power until the next elections in November 2003. SDP then ran in the 2003 election as part of a coalition with IDS, Libra and LS, but was defeated by the conservative HDZ. The SDP thus returned to opposition with the coalition winning 43 out of 151 seats in the parliament (34 of which held by SDP).
The January 2000 election win and the defeat of the ruling HDZ was seen as a turning point as it marked the first transition of power in Croatia's young democracy and upon coming into power Račan's government was seen as the country's first staunchly pro-Western government following a decade of the "authoritarian and nationalist rule" of late President Franjo Tuđman. During its term, the country signed a pre-membership agreement with the European Union, which paved the way for the formal opening of membership negotiations in October 2006. Although the six-party coalition government made a clear break from the former regime, it nevertheless failed to handle the growing social problems, unemployment and economic difficulties. Račan struggled to contain factional disputes within the coalition and appeared indecisive in dealing with Western demands to hand over war crimes suspects to the ICTY, as well as with extremists at home who vehemently opposed such extraditions.
Opposition (2003–2011)
In the 2005 presidential race, SDP opted to support independent incumbent Stjepan Mesić, who succeeded in winning his second term by an overwhelming majority of 65.9% of the vote in the run-off in front of HDZ candidate and runner-up Jadranka Kosor with 34.1%.
In 2007, the party was dealt a blow due to the death of their long-time leader and founder Ivica Račan, who died on 30 April 2007 due to complications from his previously treated kidney cancer, after he stepped down from his chairman post earlier that month. In an extraordinary party convention, former party spokesman Zoran Milanović was elected as their new leader, beating acting chairwoman and former defence minister Željka Antunović in the party election run-off. Other prominent candidates for the post were Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić and former foreign minister Tonino Picula.
For the November 2007 parliamentary election, SDP ran on an economic program with Third Way elements devised by the previously non-partisan economist Ljubo Jurčić, who was also picked to be the party's candidate for the post of prime minister in case of their election victory at a party meeting in July 2007. In the election of 25 November SDP finished a close second behind HDZ, with 56 out of 153 seats. It might have won the domestic election, but as SDP doesn't participate in diaspora constituency, it lost in the overall tally. Five days after the election, amid speculations that SDP might assemble a governing coalition in spite of them failing to win outright majority, he was replaced in that role by Zoran Milanović. Nevertheless, SDP failed to assemble a governing coalition, and positioned itself as the largest opposition party instead.
In the subsequent June 2009 local elections, the party failed to make significant gains on the county level, but still managed to achieve some major wins in important cities, due to the adoption of a new election system where mayors and county heads were for the first time elected directly, as opposed to the previous system which employed party lists. SDP recorded mayoral victories in a number of traditionally centre-right leaning coastal cities such as Dubrovnik, Šibenik and Trogir and also managed to win in Vukovar, a city that had been almost destroyed in the Croatian War of Independence and was regarded as HDZ stronghold ever since. They also manage to retain control of the economically most powerful parts of the country, including the capital Zagreb, the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka and also won in Istria (in coalition with IDS).
In the run up to the 2009–10 presidential race, SDP held a primary election for the very first time, in which party nominees Ljubo Jurčić and Ivo Josipović ran. Josipović won the primary by some two-thirds of the vote. Josipović later won the 2009–10 election with 60% of the vote in the second round in front of former SDP member and populist Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić and was officially inaugurated on 18 February 2010.
In government (2011–15)
In 2010, SDP formed a political alliance known as the Kukuriku coalition with three other centre-left parties - the Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (HNS), Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) and the Croatian Party of Pensioners (HSU) - to run in the December 2011 parliamentary election. The coalition unveiled their 21-point campaign program on 15 September 2011 in Zagreb.
The coalition won the election, winning 81 out of 151 seats in the parliament, after which SDP formed a government with two of its junior coalition (HNS and IDS). Party president, Zoran Milanović, took office as the new Prime Minister and leader of his cabinet on 23 December 2011.
Opposition (2015–present)
In the 2015 parliamentary elections SDP and its coalition partners won the majority in 5 out of 10 electoral districts, and eventually gained 56 out of 151 seats in the Parliament, or 59 since Istrian Democratic Assembly participated in the post-election negotiations on forming new government as de facto member of the coalition. After more than 70 days of negotiations with the Bridge of Independent Lists (MOST) and numerous twists and turns mainly due to MOST frequently changing terms, SDP's coalition failed to achieve agreement with MOST on forming new government, which was formed by the independent Tihomir Orešković who was supported by the center-right Patriotic Coalition.
A vote of no confidence in Orešković in June 2016 resulted in an early parliamentary election in November which the SDP contested as the largest party in the People's Coalition. Despite being perceived as the favorite to win the election, due to a significant lead in a large number of opinion polls, the People's Coalition won only 54 seats while the Croatian Democratic Union won 58 (61 with coalition partners) in an upset. As a result, Zoran Milanović declared that he would not contest the upcoming leadership election in the SDP and that he would retire from politics once a successor is elected. The first round of the leadership election on 19 November 2016 failed to produce an outright winner, as none of the seven candidates gained the necessary majority of 50% + 1 of cast votes. Davor Bernardić received the most votes (46%) and progressed to the second round, where he faced the runner-up, Ranko Ostojić, who received 22.8% of cast votes. The second round took place on 26 November 2016 and Davor Bernardić was elected the 3rd chairman of the SDP with 64% of cast votes.
In the 2020 parliamentary elections, the SDP achieved its worst result in parliamentary elections since the 1990s, resulting to the resignation of Davor Bernardić the day after the election. Zlatko Komadina took over the temporary duty of party leader until the next internal party elections. Five candidates ran in the party's leader elections, for which voting took place on September 26 and October 3. Peđa Grbin was chosen as the new leader, who defeated Željko Kolar in the second round. The elections were also marked by allowing only members who had paid their membership fees to vote, which meant that 12,000 out of 32,000 of all members had the right to vote.
In July 2021, intra-party clashes broke out between supporters of Grbin and Bernardić, followed by the expulsion of four MPs on charges of doing damage to party or refusing to actively participate in the May local elections. The same MPs then refused to leave the SDP parliamentary club, and for that they received the support of 14 of their colleagues who refused to vote for their expulsion. The crisis was resolved at a session of the party's presidency when a decision was made to punish 14 supporters of ousted MPs. According to the decision, seven deputies were expelled, including Davor Bernardić, while the remaining seven were warned. In the end, the expelled MPs and those who supported them founded a new parliamentary club called the Social Democrats Club, which had 18 deputies, while the SDP formed a new club with the remaining 14 deputies, which put them in third place in terms of the number of deputies in the Sabor. On 9 July 2022, they founded a new party named the Social Democrats.
After the USKOK brought criminal charges against Stjepan Kovač on 29 March 2022, he left the party on the same day, leaving SDP with 13 deputies.
Organization
The party's first and longest-serving president was Ivica Račan. The current party president is Peđa Grbin, who was elected in a leadership election on 3 October 2020 following Davor Bernardić. Apart from the president and four vice-presidents (Biljana Borzan, Sabina Glasovac, Ranko Ostojić, Siniša Hajdaš Dončić), the main governing bodies of the party include the party presidency (consisting of six senior members), the head committee (Glavni odbor) and the supervisory committee (Nadzorni odbor).
Like all other parties, the SDP runs local chapters at municipal, city and county levels. It also runs three topical groups - the Youth Forum (Forum mladih), Women's Forum (Socijaldemokratski forum žena) and a Seniors' Forum (Socijaldemokratski forum seniora).
The SDP has been a member of the Socialist International since November 1999, and a full member of the Party of European Socialists since February 2012. SDP is also a full member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament as of the accession of Croatia to the EU in 2013.
Election history
The following is a summary of SDP's results in legislative elections for the Croatian parliament. The "Votes won" and "Percentage" columns include sums of votes won by coalitions SDP had been part of. After preferential votes were added to the electoral system, the votes column also includes the statistic of the total number of such votes received by candidates of SDP on coalition lists. The "Total seats won" column includes sums of seats won only by SDP in election. Column "Change" shows how many seats SDP has gained or lost.
Parliament (Sabor)
European parliament elections
Croatian presidential elections
Party presidents since 1990
Notes
Neven Mimica has been elected as SDP MEP but appointed to be one of the commissioners in the European commission, so although SDP won 3 seats on general elections it de facto has 2 MEP while SDP gave Mimica's seat to Ivan Jakovčić from IDS as a result of the coalition agreement.
Kukuriku coalition in which SDP was a senior partner won 81 seats all together.
According to constitutional amendments introduced in 2000, the President is obliged to freeze his political party membership during his term in office.
See also
Elections in the Social Democratic Party of Croatia
Cabinet of Ivica Račan I
Cabinet of Ivica Račan II
Cabinet of Zoran Milanović
References
External links
Social democratic parties in Europe
Political parties established in 1990
Social democratic parties in Croatia
Modern history of Croatia
Full member parties of the Socialist International
Progressive Alliance
Party of European Socialists member parties
Pro-European political parties in Croatia
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji%20Labour%20Party
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Fiji Labour Party
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The Fiji Labour Party (FLP; ), also known as Fiji Labour, is a political party in Fiji. Most of its support is from the Indo-Fijian community, although it is officially multiracial and its first leader was an indigenous Fijian, Dr. Timoci Bavadra. The party has been elected to power twice, with Timoci Bavadra and Mahendra Chaudhry becoming prime minister in 1987 and 1999 respectively. On both occasions, the resulting government was rapidly overthrown by a coup.
Formation of the Fiji Labour Party
By 1985, the people of Fiji were yearning for a third force in Fiji politics, as the opposition National Federation Party (NFP) was again falling apart and the right-wing policies of the ruling Alliance Party had alienated it from the ordinary people. Dissatisfaction with Government policies had begun soon after the 1982 elections with a prolonged teachers' strike and a hunger strike by young graduates, who were longer guaranteed employment. In industrial disputes, the government sided with the employers. In November 1984, when the Government announced a wage freeze, instead of calling a national strike, the largest trade union in Fiji, the Fiji Public Service Association (FPSA), decided, in March 1985 by a margin of 2914 votes to 326 votes, to "associate itself with any organisation, in pursuance of workers' rights." The Fiji Labour Party was launched on 6 July 1985 under the auspices of the Fiji Trades Union Congress, at the Fiji Teachers Association hall in Suva.
Initial electoral success
FLP faced its first electoral test in municipal elections held three months later, when it won control of the Suva City Council and its candidate, Bob Kumar, was elected Lord Mayor. It also won seats on the Labasa, Nadi, and Ba Town Councils, and subsequently secured a seat on the Lautoka City Council at a by-election.
FLP's main test as a national political force came during the by-election for the North Central Indian National Seat in December 1985, following the resignation of Vijay R. Singh. FLP decided to field Mahendra Chaudhry, who was also the general secretary of the National Farmers Union as its candidate. The NFP candidate was former Alliance Minister, James Shankar Singh and the Alliance candidate was Uday Singh. Whereas both the Alliance and NFP again used race as an issue, Labour campaigned on policies. The result of the election was: Uday Singh, 7848 votes; Mahendra Chaudhry, 7644 votes and James Shankar Singh 5003 votes. Despite Chaudhry's narrow loss, Labour was considered to have done well.
In June 1986, the NFP-elected MP Satendra Nandan joined the FLP. One month later, he was joined by Davendra Singh of the NFP Youth Wing, who had defeated the official NFP candidate in an earlier by-election, and Jay Raj Singh, another NFP-elected MP.
Coalition with National Federation Party
Towards coalition with NFP
The narrow loss of the North Central by-election warned Labour of what awaited it in three-cornered elections in future. In September 1985, there had been talks between the NFP Youth Wing and Labour, but Labour had refused to accept group affiliation. In December 1985, the President of the Ba Branch of the NFP had called for a coalition between NFP and FLP, but the first meeting on talks regarding a coalition took place with Western United Front (WUF) delegates on 6 June 1986 where WUF MP, Isikeli Nadalo argued that, "there should only be two political groups fighting the election." With the common aim of defeating the Alliance, a meeting between FLP, NFP and WUF was arranged for 26 June 1986.
Opposition to Coalition
Not all Labour supporters were happy with the idea of a coalition with NFP. USP lecturer, Dr Anirudh Singh, released the results of a survey, which demonstrated that Labour could win 26 seats on its own. The main concern for those who agreed with Dr Singh was that a coalition with NFP would destroy Labour's multiracial image and undermine its efforts to win greater Fijian support. Dr Singh's survey was designed to rally anti-coalition support at the first FLP convention in Lautoka in July 1986, but Krishna Dutt managed to persuade the convention to allow the Party's Management Board "a free hand to negotiate possible areas of cooperation that might serve the Party's electoral strategy." The Fiji Sun's political columnist wrote, "The Party must choose between political expediency and clinging to the basic principles on which the Party was founded." Mahendra Sukhdeo, a Labour Suva City Councillor, resigned in protest and joined the Alliance.
Coalition formalised
Despite grassroots opposition, the Labour Party moved closer to coalition. On 10 October 1986, agreement was reached for a coalition with WUF. On 9 November 1986, the NFP appointed former opposition leader, Jai Ram Reddy, to negotiate the final pact with the FLP, and two days later the National Council of the FLP authorised the management board to finalise the coalition details.
First Labour Government
The Fiji Labour Party formed its first government (in coalition with the National Federation Party) after elections in April 1987 gave the coalition 28 of the 52 parliamentary seats. Its election was overwhelmingly supported by Indo-Fijians, but resented by many ethnic Fijians, only 9% of whom had voted for the coalition. Strikes and demonstrations followed, and on 14 May the army seized power.
1987 to 2000
Bavadra's widow, Kuini (later Adi Kuini Speed) took the leadership of the party after her husband's death in 1989, but was deposed in 1991 by Mahendra Chaudhry. She left the party in 1995, objecting to the direction in which Chaudhry was taking it. In the 1990s, the Labour Party lost most of its ethnic Fijian support, and the 1994 election showed that its support among Indo-Fijians was declining as well. It won only 7 seats that year.
In 1992, the party was admitted into the Socialist International as a consultative member.
The People's Coalition and the Coup of 2000
The fortunes of the Labour Party revived in the later 1990s, as the government of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka became unpopular amid admissions of womanising and reports of high-level corruption in his administration. In the election of 1999, the Labour Party swept to power, winning 37 seats in the 71-member House of Representatives, an absolute majority. A further 21 seats were won by its partners in the People's Coalition. Chaudhry became Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.
On 19 May 2000, Chaudhry's government was overthrown in a putsch led by George Speight, a businessman whom the Labour government had fired from management of Fiji's lucrative pine industry. The President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, dismissed the government on 27 May, intending to assume executive authority himself to confront the rebels, but his plan misfired when he was pressured into resigning two days later by the military commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
Post-coup developments
Elections to restore democracy were held in September 2001. The Labour Party contested the election on a platform calling for an independent inquiry into the 2000 coup, and for compensation to be paid to its victims, including police officers and military personnel. The party also backed medical cover for all workers, and proposed removing Value Added Tax (VAT) from basic items; it had already instigated court proceedings to that effect. The party also proposed a five-year plan for economic recovery. Hurt by intra-party fighting and the defection of key figures including Tupeni Baba, however, the party won the most votes (34.8%), but only 28 of the 71 seats in the House of Representatives (Fiji), four fewer than the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) of Laisenia Qarase. The inability of the Labour Party and National Federation Party (NFP) (the only other political party with significant Indo-Fijian support) to reach a deal on exchanging "preferences" in Fiji's transferable voting system, and the NFP's decision to give its preferences to the SDL instead, probably cost Labour the election: despite their having been allies in the 1980s, the two parties have since become bitter enemies.
Since 2001, Mahendra Chaudhry had survived a leadership challenge and had rebuilt the Labour Party. Before 2006 it had won several key by-elections, and appeared well-placed to mount a credible challenge to the Qarase government in 2006. Chaudhry's strained relationship with Prime Minister Qarase had prevented the Labour Party from being represented in the Cabinet, despite the constitutional stipulation that any political party with more than eight seats in the House of Representatives is entitled to proportionate representation in the Cabinet. On 18 July 2003, the Supreme Court of Fiji ruled that Qarase's exclusion of the Labour Party breached the constitution, and demanded that the situation be rectified. Negotiations, appeals, and counter-appeals followed, which delayed the appointment of Labour Party ministers. In June 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the Labour Party was entitled to 14 out of 30 Cabinet posts. Qarase announced that he would accept and implement the order, but his refusal to include Chaudhry himself in any cabinet line-up continued to stall negotiations about the composition of the cabinet until Chaudhry announced towards the end of 2004 that the Labour Party was no longer interested in joining the government, and would remain in opposition for the remainder of the parliamentary term.
2005 municipal poll
On 7 July 2005, the Labour Party suspended all of its councillors on the Lautoka City Council, following a scandal in which councillors were found to have granted taxi bases to relatives and colleagues. Those suspended were the Deputy Mayor, Vijend Verma, Torika Ram, Aruna Devi, Atish Lekh Ram, Sunia Kunawave, Pravin Naidu, Hari Narayan, Divendra Chandra and Dhurup Chand. The last four submitted in their resignations from the Labour Party, saying they wanted nothing more to do with it. Naidu said he was resigning from the party in protest against the suspensions, which he said were a public relations ploy. The Labour Party was thought to be facing a stiff challenge to its control of the council in the municipal elections of 22 October and 13 November, from the new Sugar City Ratepayers Alliance, but in the end swept to a landslide victory, taking 12 of the 16 seats. The party also won a two-thirds majority in the Nasinu Town Council, but was heavily defeated in the poll for the Suva City Council.
Towards 2006
At its conference on 28 July 2005, the Labour Party approved a platform for the election due in 2006. The platform calls for strategies to be enacted to ensure annual economic growth of 6%, price reductions for basic food items, and incentives for indigenous landowners to develop and profit from their land. The party also advocates electoral reform, calling for the abolition or at least the reduction of Communal constituencies, which are reserved for candidates and electors enrolled as members of specific ethnic groups. On 21 November, FLP Parliamentarian Perumal Mupnar said that an FLP government would remove Value Added Tax (VAT) from all food items.
The FLP has been exploring coalition possibilities with other parties ahead of the election. Fiji's instant run-off voting system, known locally as the alternative vote, allows votes for a low-polling candidate to be transferred to other candidates, following an order specified by the candidate, which may be customised by the individual voter. Most political parties are seeing coalition arrangements that will enable them to maximise their chances.
Deputy Leader Poseci Bune announced on 3 October that the FLP would attempt to broaden its appeal to indigenous Fijians by fielding more indigenous candidates than in previous elections. The final decision about what seats to contest would be made after the conclusion of negotiations with potential coalition partners, such as the NAPF and the UPP. On 10 October, Mahendra Chaudhry announced that 222 applications had been received for the 71 parliamentary constituencies, many of them indigenous. He was not surprised, he said, by the increasing interest shown by indigenous Fijians, whom he described as "frustrated" with the SDL government. He also welcomed what he said was a good number of prospective female candidates, saying that more women were needed in an area that was dominated by men.
FLP secretary and parliamentarian Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi announced on 9 January 2006 that the party would contest the forthcoming elections on a platform of completing the program it had begun in 1999–2000.
Negotiations with the NFP
On 18 August 2005, officials of the FLP and the National Federation Party (NFP) held what they described as a "courtesy call". Preferential voting was among the topics discussed, but no serious negotiations were entered into, with both parties indicating that such a move would be premature. Several major news services reported in early September, however, that the two parties were close to reaching a deal. Comments by FLP officials led credence to these rumours, but on 7 September, the NFP President, Raman Pratap Singh, denied that any such agreement was imminent, stating that the NFP had held no talks with FLP officials on any cooperative arrangements. NFP secretary Pramod Rae thought likewise: "We are open to discussion," he said. "But at this stage there is nothing. We will have to see what their party policies are, if they are similar then we will share preferences." On 3 October, however, Rae said that although a final decision had not been made, sentiment within the NFP was leaning towards contesting the 2006 election alone, rather than aligning itself with either the FLP or the ruling SDL.
Chaundry claimed on 19 October that NFP officials were unwilling to meet their FLP counterparts, and that the FLP would therefore concentrate on trying to maximise its own vote in the first count, rather than rely on votes transferred from other parties. Then, on 4 November, he rebuffed what he said was an NFP overture to exchange preferences in seven safe Indian communal constituencies. Speaking at three sugar cane farming settlements in Ba Province, he said that what the NFP really wanted was for the FLP to give them those seven seats, all of which were then held by the FLP. "They want something for nothing and their proposal is simply not on," Chaudhry said. However, NFP assistant general secretary Kamal Iyer denied that his party had presented any such proposal to the FLP, or to any party for that matter.
The FLP announced on 13 February 2006 that it would put aside its differences with the NFP provided that the NFP would do likewise. The NFP rejected the offer, calling it a deliberate tactic designed to mislead the supporters of both parties, Fiji Television reported. The NFP strongly denied Chaudhry's claim that the NFP leader failed to appear at a scheduled meeting in late 2005.
A meeting between representatives of the two parties took place in the last week of February 2006. Conflicting media reports followed on whether the talks had proved fruitful or whether they had ended in deadlock.
Chinese Communist Party
In 2005, the FLP signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Communist Party, a move which was criticised by the National Federation Party.
Negotiations with NAPF, UPP
The FLP also attempted to negotiate coalition preferences with the National Alliance Party (NAPF) and the United Peoples Party. UPP leader Mick Beddoes was hopeful, but cautioned that his party would not accept any deal that was not favourable to UPP candidates. On 7 October, however, he revealed that the UPP and the FLP were close to finalising a draft agreement for consideration, and on 16 October he announced that the UPP executive had approved an electoral pact with the FLP the day before. "We share similar positions on issues of unemployment, poverty alleviation, health and other areas. It is also based on our belief in the rights of all our citizens and their need for equality under the law," Beddoes said, explaining his agreement with the FLP. On 2 December, the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to draw up a joint manifesto and to share preferences at the 2006 election. The agreement left both parties free to contest any or all of the 71 parliamentary seats, or to field joint candidates by mutual agreement. It also left open the possibility of other parties joining the coalition.
On 22 February 2006, the FLP and its UPP and Party of National Unity (PANU) allies announced that the UPP's Mick Beddoes had been chosen to lead the negotiations with other parties, such as the NAPF and the NFP, concerning coalitions or preference deals.
On 13 March, FLP Parliamentarian Krishna Datt and NAPF President Ratu Epeli Ganilau both denied reports that their respective parties had agreed on Cabinet allocations in a coalition government. A secret agreement had allegedly provided for Ganilau to become Prime Minister, Chaudhry Minister for Finance, and FLP Deputy Leader Poseci Bune Foreign Minister. Discussions were ongoing, they said, and no agreement had been made.
Election result
In the 2006 Fijian general election, the FLP contested 59 seats in the 71-member House of Representatives. The party won 39% of the popular vote and 31 seats. Almost 80% of the Indo-Fijian community voted for the FLP, which won all 19 seats allocated to Indo-Fijians.
2006 coup and aftermath
The FLP initially supported the 2006 Fijian coup d'état, after party president Jokapeci Koroi announced support for a military takeover on national television in January 2006. Chaudhry served in the interim regime, holding the portfolios of Finance, Sugar Reform and National Planning, with Assistant secretary-general Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi and management board member Tom Ricketts holding other portfolios. As a result, the party was expelled from the Socialist International at its 23rd congress.
In August 2008, the FLP left the interim government, ostensibly to prepare for elections. Chaudhry subsequently became a critic of the regime and was arrested for breaching emergency laws.
In January 2013, the military regime promulgated new regulations governing the registration of political parties, requiring all parties to have at least 5,000 members. The FLP applied for registration on 15 February, becoming one of only two parties to do so. Registration was granted on 3 May 2013.
2014–present
The FLP contested the general elections held in September 2014. The military-backed interim government did not permit Chaudhry to be a candidate and prohibited him from campaigning in the first election since the 2006 coup, although he was still the Fiji Labour Party leader. The results gave the party only 2.4 percent of the vote and no parliamentary seats, while interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama's Fiji First Party took 59.2 percent of the vote and 32 of the 50 seats. Chaudhry joined the leaders of other opposition parties in alleging electoral fraud.
On 3 July 2015, Chaudhry was quoted by Radio New Zealand as announcing his retirement from the leadership of the FLP, having served in that capacity for 23 years. The next day, however, he denied having made such a statement.
2018 election
In October 2018 the FLP signed a partnership agreement with the Freedom Alliance to join forces for the 2018 election. The party submitted a joint list of 25 candidates, including 6 women. However, it failed to win any seats, winning only 2,800 votes.
2022 election
In the 2022 election the FLP managed to increase significantly its vote share, obtaining a better result than in both the 2014 and 2018 elections, but failed again to get any parliamentary representation.
Electoral history
Parliamentary elections
Notes
References
External links
Official website of the Fiji Labour Party
Former member parties of the Socialist International
Labour parties
Political parties in Fiji
1985 establishments in Fiji
Political parties established in 1985
Labor disputes in Fiji
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidesz
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Fidesz
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Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán.
It was formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young Democrats () as a centre-left and liberal activist movement that opposed the ruling Marxist–Leninist government. It was registered as a political party in 1990, with Orbán as its leader. It entered the National Assembly following the 1990 parliamentary election; however, it lost two seats after the 1994 election. Following the election, it adopted liberal-conservatism which caused liberal members to leave and to join the Alliance of Free Democrats. It then sought to form a connection with other conservative parties, and after the 1998 election, it successfully formed a centre-right government. It adopted nationalism in the early 2000s, but its popularity slightly declined due to corruption scandals. It served in the opposition between 2002 and 2010, and in 2006 it formed a coalition with the Christian Democratic People's Party.
The Őszöd speech (which was followed by mass protests) restored its popularity, which led Fidesz to winning a supermajority in the 2010 election. After returning to governing Hungary, it adopted national-conservative policies and shifted further to the right. It also became more critical of the European Union, which led to the party being described as Eurosceptic. In 2011, the new Hungarian constitution was adopted in the parliament and in 2012 it became effective, although it was subject to controversies due to its consolidation of power to Fidesz. Its majority of seats remained after the 2014 election, and following the escalation of the migrant crisis, Fidesz began using right-wing populist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Since its inception, its political position has changed drastically, and Fidesz is now positioned as a right-wing or far-right party. Political scientists have described the party's governance as illiberal or authoritarian, with Orbán describing their model of government as "Christian illiberal democracy".
Following the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, it currently holds a majority in the National Assembly with 135 seats. It has also held the presidency since 2010, has endorsed the election of every president since 2000, and it enjoys majorities in all 19 county legislatures, while being in opposition in the General Assembly of Budapest. Fidesz was initially a member of the Liberal International until 2000, after which it joined the European People's Party. It remained its member until 2021, and since then it has served with the Non-Inscrits group within the European Parliament.
History
1988–1989: Liberal activist beginnings
The party was founded in the spring of 1988 and named Fiatal Demokraták Szövetsége (Alliance of Young Democrats) with the acronym FIDESZ. It grew out of an underground liberal student activist movement opposed to the ruling Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. Founding such a movement was semi-illegal at the time, so the founders risked their careers by being involved in the opposition. The membership had an upper age limit of 35 years (this requirement was abolished at the 1993 party congress).
In 1989, Fidesz won the Rafto Prize. The movement was represented at the award ceremony by one of its leaders, Péter Molnár, who later became a Member of Parliament in Hungary.
1990–1998: Centre-left opposition and conservative turn
In the 1990 elections, the party entered the National Assembly after winning about 6% of the vote. They became a small, though quite popular oppositional party. In 1992, Fidesz joined the Liberal International. At the time, it was a moderate liberal centrist party, sometimes also described as left-liberal.
At the 1993 party congress, it changed its political position from liberal to civic-centrist ("polgári centrumpárt"). The turn in ideology caused a severe split in the membership. Péter Molnár left the party along with Gábor Fodor and Klára Ungár, who joined the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats. Viktor Orbán was elected party chairman.
After its disappointing result in the 1994 elections, Fidesz remained an opposition party but grew increasingly conservative. In 1995, it changed its name to Hungarian Civic Party (Magyar Polgári Párt) and sought connections to the national-conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum, a former governing party.
1998–2002: First Orbán government
Fidesz gained power for the first time at the 1998 elections, with Viktor Orbán becoming prime minister. Their coalition partners were the smaller Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Independent Smallholders' Party. In 2000, Fidesz terminated its membership in the Liberal International and joined the European People's Party. The government constituted a "relatively conventional European conservative" rule.
2002–2010: Return to opposition
Fidesz narrowly lost the 2002 elections to the Hungarian Socialist Party, garnering 41.07% to the Socialists' 42.05%. Fidesz had 169 members of the Hungarian National Assembly, out of a total of 386. Immediately after the election, they accused the opponents of electoral fraud. The 2002 Hungarian municipal elections saw again huge Fidesz losses.
In the spring of 2003, Fidesz took its current name, Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union.
It was the most successful party in the 2004 European Parliamentary Elections: it won 47.4% of the vote and 12 of its candidates were elected as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), including Lívia Járóka, the second Romani MEP.
Fidesz's nominee, Dr. László Sólyom, was elected President of Hungary in the 2005 election. He was endorsed by Védegylet, an NGO including people from the whole political spectrum. A self-described "conservative liberal," he championed elements of both political wings with a selective, but conscious choice of values.
In 2005, Fidesz and the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) formed an alliance for the 2006 elections, which were won by the social-democratic and liberal coalition of Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ). Fidesz received 42% of the list votes and 164 of 386 representatives in the National Assembly.
On 1 October 2006 Fidesz won the municipal elections, which counterbalanced the MSZP-led government's power to some extent. Fidesz won 15 of 23 mayoralties in Hungary's largest cities—although its candidate narrowly lost the city of Budapest to a member of the Liberal Party—and majorities in 18 out of 20 regional assemblies.
In the 2009 European Parliament election, Fidesz won a landslide victory, gaining 56.36% of the vote and 14 of Hungary's 22 seats.
In a closed-door party meeting in 2009, Orbán called for a "central political forcefield" to govern Hungary for up to 20 years to achieve political stability.
In January 2010, László Kövér, head of the party's national board, told reporters the party was aiming at winning a two-thirds majority at the parliamentary elections in April. He noted that Fidesz had a realistic chance to win a landslide. However, this feat was threatened by the rise of the radical nationalist Jobbik party. Kövér said it was a "lamentably negative" tendency, adding that it was rooted in the "disaster government" of the Socialist Party and its former liberal ally Free Democrats.
2010–present: In power
The strong and preeminent Fidesz has benefited from the fragmented and disjointed opposition that has proved inept at mounting a unified challenge to the ruling party in a country where a majority of parliamentary seats are allocated to the party that garners the plurality of votes in a constituency.
Government debt has fallen by 6% in the 8 years after Fidesz took power in 2010 while the country's credit ratings have improved. Economic growth had almost quadrupled with wages rising by over 10% and destitution decreasing by almost 50% (though still considerable). According to official figures, unemployment had fallen by nearly two-thirds. However, as many as almost half of newly employed Hungarians had found work elsewhere in the EU. A public works program has also been criticized by some economists for artificially and deceptively reducing unemployment numbers while engaging in and compensating people for possibly unneeded or unnecessarily inefficient work. Hungary has been highly dependent on EU funds during Fidesz's rule; these representing nearly 4% of the country's GDP, more than for any other EU member.
2010–2014: Second Orbán government
In a landslide victory in the 2010 parliamentary elections, the party won an outright majority in the first round on 11 April, with the Fidesz-KDNP alliance winning 206 seats, including 119 individual seats. In the final result, Fidesz 263 seats, of which 173 are individual seats. Fidesz held 227 of these seats, giving it an outright majority in the National Assembly by itself.
Fidesz was widely seen as propelled to a sweeping victory in large part due to the dissatisfaction with the ruling political establishment which was plagued by corruption scandals and suffered a further blow by the global financial crisis. The Socialist government had also imposed harsh austerity measures in an attempt to reign in its ballooning budget deficits even before the global crisis. In September 2006, a recording of the prime minister admitting to lying about the country's dire economic prospects was revealed by the media and broadcast on radio. Steel barriers were erected around Parliament to protect it from tens of thousands of protesters.
After winning 53% of the popular vote in the first-round of the 2010 parliamentary election, which translated into a supermajority of 68% of parliamentary seats, giving Fidesz sufficient power to revise or replace the constitution, the party embarked on an extraordinary project of passing over 200 laws and drafting and adopting a new constitution—since followed by nearly 2000 amendments.
The new constitution has been widely criticized by the Venice Commission for Democracy through Law, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the United States for concentrating too much power in the hands of the ruling party, for limiting oversight of the new constitution by the Constitutional Court of Hungary, and for removing democratic checks and balances in various areas, including the ordinary judiciary, supervision of elections, and the media.
In October 2013 Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe said that the Council were satisfied with the amendments which had been made to the criticized laws.
2014–2018: Third Orbán government
Fidesz won the nationwide parliamentary election in April 2014 and secured a second supermajority with 133 seats (of 199) in the legislature. This supermajority was lost, however, when Tibor Navracsics was appointed to the European Commission. His Veszprém county seat was taken by an independent candidate in a by-election. Another by-election on 12 April 2015 saw the supermajority lose a second seat, also in Veszprém, to a Jobbik candidate.
2018–2022: Fourth Orbán government
Fidesz won the nationwide parliamentary election in April 2018 and secured a 3rd supermajority with 133 seats (of 199) in the legislature. Orbán and Fidesz campaigned primarily on the issues of immigration and foreign meddling, and the election was seen as a victory for right-wing populism in Europe.
With the start of 2019, the prime minister's residence was relocated from the Hungarian Parliament Building to the Buda Castle, a former Carmelite monastery and former royal residence. The move was first planned in 2002 during the first Fidesz government, but was never carried out. Government representatives stated the move was necessary to uphold the separation of the executive and legislative branch by physically separating the two (in contrast to the Communist era when the two branches operated in the same building) while the opposition criticized the move as profligate (the renovation cost Ft21bn, or €65.5M) and as a symbolic revival of the Horthy era (Miklós Horthy also took up residence in the building).
In 2019 local elections, the party lost its majority in General Assembly of Budapest and numerous city councils.
2022–present: Fifth Orbán government
Fidesz won the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election and secured a 3rd supermajority for the 4th time with 135 seats (of 199) in the legislature. Reuters described it as a "crushing victory".
With 54.13% of the popular vote, Fidesz received the highest vote share by any party since Hungary returned to democracy in 1989.
Ideology and policies
Fidesz's position on the political spectrum has changed over time. At its inception as a student movement in the late 1980s, the party was positioned on the centre-left on the political spectrum, and it advocated for liberalism and libertarianism. It was strongly committed towards anti-clerical and secular policies. As the Hungarian political landscape crystallized following the fall of Communism and the first free elections, Fidesz moved to the right in 1994. Although Fidesz was in opposition to the Hungarian Democratic Forum's national-conservative coalition government from 1990 to 1994, Fidesz was the most prominent liberal-conservative political force in Hungary by 1998. It adopted nationalism, national-liberalism, and Christian democracy in the early 2000s. It was positioned on the centre-right, although it moved more to the right as the decade progressed.
Fidesz is currently a right-wing party, and it is national conservative while favouring interventionist policies on economic issues like handling of banks, and has a strong conservative stance on social issues, a soft Eurosceptic vision towards European integration, and has been described as right-wing populist. In the late 2010s, the party has increasingly been described as far-right; its ruling style has also been variously described as "soft fascism", "soft dictatorship", and "soft autocracy". The Fidesz party has denied such accusations and distanced itself from the extreme right, criticising such accusations as politically motivated opposition to its anti-immigrant policies and pursuit of illiberal democracy.
Illiberal democracy
Orbán and other Fidesz politicians have prominently described their model of government as a Christian illiberal democracy.
Orbán has described liberal democracy as having undemocratic characteristics because of "being intolerant of alternative views", and being incompatible with and antithetical to Christian democracy (saying: "Christian democracy is, by definition, not liberal: it is, if you like, illiberal."), and praised Turkey, Russia, China, and Singapore as successful examples of illiberal states.
Economy
Like the Hungarian right in general, Fidesz has been more skeptical of the neoliberal economic policies than the Hungarian left. According to researchers, the elites of the Hungarian left (the Hungarian Socialist Party and the former Alliance of Free Democrats) have been differentiated from the right by being more supportive of the classical liberal economic policies, while the right (especially extreme right) has advocated more economic interventionist policies. In contrast, on issues like church and state and family policies, the liberals show alignment along the traditional left–right spectrum. In the past, Fidesz has implemented several economic liberal policies, including an income flat tax, reductions in the corporate tax rate, restrictions on unemployment benefits, and privatisation of state-owned land.
The Fidesz government has embraced some government schemes, including "public works job program, pension hikes, utility bill cuts, a minimum wage increase and cash gifts for retirees." It has also implemented a national public works program aimed in particular at assisting neglected rural communities. It has sought national control of key economic sectors while assuming a cautious stance on economic globalisation.
Foreign policy
Invasion of Iraq
Fidesz opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Hungarian participation in it, questioning the international legitimacy of the invasion.
European Union
Despite the conflict with the European People's Party and European Union (EU) institutions, Fidesz and the Orbán government have claimed to be not in conflict with, but purportedly in line with pan-European values. As he struggled to maintain rapport with the EPP, Orbán began forming a right-wing populist alliance to electorally challenge the conservative EU establishment despite voicing a desire for Fidesz to remain a member. Orbán and his government have clashed with the EU over the handling of the European migrant crisis and the death penalty, which is prohibited by EU rules.
Russia and Ukraine
Hungary was the only EU member state to vote against financial aid for Ukraine during its conflict with Russia-sponsored separatists, and has been a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine. The main cause is that since 2017, relations with Ukraine rapidly deteriorated over the issue of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. Hungary has been obstructing Ukraine's integration efforts in the EU and NATO, even though Hungary has also been continuously helping and supporting Ukraine, with an exceptional attention to Transcarpathia. Orbán has strongly criticized EU sanctions against Russia but abstained from vetoing them. The Fidesz government joined the UK-led diplomatic offensive after the Skripal poisoning, expelling Russian embassy officials. Orbán has hailed Russia as an exemplary case of illiberal democracy.
During his presidency, Orbán has been described as drawing closer to Russian president Vladimir Putin. The closer relationship between the two leaders and nations has however largely been motivated by a tighter economic relationship, part of the government's "Eastern Opening" strategy, announced in 2011.
The Fourth Orbán Government initially strongly condemned the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, aligning the country with NATO and the European Union on the matter: Orbán announced that Hungary would be sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but denied sending military equipment. President János Áder (also a Fidesz member) strongly condemned the Russian invasion, comparing it to the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. However, Fidesz soon realigned with his formerly pro-Russian position: the party repeatedly opposed sanctions against the Russian Federation, prompting international press to describe Orbán as "a key Putin's ally".
Immigration
Fidesz has adopted anti-immigration stances and rhetoric. The Fidesz government has conversely begun admitting increasing numbers of foreign workers due to a labour shortage resulting from strong economic growth, population decline, and rising wages.
Nativism
In a 2018 address, Orbán said: "We must state that we do not want to be diverse and do not want to be mixed: we do not want our own colour, traditions and national culture to be mixed with those of others. We do not want this. We do not want that at all. We do not want to be a diverse country." Orbán has "often expressed a preference for a racially homogeneous society." The government has modified the country's Constitution to make it illegal to "settle foreign populations in Hungary."
Despite a very low fertility rate that has led to a demographic deficit, the Fidesz government has remained steadfastly opposed to economic immigration that has been harnessed by other European countries to relieve its worker deficits. Instead, the government announced pecuniary incentives (including eliminating taxes for mothers with more than 3 children, and reducing credit payments and easier access to government-subsidized mortgages), and expanding day care and kindergarten access. The Fidesz government's child incentive program also offers a 10-million-forint government-subsidized zero-interest loan to married couples who are willing to have a baby after 1 July 2019.
Social policy
Changes passed by the Fidesz government have given citizens the right to use arms for self-defense on one's own property. Fidesz has passed legislation criminalising homelessness.
Christianity
Orbán has on multiple occasions emphasized upholding Christian values as central to his government, and has described his government as creating a Christian democracy. Hungarian Catholic bishop András Veres described some of Fidesz' policies, such as providing free IVF treatment for couples at state-run clinics, as being at odds with some Christian denominations, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, which opposes IVF. Orbán is a member of the Reformed Church in Hungary.
Other
Anti-communism
The party is anti-communist. In May 2018, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker attended and spoke at a celebration of the deceased Karl Marx's 200th birthday, where he defended Marx's legacy. In response, MEPs from Fidesz wrote: "Marxist ideology led to the death of tens of millions and ruined the lives of hundreds of millions. The celebration of its founder is a mockery of their memory."
The Fidesz government spokesman Zoltán Kovács justified the government's controversial policies as an effort to "get rid of the remnants of communism that are still with us, not only in terms of institutions but in terms of mentality."
During the party's rule, statues of communists regarded as traitors have been removed with Fidesz politicians in attendance. In December 2018, Hungarian authorities removed a statue of Imre Nagy for renovation. Nagy was a Hungarian reformist communist politician who led the failed anti-Soviet 1956 Hungarian Revolution and was later executed for his role in the uprising; the statue was replaced with a memorial dedicated to the victims of the short-lived 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic.
National Consultations and political informational campaigns
The government has often propagated Fidesz's political ideas in tax-funded advertisements, putting up posters portraying a grinning George Soros, while calling on the citizens to oppose his purported support of illegal immigration (many of the posters portraying Soros, who is Jewish, were defaced with antisemitic graffiti), posters depicting Soros and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker laughing together with text suggesting Soros' control of EU institutions (while also disseminating the accusation by letters sent to all Hungarian citizens), and posters using the stock photo featuring photo models from the "distracted boyfriend" internet meme to promote family values. Additionally, various party members have been accused of antisemitism.
The government has employed so-called National Consultations, sending questionnaires to citizens that survey their opinions on government policy and legislation while pushing the Fidesz governments' ideology and agenda with suggestive questions (e.g. by referring to a supposed "Soros plan" to "convince Brussels to resettle at least one million immigrants from Africa and the Middle East annually on the territory of the European Union, including Hungary", that this "is part of the Soros plan to launch political attacks on countries objecting to immigration and impose strict penalties on them", and asking citizens whether they agree, or blasting "Brussels bureaucrats" in a consultation about family policy). On other occasions, such as just prior to elections, the government sent letters notifying citizens that it will reduce their gas payments by €38, or sent pensioners gift vouchers. The Fidesz government has also carried out taxpayer-funded "information campaigns", or "national messaging initiatives", that have denounced supposed enemies of Hungary with budgets of tens of millions of euros per year.
Youth wing
The Fidesz youth affiliate Fidelitas was founded in 1996. In December 2022, Dániel Farkas was elected president, succeeding Boglárka Illés. Fidelitas is a member of European Democrat Students (EDS) and the International Young Democrat Union.
International affiliations
Fidesz was a member of the Liberal International from 1992 to 2000, and is currently a member of the International Democratic Union and Centrist Democrat International.
European Union
Following its ideological turn to conservatism, it joined the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) but was suspended on 20 March 2019. Fidesz MEPs left the European People's Party group in the European Parliament on 3 March 2021, after the EPP changed its rules to allow it to expel a party's entire delegation. It has served with the Non-Inscrits since then.
In July 2021, Fidesz signed a joint declaration with National Rally, Law and Justice, Vox, the League, the Brothers of Italy, the Estonian Conservative People's Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, the Danish People's Party, the Finns Party, VMRO – Bulgarian National Movement, Greek Solution, the Romanian Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party and Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance on the future of the EU.
In December 2021, the party participated in the Warsaw summit with Law and Justice, the Estonian Conservative People's Party, the Finns Party, the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party, Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance, the Freedom Party of Austria, Vox, National Rally, Vlaams Belang and the Dutch JA21, signing a document outlining new collaboration at the EU level between the parties.
In January 2022, the party participated in the Madrid summit, hosted by Vox, alongside National Rally, Law and Justice, Vlaams Belang, JA21, the Estonian Conservative People's Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, VMRO - Bulgarian National Movement, the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party and Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance, signing a joint declaration on policies towards the EU and Russia.
In November 2022, Fidesz MEPs signed a cooperation agreement with MEPs from United Poland, Vox, Lega, the Freedom Party of Austria and the National Rally to collaborate within the European Parliament.
European countries
Austria
Orbán has more recently cultivated close ties between Fidesz and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), noting "strategic cooperation" between the parties and "friendly ties based on mutual confidence and Christian-conservative values". Prior to the 2019 Austrian legislative election, he held a joint press conference with FPÖ leader Norbert Hofer, where he wished the party success in the upcoming election and stressed the "similar views" of the two parties.
Belgium
Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga addressed a rally in Antwerp hosted by Vlaams Belang in June 2022, alongside representatives of other Identity and Democracy Party member parties.
Czech Republic
Orbán sent a letter of support to Václav Klaus Jr.'s newly formed Tricolour Citizens' Movement in the Czech Republic in 2019. Orbán has a relationship with Klaus's father, President Václav Klaus, who has expressed support for Orbán's rule.
During the 2021 Czech legislative election, Orbán endorsed Czech Prime Minister and ANO 2011 leader Andrej Babiš, appearing alongside him at campaign events in the Czech Republic.
Croatia
Orbán expressed strong support for Tomislav Karamarko's leadership of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), having written a letter endorsing Karamarko for his stance on immigration that was read out at an HDZ rally during the 2015 Croatian parliamentary election campaign.
France
Orbán initially rejected association with Marine Le Pen's National Rally, and instead endorsed François Fillon, the candidate of The Republicans, in the 2017 French presidential election. However, in 2021, Fidesz opened relations with National Rally, congratulating Le Pen on her re-election as the party's leader. Orbán subsequently hosted Le Pen during her October 2021 visit to Budapest and had discussions with her regarding a formal alliance between the parties. Orbán released a video of support for Le Pen during the 2022 French presidential election, which was aired at one of her campaign rallies.
Orbán also has relations with Reconquête leader Éric Zemmour, hosting him in Budapest in September 2021.
Germany
Fidesz continues to reject cooperation with Alternative for Germany, describing the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria as its natural allies there.
Italy
Orbán has praised the tenure of former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League, declaring him an "ally and our fellow combatant in the fight for the preservation of European Christian heritage and the tackling of migration" after Salvini's departure from the Italian government in August 2019. Orbán previously urged closer political ties between the EPP and the League, and cooperated extensively on immigration with Salvini, describing Salvini as "my hero". Orbán has also fostered ties with Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni.
North Macedonia
Orbán has also fostered close political ties with right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) politician and former PM Nikola Gruevski. While awaiting a ruling on an appeal to a corruption conviction in early 2019, Gruevski fled to Hungary to evade a looming jail sentence. The whereabouts of Gruevski were revealed only 4 days after he failed to report to serve his prison sentence. North Macedonian officials have suggested that Gruevski (for whom an international arrest warrant had been issued) was in contact with Hungarian officials in the days preceding his flight, and North Macedonian authorities have launched an investigation into whether Gruevski was transported across the border in a Hungarian diplomatic vehicle. The Hungarian government denied accusations of impropriety. Hungarian businesspeople close to Orbán that had previously invested into Slovenian right-wing media also entered into ownership of North Macedonian right-wing media companies, propping up outlets friendly to Gruevski and his party. In May 2023, Orbán pledged that Fidesz would assist VMRO-DPMNE in "various policy areas" ahead of the Macedonian elections.
Poland
Prior to the 2019 European Parliament election, Fidesz announced it would discuss an alliance with Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party if it leaves the EPP. The two nations' conservative governments have shared a close friendship and alliance for multiple years and the Polish government has pledged political support for Hungary within the EU. Orbán and PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński have vowed to wage a "cultural counter-revolution" within the EU together, with the Polish government seeing Hungary under Fidesz as a model for Poland. The relationship between Fidesz and PiS deteriorated following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, after the two parties took different stances on the conflict.
Serbia
Orbán has a warm relationship with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), with the Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó campaigning for Vučić before the 2017 Serbian presidential election. Companies close to the Orbán government have won public contracts with the Serbian government. The Serbian government has also been accused of taking a similar approach to the Hungarian government towards the media. In May 2023, Szijjártó once again addressed an SNS rally in support of President Vučić.
Slovenia
Orbán has allied closely with Slovenian PM Janez Janša and the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) he heads, going so far as to campaign for SDS during the 2018 Slovenian parliamentary election. Businesspeople close to Orbán also provided funds to SDS-affiliated media companies that then also used some of the funds to purchase campaign ads on behalf of SDS to circumvent Slovenian campaign finance laws. After the election, and while SDS was struggling to secure political support to form a coalition government, Janša again met with Orbán on a private visit to Budapest; during the meeting, Orbán also conducted a conference call with US president Trump with Janša joining in. SDS's unconditional backing of Fidesz within the EPP was reportedly pivotal in preventing Fidesz's expulsion from EPP, resulting in a more lenient suspension. In a letter to EPP leader, Janša warned of an "inevitable" split in the EPP if the vote to expel Fidesz were to take place.
Other
Orbán has also developed ties with Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders, Vox leader Santiago Abascal, Estonian Conservative People's Party leader Mart Helme and the Portuguese Chega.
Hungarian national minority parties
Some political parties of Hungarian minorities are said to be allies of the Fidesz like the Slovak Party of the Hungarian Community (MKP), the Serbian Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ), the Ukrainian KMKSZ – Hungarian Party in Ukraine, and Hungarian Democratic Party in Ukraine (UMDP), the Slovenian Hungarian National Self-Government Association of Prekmurje (MMNÖK), the Romanian Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), the Hungarian Civic Party (MPP) and the Hungarian People's Party of Transylvania (EMNP). The Fidesz, the RMDSZ, MKP, VMSZ the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Croatia (HMDK) and the Democratic Party of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMDP) support each other in the 2019 European Parliament election. The MKP, VMSZ and RMDSZ are members or associates of the EPP.
Non-European countries
Israel
Orbán and his government have also fostered close ties with the Israeli Likud government under Benjamin Netanyahu, with the two heads of government forging a cordial relationship, having known one another for decades. Netanyahu advised Orbán on economic reforms conducted by the Hungarian government in the early 2000s. Netanyahu later extended public political support to Orbán at a time when Orbán was confronting criticism for praising Miklós Horthy, Hungary's former leader, whose government passed anti-Jewish legislation and collaborated with Nazi Germany, and for allegedly employing anti-Semitic tropes in his criticism of George Soros. The Israeli foreign ministry issued a statement condemning Soros in a show of solidarity with the Orbán government. A Likud lawmaker also introduced legislation modeled on Fidesz's "Stop Soros law" in the Israeli Knesset.
United States of America
Orbán and his government have gained favour with US president Donald Trump and his Republican administration (in stark contrast to the policy of isolation practiced by the preceding Obama Administration). Orbán was the first European head of government to endorse Trump's presidential bid during the 2016 United States presidential election. Trump has praised Hungary's anti-immigrant policies in a discussion with Orbán. The more amiable attitude of the Trump Administration toward the Hungarian government prompted criticism and a protest by 22 Democratic Party lawmakers that called for a more disciplinary policy towards the country's government over what they perceived as a problematic track record. Steve Bannon, former head of Breitbart News a former close associate of President Trump who had an integral role in Trump's electoral campaign and administration, has also praised Orbán and announced plans to work with Fidesz in orchestrating the party's electoral campaign for the 2019 European parliament election.
Criticism and controversies
Fidesz has been accused of exhibiting anti-democratic and authoritarian tendencies while in government. The Fidesz-led government has been accused of severely restricting media freedom, undermining the independence of the courts, subjugating and politicising independent and non-governmental institutions, spying on political opponents, engaging in electoral engineering, and assailing critical NGOs. The Fidesz-led government has been accused of engaging in cronyism and corruption. Fidesz has been accused of antisemitism, and the Fidesz-led government has been accused of passing legislation that violates the rights of LGBT persons. Due to its controversial actions, Fidesz and its government have come in conflict with the EU on multiple occasions.
Leaders
Electoral results
National Assembly
European Parliament
1 Joint list with Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP)
References
External links
Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union Official website
Fidesz page on the website of the European People's Party
Speech delivered by Mr Viktor Orban at the 17th Congress of Fidesz upon his election as president of Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union, 17 May 2003 (from Google's cache)
The History of Fidesz (from Google's cache)
Hungary's PM calls confidence vote
1988 establishments in Hungary
Anti-communist parties
Anti-immigration politics in Europe
Christian democratic parties in Hungary
Conservative parties in Hungary
Eurosceptic parties in Hungary
International Democrat Union member parties
Member parties of the European People's Party
National conservative parties
Parties represented in the European Parliament
Political parties established in 1988
Political parties in Hungary
Right-wing populism in Europe
Right-wing populism in Hungary
Right-wing populist parties
Social conservative parties
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Defence%20of%20the%20Republic%20of%20Poland
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Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland
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Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (, SRP) is a nationalist, socialist, populist, and agrarian political party and trade union in Poland. The party promotes agrarian socialist and Catholic socialist economic policies combined with a left-wing populist, anti-globalization and anti-neoliberal rhetoric. The party describes itself as left-wing, although it stresses that it belongs to the "patriotic left" and follows Catholic social teaching. The party is sympathetic to Communist Poland, which led political scientists to label the party as neocommunist, post-communist, and far-left.
Though considered a "political chameleon", Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland is generally regarded as a left-wing party by historians and political scientists. According to Andrzej Antoszewski, Self-Defence was a radical left-wing party that by postulating the need to stop privatisation and protect workers' interests, often overlapped with neo-communist parties. In English-language literature, the party is described as a radical left-populist party. In the wake of the SLD's electoral defeat in 2005, Self-Defence was sometimes referred to as the "new left". It was also called a left-wing party with a populist-agrarian face. Political scientists also described it as socialist, allowing it to form alliances with the Democratic Left Alliance. On the other hand, its anti-neoliberal and nationalist narrative also allowed it to briefly cooperate with PiS and LPR in 2005.
Founded by Andrzej Lepper in 1992, the party initially fared poorly, failing to enter the Sejm. However, it was catapulted to prominence in the 2001 parliamentary election, winning 53 seats, after which it gave confidence and supply to the Democratic Left Alliance government. It elected six MEPs at the 2004 European election, with five joining the Union for Europe of the Nations and one joining the PES Group.
It switched its support to Law and Justice (PiS) after the 2005 election, in which it won 56 seats in the Sejm and three in the Senate. Lepper was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government with PiS and the League of Polish Families. In 2007, he was dismissed from his position and the party withdrew from the coalition. This precipitated a new election, at which the party collapsed to just 1.5% of the vote: losing all its seats. On August 5, 2011, the Party's leader, Andrzej Lepper, was found dead in his party's office in Warsaw. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
History
Beginnings
The origins of Samoobrona date back to a spontaneous protest movement of farmers from Western Pomerania (the Darlowo area is the hometown of A. Lepper) and the Zamojszczyzna region, which developed into a trade union. The very creation of the political party was originally aimed solely at supporting the 'Samoobrona' Trade Union of Agriculture (ZZR 'Samoobrona'), which had played a leading role for a long time.
As Lepper reported many years later. Lepper, the idea to create a trade union, and then a political movement, was born after a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Leszek Balcerowicz in the autumn of 1991: "Everything that happened afterwards - with me and Samoobrona - I therefore owe, to some extent, to that two hours long conversation of 10 years ago". In January 1992, the Trade Union of Agriculture "Samoobrona" was registered. The political party, which initially appeared under the name Przymierze "Samoobrona", was registered on 12 June 1992. In addition to representatives of ZZR "Samoobrona", it also included activists from the Metalworkers' Trade Union and a Green faction headed by J. Bryczkowski.
Andrzej Lepper's Self-Defence Party (Samoobrona) emerged in the early 1990s as a local protest movement of farmers caught in a debt trap with rapidly rising interest rates. As the movement expanded beyond its original local base in the north-western region of Poland as a result of high-profile violent protests in Warsaw, it became an actor beyond regional politics. While new regional offshoots emerged, Self-Defence was also involved in attempts to build a viable national protest movement. Its main allies in these ultimately futile efforts were extreme nationalist groups such as the Stronnictwo Narodowe „Ojczyzna”. Their joint demonstration in Warsaw on 2 April 1993, for example, turned violent and led to clashes with the police.
The emergence of Self-Defence as an organised political group was somewhat clouded by the alleged active involvement of former members of the communist security services who acted as advisers or activists, especially in the early days. In this context, the involvement of Soviet and Russian intelligence was also alleged. This led to calls for a parliamentary enquiry into the origins of the party and possibly its hidden agendas. One of the most striking features of Self-Defence was undoubtedly its clear longing for the former regime, which was identified with social stability and prosperity.
The leaders of the party frequently got into legal clashes and confrontations with the police and the judiciary because of their unruly protests. A joke became popular among Polish youth: "I wish you as much luck as the number of convictions of Lepper". At the same time, they were also invited to negotiations by the country's leaders. Self-Defence used its formal dual status as a party and a trade union, which allowed it to put on whatever hat was appropriate at the time. In the late 1990s, Lepper reportedly maintained a particularly close relationship with Artur Balazs, an agriculture minister who led the liberal-conservative Conservative People's Party, which was part of the ruling AWS. Over the years, Balazs and Lepper together built up an extensive network of patronage in the state agricultural authorities. Balazs again served as a bridge between Lepper and the conservative right in 2005.
In the government
The party first started in parliamentary elections in 1993, gaining 2.78% votes and failing to enter the Sejm. In the 1995 elections Andrzej Lepper ran for president and gained 1.32% of the votes; in parliamentary elections in 1997, the party took 0.08%. In 2000 Samoobrona organized a campaign of blocking major roads in order to get media attention. Lepper gained 3.05% votes in the presidential elections.
At the end of January/beginning of February 1999, the whole of Poland was paralysed by road blockades and border crossings organised by farmers supporting the party. In addition to an increase in the purchase price of pork livestock, they demanded extensive government intervention in the cereal, meat and milk markets. The agreement concluded with the government on 8 February 1999 only emboldened the head of Samoobrona to further excesses. In June 1999, on the radio in Łódź, Andrzej Lepper called the then government "an anti-Polish and anti-human regime" and Deputy Prime Minister Tomaszewski "a bandit from Pabianice". The prosecution proceedings initiated in this case ended in a failure after less than a year: when Lepper was returning from a trade union congress in India, he was spectacularly arrested after crossing the border in Kudowa (4 April 2000) and then released after three hours.
The parliamentary elections in 2001 gave the party 53 seats in the Sejm, with 10.5% support, making it the third largest political force. Although officially a member of the opposition, Samoobrona backed the ruling social democratic Democratic Left Alliance in a number of key votes, giving them the majority needed to stay in power. The party has also marked its presence in the Sejm by unconventional disruptive behavior.
The 2001 election was a huge trump for the party, which unexpectedly became the third political force in Poland. The support for Lepper's organisation in the Koszaliński district reached 23%; over 15% was recorded in the Sieradź, Chełm and Piotrków districts. Samoobrona still had weak support in big cities: in Warsaw it received 3%, in the Poznań district 5%, and in the districts of Gdańsk, Gliwice and Katowice - 6% each. The campaign itself was characterised by a much calmer tone and much less aggression. A breakthrough in the ratings of the Lepper movement occurred at the beginning of September, when it reached a borderline 4-5% support in polls, which jumped to 8-9% after just a few weeks.
Lepper achieved only 3 percent nationwide among voters with a university degree and only 8 percent among voters with a high school diploma, even though the majority of students trusted him, according to surveys. Surprisingly, 9.4 percent of the self-employed voters - i.e. those doing private business - voted for Samoobrona, most of them being small entrepreneurs who feared economic competition in the event of Poland joining the EU. Overall, Lepper was elected by eleven percent of male and seven percent of female voters. He received eight per cent of the votes from voters aged 18 to 24, ten per cent from 25 to 59 and seven per cent from voters over 60. Samoobrona received 16 per cent of the vote in rural areas, eight per cent in towns with up to 50,000 inhabitants, seven per cent in towns between 50,000 and 200,000 and five per cent in towns with over 200,000 inhabitants. Samoobrona was particularly popular after the 2001 election - the survey conducted for "Rzeczpospolita" showed that in March 2002, 11 percent of Poles supported Samoobrona. In May 2002, 17 percent of Poles wanted the party to take power. The analyses of the Pentor Institute show that in April 2002, 18 percent of those questioned, i.e. almost one in five Poles, supported Samoobrona. From January to May 2002, the party's acceptance and popularity rose considerably from 9 to 17 per cent.
The involvement of Piotr Tymochowicz's professional image creation company resulted, among other things, in a more attractive appearance for Andrzej Lepper (a solarium tan to mask blushing in moments of nervousness, well-tailored suits). He was also given lessons in rhetoric, eristic and retorting, and his tone of voice was lowered. The Self-Defence candidates appeared in the media wearing distinctive white and red ties, which not only made political identification easier for the voters, but also encouraged them to perceive the party as a strong and cohesive patriotic team. According to contemporary newspapers, election spots of the Lepper movement were also among the best presented in the campaign by all parties.
Among their numerous exploits there are such diverse incidents as using their own loudspeakers after being cut off for exceeding the permitted time, or claiming that the largest opposition party (Civic Platform) met with members of the Taliban in Klewki (a village near Olsztyn) to sell them anthrax. Several Samoobrona members of parliament were subject to criminal investigations on charges ranging from forgery to banditry.
In the 2005 elections Samoobrona received a total of 56 seats with 11.4% support. Andrzej Lepper ran for president of Poland in the 2005 election. He received third place and 15% of the vote, a great improvement over his past performances. After the elections, Samoobrona temporarily shelved its most radical demands and along with the League of Polish Families entered into a coalition with the center-right Law and Justice party.
Despite being a part of a right-wing government, the party doubled down on its left-wing rhetoric. Jarosław Tomasiewicz wrote: "This joint front with the right, however, did not mean a turn of the SRP to the right. On the contrary, Lepper's plan was for Samoobrona to take over the hegemony on the left". On the next party convention, Lepper stated: "I set myself the aim to convince the electorate of the left in such a way that they understand that the only left-wing, pro-social and patriotic party is currently Samoobrona".
To this end, the party started cooperating with minor left-wing parties such as the Democratic Left Party, the Working People's Movement and the National Party of Retirees and Pensioners. The ranks of Self-Defence included activists from the Democratic Left Alliance (e.g. Grzegorz Tuderek, Bolesław Borysiuk) and the Labour Union (Andrzej Aumiller). To a large extent, Lepper's plan succeeded - while right-leaning voters defected to the League of Polish Families, this was compensated by further gains amongst left-wing voters - mainly pensioners, workers of bankrupt workplaces and former officers of the uniformed services.
According to contemporary polls, Self-Defence overtook Democratic Left Alliance in terms of popularity. Contemporary commentators speculated that Self-Defence might emerge as the new main left-wing party in Poland. Parallel to its parliamentary activity, the SRP tried to be active in the social sphere. The party started to cooperate with organisations of disabled people (even appointing a special plenipotentiary for contacts with them) and the circles of single mothers. However, scandals that rocked the party made its popularity collapse.
In December 2006 a scandal broke out when Aneta Krawczyk, a local party ex-leader accused Samoobrona leaders, notably Andrzej Lepper and Stanisław Łyżwiński of sexual harassment. Subsequently, the accusation was supported by other females from within the party ranks and the issue of gaining governmental posts in exchange for sex produced a major outcry after Gazeta Wyborcza published the claims. Krawczyk also claimed her then 3-year-old daughter was Stanisław Łyżwiński's child, which proved to be incorrect following DNA testing.
The criminal trial in this case began in 2008 before the District Court of District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski, which in February 2010 sentenced Lepper to two years and three months' imprisonment and Łyżwiński to five years of imprisonment. Both have maintained that they were innocent. In March 2011, the Court of Appeal in Łódź overturned the verdict against Lepper in the sex affair and referred the case for retrial by the Regional Court. Afterwards, Aneta Krawczyk filed a court accusation that Lepper was the father of her youngest child. However, an examination of his DNA ruled out this allegation. These events caused not only politicians, but also the public public condemned the Samoobrona activists. It lost a part of its electorate. Lepper almost disappeared from the media. Rarely invited to interviews, he generally focused on criticising the right-wing Law and Justice party.
At the beginning of July 2007, then Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński named Lepper as a person in the circle of suspicion in connection with the so-called "land affair". This concerned a CBA (Central Anti-Corruption Bureau) operation concerning the controlled payment of bribes to two people accused of citing influence in the Ministry of Agriculture. They offered a substituted CBA agent, for a bribe, the de-agglomeration of land in Muntów in the municipality of Mrągowo. The operation ended inconsistently with the CBA's plan, because - as the prosecution initially assumed - Lepper had been warned about the action and cancelled the meetings. However, at the request of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, President Lech Kaczyński dismissed Lepper from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. This decision marked the end of the coalition.
The party's position towards the scandal was that it was a "coup attempt", as the presence of Samoobrona in the government supposedly thratened powerful "interest groups", including corporations controlling large-format shops, investment fund owners, land speculators and property development groups. Lepper also argued that the scandals and investigations started against him were aimed at eliminating competition for Lech Kaczyński for future presidential elections. After unsuccessful attempts of Law and Justice to convince some of the Samoobrona MPs to defect, the PiS-Samoobrona-LPR coalition was officially dissolved on 5 August 2007. Reasons cited were ideological differences between PiS and Samoobrona on fundamental levels.
Downfall
Following the collapse of the ruling coalition, a proposal of a joint front between Samoobrona and right-wing League of Polish Families was born, known as League and Self-Defence (). The Polish abbreviation for this party was LiS ("fox" in Polish), and leaders of both parties brought a plush fox to the press conference, which was shown as the mascot of the new party. However, despite their populist character, LPR and Samoobrona were fundamentally different from each other, as Samoobrona was left-wing and aligned with socialist ideals, while LPR was a National-Catholic, far-right party. Andrzej Lepper himself admitted that the alliance was a bad idea, and argued that the alliance was purely situation and tactical in nature.
The idea was highly unpopular amongst Samoobrona supporters, as a majority of them identified as left-wing and desired a return to a socialist economy. A chunk of the Catholic socialist wing of the party known as Social Movement seceded to form a new party called Self-Defence Social Movement (), which then became Self-Defence Rebirth.
The idea of the LiS party was then soon abandoned, and the party doubled down on its left-wing rhetoric, inviting Leszek Miller and the leader of the New Left, Piotr Ikonowicz, to its electoral lists. Despite this, numerous scandals heavily damaged the image of the party, while forming a government with right-wing parties and the LiS caused distrust among the party's overwhelmingly left-wing electorate. As a result, the party gained less than 2% of the popular vote in the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, failing to win any seats and being excluded from government funding.
In November 2007, the regionalist wing of the party seceded and formed Party of Regions, further weakening local structures of the party. Lepper accepted responsibility for the party's electoral defeat and announced an extraordinary congress of Self-Defence in the first half of 2008. Lepper also announced that he did not intend to challenge or clash with the Party of Regions. In party congress, Lepper stressed that Samoobrona's goals from the time when it was a classic protest party, such as the reversal of privatisation processes, had not been realised and were still a political task for the party.
The party also reestablished its reputation as an unequivocally left-wing party. Talks were initiated with the Polish Socialist Party led by Piotr Ikonowicz and the democratic-socialist National Party of Retirees and Pensioners, proposing to establish "a worker–peasant alliance". There was also an attempt to establish a new party that would represent socialist left, with a view to prepare for the 2009 European Parliament election in Poland. However, the party went bankrupt by the end of 2007 as it was unable to pay for its 2007 electoral campaign. The party was also unable to cover its bills, and electricity and the alarm system were disconnected from the party headquarters. Lepper founded a new party known as "Self-Defence" (as opposed to "Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland") in 2010, which sustained itself solely on membership fees and had no commitments.
In 2010, Lepper started suffering from depression and began to lose faith that the tables would turn. In February 2010, he was inconvicably sentenced to two years and three months in prison for the sex affair. The leader of Self-Defence was also plagued by the troubles of his son Tomasz - in October 2010, the bank sold the agricultural machinery for non-payment of the lease. On 5 August 2011, Lepper committed suicide. According to the official investigation, Lepper was planning to return to Polish politics. Co-workers of Lepper such as Janusz Maksymiuk also confirmed that the politician was already planning an election campaign for his party. On the day of his suicide, the television in his room showed a paused frame from a conference between Donald Tusk and the Minister of National Defence at 13:14. The caption on the news bar read: "It's time for the campaign to begin".
In August 2011, news of the death of Andrzej Lepper reached the public. According to media reports, the leader of Samoobrona was to have hanged himself in his office, which was the party's headquarters. Before Lepper's funeral took place, the media eagerly reconstructed his last moments and the accompanying circumstances and alleged reasons for his suicide. Journalists' attention was particularly absorbed by the last hours of Lepper's life.
After 2011
After Lepper's death, the political significance of the party greatly declined, even though formally the party still existed. The party was never able to recover from the loss of its leader, and did not develop further - Samoobrona's socio-economic program posted on its website is still signed by Andrzej Lepper, and the ideology of the party greatly narrowed to continuing the legacy of Lepper.
In February 2016, the party signed a cooperation agreement with the ruling party in Belarus, Belaya Rus.
The party registered an electoral list for the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, but did not field any candidates for the Sejm or Senate seats. On 13 October 2023, the chairman of the party Krzysztof Proporczyk published a statement declaring that Samoobrona does not endorse any political party and asked its supporters and sympathizers to vote according to their own conscience. The party also encouraged its supporters to participate in the 2023 Polish referendum. Despite stating its neutrality, Samoobrona also made a remark referencing the 2005 Polish presidential election: "Samoobrona RP remembers how Andrzej Lepper, winning 15% of the vote in the presidential elections, handed it over to Lech Kaczyński, who won those elections. We all remember how it ended." This remark referenced the ill-fated PiS-LPR-Samoobrona government coalition that lasted from 2005 to 2007; by the 2007 Polish parliamentary election, PiS had expelled Samoobrona from the coalition and is credited with causing the electoral downfall of Samoobrona, as PiS effectively overshadowed Samoobrona's socialist appeal with its social populist rhetoric.
Ideology
The party's views are populist and isolationist. It has also been described as nationalist. Political scientists such as Sarah de Lange, Gerrit Voerman, Klaus Bachmann and Rafał Pankowski also described the party as socialist. The party was described as socialist by the media as well, such as the Gość Niedzielny, Newsweek Polska, and The Guardian. The socialism of the party was also subclassed by some political scientists and the media - Sarah de Lange classified the party as agrarian socialist, while others also described the party as Christian socialist. Other classifications include "farmer socialism", and "peasant socialism" comparable to that of István Csurka, described as a mixture of "ultra-left-wing" and nationalist elements. Samoobrona was also described as socialist-populist, and compared to the Communist Party of Slovakia in that regard. Additionally, the party was described as patriotic socialist as to encompass the nationalist and socialist nature of the party, as well as to fit the party's self-description; Samoobrona describes itself as "patriotic left". Similarly, Jarosław Tomasiewicz described Samoobrona as socialist nationalist, classifying the party as one of the post-communist successors of the Polish United Workers' Party, explaining that Samoobrona became the party national communists found refuge in. The party rejects capitalism altogether and demands state-funded agriculture, expansive social programs, an end to repayments of the foreign debt, additional transaction taxes and the use of financial reserves to obtain funding, as well as the nationalisation of foreign capital. Samoobrona consistently emphasised its left-wing identity, referring to itself as "patriotic, progressive and modern left", "national left", "Catholic left", and also "socialist left". The party's leader Andrzej Lepper stated that "the traditions from which Samoobrona draws are the pre-war Polish Socialist Party and the Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie", so the parties of the patriotic left, that this grassroots movement of Poles who have been wronged for 20 years wants to represent on the Polish political scene".
Party's ideology is heavily disputed by political observers and the popular society at large. Samoobrona has been described as left-wing, "ultra-leftist", "left-nationalist", populist, "combining socialism and agrarian populism", "radical peasant", "leftist-populist" and "populist-nationalist". Polish political scientist Olga Wysocka describes Samoobrona as "social populists (. . .) [who] combine socialism and populism, and represent a form of left-wing populism". Leaders and members of the party generally described Samoobrona as a broad patriotic social movement based on Catholic social teaching, with some using labels such as "left-patriotic", "patriotic", "progressive", "nationalist" and even "genuinely centrist" as well. Andrzej Lepper himself ultimately described himself as left-wing, stating "I have always been and will always be a man of the left". Marek Borowski, a left-wing politician, criticised Samoobrona as a "political chameleon", but described the party as socialist and nationalist. German political scientist Nikolaus Werz described Samoobrona as an anti-globalist and anti-capitalist party that promotes protectionist, socialist and nationalist policies, combined with "a noticeable nostalgia for the People's Republic of Poland".
Political scientists of both English-language and Polish-language literature also described the party as far-left. Paul G. Lewis and Zdenka Mansfeldová categorised Samoobrona as a post-communist Eastern European party with communist and socialist leanings, comparing it to the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Hungarian Labour Party and the Communist Party of Slovakia. Polish political scientist Andrzej Antoszewski argues that the postulates of Samoobrona are consistent with those of other neocommunist parties, although the party shows unique ethical socialist and Christian socialist leanings not found in other far-left parties of Eastern Europe. The party's program proposes a 'great national programme of economic revival', marked by a retreat from "satanic values" defined as the pursuit of maximum profits, getting rich, ruthless competition, degenerate consumerism, total commercialisation and contempt for the weak. The party also calls for the abandonment of "savage capitalism, the free market, fiscal terror and monetarist-bank parasitism"; Antoszewski described this rhetoric as particularly characteristic of neo-communist parties.
Ryszard Herbut compares Samoobrona to a fellow far-left populist and agrarian party Union of the Workers of Slovakia - both parties praised "the economic and social principles of communism (while verbally dissociating itself from some of the mistakes of the past), criticised the capitalist development model adopted after 1989, negatively assessed the process of political, economic and military integration of Europe and protested against globalisation". Samoobrona was known for its positive attitude towards Communist Poland; Sławomir Drelich called the party "the most post-communist party on the Polish political scene". Bartek Pytlas argues that Samoobrona did not draw back to historical nationalist parties and movements in its political tradition, but rather looked to communist Poland and continued its socialist legacy. At the same time, the party sought to define itself as Catholic.
Some media reports tended to call Samoobrona right-wing, often to equate it with the League of Polish Families, a fellow anti-establishment and populist party in Poland. However, most political scientists classified Samoobrona as left-wing. Sarah de Lange and Gerrit Voerman stated that Samoobrona formed a distinct form of left-wing populism and agrarian socialism, drifting towards conventional left in mid-2000s. Comparing Samoobrona to the League of Polish Families, Rafał Pankowski argued that Samoobrona voters were most concerned about economic hardship and supported the party over economic issues, while the right-wing LPR attracted motivated by nationalist values instead; LPR supporters were by far,the most religious group of all Polish party constituencies, while supporters of Samoobrona reported the lowest income. Olga Wysocka also points out that Samoobrona aspired to be a "voice of the disadvantaged", and focused on economic issues.
Despite claiming to be following the Catholic social teaching, Samoobrona also promoted progressive social causes such as legalising marijuana, legalising same-sex partnerships in Poland and improving animal welfare, ultimately undermining its agrarian image and changing the stance of nationalist circles towards it from ambivalent to hostile. Karol Kostrzębski argues that Samoobrona had much more in common with other post-communist left-wing parties than right-wing ones such as LPR or PiS, classifying as a staunchly left-wing party. Kostrzębski also highlights that Samoobrona was heavily involved in trade unions, was the most popular party amongst Polish unionised workers and called for abolition of capitalism. Polish columnist Marek Migalski classifies Samoobrona as a left-wing "populist-etatist" party, while Polish political scientist Andrzej Antoszewski places Samoobrona among the Central European extreme left and "neo-communist" groupings, although at the same time he emphasises that Samoobrona is the only case in this group with a non-communist origin. Tadeusz Piskorski highlights that in the 2000s Samoobrona transitioned from a protest party to a "stabilised left-wing party", which competed with other left-wing parties for voters. In a 2005 survey of Samoobrona members, over 50% identified as politically left-wing , while only 26% members identified as right-wing.
Rafał Pankowski classified Samoobrona as a left-wing populist party that utilised anti-globalisation and anti-liberal rhetoric to appeal to those left behind by the Polish transition to capitalism and integration with Western markets. Pankowski wrote: "it was first of all a voice of social protest against liberalism, appealing to those who were economically worse off as a result of the capitalist transition". While researching the party and its ideology in the 2000s, Ola Wysocka recalls: "in 2006 at the V National Congress of Self-Defence, I asked members of the party to indicate who the party represented. Most of them pointed to “the people”. When prompted to be more specific, they added “disadvantaged people”".
Poland's June 2003 referendum on membership of the European Union was an uncomfortable experience for Samoobrona. On one hand, the party's isolationism and Euroscepticism led it to call officially for a "no" vote. On the other hand, most political observers believed (correctly) that the Polish would vote in favour of membership, and as a populist party Samoobrona was unhappy about the likelihood of being on the losing side. In the end, the party fought a rather ambiguous campaign, with its posters carrying the slogan "the decision belongs to you". As a result, Andrzej Lepper promoted a flexible stance on the European Union where he often criticised the organisation, yet was not inherently opposed to joining it; he explained:
In 2005, Samoobrona was a founding member of the EUDemocrats pan-European political party, which professes to unite "centrist" "EU-critical" parties committed to increased democratization.
Samoobrona sought support from these social groups that found themselves impoverished in the new capitalist, post-community Polish economy. As such, low-skilled workers, those living in rural or impoverished areas and unemployed were the main base of the party. The support of the party was strongest in rural and agricultural areas. Samoobrona failed to win the support of strongly conservative constituencies, and a significant amount of Samoobrona were left-wing or formerly socialist. Agricultural and blue-collar workers built the backbone of the party's voting base, while white-collar workers generally held negative views of the party. A correlation to religion was also found - devout Catholics were much more likely to vote for Samoobrona than atheists or those with ambigous attitude towards religion.
Economics
Samoobrona had a protectionist attitude toward the country's economy. They wanted to take higher custom tariffs on foreign goods. Party opted for controlling of Narodowy Bank Polski by Sejm. Additionally, the party's leader Andrzej Lepper was in favor of reintroducing PGRs which were state-owned and controlled homesteads existing during the communist era in Poland. Samoobrona called itself "the voice of all social groups which, as a result of the reforms of the 1990s, have found themselves on the edge of poverty and despair" and in 2002, Andrzej Lepper stated: "I am the voice of the poor, deprived and humiliated … Self-Defence and Andrzej Lepper never were, are not, and never will be ‘them’. We are ‘us’."
The party also expressed vehement opposition to capitalism, stating that "capitalism is the primacy of capital and profit over labour and man" and arguing that "capitalism is that system which has already outlived itself". Lepper declared that Samoobrona was an anti-capitalist party, arguing that capitalism results in "degenerate consumerism". Samoobrona stated that it desires "a strong state that will deservedly command the respect of all citizens, as a guarantor of their security, and thus create a structure with which they will want to identify". The party promotes an economic program that mixes agrarianism with economic nationalism, socialism, and religious elements. Central to the party's economic agenda is its complete rejection of capitalism - Samoobrona rejects both commerce and the market itself. According to Vít Hloušek and Lubomír Kopeček, the program of the party also incorporates anarchist elements. The party is very close ideologically to radical left-wing agrarian formations from the era of Second Polish Republic. Rhetorically, Samoobrona also includes a strongly Catholic moralist message, calling for a return of supposedly abandoned Catholic and humanitarian values, and wishes to fight "satanic" values in society such as consumerism.
According to Luke March, the party promoted a radical anti-globalisation and anti-neoliberal rhetoric and closely embraced trade unions, with the resulting economic program being an agrarian socialist and left-wing populist vision. Samoobrona promoted a highly interventionist system and wanted to replace materialism and consumerism with a closer relationship with the natural environment, including "the preservation of small-scale
family farms and a humane treatment of animals". Party members made reference to terms such as "eco-development" and "econology", which aimed to promote ecology, Catholic ethics and morality in both economics and politics. The main concept of the party's economic ideology was social justice; in its 1999 manifesto the party stated: "We want a Poland, in which there will not be such drastic material differences: no so-called ‘ocean of destitution’ with tiny islands of wealth and well-being".
In 1994, the program of Samoobrona stated: "Capitalism is not a perpetual system. It must give way to new concepts of human relations, to a new ecological morality. A new post-capitalist era is already being born". The postulates of Andrzej Lepper and his party were egalitarian, emphasising above all the need for a fair redistribution of wealth and the subordination of the economy and its mechanisms to serve social and common good. The party strongly demanded state intervention in the economy, and stressed the need to apply protectionist customs aimed at protecting the interests of domestic producers. Lepper argued that in the light of the experience of capitalist countries, it was dangerous to "succumb to dogmatic thinking consisting in an unwavering belief in the superiority of capitalist free market mechanisms in all areas of economic life". Samoobrona argued that the adherence of post-communist Polish governments to dogmatic capitalism had led to the abandonment of the basic tasks of the state and the violation of essential human rights.
The party is generally considered to have been the most critical, and even negative, of the post-1989 transition into a market economy. Samoobrona strongly opposed deregulation and privatisation, and wanted to reverse these actions. Samoobrona also promoted anti-globalization rhetoric, believing that neoliberal economics first and foremost serves the international financial institutions and leads to a situation where "a few hundred companies in the world want to dominate everything". Referring to the Marxist doctrine, Lepper believed that "he who has power has ownership of the means of production". The party believed that public ownership should have supremacy over any kind of private property, arguing that "private property cannot be treated as privileged, sacred and inviolable". The party also proposed restoration of state monopolies, including total state ownership of raw materials, mining industries, the energy sector, armaments, transport infrastructure, banking and insurance, as well as lottery, spirits and tobacco industry, regarded by the party as important sources of budget revenue.
Samoobrona attributed great importance to trade unions and cooperatives, arguing that its heritage dating back to the 19th century was destroyed in 1990. The party accused Polish politicians of destroying Polish cooperatives, including entities with such long-standing traditions as "Społem" and "Samopomoc Chłopska", arguing that individual governments did not try to counteract the discriminatory practices applied to cooperatives by banks and other institutions. Co-operatives, according to Samoobrona, should benefit from fiscal facilities and the state should undertake the task of stimulating the dying co-operative movement. Samoobrona argued that trade unions and rural cooperatives are to fulfill a very important economic role, and credited these groups with enforcing several pro-worker reforms in Western countries.
One of the key properties of the party's economic ideology was its positive assessment of socialism and communism. Lepper believed that there is no point in "ritual condemnations of Soviet Communism" and argued that the atrocities of Joseph Stalin should be seen as degeneration of communist doctrine rather than the result of it. In regards to the Polish People's Republic, Lepper stated: "...I do not agree (...) that those 45 years were lost for Poland, that today we are starting from scratch". The party had a particularly high opinion of Edward Gierek's rule, which was regarded as a time of modernisation based on Western models. The intransigent critics of the communist period, located in the Law and Justice party and the Solidarity movement, were described by Samoobrona as "extreme right-wing". Mirosław Karwat considered Samoobrona to be "probably the only political party that speaks well of Communist Poland".
Social issues
Although, Samoobrona was based on the social teaching of Catholic church, the party had right as well as left-leaning elements in its program regarding social issues. Samoobrona supported bringing back of the death penalty to the polish order's law. They were opposed to liberalization of abortion law in Poland and legalisation of euthanasia. However, they took also leftist positions on some matters. Samoobronna was declared in its party platform to legalize civil unions to same-sex couples. Alongside SLD it was the only party who voted in favor of a bill embracing civil unions in 2004. In its campaign in 2007 Samoobrona called for a complete legalization of marijuana. That was the first party which brought up this theme in published Polish debate.
On social issues, Samoobrona was considered to be highly flexible; Lepper mainly focused on pressing his anti-establishment credentials, promoting Catholic social values and courting Catholic media such as Radio Maryja. At the same time, Lepper expressed his support for legalizing marijuana and same-sex partnerships, an anathema to Christian conservatives. Lepper also made overtures with left-wing parties such as the Polish Socialist Party led by Piotr Ikonowicz and the democratic-socialist National Party of Retirees and Pensioners, proposing to establish "a worker–peasant alliance". Perhaps the best illustration of the Samoobrona's ideological flexibility is that despite leading an agrarian and anti-liberal movement, Lepper also promoted environmentalism. Lepper received the Albert Schweitzer Medal from New York-based Animal Welfare Institute in the early 2000s, and Samoobrona was praised by American animal activists. Lepper stated that animals must be "treated with respect, dignity and sympathy" and condemned modern methods of meat production as "concentration camps for animals".
Because of the overwhelmingly diverse electorate and the impossibility of developing a unified position in the most intense debates regarding ethics and religion within the party, Samoobrona tries not to proclaim an unequivocal view on social issues, often simply avoiding taking any position in the public debate. Lepper only emphasised that Catholic ethics and the achievements of the Church are an important element of the cultural heritage shaping national and regional identity. Mateusz Piskorski argued that on social matters, Samoobrona often presented moderate or centre-left views.
One of the most debates social topics in Polish politics was the issue of abortion. Samoobrona's position on this issue is rather moderate; as in many other cases, Andrzej Lepper, while avoiding a clear answer, pointed to the social sources of the large number of abortions, related to social exclusion and poverty. Jacek Raciborski argues that statements by the leader of Samoobrona indicated that he was closer to a moderate liberal position on this issue. As such, Samoobrona made statements regarding not only the ethical aspects of the issue, but also the demographic dimension of the problem was emphasised. In 2005, the party was in favour of retaining the wording of the abortion legislation at the time, considering it a valuable compromise reached on this issue. The contemporary system for the protection of children's rights and the prevention of domestic violence has also provoked discussions on the possibility of additional criminalisation of violence against children. Samoobrona in 2005 supported a bill prepared by the offices of the Commissioner for Equal Status of Women and Men to introduce a ban on physical punishment of minors.
Regarding the issue of the LGBT community, Piskorski argued that "it is rather difficult to find any homophobic themes in the program enunciations and speeches of Samoobrona politicians". Lepper stressed that he was in favour of allowing the organisation of pride parades, although he stipulated that they should not provide an opportunity for speech that could be considered "demoralising". Lepper argued that the existence of sexual minorities was a normal phenomenon that there was no point in stigmatising in any way, and stated his neutrality on the issue of granting homosexual couples the possibility to marry and adopt children. Unlike politicians of the far right, Lepper did not regard homosexuality as a disease, and called it "a certain genetic predisposition that occurs in every era". Nevertheless, the problem of sexual minorities was sometimes consciously marginalised by Samoobrona politicians; it was argued that some left-wing formations gave it too much importance, and thus pushed far more important issues concerning the social and economic rights of the majority of citizens into the background.
Although Samoobrona has repeatedly been accused of nationalist or even xenophobic tendencies, the party did not devote much space in its public activities to the issue of national and ethnic minorities. The understanding of the nation preferred by the party leaders was not ethnocentric and exclusivist in nature; the national community was treated as "a collectivity constituted by ties of culture, tradition and history, and not by common origin". Lepper argued for the necessity of equal rights for all minorities with other Polish citizens, deeming property claims based on nationality to be unjustified. The party also had a notable regionalist movement, and some Samoobrona politicians discussed the problem of Silesians, regarded as a nation on its own that was often marginalised or suppressed. The regionalist wing split off from Samoobrona in 2007, creating the Party of Regions.
The party also spoke in favour of gender equality while in the Sejm, surprising political commentators with its progressive stance, as the party assigned the blame for social ills on systemic problems, rather than the decline of the traditional family. In 2004, Samoobrona's member of parliament Włodzimierz Czechowski said:
In regards to electoral law, the party was a staunch supporter of proportional representation. Samoobrona spoke on 2000s attempts to reform the Polish electoral law by right-wing Law and Justice (PiS); in July 2006, PiS submitted the electoral reform to the Speaker of the Sejm - the law introduced blocks of lists in municipalities with over 20 000 inhabitants, with the simultaneous application of the d'Hondt method in the intra-group distribution of votes for seats and the rule that groups of lists which received at least 10% of the validly cast votes could participate in the distribution of seats at all levels of local government elections. This law was criticised for undeservedly favouring the strongest parties of the bloc, giving them a significant over-representation in future councils and assemblies. Despite forming a coalition government with PiS at the time, Samoobrona also opposed this law, and called for abandonment of the D'Hondt method in favour of a more proportional apportionment method; Sainte-Laguë method used in the 2001 Polish parliamentary election was seen as the best and more proportional alternative at the time.
Foreign policy
One of the leading demands of Samoobrona in the field of foreign policy was the demand for its full economisation. This process was to involve a move away from ideological principles to a calculation based solely on estimating the benefits of trade with specific countries. The political assessment of a foreign economic partner was not to be given any importance; the only binding criterion for assessing foreign policy should be the growth of Polish exports and the possibilities for Polish entities to derive financial benefits.
An additional, complementary field of action for diplomacy was to combat negative stereotypes of Poles in other countries, described by Samoobrona as anti-Polish. According to the party, it should be the duty of Polish diplomats, as well as politicians sitting in the European Parliament, to oppose negative stereotypes and historical falsifications, such as the use of the phrase "Polish concentration camps" in foreign journalism. An important role as ambassador of Polish interests abroad was attributed to the Polish diasporas scattered around the world. It was postulated that Polish diasporas should be covered by state aid and be given the opportunity to return to their homeland. Samoobrona supported a bill providing the possibility for representatives of the Polish minority abroad to obtain Karta Polaka, arguing that the survival of Polish culture and language should be a reason for respect for Poles living abroad. The repatriation operation of Kazakhstan residents of Polish origin also met with the party's support.
Many authors and commentators, both Polish and foreign ones, considered Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland to be a Eurosceptic party. This was due to the party's protectionist and nationalist program, which many commentators considered Eurosceptic by nature. According to some authors, labelling Samoobrona as an Eurosceptic party was legitimate given opinion polls, which showed that in terms of opposition to Poland's accession to the EU, Samoobrona were only slightly less hostile to EU than the LPR voters. However, while for the LRP the issue of European integration was one of the most important ones, in the case of Samoobrona, the issue of EU did not play an important role.
Lepper argued that Samoobrona's criticism of the EU accession was exclusively related to the conditions of Poland's membership in the Union, and not a negation of the purposefulness of integration processes as such. The basis of Samoobrona's position was based on a set of beliefs characteristic of the so-called economic Euroscepticism. The party's declared pragmatism in assessing the consequences of possible membership was characteristic, and the inconsistency of views and assessments on European integration was most likely linked to the existence of diverse attitudes on the issue among both party members and supporters themselves, which became particularly evident after 1 May 2004, when some Samoobrona members became beneficiaries of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. Because of the lack of decisive and conclusive enunciations on Poland's membership in the Union, J. Sielski described the party's position on European integration as "Euro-populist".
The leader of Samoobrona himself preferred to call his stance on Poland's participation in the European integration process "Eurorealism", and directed his criticism of the unfavourable provisions of the Accession Treaty at Polish governments and negotiators rather than European Commission officials. According to Piskorski, given the presence of a number of features which would indeed make it possible to classify the party into the Eurorealist camp (an ambivalent attitude to the accession, the secondary role of this issue in programme pronouncements, variability of rhetoric resulting from the assessment of the mood of the electorate), "such self-identification seems to be largely justified".
The party took a moderately sceptical stance on the introduction of a common European currency in Poland. According to Lepper, accession to the Monetary Union would be advisable only on the condition that Poland achieves a level of economic development similar to that of Western European countries; otherwise, depriving the National Bank of Poland of the ability to shape monetary policy poses a threat to the country's sovereignty in this fundamental area. In addition, it was argued that the price effects of the introduction of the euro would be unacceptable to Polish society. The party's experts argued that the countries that had not decided to join the euro area maintained a higher level of economic development while avoiding the price increases that the introduction of the common currency would have caused.
The party declared its support for the process of further enlargement of the European Union, in contrast to right-wing parties, allowing membership to be granted not only to Ukraine, but also to Turkey. The commencement of negotiations with the latter country was supported by the majority of Samoobrona MEPs, who voted in favour of the relevant resolution. Unlike some right-wing parties, Samoobrona did not make support for a country's EU membership dependent on its cultural face and civilisational affiliation, but only on the fulfilment of formal membership conditions. On the other hand, it declared that the country's admission to the EU should not be at the expense of the funds allocated to Poland, which led R. Czarnecki to conclude that rather unhurried negotiations were necessary.
The participation of Polish soldiers in the NATO operation in Afghanistan was consistently contested by Samoobrona. The main arguments cited were the cost of warfare and the risk of loss of life of Polish soldiers. Samoobrona was very consistently and strongly opposed to the Iraq War. It was the only Polish party which as late as at the turn of 2002 and 2003 (before the invasion began) stated its expression to war. After the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Hussein's government, Lepper suggested that the forces of the international coalition should be replaced by peacekeeping formations operating under the aegis of the United Nations. In a petition addressed to then President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Samoobrona also drew attention to the contradictory nature of the operation in Iraq against international law. It was emphasised that a sovereign country, posing no threat, even potential, to Poland's security, had been attacked. The war in Iraq was described as "aggressive" and constituting a violation of international standards.
Religion
Samoobrona strongly emphasised its attachment to Roman Catholicism, particularly valuing the authority of Pope John Paul II; the leader of Samoobrona highlighted his visits to the Vatican, emphasising that he considered the Pope to be anmoral unquestionable authority. In numerous party programme documents issued over the course of several years, there were frequent references to the achievements of John Paul II and attempts to interpret Polish socio-economic reality in terms of the pope's proposed ethical standards. In interpreting the Pope's teaching, Samoobrona particularly accentuated those that included criticism of capitalism.
The party was particularly attached to the declaration of Pope John Paul II from 1991, stating: "It is unacceptable to claim that, after the defeat of real socialism, capitalism remained the only model of economic organisation". Samoobrona often repeated and highlighted this quote. The party argued that the downfall of communist Poland was not caused by its socialist economy, but rather by state atheism and its hostility towards the Catholic Church and its social teaching. Samoobrona contrasted this with its own socialism, which it described as based on agrarianism, patriotism and the Catholic social teaching. The party believed that this kind of Polish socialism, based on nationalist and religious tradition, would be the best possible system for Poland. The party promoted an utopian vision of "Polish socialism" based on small family farms, rural co-operatives, an end to the exploitation of the countryside and nationalised industry, with peasants being considered the "healthiest element of society, both biologically and morally".
In the party's program there is a whole series of declarations and sometimes direct references to the concepts proclaimed by Catholic social teaching. In 1995, Lepper declared that "the indications in the Encyclicals of John Paul II, especially in the Encyclical Laborem Exercens, became an inspiration for us in the formulation of our professional and social programmes", lamenting the insufficient presentation of the achievements of Catholic social teaching in the mass media. The social teaching of the Church was to provide an alternative to capitalism and neoliberalism; in this case, reference was made not only to papal encyclicals, but also to the sermons of Cardinal Wyszyński, in which the postulate of Poland's embarking on its own path of social and economic development, resulting from its specific tradition, was found. The party's program from 2003 also stated: "The Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland is guided by the social teaching of the Church and fully shares the indications of the greatest moral authority of our times, Pope John Paul II, contained in his encyclicals".
Samoobrona also self-identified as Christian left, claiming to represent a broad group of both Catholic and secular left; Lepper stated: "A social economy, free education, culture, education and health care, decent living conditions for pensioners, blocking the negative effects of globalisation, caring for the environment - these are just selected examples of leftism in state policy." However, the party rejected National Catholicism, and Lepper rejected the view of National Catholic circles that the Church and Roman Catholics are being discriminated and excluded from the public life of Poland, calling such criticisms "too alarmist and exaggerated".
The party used a lot of religious rhetoric in regards to economic issues, presenting anti-capitalist, anti-liberal, anti-"cosmopolitan" and anti-market ideas. The key foundation of economic ideology of Samoobrona was a combination of socialism with the principles of Catholic social teaching, rejecting capitalism as "fiscal repression and total commercialisation" while also strongly attacking a "reductionist" economic-theoretical approach, typical of the "Anglo-Germanic mentality" and based on the "Protestant dogma of predestination". As a counter-proposal, the party praised "econology", defined as the prioritisation of ecology in economic thinking. The post-1989 socioeconomic situation in Poland was described as "socio-economic satanism" or "economic genocide", and the party manifesto read: "All the tragedies that the Poles are experiencing ... are the consequence of the loss of their own sovereignty and the subordination of the country to foreign interests, as carried out by a group of venal politicians who, thanks to political fraud and by lying to the Polish people, have been able to make their own decisions. are the consequence of the loss of their own sovereignty and the subordination of the country to foreign interests, as carried out by a group of venal politicians who have brought themselves to power thanks to political fraud and by lying to the voters." However, Samoobrona is explicitly socialist and not only sympathises with the former People's Republic of Poland, but openly identifies with its communist form of society and socialist ideals.
Despite its attachment to Catholicism, the party also made statements critical of the church. Lepper deplored the attitude of a part of the Catholic hierarchy, for example by criticising the lack of interest of Primate Józef Glemp in a meeting with the party's delegation. During the transformation period, the Polish bishops were accused of lacking social sensitivity, and of being materialistic and building a financial empire; Lepper went as far as stating that "they value money more than God". Glemp was criticised by Samoobrona for his lack of concern for the fate of Polish farmers, above all in the context of the Primate's statements suggesting support for police interventions against participants of agricultural blockades. Additionally, Andrzej Lepper expressed some understanding for the demands appearing in the 1990s in the circles of secular left for excluding religious instruction from public schools.
On the other hand, the group supported the ratification of the concordat with the Holy See, accepting "the unique position of the Catholic Church vis-à-vis other confessions in Poland". Given the much higher level of religiosity in rural areas, Samoobrona's leaders often appeared at religious ceremonies without political risk and even gained some support, for example on the occasion of the Jasna Góra Harvest Festival. This did not prevent them from criticising those representatives of the Episcopate who were critical of the agricultural protests co-organised by Samoobrona. On the other hand, party politicians emphasised that they boasted the sympathy of a large proportion of parish priests in rural parishes. The party's electorate, according to available surveys, was heterogeneous on issues related to the desirable nature of state-church relations. While it was possible to discern among party sympathisers supporters of limiting the role of the Church as an institution in public life (e.g. those advocating the abolition of the Church Fund), anticlerical sentiments did not turn into attempts to negate the ethical message of the Roman Catholic Church.
Ecology
In 1993, Andrzej Lepper took part in an interview with journalists Jan Ul and Henryk Gaworski, where Lepper introduced Samoobrona and the ideology of the party. Lepper identified with the rebel faction of the Polish United Workers' Party that opposed the leading "Jaruzelski-Rakowski" wing and wanted to prevent the "policy of selling out genuinely socialist ideals and values". He also stated that Samoobrona wished to replace the capitalism of Balcerowicz with "a system that would satisfy human needs, that would prioritise man over labour and labour over capital, and would not be a system of the market but a system of social control over economic life through the state and trade unions"; Lepper admitted that this system would be socialist, but stressed the "indigenous", nationalist, "patriotic" and Catholic character of Samoobrona's socialism, one that was to be inspired by Catholic social teaching and agrarian-socialist pre-WW2 peasant movements. He also made remarks towards green socialism, sparking further questions about the nature of the party.
Lepper shocked the interviewers by stressing the environmentalist character of the party, explaining that he founded Samoobrona "because the spectre of economic and biological doom is staring us in the face". In the interview, he stated:
Despite its agrarian character, Samoobrona also identified with the green movement, and environmentalists were an important part of Lepper's social and political circle; Samoobrona was founded not only by agrarian trade unions, but a minor Polish green party as well. Party's program promoted the concepts of "eco-development" and "econology", which were described as replacement of consumerism and materialism in favour of "a closer relationship with the natural environment, the preservation of small-scale family farms and a humane treatment of animals". Samoobrona stated that it desired to introduce new ways of thinking into Polish economics that would encompass ecology, social ethics and Catholic morality. Concrete environmentalist proposals included in the party's program were opposition to agroindustrial development and 'intensive farming methods'.
Rafal Soborski listed Samoobrona as an example of an anti-globalist environmentalist movement, using rhetoric aligned with green movements - Samoobrona attacked corporations for pursuing profit-driven policies that are harmful to both the environment and the well-being of the society. Both greens and Samoobrona considered international corporations responsible for global inequality and exploitation, imprisoning "the majority of people in impoverished enclaves [in order to] move production there". This anti-corporation rhetoric also had cultural and nationalist themes, as anti-globalist and ecological movements attacked the progressing "McDonaldization of society" that contradicted and threatened national and local identities. Samoobrona mixed environmentalist undertones with agrarian issues, accusing big companies of destroying Polish farming by flooding the Polish market with foreign, poor-quality products. The party campaigned for expelling foreign capital in Poland in order to protect native farms and local products.
In 1999, Samoobrona entered a coalition with the American-based Animal Welfare Institute against Smithfield Foods, American food company that wanted to enter the Polish market. After years of the neoliberal "shock therapy" that allowed foreign companies to outcompete Polish farms, the discontent of Polish farmers resulted in mass protests in 1999 organised by Samoobrona. The protests grew to 8000 protesting farmers and resulted in a total of 120 blockades. Samoobrona protesters became militant and clashed with the police, often resulting in confrontations which forced the police to use tear gas and water cannons. The Polish government capitulated to protesters' demands after a month, reforming its agricultural policy and imposing high tariffs on food imports. Surveys at the time showed that 75 percent of Polish population supported Samoobrona's protests, and the party continued its protests and decided to participate in the "Trojan Pig Tour" organised by AWI.
Lepper agreed to make anti-Smithfield lobbying a key plank of his presidential campaign, while also organising protests against Smithfield's expansion into the Polish market. While Lepper only won 3 percent of the popular vote in the 2000 Polish presidential election, he succeeded in setting the stage for Samoobrona's electoral success in 2001 parliamentary elections, and his anti-Smithfield campaigning mobilised Polish farmers against the company. Samoobrona organised a conference together with AWI in May 2000, promoting ecology and alternatives to industrial farming. At the same time, Samoobrona steadily incorporated more ecological and animal welfare themes into its program. Later in 2000, AWI-Samoobrona movement was endorsed by the president of Polish National Veterinary Chamber, Bartosz Winiecki, who recruited Polish veterinarians to the anti-Smithfield coalition. In the end, six thousands Polish doctors of veterinary medicine and twenty thousand veterinary technicians joined the coalition's protests.
Environmental activism of Samoobrona and AWI bore fruit in July 2000, when Polish Minister of Agriculture, Artur Balazs, declared that the government will oppose Smithfield's plans to introduce corporate farming in Poland. Smithfield conceded later that months, announcing that it was abandoning its plans to expand its activities into Poland. Samoobrona's activities proved crucial to bringing about a corporate farming ban in Poland; according to Joe
Bandy and Jackie Smith, "the coalition between AWI and Samoobrona represents one of the successful cases in the emerging global justice movement". For his environmental activism, Lepper was awarded the Albert Schweitzer Medal in 2000. The leader of Samoobrona stated his commitment to animal welfare, stressing that animals must be treated "with respect, dignity and sympathy" and condemning modern meat industry as "concentration camps for animals".
Election results
Sejm
Senate
European Parliament
Presidential
Regional assemblies
Leadership
Andrzej Lepper (1992–2011)
Andrzej Prochoń (2012)
Lech Kuropatwiński (2012–2022)
Krzysztof Prokopczyk (2022–incumbent)
See also
AGROunia
League and Self-Defense
Party of Regions
Patriotic Self-Defence
Peasants' Party
Self-Defence Rebirth
Self-Defence Social Movement
Notes
References
External links
Samoobrona website
1993 establishments in Poland
Agrarian parties in Poland
Catholic political parties
Economic nationalism
Nationalist parties in Poland
Parties related to the Party of European Socialists
Polish nationalist parties
Political parties established in 1993
Political parties in Poland
Socialist parties in Poland
Trade unions in Poland
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s%20Party%20%28Spain%29
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People's Party (Spain)
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The People's Party ( ; known mostly by its acronym, PP ) is a conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Spain.
The People's Party was a 1989 re-foundation of People's Alliance (AP), a party led by former minister of the Francoist dictatorship Manuel Fraga. It was founded in 1976 as alliance of post-Francoist proto-parties. The new party combined the conservative AP with several small Christian democratic and liberal parties (the party call this fusion of views "the Reformist Centre"). In 2002, Manuel Fraga received the honorary title of "Founding Chairman". The party's youth organization is New Generations of the People's Party of Spain (NNGG).
The PP is a member of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), and in the European Parliament its 16 MEPs sit in the EPP Group. The PP is also a member of the Centrist Democrat International and the International Democrat Union. The PP was also one of the founding organizations of the Budapest-based Robert Schuman Institute for Developing Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.
On 24 May 2018, the National Court found that the PP profited from the illegal kickbacks-for-contracts scheme of the Gürtel case, confirming the existence of an illegal accounting and financing structure that ran in parallel with the party's official one since the party's foundation in 1989; the court ruled that the PP helped establish "a genuine and effective system of institutional corruption through the manipulation of central, autonomous and local public procurement". This prompted a no confidence vote on Mariano Rajoy's government, which was brought down on 1 June 2018 in the first successful motion since the Spanish transition to democracy. On 5 June 2018, Rajoy announced his resignation as PP leader.
On 21 July 2018, Pablo Casado was elected as the new leader of the PP. Under his leadership, the party was claimed to take a right-wing turn, including forging local alliances with the far-right Vox party. However, Casado later bet on breaking ties with Vox, and caused an unprecedented leadership crisis inside PP. After this there were rumors that Casado had ordered to spy on the popular president of the community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, for alleged irregularities, which collapsed popular support for PP according to opinion polls for future national elections, being resolved with the resignation of Casado and the appointment of the veteran Alberto Núñez Feijóo as the new leader, which improved the electoral expectations of the party. The party was the most voted one in the 2023 general election, but it failed to secure a parliamentary majority.
History
Political genealogy
The party has its roots in the People's Alliance founded on 9 October 1976 by former Francoist minister Manuel Fraga. Although Fraga was a member of the reformist faction of the Franco regime, he supported an extremely gradual transition to democracy. However, he badly underestimated the public's distaste for Francoism. Additionally, while he attempted to convey a reformist image, the large number of former Francoists in the party led the public to perceive it as both reactionary and authoritarian. In the June 1977 general election, the AP garnered only 8.3 percent of the vote, putting it in fourth place.
In the months following the 1977 elections, dissent erupted within the AP over constitutional issues that arose as the draft document was being formulated. Fraga had wanted from the beginning to brand the party as a traditional European conservative party, and wanted to move the AP toward the political centre in order to form a larger centre-right party. Fraga's wing won the struggle, prompting most of the disenchanted reactionaries to leave the party. The AP then joined with other moderate conservatives to form the Democratic Coalition (Coalición Democrática, CD).
It was hoped that this new coalition would capture the support of those who had voted for the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD) in 1977, but who had become disenchanted with the Adolfo Suárez government. In the March 1979 general election, however, the CD received 6.1 percent of the vote, again finishing a distant fourth.
At the AP's Second Party Congress in December 1979, party leaders re-assessed their involvement in the CD. Many felt that the creation of the coalition had merely confused the voters, and they sought to emphasise the AP's independent identity. Fraga resumed control of the party, and the political resolutions adopted by the party congress reaffirmed the conservative orientation of the AP.
In the early 1980s, Fraga succeeded in rallying the various components of the right around his leadership. He was aided in his efforts to revive the AP by the increasing disintegration of the UCD. In the general elections held in October 1982, the AP gained votes both from previous UCD supporters and from the far right. It became the major opposition party to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, securing 25.4 percent of the popular vote. Whereas the AP's parliamentary representation had dropped to 9 seats in 1979, the party allied itself with the small Christian democratic People's Democratic Party (PDP) and won 106 seats in 1982.
The increased strength of the AP was further evidenced in the municipal and regional elections held in May 1983, when the party drew 26 percent of the vote. A significant portion of the electorate appeared to support the AP's emphasis on law and order as well as its pro-business policies.
Subsequent political developments belied the party's aspirations to continue increasing its base of support. Prior to the June 1986 elections, the AP joined forces with the PDP and the Liberal Party (PL) to form the People's Coalition (CP), in another attempt to expand its constituency to include the centre of the political spectrum. The coalition called for stronger measures against terrorism, for more privatisation, and for a reduction in public spending and in taxes. The CP failed to increase its share of the vote in the 1986 elections, however, and it soon began to disintegrate.
When regional elections in late 1986 resulted in further losses for the coalition, Fraga resigned as AP chairman, although he retained his parliamentary seat. At the party congress in February 1987, Antonio Hernández Mancha was chosen to head the AP, declaring that under his leadership the AP would become a "modern right-wing European party". But Hernández Mancha lacked political experience at the national level, and the party continued to decline. When support for the AP plummeted in the municipal and regional elections held in June 1987, it was clear that it would be overtaken as major opposition party by Suárez's Democratic and Social Centre (CDS).
After the resignation of Manuel Fraga and the successive victories of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the general election of 1982 and 1986 general election, the Popular Alliance entered a period of deep crisis. Fraga then took the reins and, at the Congress of January 1989, the constituent parties of the CP were folded into a new party, the People's Party. While the AP was the nucleus of the merged party, the PP tried to bill itself as a more moderate party than the AP. Fraga was the first chairman of the party, with Francisco Álvarez Cascos as the secretary general.
Refoundation
Aznar years (1989–2004)
On 4 September 1989, and at the suggestion of Fraga himself, José María Aznar (then premier of the Autonomous Region of Castile and León) was named the party's candidate for Prime Minister of Spain at the general elections. In April 1990, Aznar became chairman of the party. Fraga would later be named Founding Chairman of the People's Party.
The PP joined the European People's Party in 1991.
The PP became the largest party for the first time in 1996, and Aznar became Prime Minister with the support of the Basque Nationalist Party, the Catalan Convergence and Union and the Canarian Coalition. In the 2000 elections, the PP gained an absolute majority.
EU policy
The People's Party fiercely defended Spain's agricultural and fishery rights within the EU.
Foreign policy
Known to have a strong Atlanticist ideology, the People's Party fostered stronger ties to the US.
Rajoy years (2004–2018)
In August 2003, Mariano Rajoy was appointed Secretary General by Aznar. Thus, Rajoy became the party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2004 general election, held three days after the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, and which Rajoy lost by a big margin to Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The PP under Mariano Rajoy opposed the PSOE government after the PP lost the general election in 2004, arguing that this victory was influenced by the Madrid bombings of 11 March 2004. At a national level, its political strategy has followed two main axes, both linked to Spain's delicate regional politics: Firstly, opposing further administrative devolution to Catalonia by means of the newly approved "Estatut" or Statute of Catalonia that lays out the powers of the Catalan regional government. Secondly, opposition to political negotiations with the Basque separatist organization ETA.
The People's Party has supported the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) with respect to the Government's actions concerning ETA's ceasefire, and was able to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people in demonstrations against Government policies that, in its opinion, would result in political concessions to ETA. Nevertheless, the end of the ceasefire in December 2006 ended prospects for government negotiations with ETA.
The prospect of increased demands for autonomy in the programs of Catalan and Basque parties, and Zapatero's alleged favouring of them, became a focus for the party's campaign for the March 2008 general election. Basque President Juan José Ibarretxe's proposal for a unilateral referendum for the solution of the Basque Conflict was another important issue.
The People's Party under Rajoy has an increasingly patriotic, or nationalist, element to it, appealing to the sense of "Spanishness" and making strong use of national symbols such as the Spanish flag. Prior to the national celebrations of Spanish Heritage Day, Rajoy made a speech asking Spaniards to "privately or publicly" display their pride in their nation and to honor their flag, an action which received some criticism from many political groups of the Congress.
2008 elections and convention
On 9 March 2008, Spain held a general election, with both main parties led by the same candidates who competed in 2004: 154 People's Party MPs were elected, up six on the previous election. However, the failure to close the gap with the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (which increased its number of MPs by five) provoked a party crisis, in which some internal groups and supportive media questioned the leadership of Rajoy, who was said to be close to resigning.
After an impasse of three days, he decided to stay, and summoned a Party Convention to be held in June 2008 in Valencia. Speculation about alternative candidates erupted in the media, with discussion of the possible candidacies of Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruíz Gallardón and Madrid autonomous community Premier Esperanza Aguirre creating a national debate, calls for support and opposition from the media, etc.
In the end neither one stood, with Gallardón explicitly backing Rajoy and Aguirre refusing to comment on the issue. The only politician who explicitly expressed his intention to stand was Juan Costa, who had been a minister under Aznar, but he was unable to garner the 20% support required to stand in the election because of the support Rajoy had received prior to his nomination. At the convention, Mariano Rajoy was re-elected chairman with 79% of the vote, and in order to "refresh the negative public image of the party", which had been a major factor in the electoral defeat, its leadership was controversially renewed with young people, replacing a significant number of politicians from the Aznar era.
Among the latter, most resigned of their own accord to make room for the next generation, like the PP Spokesman in the Congress of Deputies Eduardo Zaplana, replaced by Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría; and the party Secretary-General Ángel Acebes, whose office was taken by María Dolores de Cospedal.
The convention also saw significant reforms to the Party Statutes, including the reform of election to the office of Party Chairperson, which was to be open to more competition; and linking that office to the party candidacy in the general elections, etc. María San Gil, Chairwoman of the Basque PP, left the party (even resigning from her Basque Parliament seat) over disagreements on the party policies towards regional nationalisms in Spain, and particularly over the deletion of a direct reference to the Basque Nationalist Party accusing them of being too passive and "contemptuous" regarding the armed Basque group ETA. Most PP members rallied behind San Gil at first, but when it became clear that her decision was final the national leadership called a regional party election, in which Antonio Basagoiti was chosen as the new Basque PP leader.
The PP won a clear victory in the 2011 general elections, ousting the PSOE from government. With 44.62% of the votes, the conservatives won 186 seats in the Congreso de los Diputados, the biggest victory they have ever had. On the other hand, the centre-left PSOE suffered a huge defeat, losing 59 MPs. The PP, under Mariano Rajoy's leadership, returned to power after 7 years of opposition.
In May 2018 the Audiencia Nacional declared the PP as guilty part "on a lucrative basis" in the Gürtel corruption scheme, understanding the organization profited from the corruption scheme "to the detriment of the State's interests". This led to a motion of no confidence to the prime minister Mariano Rajoy, led by socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, which eventually succeeded, thus forcing Rajoy to quit his position, and ultimately resign as the party's leader. His substitute would be determined in July 2018.
Leadership of Casado (2018–2022)
Pablo Casado's victory in the July 2018 PP leadership election was considered a party swing towards the right.
Polls indicated a continual decline in support for the PP in the lead-up to the April 2019 general election. Ultimately, the party achieved the worst result in its history, winning just 16.7% of the national vote – a decline of almost 16% from the 2016 election – and losing over half its seats. Though becoming only the second largest party in the Congress of Deputies, it held almost half as many seats as first placed PSOE, and was less than a single percentage point and just nine seats ahead of third placed Ciudadanos. Casado refused to resign following the poor result, and proposed a sudden U-turn of the party back into the moderate centre-right under pressure from party regional leaders one month ahead of the regional and local elections.
The party enjoyed a partial revival in 2019 European elections, winning 20.15% of votes. The party increased its support in the November 2019 election, scoring 20.82% of votes and electing 89 deputies and 83 senators.
2022 Internal organizational crisis
After a few months of confrontation between the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the leadership of the national branch of the party, on 16 February 2022, information appeared about an alleged payment (in the form of a commission) of Díaz Ayuso's brother for health material and also about alleged spying on the president's family by the party leadership through the City Council of Madrid. The president herself accused in an appearance the following day the national leadership of the PP of wanting to destroy her politically. That afternoon, the secretary general, Teodoro García Egea, appeared to deny all the information related to the attempt to spy on the president's entourage; in this appearance, Egea informed of the opening of an informative file on the actions of the president of Madrid, which was closed the following day, considering the documentation provided valid. A few hours later, that same day, Ángel Carromero, a trusted person of the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, resigned after the release of some audios in which one of the detectives claimed to have been contacted from the Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo (Municipal Housing and Land Company).
The following day, President Pablo Casado stated on the Cadena COPE radio channel that Díaz Ayuso should provide all the necessary documentation to clear doubts about his honorability, questioning at the same time his honesty by stating whether "it is logical to award a commission to your brother in April 2020, when 700 people were dying in Spain due to the pandemic".
This led to a schism in the leadership of the PP, in which regional leaders and popular leaders demanded political responsibilities and a change of leadership and responsibilities in the apparatus. On 22 February there was a cascade of resignations of senior party officials and the demand by the majority of territorial barons and the Popular Parliamentary Group for the holding of an Extraordinary Congress, in addition to the request for the resignation of the Secretary General, which took place that same day. Casado finally agreed to convene the National Board of Directors on 1 March to set in motion an Extraordinary Congress of the PP. Casado was subsequently replaced as leader by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the president of Galicia.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo's leadership (2022–present)
After becoming the party's leader, Feijóo designated Cuca Gamarra, the PP's spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies, as the new Secretary General. After the PP took several regions—including Aragon, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia—from the PSOE in Spain's 2023 regional and local elections, Sánchez called for a snap general election. The conservative party gained forty-eight seats in Congress and an absolute majority in the Senate, winning the elections. The PP failed to secure a parliamentary majority with its allies, Canarian Coalition, UPN, and VOX; however, King of Spain Felipe VI requested that Feijóo tried to form a government.
Ideology
Once described as the main liberal-conservative party of Spain, political scientists Vít Hlousek and Lubomír Kopeček have observed that under the leadership of José María Aznar the party evolved into a conservative party with elements of Christian democracy and economic liberalism. It has also been described as Christian humanist and conservative liberal. On the other hand, sociologist Vicenç Navarro considered the PP a conservative-neoliberal coalition with a neoliberal economic policy.
The party supports the regional structure in autonomous communities enshrined in the Constitution of 1978, as well as the constitutional monarchy.
When Spain first legalised same-sex marriage in 2005, the party was opposed to the same-sex marriage law. It did, however, support marriage-like civil unions for same-sex couples. The party organized demonstrations against the same-sex marriage law. After the law was deemed constitutional in 2012, the PP government announced that it would no longer seek the repeal of same-sex marriage. While the party has a strong socially conservative faction, some politicians from the People's Party now support same-sex marriage. Some PP regional governments have introduced legislation against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Illegal financing
In early 2009 a scandal involving several senior members of the party came to the public's attention. The Gürtel case resulted in the resignation of the party's treasurer Luis Bárcenas in 2009. The case against him was dropped in July 2011 but reopened the following year.
The leader of the party in the Valencia region, Francisco Camps, stepped down in July 2011 because of a pending trial. He was accused of having received gifts in exchange for public contracts, but was found to be not guilty.
Bárcenas affair
In January 2013, the judges' investigation discovered an account in Switzerland controlled by Luis Bárcenas with 22 million euros and another 4.5 million in the United States. Allegations appeared in the media regarding the existence of supposed illegal funds of the PP, used for the undercover monthly payments to VIPs in the party from 1989 to 2009, including the former government presidents, Mariano Rajoy and José María Aznar. The existence of such illicit funding has been denied by the PP.
Lezo Case
Judge Eloy Velasco instructing the Lezo Case in the Spanish National Court is investigating former President of the Community of Madrid, Ignacio González, former Work Minister, Eduardo Zaplana, Vice-councilor of the presidency of the Community of Madrid and implicated in Gürtel Case Alberto López Viejo, businessmen Juan Miguel Villa Mir (OHL) and PricewaterhouseCoopers among others for embezzlement of public funds to presumably finance People's Party (PP) campaigns in the Community of Madrid.
Leaders
Presidents
1989–1990: Manuel Fraga
1990–2004: José María Aznar
2004–2018: Mariano Rajoy
2018–2022: Pablo Casado
2022–present: Alberto Núñez Feijóo
Secretaries-General
1989–1999: Francisco Álvarez-Cascos
1999–2003: Javier Arenas
2003–2004: Mariano Rajoy
2004–2008: Ángel Acebes
2008–2018: María Dolores de Cospedal
2018–2022: Teodoro García Egea
2022–present: Cuca Gamarra
Prime Ministers of Spain
1996–2004: José María Aznar
2011–2018: Mariano Rajoy
Regional leaders
Andalusia: Juan Manuel Moreno (since 2014)
Aragon: Jorge Azcón (since 2022)
Asturias: Diego Canga (since 2022)
Balearic Islands: Marga Prohens (since 2021)
Basque Country: Carlos Iturgaiz (since 2020)
Canary Islands: Manuel Domínguez (since 2022)
Cantabria: María José Sáenz (since 2017)
Castile and León: Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (since 2017)
Castilla-La Mancha: Francisco Núñez (since 2018)
Catalonia: Alejandro Fernández (since 2018)
Ceuta: Juan Jesús Vivas (since 2009)
Community of Madrid: Isabel Díaz Ayuso (since 2022)
Extremadura: María Guardiola (since 2022)
Galicia: Alfonso Rueda (since 2022)
La Rioja: Gonzalo Capellán (since 2022)
Melilla: Juan José Imbroda (since 2000)
Murcia: Fernando López (since 2017)
Navarre: Javier García (since 2022)
Valencian Community: Carlos Mazón (since 2021)
Electoral performance
Cortes Generales
European Parliament
See also
List of political parties in Spain
Politics of Spain
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
1989 establishments in Spain
Catholic political parties
Christian democratic parties in Europe
Conservative parties in Spain
Member parties of the European People's Party
Monarchist parties in Spain
Political parties established in 1989
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist%20Alliance%20%28Australia%29
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Socialist Alliance (Australia)
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Socialist Alliance is a socialist political party and activist organisation in Australia, founded in 2001 as an alliance of various socialist organisations and activists, initiated by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the International Socialist Organisation.
Engaging in a combination of grassroots activism and electoral politics, Socialist Alliance has four elected officeholders across Australia, all of whom serve on the local government level. They are councillors Sarah Hathway (City of Greater Geelong), Rob Pyne (Cairns Region) and Sue Bolton and Monica Harte (both serving in the City of Merri-bek).
The party is involved with the trade union, climate change and student movements in Australia. It takes strong left-wing stances on numerous issues, including refugee rights, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights, anti-racism, and public ownership. Socialist Alliance also proposes nationalising the banking, energy and mining sectors. On workers' rights, the party supports raising the minimum wage, implementing wage theft and industrial manslaughter laws, increasing trade union bargaining to industry-wide status and reducing the working week to 30 hours. It opposes the building of new coalmines and any attempts to privatise public services such as Medicare. The party supports expansion of the public healthcare system to cover dental services and the cessation of public funding to private schools. Policies of state branches include support for public housing, public transport, public education and publicly owned utilities, as well as advocating for less militarised and hard-line policing and justice systems.
The party participated within the Victorian Socialists electoral alliance in Victoria, until it withdrew from it in May 2020.
History
Formation and growth
Socialist Alliance was founded in 2001 as a loose alliance of socialist organisations and individuals. The project was initiated by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and the International Socialist Organisation. Seven other organisations were included in the initial exploratory meeting: the Freedom Socialist Party, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Democracy, Worker-communist Party of Iraq, Workers League, Worker's Liberty, and Worker's Power. The aim of the merger was to create greater left unity in the aftermath of the S11 protests of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne on 11–13 September 2000.
Many non-aligned socialists were attracted by the idea of left unity, and soon after its formation Socialist Alliance grew to a point where a majority of its members were not members of any of the affiliate organisations.
Debate on form
In response to this growth, the Democratic Socialist Perspective and many non-aligned members won a majority at successive national conferences for measures that would move Socialist Alliance in the direction of becoming a united socialist party, rather than simply an alliance of groups and individuals.
Most of the affiliate organisations, however, in particular the International Socialist Organisation, preferred to keep Socialist Alliance as a broad left-wing electoral front for socialist organisations and individuals.
In late 2003, the Democratic Socialist Party resolved to become "a Marxist tendency in the Socialist Alliance", renaming itself the "Democratic Socialist Perspective" as a step towards turning the Socialist Alliance into a "Multi-Tendency Socialist Party". This move was supported by some 75% of conference delegates at Socialist Alliance's national conference that year, although other affiliates remained opposed.
The 2005 National Conference saw the emergence of a number of particularly sharp political differences. These centred on: the extent to which Socialist Alliance should criticise the Australian Labor Party; whether the organisation should have a formal relationship with the newspaper associated with the Democratic Socialist perspective, Green Left Weekly, as a step towards Socialist Alliance itself having its own newspaper; and whether non-aligned members should have an automatic majority on the organisation's national executive.
Mergers and withdrawals
Following this conference three of the leading members of a "Non-Aligned Caucus" and most of the active affiliate organisations gradually withdrew from the Socialist Alliance. The "Non Aligned Caucus" was an ad hoc grouping of members who weren't aligned to any affiliated organisation which formed in the lead up to the 2003 national conference.
In 2006, Workers Power left the Alliance. In 2007, the International Socialist Organisation also left.
In January 2010, the Democratic Socialist Perspective voted to merge into the Socialist Alliance, in effect ceasing to exist as an affiliate organisation.
In September 2012 the Socialist Alliance initiated unity discussions with Socialist Alternative. At the time, Socialist Alternative were in unity discussions with the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Australia) which led to a merger in early 2013.
After approximately a year of leadership discussions, joint forums and participation by Socialist Alliance at Socialist Alternative's Marxism conference, the Socialist Alternative leadership publicly announced that they were pulling out unity discussions in November 2013, but remained open to ongoing collaboration. Socialist Alternative claimed the Socialist Alliance's approach to a transitional program and electoral politics was "not sufficiently similar to carry through a sustained and productive unity."
While the Socialist Alliance welcomed the opportunity for ongoing collaboration, it was critical of Socialist Alternative's reasons for withdrawal. Leading Socialist Alliance member Dave Holmes accused the Socialist Alternative of "sticking with its very narrow, propagandist view of socialist politics" rather than seeking to unite to appeal to socialists more broadly. The Socialist Alliance published the full correspondence on the unity discussions in its discussion bulletin, Alliance Voices.
At its national conference in 2014, the socialist youth organisation Resistance voted to merge with the Socialist Alliance and become its official youth organisation. The new organisation renamed itself Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance.
Resistance elects its own leadership body to coordinate the party's youth work and organise its youth conference, Radical Ideas.
Victorian Socialists
On 5 February 2018, it was announced that Socialist Alliance, the Socialist Alternative, community activists and trade unionists would work together to form an electoral alliance named the Victorian Socialists in order to contest the 2018 Victorian state election. The leading candidates for the Northern Metropolitan Region included Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly, and also featured Moreland councillor Sue Bolton (Socialist Alliance) and asbestos lawyer Colleen Bolger (Socialist Alternative). Socialist Alliance's Tim Gooden, former Geelong Trades Hall Secretary and CFMEU organiser, led the ticket for the Western Victoria Region. Although the party gained 4.6% of the vote, the highest of any minor party in the Northern Metropolitan Region, it failed to win a seat following preference deals.
The Victorian Socialists ran candidates in the electorates of Calwell, Wills, and Cooper during the 2019 federal election, gaining 4.6%, 4.5%, and 4.2% of the vote respectively.
In 2020 Socialist Alliance withdrew from Victorian Socialists.
Branches and membership numbers
In addition to having branches in major capital cities Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, and Hobart. The Socialist Alliance also maintains branches in and around a number of minor cities and regional areas, including in the Blue Mountains, Cairns, Geelong, Illawarra, New England and Newcastle. The Socialist Alliance also has individual members spread across rural and regional Australia.
A branch in Fremantle existed, it included a branch office and a library
The Socialist Alliance is a registered political party at a federal level, and annually maintains electoral registration in New South Wales and in Victoria.
Federal registration requires 500 members, Victorian registration also requires 500 members in Victoria, and 750 members are needed for NSW registration.
These figures reflect electorally registered members, however, and may not be an accurate measure of active or financial membership. A Socialist Alliance Perspectives resolution published in Alliance Voices in February 2012, suggests a membership figure of approximately 600, making it one of the largest organisation on the Australian left - approximately twice the size of the next-largest group, Socialist Alternative.
Socialist Alliance members are generally organised in branches of at least 7 voting members who "...must pay an annual membership fee.", however the party Constitution allows for "at large" members living in areas with no nearby branch structure to join.
Publications
Socialist Alliance's policy and constitution can be found on its website.
The newspaper Green Left Weekly – which is politically associated with the Socialist Alliance – runs a weekly Socialist Alliance column called "Our Common Cause". The Socialist Alliance also has a close working relationship with Links – International Journal of Socialist Renewal. The Brisbane local newspaper The Westender has also run a column written by the Socialist Alliance, and its members have been published on sites such as ABC's The Drum and Online Opinion.
For around one year the Socialist Alliance published a quarterly journal, Seeing Red, the final issue of which came out in March 2006.
The Socialist Alliance and its members have also published a large number of pamphlets and books, primarily through Resistance Books, on a range of historical, political and social justice issues.
Before Green Left's website became the dominant means by which Socialist Alliance published written material online, they maintained a variety of blogs. Their internal discussion bulletin and national newsletter 'Alliance Voices' was maintained until 2014. Their West Australian branch maintained a blog until 2016. Socialist Alliance local councillors Sam Wainwright and Sue Bolton maintained individual websites until 2009 and 2013 respectively.
Grassroots campaigning
While Socialist Alliance, its affiliates and non-aligned members continue to put forward and argue for socialist politics in the electoral arena, the organisation places a stronger emphasis on building successful grassroots campaigns as a way of promoting socialist politics. In the recent unity discussions with Socialist Alternative, the Socialist Alliance re-emphasised its support for this "transitional method" towards campaigns, arguing that campaign work is key to leading people to understanding the need to transform the whole capitalist system.
Socialist Alliance has been involved in a broad range of campaigns since its formation, reflecting both its own developing political orientation, as well as the activities and politics of its affiliates. These include in trade union movement, education, and climate change movements, as well as numerous other grass roots campaigns including refugee rights, same-sex marriage rights, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights, climate change, and international solidarity with movements such as the Palestinian struggle for national self-determination, the Rojava revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America, and social-justice and pro-democracy movements in South East Asia.
Industrial
Socialist Alliance places great importance on strengthening the union movement, with members active in a range of unions including, amongst others, the Australian Services Union, the Australian Education Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Australian Nursing Federation, the Community and Public Sector Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Electrical Trades Union, the Finance Sector Union, the National Tertiary Education Union, the National Union of Workers, the New South Wales Teachers Federation, the Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union, the Transport Workers Union and United Voice.
In line with its criticism that the ALP is holding back and bureaucratising the union movement, Socialist Alliance encourages workers and unions to become independent of the ALP, to strengthen democracy in the unions and to set up a "new workers' party". However, it also works alongside rank-and-file union members on industrial campaigns, regardless of political affiliation.
In 2005 and 2006, the Socialist Alliance initiated and helped organise trade union "fight-back" conferences, in response to the Federal Government's "WorkChoices" legislation, attracting hundreds of union militants and members of other socialist groups. The Socialist Alliance was involved in the Your Rights at Work campaign against WorkChoices that followed, as well as the campaign to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
Socialist Alliance has been highly critical of the Australian Labor Party's industrial policy for not returning enough rights to workers and for retaining the ABCC, describing the Rudd government's Fair Work Australia as little more than "WorkChoices-lite".
Notable Socialist Alliance trade union leaders have included Chris Cain, Western Australian State Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia; Tim Gooden, former secretary of the Geelong Trades and Labour Council; and Craig Johnston, former Victorian State Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, who was jailed for 9 months in 2004 after an industrial dispute at Johnson Tiles in 2001.
Anti-war and civil liberties
Socialist Alliance is opposed to US and Australian military interventions such as the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Socialist Alliance, its affiliates and members played a central role in the campaigns against these wars in 2001 and 2003. Socialist Alliance also played a leading role in founding the Stop the War Coalition in a number of cities, and organising protests in the years that followed.
Socialist Alliance members are also active in promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
Socialist Alliance opposes the "war on terror", claiming that it leads to increased racism against Arab and Muslim communities, and to government policies that threaten civil liberties. Socialist Alliance members were central to organising the protests in Sydney against APEC in 2007, and the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, in the face of increased police powers that were heavily criticised for violating civil liberties.
The party conducts this work alongside other activist and community groups as well as individual activists in broader coalitions like the Stop the War Coalition, and the Gaza Defence Committee.
The environment
Socialist Alliance is involved in a variety of campaigns around environmental issues, most notably climate change, helping to organise the 2006 Walk Against Warming rallies in some cities, and producing detailed policies on combating climate change which have been created through an open wiki process with broad membership input. Since the 2007 Federal Election, the environmental website VoteClimate has rated Socialist Alliance environmental policy number 1 (ahead of the Greens).
Socialist Alliance members also helped to organise the Climate Action Summit in Canberra on 31 January – 1 February 2009, and is involved in building the new national Climate Action Network that grew out of that summit.
Socialist Alliance argues that no solution to the crisis caused by global warming is possible without overthrowing capitalism, and criticises market mechanisms such as carbon trading as being unworkable, profit-driven and reinforcing the capitalist relations that it alleges caused the pollution to begin with.
Indigenous rights
Socialist Alliance has played a role in recent campaigns for justice for indigenous Australians, particularly around the inquiries into the deaths-in-custody of TJ Hickey in Redfern and Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island. In the case of Mulrunji, leading indigenous activist, academic and Socialist Alliance member Sam Watson played a key role in organising the protests that led to the re-opening of the inquiry.
Socialist Alliance also opposes the Federal Government's Northern Territory intervention, and helped to organise the 12 February 2008 protests outside Parliament House in Canberra.
Anti-racism and immigrants rights
Socialist Alliance has been able to build growing support among some ethnic community sectors in urban Australia such as among Somali youth, the Tamil community and from within the Latin American community. In the latter case, the Socialist Alliance has been an active supporter of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and is affiliated to the Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network.
Socialist Alliance members have also been involved in the struggle for refugee rights, opposing mandatory detention of illegal immigrants, and calling for Australia to pursue a more humane policy on refugees.
Public services
Socialist Alliance advocate the provision of quality public services by all levels of government, calling for increased funding in public education, healthcare, housing and transport. They also advocate expanding the public sector with the nationalisation of large multinational corporations. Furthermore, the party calls for capitalist enterprises that have received taxpayer-subsidies to either repay their subsidies back to the taxpayers in full or be nationalised without compensation.
Socialist Alliance is involved in campaigns against privatisation like those planned by the New South Wales Government (for example electricity and prisons), alongside the Greens, unions, ALP members and community groups. They maintain that all privatisations must be reversed with nationalisation.
Social justice
Socialist Alliance is also active in a number of other social justice campaigns, including LGBTI rights, women's liberation, welfare rights, and prison reform, as well as around local issues. After an editorial by OUTinPerth accusing socialists of taking over the movement for equal marriage rights, prominent LGBTIQ campaigner and Socialist Alliance member Farida Iqbal issued a reply arguing that the Socialist Alliance and others had played a prominent role in the Australian movement for marriage equality since it began in 2004.
International solidarity
The party also places a large emphasis on international socialist solidarity. It is actively involved in supporting many left-wing movements around the world, such as those relating to Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America, Palestinian resistance, Kurdish self-determination in North Syria. Socialist Alliance also actively campaigns in solidarity with international pro-democracy movements as far ranging as Latin America,
the Middle East,
Western Sahara, Zimbabwe, South East Asia, and elsewhere.
Election results
While the Socialist Alliance participates in elections, standing candidates at a range of levels, it does not see electoral politics as the most important vehicle for building socialism. Rather, it sees its participation in elections not as a way "to "represent" people's movements, but as a way to strengthen them and help them win their demands". Socialist Alliance candidates also pledge to take only an average wage if elected, donating the remainder into the social movements.
Federal
The Socialist Alliance first campaigned in the 2001 federal election, however, candidates were listed as independents on the ballot as its application for electoral registration was suspended when the election was called early.
State
New South Wales
Victoria
The Socialist Alliance first ran in the 2002 Victorian state election, securing 3,274 votes or 0.11% of the vote. In 2006, the party's vote dropped to 1,102 or 0.04%. In 2010 the party won 1,787 votes, or 0.06%. The results were stable for the next election in 2014 at 1,728 votes, 0.05% of the vote. For the 2018 election, the Socialist Alliance ran as part of the Victorian Socialists, which won 15,442 votes (0.44%) in the Legislative Assembly and 32,603 votes (0.91%) in the Legislative Council.
Council
In the 2004 Victorian local government elections, Socialist Alliance did relatively well in two councils in Melbourne. In the Moreland City Council elections, two candidates exceeded 4%. In the election in the Boroondara City Council, a Socialist Alliance candidate won over 12% of the vote (in the absence of an Australian Labor Party-endorsed candidate) in Cotham ward.
The 2008 Victorian local government election results were also positive. The Socialist Alliance polled almost 19% in the Stoney Creek ward of the Melbourne municipality of Maribyrnong and polled over 10% in all wards bar one that it contested across the state.
In October 2009 the Socialist Alliance won its first election when Sam Wainwright was elected for the Hilton Ward of the Fremantle City Council. In October 2013, Sam Wainwright was re-elected to Fremantle's Hilton Ward with an outright majority of 58.33%.
In October 2012 the Socialist won its second election when Sue Bolton was elected to Moreland City Council in Melbourne's northern suburbs.
Merri-bek Council (renamed from Moreland in 2022) gained a second Socialist Alliance councillor in March 2022 when Monica Harte was elected on a countback to replace disgraced Labor property developer Milad el-Halabi.
Bolton, Harte, and Wainwright, along with Stephen Jolly in Yarra City Council and the Victorian Socialists' Jorge Jorquera in Maribyrnong City Council, are currently the only politicians in Australia elected on an explicitly socialist platform.
See also
Socialism in Australia
Victorian Socialists – an electoral coalition between Socialist Alliance, Socialist Alternative, trade unionists and community activists
References
External links
Socialist Alliance
Green Left Weekly
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Socialist Alliance slideshow
Socialist Alliance Video Channel
Socialist Alliance National Wiki
Alliance Voices
Socialist Alliance Policies
2001 establishments in Australia
Political parties established in 2001
Anti-racism in Australia
Democratic socialist parties in Oceania
Ecosocialist parties
Marxist parties in Australia
Socialist parties in Australia
Political parties in New South Wales
Political parties in Victoria (state)
Political parties in Western Australia
Republican parties in Australia
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican%20People%27s%20Party
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Republican People's Party
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The Republican People's Party (, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president and founder of the modern Turkish Republic. The party is also cited as the founding party of modern Turkey. Its logo consists of the Six Arrows, which represent the foundational principles of Kemalism: republicanism, reformism, laicism (Laïcité/Secularism), populism, nationalism, and statism. It is currently the second largest party in Grand National Assembly with 130 MPs, behind the ruling conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The political party has its origins in the various resistance groups founded during the Turkish War of Independence. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, they united in the 1919 Sivas Congress. In 1923, the "People's Party", soon adding the word "Republican" to its name, declared itself to be a political organisation and announced the establishment of the Turkish Republic, with Atatürk as its first president. As Turkey moved into its authoritarian one-party period, the CHP was the apparatus of implementing far reaching political, cultural, social, and economic reforms in the country.
After World War II, Atatürk's successor, İsmet İnönü, allowed for multi-party elections, and the party initiated a peaceful transition of power after losing the 1950 election, ending the one-party period and beginning Turkey's multi-party period. The years following the 1960 military coup saw the party gradually trend towards the center-left, which was cemented once Bülent Ecevit became chairman in 1972. The CHP, along with all other political parties of the time, was banned by the military junta of 1980. The CHP was re-established with its original name by Deniz Baykal on 9 September 1992, with the participation of a majority of its members from the pre-1980 period. Since 2002 it has been the main opposition party to the ruling AKP. In 2010 Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu became chairman of the CHP.
It is a founding party of the Nation Alliance, a diverse coalition of opposition parties against the AKP and their People's Alliance. In addition, CHP is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists (PES), a member of the Socialist International, and the Progressive Alliance. Many politicians of CHP have declared their support for LGBT rights and the feminist movement in Turkey. The party is pro-European and supports Turkish membership to European Union and NATO.
History
Establishment: 1919–1923
The Republican People's Party has its origins in the resistance organizations, known as Defence of Rights Associations, created in the immediate aftermath of World War I in the Turkish War of Independence. In the Sivas Congress, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) and his colleagues united the Defence of Rights Associations into the Association for the Defence of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia (Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdâfaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti) (A–RMHC), and called for elections in the Ottoman Empire to elect representatives associated with the organization. Most members of the A–RMHC were previously associated with the Committee of Union and Progress.
A–RMHC members proclaimed the Grand National Assembly as a counter government from the Ottoman government in Istanbul. Grand National Assembly forces militarily defeated Greece, France, and Armenia, overthrew the Ottoman government, and abolished the monarchy. After the 1923 election, A–RMHC was transformed into a political party called the People's Party (Halk Fırkası) soon changing its name to Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası, and then Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) (CHP). Because of the unanimity of the new parliament, the republic was proclaimed with Atatürk as its first president, the Treaty of Lausanne was ratified, and the Caliphate was abolished the next year.
One-party period: 1923–1950
Atatürk era
In 1924, opposition to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk resulted in the foundation of the Progressive Republican Party (TCF). The life of the TCF was short. The TCF faced allegations of involvement in the Sheikh Said rebellion and for conspiring with remaining members of the CUP to assassinate Atatürk in the İzmir Affair. Because of this all political parties except the CHP were banned, and the TCF's members were purged from the government. For the next two decades Turkey was under a one-party authoritarian dictatorship, with one interruption; another brief experiment of opposition politics through the formation of the Liberal Republican Party.
From 1924 to 1946, the CHP introduced sweeping social, cultural, educational, economic, and legal reforms that transformed Turkey into a republican and Western orientated state. Such reforms included the adoption of Swiss and Italian legal and penal codes, the acceleration of industrialization, land reform and rural development programs, forced assimilation policies, strict secularism, women's suffrage, and switching written Turkish from Arabic script into Latin script, to name a few. In the period of 1930–1939, Atatürk's CHP clarified its ideology by adopting the 'Six Arrows': republicanism, reformism, laïcité, populism, nationalism, and statism, as well as borrowing tenets from Communism and (Italian) Fascism. These principles were codified into the constitution on 5 February 1937.
Opposition to Atatürk's reforms were suppressed by various coercive institutions and military force, at the expense of religious conservatives, minorities, and communists. The party-state cracked down on Kurdish resistance to assimilation, suppressing multiple rebellions and encouraging the denial of their existence. In the party's third convention, it clarified its approach towards the religious minorities of the Christians and the Jews, accepting them as real Turks as long as they adhere to the national ideal and use the Turkish language. However under the state sanctioned secularist climate Alevis were able to make great strides in their emancipation, and to this day make up a core constituency of the CHP. With the onset of the Great Depression, the party divided into statist and liberal factions, being championed by Atatürk's prime minister İsmet İnönü and his finance minister Celal Bayar respectively. Atatürk mostly favored İnönü's policies, so economic development of the early republic was largely confined to state-owned enterprises and five-year plans.
İnönü era
On 12 November 1938, the day after Atatürk's death, his ally İsmet İnönü was elected the second president and assumed leadership of the Republican People's Party. İnönü's presidency saw heavy state involvement in the economy and further rural development initiatives such as Village Institutes. On foreign affairs, the Hatay State was annexed and İnönü adopted a policy of neutrality despite attempts by the Allies and Axis powers to bring Turkey into World War II, during which extensive conscription and rationing was implemented to ensure an armed neutrality. Non-Muslims especially suffered when the CHP government implemented discriminatory "wealth taxes," labor battalions, and peon camps. Over the course of the war, the CHP eventually rejected ultranationalism, with pan-Turkists being purged in the Racism-Turanism Trials.
In the aftermath of World War II, İnönü called for a multi-party general election in 1946 – the first multi-party general election in the country's history. The Motion with Four Signatures resulted in the resignation of some CHP members including Bayar, who then founded the Democrat Party (DP), which challenged the party in the election. The result was a victory for the CHP, which won 395 of the 465 seats, amid criticism that the election did not live up to democratic standards. Under pressure by the new conservative parliamentary opposition and the United States, the party became especially anti-communist, and retracted some of its rural development programs and anti-clerical policies. The period between 1946 and 1950 saw İnönü prepare for a pluralistic Turkey. A more free and fair general election was held in 1950 that led to the CHP losing power to the DP. İnönü presided over a peaceful transition of power. The 1950 election marked the end of the CHP's last majority government. The party has not been able to regain a parliamentary majority in any subsequent election since.
Road to the center-left: 1950–1980
Due to the winner-take-all system in place during the 1950s, the DP achieved landslide victories in elections that were reasonably close, meaning the CHP was in opposition for 10 years. In the meantime, the party began a long transformation into a social democratic force. Even before losing power İnönü created the ministry of labor and signed workers protections into law, and universities were given autonomy from the state. In its ninth congress in 1951, the youth branch and the women's branch were founded. In 1953, the establishment of trade unions and vocational chambers was proposed, and support for a bicameral parliament, the establishment of a constitutional court, election security, judicial independence, and the right to strike for workers was added to the party program.
Though the DP and CHP were rivals, the DP was founded by Republicans and mostly continued Kemalist policies. But despite its name, the Democrat Party became increasingly authoritarian by the end of its rule. İnönü was harassed and almost lynched multiple times by DP supporters, and the DP government confiscated CHP property and harassed their members. The DP blocked the CHP from forming an electoral alliance with opposition parties for the 1957 snap election. By 1960, the DP accused the CHP of plotting a rebellion and threatened its closure. With the army concerned by the DP's authoritarianism, Turkey's first military coup was performed by junior officers. After one year of junta rule the DP was banned and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and two of his ministers were tried and executed. Right-wing parties which trace their roots to the DP have since continuously attacked the CHP for their perceived involvement in the hanging of Menderes.
The CHP emerged as the first-placed party at the general election of 1961, and formed a grand coalition with the Justice Party, a successor-party to the Democrat Party. This was the first coalition government in Turkey, which endured for seven-months. İnönü was able to form two more governments with other parties until the 1965 election. His labor minister Bülent Ecevit was instrumental in giving Turkish workers the right to strike and collective bargaining. As leader of the Democratic Left movement in the CHP, Ecevit contributed to the party adopting the Left of Centre (Ortanın solu) programme for that election, which they lost against the Justice Party.
İnönü favored Ecevit's controversial faction, resulting in Turhan Feyzioğlu leaving the CHP and founding the Reliance Party. When asked about his reasoning for his favoring Ecevit, İnönü replied: "Actually we are already a left-to-center party after embracing Laïcité. If you are populist, you are (also) at the left of center." İnönü remained as opposition leader and the leader of the CHP until 8 May 1972, when he was overthrown by Ecevit in a party congress, due to his endorsement of the military intervention of 1971.
Ecevit adopted a distinct left wing role in politics and, although remaining staunchly nationalist, attempted to implement democratic socialism into the ideology of CHP. Support for the party increased when he became prime minister in 1973 and invaded Cyprus. The 1970s saw the party solidify its relations with trade unions and leftist groups in an atmosphere of intense polarization and political violence. The CHP achieved its best ever result in a free and fair multi-party election under Ecevit, when in 1977, the party received 41% of the vote. Ecevit and his political rival Süleyman Demirel would constantly turnover the premiership as partisan deadlock took hold. This ended in a military coup in 1980, resulting in the banning of every political party and major politicians being jailed and banned from politics.
Recovery period: 1980–2002
Both the party name "Republican People's Party" and the abbreviation "CHP" were banned until 1987. Until 1999, Turkey was ruled by the centre-right Motherland Party (ANAP) and the True Path Party (DYP), unofficial successors of the Democrat Party and the Justice Party, as well as, briefly, by the Islamist Welfare Party. CHP supporters also established successor parties. By 1985, Erdal İnönü, İsmet İnönü's son, consolidated two successor parties to form the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), while the Democratic Left Party (, DSP) was formed by Rahşan Ecevit, Bülent Ecevit's wife (Bülent Ecevit later took over the DSP in 1987).
After the ban on pre-1980 politicians was lifted in 1987, Deniz Baykal, a household name from the pre-1980 CHP, reestablished the Republican People's Party in 1992, and the SHP merged with the party in 1995. However, Ecevit's DSP remained separate, and to this day has not merged with the CHP. Observers noted that the two parties held similar ideologies and split the Kemalist vote in the nineties. The CHP held an uncompromisingly secularist and establishmentalist character and supported bans of headscarves in public spaces and the Kurdish language.
From 1991 to 1996, the SHP and then the CHP were in coalition governments with the DYP. Baykal supported Mesut Yılmaz's coalition government after the collapse of the Welfare-DYP coalition following the 28 February "post-modern coup." However, due to the Türkbank scandal, the CHP withdrew its support and helped depose the government with a no confidence vote. Ecevit's DSP formed an interim-government, during which the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in Kenya. As such, in the election of 1999, the DSP benefited massively in the polls at the expense of CHP, and the party failed to exceed the 10% threshold (8.7% vote), not winning any seats.
Main opposition under Baykal: 2002–2010
In the 2002 general election, the CHP came back with 20% of the vote but 32% of the seats in parliament, as only it and the new AKP (Justice and Development Party) received above the 10% threshold to enter parliament. With DSP's collapse, CHP became Turkey's main Kemalist party. It also became the second largest party and the main opposition party, a position it has retained since. Since the dramatic 2002 election, the CHP has been racked by internal power struggles, and has been outclassed by the AKP governments of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Many of its members were critical of the leadership of CHP, especially Baykal, who they complained was stifling the party of young blood by turning away the young who turn either to apathy or even vote for the AKP.
In 2007, the culmination of tensions between Turkey's secularist establishment and AKP politicians turned into a political crisis. Since Baykal proclaimed the party to be the bulwark of the secularist establishment, the CHP assisted undemocratic attempts by the army and judiciary to shut down the newly elected AKP. The crisis began with massive protests by secularists supported by the CHP in reaction to the AKP's candidate for that year's presidential election: Abdullah Gül, due to his background in Islamist politics and his wife's wearing of the hijab. The CHP chose to boycott the (indirect) election. Without quorum, Erdoğan called for a snap election to increase his mandate, in which the CHP formed an electoral alliance with the declining DSP, but gained only 21% of the vote. During the campaign season, a memorandum directed at the AKP was posted online by the Turkish Armed Forces. The CHP boycotted Gül's second attempt to be voted president, though this time Gül had the necessary quorum with MHP's participation and won. The swearing-in ceremony was boycotted by the CHP and the Chief of the General Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt.
The party also voted against a package of constitutional amendments to have the president elected by the people instead of parliament, which was eventually put to a referendum. The "no" campaign, supported by the CHP, failed, as a majority of Turks voted in favor of direct presidential elections. The final challenge against the AKP's existence was a 2008 closure trial which ended without a ban. Following the decision, the AKP government, in a covert alliance with the Gülen movement, began a purge of the Turkish military, judiciary, and police forces of secularists in the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer trials, which the CHP condemned. Between 2002 and 2010, Turkey held three general elections and two local elections, all of which the CHP received between 18 and 23% of the vote.
An extraordinary vote in parliament saw half of the AKP's parliamentary group vote with the CHP against joining the US-lead coalition invasion of Iraq.
Main opposition under Kılıçdaroğlu: 2010–present
On 10 May 2010, Deniz Baykal announced his resignation as leader of the Republican People's Party after a sex tape of him was leaked to the media. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was elected to be the new party leader. Kılıçdaroğlu has been returning the CHP to its traditional social-democratic image and casting away its secularist-establishmentalist character. This has involved building bridges to voters it has traditionally not attracted: the devout, Kurds, and right-wing voters. However even with Kılıçdaroğlu at the helm, after five general elections the CHP has still not won an election, receiving between only 22 and 26% of the vote in parliamentary elections. The CHP supported the unsuccessful "no" campaign in the 2010 constitutional referendum. In his first general election in 2011, the party increased its support by 25% but not enough to unseat the AKP. The 2013 Gezi Park protests found much support in the CHP.
The 2014 presidential election was the first in which the position would be directly elected and came just after a massive corruption scandal. The CHP and MHP's joint candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu still lost to Erdoğan with only 38% of the vote. The two parties were critical of the government's negotiations for peace with the PKK, which lasted from 2013–July 2015. In the June 2015 general election, the AKP lost its parliamentary majority due to the debut of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), which was possible because of strategic voting by CHP voters so the party could pass the 10% threshold. Coalition talks went nowhere. MHP ruled out partaking in a government with HDP in a CHP lead government and the CHP refused to govern with the AKP after weeks of negotiations. In a snap election held that November, the AKP regained their parliamentary majority as well as MHP's support.
Kılıçdaroğlu supported the government in the 2016 coup d'état attempt, the subsequent purges, and incursions into Syria. This support went so far as to help the government pass a law to lift parliamentary immunities, resulting in the jailing of MPs from the HDP, including Selahattin Demirtaş, as well as CHP lawmakers. The party lead the unsuccessful "no" campaign for the 2017 constitutional referendum.
By 2017, dissidents from MHP founded the Good Party. Kılıçdaroğlu was instrumental in the facilitating the rise of the new party by transferring MPs so they would have a parliamentary group to compete in the 2018 election. In the 2018 general election the CHP, Good Party, Felicity, and Democrat Party established the Nation Alliance to challenge the AKP and MHP's People's Alliance. Though CHP's vote was reduced to 22%, strategic voting for the other parties yielded the alliance 33% of the vote. Their candidate for president: Muharrem İnce, received only 30% of the vote. The Nation Alliance was re-established for the 2019 local elections, which saw great gains for the CHP, capturing nearly 30% of the electorate. A tacit collaboration with the HDP allowed for CHP to win the municipal mayoralties of İstanbul and Ankara.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was the CHP's and the Nation Alliance's candidate for the 2023 presidential election, with Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, mayors of İstanbul and Ankara, and leaders of the parties making up the Nation Alliance ran to be his vice-presidents. Despite the economic crisis, mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lackluster response to the devastating Kahramanmaraş earthquake, Kılıçdaroğlu lost his bid to Erdoğan after taking the race to a run-off and receiving 48% of the vote. The Nation Alliance again lost the parliamentary election to the People's Alliance. Smaller parties to the CHP's right ran on its lists in which resulted in them receiving 35 seats for a 3% gain in its polling.
Ideology and political positions
Domestic
The Republican People's Party is a centre-left political party that espouses social democracy and Kemalism. The CHP describes itself as a ''modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to the founding principles and values of the Republic of Turkey".
The distance between the party administration and many leftist grassroots, especially left-oriented Kurdish voters, contributed to the party's shift away from the political left.
Some leftists critical of Kemalism criticize the party's continuous opposition to the removal of Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which caused people to be prosecuted for "insulting Turkishness" including Elif Şafak and Nobel Prize winner author Orhan Pamuk, its conviction of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, its attitude towards minorities in Turkey, as well as its Cyprus policy.
Numerous politicians from the party have espoused support for LGBT rights, and the feminist movement in Turkey.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has repeatedly called for Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala to be released from jail.
Foreign
The party holds a significant position in the Socialist International, Progressive Alliance and is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists. In 2014 the CHP urged the Socialist International to accept the Republican Turkish Party of Northern Cyprus as a full member.
The CHP has supported Turkey's interventions in the Middle East. While it still supports Turkish intervention in Libya, since 2021 it has voted against intervention in Iraq, and since 2023, Syria.
The party is pro-European and supports Turkish membership to the European Union. They also support Turkish membership to NATO and the expansion of the alliance.
Electorate
The CHP draws its support from professional middle-class secular and liberally religious voters. It has traditional ties to the middle and upper-middle classes such as white-collar workers, retired generals, and government bureaucrats as well as academics, college students, left-leaning intellectuals and labour unions such as DİSK.
The party also appeals to minority groups such as Alevis. According to The Economist, "to the dismay of its own leadership the CHP's core constituency, as well as most of its MPs, are Alevis." The party's leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, is also an Alevi himself.
The CHP also draws much of their support from voters of big cities and coastal regions. The party's strongholds are the west of the Aegean Region (İzmir, Aydın, Muğla), the northwest of the Marmara Region (Turkish Thrace; Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ, Çanakkale), the east of the Black Sea Region (Ardahan and Artvin), and the Anatolian college town of Eskişehir.
Party leaders
Election results
General elections
Presidential elections
Senate elections
Local elections
See also
List of political parties in Turkey
The Six Arrows (flag of CHP)
Left of Center (Turkey)
Atatürkist Thought Association
Şero
Ulus
Ulusalcılık
References
External links
Political parties in Turkey
Centre-left parties in Asia
Centre-left parties in Europe
Secularism in Turkey
Social democratic parties
Socialist International
Nationalist parties in Turkey
Pro-European political parties in Turkey
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS%20Triton%20%28SSRN-586%29
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USS Triton (SSRN-586)
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USS Triton (SSRN/SSN-586), the only member of her class, was a nuclear powered radar picket submarine in the United States Navy. She had the distinction of being the only Western submarine powered by two nuclear reactors. Triton was the second submarine and the fourth vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the Greek god Triton, (the nomenclature being unusual at the time in that U.S. Navy submarines were usually named for various species of fish.) At the time of her commissioning in 1959, Triton was the largest, most powerful, and most expensive submarine ever built at $109 million (equivalent to $ million in ) excluding the cost of nuclear fuel and reactors.
In early 1960, the boat became the first vessel to execute a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth in Operation Sandblast. Triton accomplished this objective during her shakedown cruise while under the command of Captain Edward L. "Ned" Beach Jr. Tritons mission as a radar picket submarine was made obsolete after two years by the introduction of the carrier-based Grumman WF-2 Tracer airborne early warning aircraft. She was converted to an attack submarine in 1962 and became the flagship for the Commander, Submarine Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet (COMSUBLANT) in 1964. She was decommissioned in 1969, the first U.S. nuclear submarine to be taken out of service.
Triton's hull was moored at the St. Julien's Creek Annex of Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia as part of the reserve fleet until 1993, though she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1986. In 1993, she was towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to await the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program. Triton landed on the keel resting blocks in the drydock basin on 2007 to begin this recycling process, which was completed effective 30 November 2009. Tritons sail superstructure was saved from the recycling process and is now part of the USS Triton Submarine Memorial Park located on Port of Benton Boulevard in Richland, Washington.
Design history
General characteristics
Triton was a first-generation U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, along with , , , and (and her three sisters). While serving as fully operational units of the U.S. Navy, the vessels also played key developmental roles. Nautilus introduced the use of nuclear power for ship propulsion. Seawolf utilized a liquid-metal nuclear reactor using liquid sodium as an alternative heat exchange medium to pressurized water. Halibut was the first nuclear-powered submarine to perform a strategic nuclear deterrence patrol armed with Regulus cruise missiles. The Skate-class submarines were the first nuclear-powered submarine class with more than one boat built. Tritons unique contribution to the development of nuclear power for naval propulsion was her dual reactor plant, which provided the speed required for radar picket missions.
Radar picket submarines (Navy classification "SSR") were developed during the post-war period to provide intelligence information, electronic surveillance, and fighter aircraft interception control for forward-deployed naval forces. Unlike destroyers used as radar picket ships during World War Two, these submarines could avoid attack by submerging if detected. The U.S. Navy's MIGRAINE program involved converting existing fleet submarines into radar picket vessels, and the Navy also ordered two purpose-built diesel-electric SSRs, and . However, these were incapable of sustaining the high submerged or surfaced speeds necessary to operate with fast carrier task forces and therefore unsuitable to the task.
Nuclear power offered the only possible solution. Triton was designed in the mid-1950s as a radar picket submarine capable of operating at high speed, on the surface, in advance of an aircraft carrier task force. Tritons high speed came from her twin-reactor nuclear propulsion plant, with a designed speed, surfaced and submerged, of . On 27 September 1959, Triton achieved "well in excess of" during her initial sea trials.
To meet her radar picket role, Tritons main air search radar initially used the AN/SPS-26, the U.S. Navy's first electronically scanned, three-dimensional search radar which was laboratory tested in 1953. The first set was installed on board the destroyer leader prior to its installation on board Triton in 1959. Since it was scanned electronically in elevation, the AN/SPS-26 set did not need a separate height-finding radar. A submarine version of SPS-26, designated BPS-10, was under development, and it was slated for installation on Triton. To process her radar, electronic, and air traffic data, Triton had a Combat Information Center (CIC) located in a separate air control compartment, situated between Tritons reactor and operations compartments.
Design work on a nuclear-powered radar picket submarine (SSRN) began in 1954–1955. As initially designed, Triton had a three-level hull, with the Combat Information Center (CIC) (see image) located on the middle level. The overall length was initially , with a beam of . Also, as initially designed, her displacement was 4,800 tons surfaced and 6,500 tons submerged. January 1955 performance estimates called for the SAR propulsion plant to produce , with a surfaced speed of and a submerged speed of . Triton initially had the same dual radar system installed on the non-nuclear radar picket submarines (i.e., BPS-2 search radar and BPS-3 height-finder set) housed in a large, stepped sail (see image). Construction cost was initially estimated at $78,000,000. Subsequent growth of the SAR propulsion plant necessitated the overall increase in Tritons length and tonnage, although without any loss in speed, while the installation of the AN/SPS-26 3-D search radar allowed the elimination of a separate height-finder.
Triton was to be the lead boat of a proposed class of nuclear-powered radar picket submarines. A December 1955 long-range naval planning report envisioned five carrier strike groups, each supported by two radar picket submarines. The total force included two non-nuclear Sailfish-class submarines and eight nuclear submarines. With construction costs for Triton escalating, this long-range requirement was revised in 1957 to provide four nuclear-powered radar picket submarines for a single nuclear-powered carrier group, with the four remaining conventionally powered carrier groups supported by two diesel-electric radar picket submarines each.
At the time of her construction, Triton was the largest submarine ever built. Her knife-like bow, with its bulbous forefoot, provided improved surfaced sea-keeping for her radar picket role. Her surface sea-keeping was further enhanced by high reserve buoyancy (30%), provided by 22 ballast tanks, the most ever in an American submarine. She was the last submarine to have a conning tower, as well as the last American submarine to have twin screws or a stern torpedo room. Her sail was the largest ever aboard an American submarine, measuring long, tall, and wide, and designed to house the large AN/SPS-26 3-D air-search radar antenna when not in use. She also had a compartment solely for crew berthing, with 96 bunks, and two separate chief petty officers' (CPOs') quarters. With an overall length of , Triton was the longest submarine in the history of the United States Navy until the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine was commissioned in 1981.
Propulsion
Triton was the only submarine outside of the Soviet Union designed with a two-reactor propulsion plant. Her S4G reactors were seagoing versions of the land-based S3G reactor prototype. Both reactors composed the Submarine Advanced Reactor (SAR) program, a joint venture between the U.S. Navy, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and General Electric. As originally designed, Tritons total reactor output was rated at . However, Triton achieved during her sea trials (pictured), and her first commanding officer, Captain Edward L. Beach Jr., believed Tritons plant could have reached "had that been necessary."
Both of Tritons reactors share the same compartment, with the number one reactor located forward and the number two reactor located aft within that compartment. The number one reactor supplied steam to the forward engine room and the starboard propeller shaft. The number two reactor supplied steam to the after engine room and the port propeller shaft. Each reactor could individually supply steam for the entire ship, or the reactors could be cross-connected as required. It is this enhanced reliability, redundancy, and dependability of a dual-reactor plant that was a key factor in the selection of Triton to undertake the first submerged circumnavigation of the world.
Tritons dual-reactor plant met a number of operational and engineering objectives, specifically the high speed requirement to meet her radar picket mission, which continues to be a source of speculation and controversy to this day. During the early 1950s, many engineers at Naval Reactors branch of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) were concerned about depending on single-reactor plants for submarine operations, particularly involving under-the-ice Arctic missions. The presence of two de-aerating feed tanks, which are used only on surface warships, suggested that Tritons twin-reactor plant may have served as a testbed for future multi-reactor surface warships. The SAR program was the first production naval reactor developed by General Electric for the U.S. Navy, and GE used this SAR experience for the High Power Reactor (HPR) program that led to the development of the D1G and D2G naval reactors used on , , , and classes of nuclear-powered surface ships.
Finally, the U.S. Navy was debating the best approach to optimize performance, particularly underwater speed, for its nuclear submarine fleet. Triton achieved high speeds through brute horsepower, rather than the more hydrodynamically efficient teardrop-shaped hull form pioneered by which, when combined with nuclear power, allowed to achieve higher speed with less horsepower.
Combat systems
Weapon systems
Tritons armament consisted of six Mark 60 torpedo tubes, four bow and two stern. The Mark 60 system was a -long hydraulic-launch tube that did not have power handling capability. The standard torpedo carried by Triton was the Mark 37, with a weapon load of ten forward and five aft. Tritons first commanding officer, "Ned" Beach, noted the torpedo load in the forward torpedo room could have been doubled with the removal of a single support girder.
Fire control and electronics
Tritons main air search radar was the electronically scanned, three-dimensional AN/SPS-26. This system had a range of and was capable of tracking aircraft up to an altitude of . Since it scanned electronically in elevation, it did not need a separate height-finding set. When not in use, the SPS-26 radar was lowered into its fairwater housing for stowage within Tritons massive sail (pictured). A submarine version of SPS-26, designated BPS-10, was under development at the time of Tritons construction, slated for eventual installation on Triton.
Tritons long-range, passive detecting-ranging sonar was the AN/BQR-7, which had a listening range up to for surfaced or snorkeling submarines, optimized to , with target tracking capability within 5 degrees of accuracy. The chin-mounted AN/BQR-2 passive sonar array supplemented the active BQS-4, with a range up to and a bearing accuracy of 1/10 of degree, allowing the BQR-2 to be used for fire control in torpedo attacks.
Tritons target fire-control system (TFCS) was the Mark 101, a post-war development that incorporated target tracking and ranging data into a position keeper, with a pair of analyzers that automatically revised torpedo gyros and settings as the target position changed. This automation greatly simplified a targeting solution for a plotting party. Previously targeting solutions were manually estimated target bearings which were then fed into the Torpedo Data Computer (TDC), a method used throughout the Pacific War. However, while entirely capable of providing efficient fire control solutions against post-war non-nuclear hunter-killer submarines, the Mark 101 proved to be less responsive to the rapid changes associated with nuclear submarine operations.
The Number One periscope was Tritons navigational periscope, and it had a built-in sextant developed by the Kollmorgen Optical Company that allowed navigators to observe celestial bodies in order to obtain an accurate star fix to plot the ship's course and position.
Construction history
Authorization
The U.S. Navy ordered a "large radar picket using the advanced two-reactor system," designated SCB 132, in October 1955 under the United States Department of Defense appropriation for Fiscal Year 1956. This 1956 shipbuilding program was significant because it included authorization for the construction of eight submarines in total, the largest such order since World War II. Along with Triton, the FY-56 program included four additional nuclear-powered submarines – guided missile submarine Halibut, the lead ship for the , and the final two s, and . The 1956 program not only completed the final authorization for all of the U.S. Navy's first-generation nuclear submarines, but with Skipjack, it also marked the initial authorization for a second-generation nuclear submarine. Finally, the 1956 program included the three submarines of the Diesel-electric , the last non-nuclear attack submarines to be built for the U.S. Navy. Henceforth, the U.S. Navy submarine service would be a nuclear-powered force.
Keel-laying
Tritons keel was laid down on 29 May 1956 in Groton, Connecticut, by the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation. Her length presented Electric Boat with many problems during her construction. She was so long her bow obstructed the slipway's railway facility, used for transporting material around the yard. Consequently, the lower half of her bow was cut away to facilitate yard operations and was re-attached just days prior to her launch. Similarly, the last of her stern was built on an adjoining slip and attached to the rest of the hull before Tritons launch. Her sail was found to be too high to go under the scaffolding, so the top was cut away and re-attached later.
Even before her launch, there was considerable discussion of Tritons role beyond her radar picket mission. An internal Navy memorandum set forth four options for the submarine's extended use. These included configuration to serve as a command ship (SSCN) for a fleet or force commander, an advanced sonar scout for the fleet, a Regulus missile submarine (SSGN), or a minelaying submarine. However, with the exception of the command ship option, all of these proposed configurations required extensive modification of her original design.
Another potential mission was as an underwater tug, able to rescue disabled submarines under the Arctic ice pack. Tritons first commanding officer, Captain Edward L. Beach Jr., requested plans be drawn up for this modification, which he characterized as "easy and inexpensive". Although there was consideration for a deployment to Arctic waters, there is no evidence that Triton was ever employed as an underwater tug.
Launching
Triton was launched on 19 August 1958, with Louise Willis, the wife of Vice Admiral John Wills USN (ret.), as her sponsor. The principal address was delivered by Admiral Jerauld Wright, the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command (CINCLANT), the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANTFLT) and Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) for NATO. Over 35,000 guests attended, the largest crowd to witness a submarine launching up to that time.
Fitting out
On 1 February 1959, Triton was provisionally accepted for service in the U.S. Navy, with Captain Beach, the Prospective Commanding Officer (PCO), now designated as Officer-in-Charge. Triton met several key milestones before her commissioning. On 8 February 1959, reactor No. 2 achieved initial criticality, while reactor No 1 achieved this milestone on 3 April 1959.
Two shipboard accidents occurred during Tritons post-launch fitting-out. On 2 October 1958, prior to the nuclear reactor fuel being installed, a steam valve failed during testing, causing a large cloud of steam that filled the number two reactor compartment, and on 7 April 1959, a fire broke out during the testing of a deep-fat fryer and spread from the galley into the ventilation lines of the crew's mess. Neither incident was nuclear related and both were quickly handled by the boat's personnel, with Lieutenant Commander Leslie D. Kelly, the prospective chief engineering officer, being awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his quick action during the incident on 2 October.
Sea trials
Triton began her sea trials on 27 September 1959. Over the next five days, the boat's systems and equipment were thoroughly tested under the overall direction of Admiral Hyman G. Rickover of the Bureau of Ships' Naval Reactors branch and Captain A. C. Smith, the Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Electric Boat. Triton generated on sea trials, reaching her design surface speed of , and achieved a surface speed well in excess of . Triton subsequently executed a four-hour, full-power submerged run and a crash-back maneuver. The only significant problem encountered during her initial sea trials was the overheating of the lubricating oil system for the starboard propeller shaft spring bearing. At the recommendation of Admiral Rickover, a hose was rigged to spray the bearing housing with a steady stream of sea water to keep the shaft cool, as well as a special watch set to monitor the temperature of the lube oil.
Triton began her preliminary acceptance trials (PAT) on 20 September 1959. These trials were conducted under the supervision of Rear Admiral Francis Douglas McCorkle of the U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). After three days of at-sea tests, Triton was passed by the INSURV as being ready to enter service as a U.S. naval vessel.
Operational history
Commissioning
Triton was commissioned on 10 November 1959 with Captain Edward L. Beach Jr. in command. Vice Admiral Bernard L. Austin, the Deputy CNO for Plans and Policy, made the keynote address, noting:
As the largest submarine ever built, her performance will be carefully followed by naval designers and planners the world over. For many years strategists have speculated on the possibilities of tankers, cargo ships and transports that could navigate under water. Some of our more futuristic dreamers have talked of whole fleets that submerge. Triton is a bold venture into this field.
The widow of the late Rear Admiral Willis A. "Pilly" Lent presented the original ship's bell from the first Triton at the new commissioning ceremony. The late Admiral Lent had been the earlier Tritons first commanding officer. A watercolor painting of the submarine also was presented by the American Water Color Society. The final cost of building Triton, less her reactors, nuclear fuel, and other related costs paid by the AEC, was US$109,000,000, making Triton the most expensive submarine ever built at the time of her commissioning.
Triton was assigned to Submarine Squadron 10, the U.S. Navy's first all-nuclear force, based at State Pier in New London, Connecticut, under the command of Commodore Tom Henry. Triton subsequently completed torpedo trials at Naval Station Newport and conducted other special tests at the Norfolk Navy Base before returning to Electric Boat on 7 December 1959 in order to install special communications equipment, including a prototype of the BRA-3 towed communications buoy system housed in a large fairing located on the after end of the main deck. Work on Triton at Electric Boat was delayed as priority was given to completing the Navy's first two fleet ballistic missile (FBM) submarines, and , with the objective for both vessels to start their first nuclear deterrence patrols before the end of 1960.
On 20 January 1960, Triton got underway to conduct an accelerated series of at-sea testing. Triton returned on 1 February as preparations continued for her forthcoming shakedown cruise, scheduled for departure on 16 February 1960, which involved operating with the command ship , flagship of the U.S. Second Fleet, in northern European waters. On 1 February, Captain Beach received a message from Rear Admiral Lawrence R. "Dan" Daspit (COMSUBLANT) instructing Beach to attend a top secret meeting at The Pentagon on 4 February 1960 that led to the execution of Operation Sandblast, the first submerged circumnavigation of the world.
Shakedown cruise
[[File:Edward L. Beach, Jr.jpg|thumb|right|Captain Beach traces the route of Triton'''s submerged circumnavigation|alt=A balding man holding a small card titled "Ship's Position" writes a black line on a map of the Earth.]]
During her shakedown cruise, Triton successfully executed the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, code named Operation Sandblast, following the same track as the first circumnavigation led by Ferdinand Magellan. The mission's objectives were set forth in the published ship's log (pictured):
For purposes of geophysical and oceanographic research and to determine habitability, endurance and psychological stress – all extremely important to the Polaris program – it had been decided that a rapid round-the-world trip, touching the areas of interest, should be conducted. Maximum stability of the observing platform and unbroken continuity around the world were important. Additionally, for reasons of the national interest it had been decided that the voyage should be made entirely submerged undetected by our own or other forces and completed as soon as possible. TRITON, because of her size, speed and extra dependability of her two-reactor plant, had been chosen for the mission.
The actual mission was summarized by the U.S. Navy's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:
Triton put to sea on her shakedown cruise on 15 February 1960, bound for the South Atlantic. She arrived in the middle Atlantic off St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks on 24 February to commence a history-making voyage. Having remained submerged since her departure from the east coast, Triton continued on south towards Cape Horn, rounded the tip of South America, and headed west across the Pacific. After transiting the Philippine and Indonesian archipelagos and crossing the Indian Ocean, she rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived off the St. Peter and Paul Rocks on 25 April – 60 days and 21 hours after departing the mid-ocean landmark. Only once did her sail break the surface of the sea, when she transferred a sick sailor to USS Macon (CA-132) off Montevideo, Uruguay, on 6 March. She arrived back at Groton, Connecticut, on 10 May, having completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the earth.
Tritons globe-girdling cruise proved invaluable to the United States. Politically, it enhanced the nation's prestige. From an operational viewpoint, the cruise demonstrated the great submerged endurance and sustained high-speed transit capabilities of the first generation of nuclear-powered submarines. Moreover, during the voyage, the submarine collected reams of oceanographic data. At the cruise's conclusion, Triton received the Presidential Unit Citation and Captain Beach received the Legion of Merit from President Dwight D. Eisenhower.Tritons commanding officer during Operation Sandblast, Captain Edward L. Beach, also provided a unique perspective on the circumnavigation in the published log:
The noted historian Bern Dibner placed the significance of Operation Sandblast into historical context:
Also, in his 2000 book Ships of Discovery And Exploration, historian Lincoln P. Paine further noted:
The actual submerged circumnavigation occurred between 24 February and 25 April 1960, covering in 60 days and 21 hours at the average speed of while crossing the Equator on four different occasions. Also, the total duration of Tritons shakedown cruise was 84 days 19 hours 8 minutes, covering , and Triton remained submerged for a total of 83 days 9 hours, covering during her maiden voyage.
The New York Times described Tritons submerged circumnavigation of the world as "a triumph of human prowess and engineering skill, a feat which the United States Navy can rank as one of its bright victories in man's ultimate conquest of the seas."
Initial deployments
Following her post-shakedown availability (PSA), Triton assumed her duties as a radar picket submarine in August 1960. She deployed to northern European waters with the Second Fleet to participate in NATO exercises oriented around detecting and intercepting Soviet bombers overflying the Arctic. Triton also participated in NATO exercises against British naval forces led by the aircraft carriers and under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Charles Madden, RN. For two days during these NATO exercises, Rear Admiral Thomas H. Moorer and his flag lieutenant, Lt. William P. Lawrence, were aboard Triton to observe the submarine's radar-picket operations. At the time, Moorer was serving as Commander Carrier Division Six which included the carriers and . Triton completed her first overseas deployment with a port visit to Bremerhaven, West Germany, the first by a nuclear-powered vessel to a European port, from 2–9 October 1960, with an estimated 8,000 touring the boat during this port-call.
For the first half of 1961, Triton conducted operational patrols and training exercises with the Atlantic Fleet. This included an at-sea exercise involving low-power testing in support of the development of a proposed natural circulation reactor (NCR). She also deployed to monitor the Soviet 50-megaton hydrogen bomb initiation at Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean during late October 1961.
During this period, the rising threat posed by Soviet submarine forces increased the Navy's demands for nuclear-powered attack submarines with antisubmarine warfare (ASW) capability. Following the development of the carrier-based Grumman WF-2 Tracer airborne early warning aircraft, Tritons AN/SPS-26 3-D long-range air search radar was no longer needed, and the development of the submarine version of this 3-D radar system, the BPS-10, was canceled in 1960. Accordingly, upon the demise of the Navy's radar picket submarine program, Triton was redesignated SSN-586 on 1 March 1961.
Overhaul and conversionTriton entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in June 1962 for conversion to an attack submarine. Her crew complement was reduced from 172 to 159. She was overhauled and refueled at Groton, Connecticut, from September 1962 to January 1964, which included modification to serve as the flagship for COMSUBLANT. Since the Navy no longer had any plans to use Tritons radar picket capability, her SPS-26 radar set was replaced by a two-dimensional AN/BPS-2 air search radar, with Triton now providing the fleet with an at-sea air strike control capability.Friedman. U.S. Submarines since 1945, p. 253n13.
Because she subsequently served as COMSUBLANT's flagship following her overhaul, one area of continuing speculation is whether Triton was part of the National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA) program. NECPA was tasked to provide afloat facilities for the President of the United States in case of an emergency or war, with the command cruisers and assigned to perform this mission.Triton had a number of attributes that made her a potential NECPA platform. Her size allowed ample room for additional shipboard systems and personnel accommodations. Her designed speed provided the capability for rapid transit, and her nuclear power plant offered virtually unlimited endurance and range. The Combat Information Center (CIC) provided substantial command and control capabilities as did the communication buoy system that could receive and send radio transmissions while submerged. As she was a submarine, Triton offered superior protection against nuclear-biological-chemical (NBC) contaminants over surface ships or an airborne command centre. However, the record remains unclear if such an explicit NECPA conversion was ever undertaken for Triton.Polmar, The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 15th ed., p. 158.
Subsequent operations
In March 1964, upon completion of her overhaul, Tritons home port was changed from New London, to Norfolk. On 13 April 1964, she became the flagship for COMSUBLANT. On 20 January 1965, Triton rescued the pilot and a passenger of a charter aircraft that had ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.Largess and Horwitz. "USS Triton: The Ultimate Submersible." Warship 1993, p. 184. Triton was relieved as COMSUBLANT's flagship by the on 1 June 1967. Eleven days later, Triton was shifted to her original home port of New London, Connecticut.
Decommissioning and final disposition
Due to cutbacks in defense spending, as well as the expense of operating her twin nuclear reactors, Tritons scheduled 1967 overhaul was canceled, and the submarinealong with 60 other vesselswas slated for inactivation. While Tritons twin reactor plant was designed to be refueled by a submarine tender like other U.S. nuclear submarines, because of the complexity of her zirconium-clad fuel elements, Tritons previous re-fueling had been done in a shipyard during her 1962–1964 overhaul. Although new fuel elements were procured and available for installation, Tritons overhaul was canceled, a source of controversy. One speculation suggests that the cancellation of Tritons overhaul allowed funds to be redirected for the repairs to the supercarrier , which had been extensively damaged off Vietnam.
From October 1968 through May 1969, she underwent preservation and deactivation processes, and she was decommissioned on 3 May 1969. Triton became the U.S. Navy's first nuclear-powered submarine to be taken out of service, and second in the world, after the Soviet Navy's submarine in 1968. On 6 May 1969, Triton departed New London under tow and proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia, where she was placed in the reserve fleet. She remained berthed at Norfolk or at the St. Julien's Creek Annex of Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, into 1993. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry on 30 April 1986. In August 1993, the hulks of the ex-Triton and the ex-Ray were towed by the salvage tug to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS), in Bremerton, Washington, arriving on 3 September 1993, to await their turn in the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program (SRP).
Effective 1 October 2007, ex-Triton landed on the keel resting blocks in the drydock basin to begin recycling (pictured). The long delay in the disposal of ex-Triton has been attributed to the complexity of her dual reactor plant. Final recycling was completed effective 30 November 2009.
Honors and awards
Presidential Unit Citation
On 10 May 1960, Secretary of the Navy William B. Franke presented the Presidential Unit Citation (PUC) to Triton for Operation Sandblast, the first submerged circumnavigation of the world. Chief Torpedoman's Mate Chester Raymond Fitzjarrald, the chief of the boat, accepted the PUC on behalf of Tritons officers and crew. The citation reads:
For meritorious achievement from 16 February 1960 to 10 May 1960. During this period the TRITON circumnavigated the earth submerged, generally following the route of Magellan's historic voyage. In addition to proving the ability of both crew and nuclear submarine to accomplish a mission which required almost three months of submergence, TRITON collected much data of scientific importance. The performance, determination and devotion to duty of the TRITON's crew were in keeping with the highest traditions of the naval service. All members of the crew who made this voyage are authorized to wear the Presidential Unit Citation ribbon with a special clasp in the form of a golden replica of the globe.
Up to that time, this was only the second time that a U.S. Navy vessel had been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for a peacetime mission, with the nuclear submarine receiving the first peacetime PUC in recognition of Operation Sunshine, the first submerged voyage under the North Pole in 1958.Beach. Around the World Submerged, pp. 270, 284. To commemorate the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, all Triton personnel who made that voyage were authorized to wear their Presidential Unit Citation ribbon with a special clasp in the form of a golden replica of the globe (pictured).
Naval Unit Commendation
The citation reads:
For exceptionally meritorious service during a period in 1967. USS Triton conducted important and arduous independent submarine operations of great importance to the national defense of the United States. The outstanding results achieved during the highly successful operations attest to the exceptional professional skill, resourcefulness and ingenuity of Tritons officers and men. Their inspiring performance of duty throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the naval service.
Legacy
Triton plaque
In the eight days prior to Tritons departure on her around-the-world submerged voyage, Captain Beach approached Lt. Tom B. Thamm, Tritons Auxiliary Division Officer, to design a commemorative plaque for their upcoming voyage, as well as the first circumnavigation led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The plaque's eventual design consisted of a brass disk about in diameter, bearing a sailing ship reminiscent of Magellan's carrack, Trinidad, above the submarine dolphin insignia with the years 1519 and 1960 between them, all within a laurel wreath. Outside the wreath is the motto AVE NOBILIS DUX, ITERUM FACTUM EST ("Hail Noble Captain, It Is Done Again").
Commodore Tom Henry, commanding Submarine Squadron 10, supervised the completion of the plaque. The carving of the wooden form was done by retired Chief Electrician's Mate Ernest L. Benson at New London. The actual molding of the plaque was done by the Mystic Foundry.
During the homeward leg of her around-the-world voyage, Triton rendezvoused with the destroyer on 2 May 1960 off Cadiz, Spain, the departure point for Magellan's earlier voyage. Triton broached, and John W. Weeks transferred the finished plaque to Triton for transport back to the United States. The plaque was subsequently presented to the Spanish government by John Davis Lodge, the United States Ambassador to Spain. This plaque is located at the City Hall in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, and it is mounted on the wall of the city hall with a marble slab memorializing the 1960 Triton submerged circumnavigation.
Duplicates of the Triton Plaque were also presented to the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut, and the Naval Historical Association in Washington, D.C., as well as the U.S. Navy Submarine School and the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum, both located in Groton, Connecticut.
Triton memorials
Triton Light is a navigational beacon on the seawall of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where the Severn River meets Spa Creek and the Annapolis harbor. It was donated to the Academy and named for the Greek god by the United States Naval Academy Class of 1945. The crew of Triton provided samples of water taken from the 22 seas through which their boat had sailed during their submerged 1960 circumnavigation. These samples filled a globe built into the Triton Light, and the naming of the light and significance of the globe are explained in a commemorative marker.
Beach Hall is the new headquarters for the United States Naval Institute which was dedicated on 21 April 1999 (pictured). The facility is named after Captain Edward L. Beach Sr., who served as the institute's secretary-treasurer, and his son, Edward L. Beach Jr., who commanded Triton during Operation Sandblast. The dive wheel from Tritons conning tower is on display in the lobby of Beach Hall.Triton was the 2003 inductee into the Submarine Hall of Fame following her nomination by the Tidewater chapter and Hampton Roads Base of the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. (USSVI). A shadow box filled with Triton memorabilia was placed in Alcorn Auditorium of Ramage Hall located at the U.S. Navy Submarine Learning Center, Naval Station Norfolk.
USS Triton Recruit Barracks (Ship 12) was dedicated in ceremonies at the U.S. Navy's Recruit Training Command, Naval Station Great Lakes, near North Chicago, Illinois, on 25 June 2004. The facility honors the memory of two submarines named Triton and includes memorabilia from both. Triton Hall is the fifth barracks constructed under the RTC Recapitalization Project, covering 172,000 square feet (15,979 square meters) in floor space. The facility is designed to accommodate 1056 recruits, and it includes berthing, classrooms, learning resource centers, a galley, a quarterdeck, and a modern HVAC system. On 17 May 2012, in a dedication ceremony, the long-missing ship's bell was added to the collection of artifacts in Recruit Training Command's USS Triton recruit barracks quarterdeck (pictured).
The USS Triton Submarine Memorial Park is located on the Columbia River, at the end of Port of Benton Boulevard in north Richland, Washington. Its purpose is "to establish a permanent park in north Richland in recognition of all the decommissioned reactor cores off-loaded at the Port's barge slip, transported and stored at the Hanford Site."
The park features Tritons sail superstructure (pictured) and an information display on the history of Triton. The park also serves as a tourist attraction, especially due to its location, since Hanford is the resting place of spent reactor cores from several Navy ships. Planning called for the sail to be cut up for transport and reassembled at the park site. Ground-breaking was initially scheduled to take place on 3 April 2008, with the dedication ceremony set for 19 August 2008 and a Fall 2009 start-date for construction. On 23 October 2009, the Port of Benton encased Tritons conning tower in concrete at its new USS Triton Submarine Memorial Park in north Richland, Washington. In mid-December 2009, the final pieces of Tritons sail were welded together at the park's site. During the 11 August 2010 Port of Benton commission meeting, it was reported that bids for the first phase, which includes the park's electrical lighting system and the pouring the concrete around Tritons sail, would be announced shortly by the port authority. The second phase would involve the park's landscaping, and the third phase would be the installation of a parking lot. The park is part of the Richland Riverfront Trail, a marked hiking trail that focuses on the state of Washington's contribution to the nuclear history of the United States, and it connects to the Sacagawea Heritage Trail. The USS Triton Submarine Memorial Park is located off George Washington Way near the Columbia River, and it was formally dedicated on 10 November 2011, the 52nd anniversary of the commissioning of the USS Triton.
In 2011, the USS Triton, Operation Sandblast, and Captain Edward L. Beach Jr., were included in the Technology for the Nuclear Age: Nuclear Propulsion display for the Cold War exhibit at the U.S. Navy Museum in Washington, DC.
Cultural referencesTritons submerged circumnavigation, Operation Sandblast, was the subject of the ABC television series Expedition! broadcast on Tuesday, 14 February 1961. Hosted by John D. Craig, this episode was titled Saga of the Triton, and it featured film footage from Operation Sandblast with voice-over narration extracted from Captain Beach's logbook.Triton is referenced briefly in three popular Cold War novels. In The Last Mayday by Keith Wheeler (1968), Triton is depicted as participating in a submarine training exercise at the beginning of the novel, with special notice made of her large, rectangular sail. In the 1978 novel Cold is the Sea by Edward L. Beach, the second sequel to his 1955 best-seller Run Silent, Run Deep, Triton is mentioned several times. Also, the under-ice towing capability that was considered for Triton served as a key plot point for the novel. Finally, in The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy, the biographical background for Marko Ramius mentions that, while commanding a Charlie-class submarine, Ramius had "hounded [Triton] mercilessly for twelve hours" in the Norwegian Sea. Subsequently, Ramius "would note with no small satisfaction that the Triton was soon thereafter retired, because, it was said, the oversized vessel had proven unable to deal with the newer Soviet designs."
Two films of the period, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Around the World Under the Sea, dramatized globe-circling submerged voyages similar to Operation Sandblast. Also, in the teaser of the episode "Mutiny" of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea television series, broadcast on 11 January 1965, the fictional nuclear submarine Neptune is on her shakedown cruise, under the supervision of Admiral Harriman Nelson (Richard Basehart), and when the submarine's port shaft bearing begins overheating, Admiral Nelson orders a hose be rigged to cool the port shaft down with sea water, the same solution Admiral Rickover had suggested during Tritons sea trials.
The 1960 The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart comedy album included a sketch entitled "The Cruise of the U.S.S. Codfish" which was a monologue involving the final address by the captain to the crew of a nuclear-powered submarine after completing a two-year-long, around-the-world underwater voyage. Bob Newhart noted in a 2006 interview that:
Captain Beach reportedly played "The Cruise of the U.S.S. Codfish" over the ship's public address system during Tritons first overseas deployment in the Fall of 1960.
Antigua-Barbuda issued a commemorative stamp of Tritons 1960 submerged circumnavigation. Also, Triton was the name of one of the submersibles featured in the Submarine Voyage attraction at Disneyland which operated from 1959 to 1998.
50th anniversary of Operation Sandblast
The 50th anniversary of Operation Sandblast and Tritons submerged circumnavigation of the world was celebrated on 10 April 2010, during the 2010 Submarine Birthday Ball held at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantuket, Connecticut, with Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Rick D. West delivering opening remarks (pictured) to the 2,200 attendees. The U.S. Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum sponsored additional events and activities, entitled "9,000 Leagues Under the Sea", between 10 and 12 April and 14–18 April 2010.
Also, on 9 April 2010, retired Admiral Henry G. Chiles Jr., who served in Triton from 1963 to 1966, was the keynote speaker at the graduation class of the Basic Enlisted Submarine School at the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Connecticut. The graduation class was named in honor of Triton, and each graduate received a certificate of course completion and a commemorative coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of Tritons submerged circumnavigation. The Dolphin Scholarship Foundation used the 50th anniversary of Operation Sandblast to promote its Race Around the World fund-raising program to support its Dolphin Scholarship program. Finally, former members of Tritons crew received commemorative souvenirs of the ship's pressure hull at their 2010 re-union.
On 25 April 2010, the University of Texas Marine Science Institute posted a radio program article on its Science and the Sea web site commemorating Operation Sandblast and Triton.
For the 50th anniversary of Operation Sandblast, writer-historian Carl LaVO wrote "Incredible Voyage" for the June 2010 edition of Naval History magazine, and John Beach wrote "The First Submerged Circumnavigation" for the April 1960 issue of The Submarine Review, the official magazine of the Naval Submarine League. Mr. Beach is the nephew of Captain Edward L. Beach, the commanding officer of the USS Triton during Operation Sandblast. Finally, the Naval Institute Press published Beneath the Waves by Dr. Edward F. Finch, a 2010 biography of the late Captain Beach, which includes extensive coverage of Operation Sandblast.
The legacy of Operation Sandblast on its 50th anniversary was summarized by retired Captain James C. Hay who had served on Triton during the historic submerged around-the-world voyage. On the editorial page of the April 1960 issue of The Submarine Review'', the official magazine of the Naval Submarine League, Captain Hay noted:
It is truly a cruise which tested the crew's mettle and proved the skipper's tenacity. More than that, however, it again proved to all who cared to listen that the U.S. Navy could go anywhere, at any time, and do what ever was required. It's a good sea story about doing what had to be done. On the fiftieth anniversary of the First Submerged Circumnavigation it's a good thing to do to re-read about one of the forerunners of all we're done since.
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Triton Park – Port of Benton, Washington , this now is an Archived link.
Radar picket ships of the United States Navy
Experimental nuclear submarines of the United States Navy
1958 ships
Ships built in Groton, Connecticut
Edward L. Beach Jr.
Nuclear submarines of the United States Navy
Cold War submarines of the United States
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case%20citation
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Case citation
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Case citation is a system used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions, either in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported. Case citations are formatted differently in different jurisdictions, but generally contain the same key information.
A legal citation is a "reference to a legal precedent or authority, such as a case, statute, or treatise, that either substantiates or contradicts a given position." Where cases are published on paper, the citation usually contains the following information:
Court that issued the decision
Report title
Volume number
Page, section, or paragraph number
Publication year
In some report series, for example in England, Australia and some in Canada, volumes are not numbered independently of the year: thus the year and volume number (usually no greater than 4) are required to identify which book of the series has the case reported within its covers. In such citations, it is usual in these jurisdictions to apply square brackets "" to the year (which may not be the year that the case was decided: for example, a case decided in December 2001 may have been reported in 2002).
The Internet brought with it the opportunity for courts to publish their decisions on websites and most published court decisions now appear in that way. They can be found through many national and other websites, such as WorldLII and AfricanLII, that are operated by members of the Free Access to Law Movement.
The resulting flood of non-paginated information has led to numbering of paragraphs and the adoption of a medium-neutral citation system. This usually contains the following information:
Year of decision
Abbreviated title of the court
Decision number (not the court file number)
Rather than utilizing page numbers for pinpoint references, which would depend upon particular printers and browsers, pinpoint quotations refer to paragraph numbers.
Pronunciation of case titles
In common law countries with an adversarial system of justice, the names of the opposing parties are separated in the case title by the abbreviation v (usually written as v in Commonwealth countries and usually as v. in the U.S.) of the Latin word versus, which means against. When case titles are read out loud, the v can be pronounced, depending on the context, as and, against, versus, or vee.
Commonwealth pronunciation
Most Commonwealth countries follow English legal style:
Civil cases are pronounced with and. For example, Smith v Jones would be pronounced "Smith Jones".
Criminal cases are pronounced with against. For example, R v Smith would be pronounced "the Crown Smith". The Latin words Rex, Regina, and versus are all rendered into English.
In Australia and the United Kingdom, versus and vee are arguably incorrect.
In Scotland, both civil and criminal cases are pronounced using "against" in the place of "v".
American pronunciation
In the United States, there is no consensus on the pronunciation of the abbreviation v. This has led to much confusion about the pronunciation and spelling of court cases:
Versus is most commonly used, leading some newspapers to use the common abbreviation vs. in place of the legal abbreviation v.
Against is a matter of personal style. For example, Warren E. Burger and John Paul Stevens preferred to announce cases at the Supreme Court with against.
And is used by some law professors, but other law professors regard it as an affectation.
Vee is used almost exclusively for Roe v. Wade, probably due to its widespread invocation in American culture.
During oral arguments in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), the participants demonstrated the lack of consensus on the pronunciation of "v.", using different pronunciations. Solicitor General Ken Starr even managed to use all three of the most common American pronunciations interchangeably:
Australia
Legal citation in Australia generally mirrors the methods of citation used in England. A widely used guide to Australian legal citation is the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (commonly known as AGLC), published jointly by the Melbourne University Law Review and the Melbourne Journal of International Law.
The standard case citation format in Australia is:
As in Canada, there has been divergence among citation styles. There exist commercial citation guides published by Butterworths and other legal publishing companies, academic citation styles and court citation styles. Each court in Australia may cite the same case slightly differently. There is presently a movement in convergence to the comprehensive academic citation style of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation published jointly by the Melbourne University Law Review and the Melbourne Journal of International Law.
Reports
Neutral citation
Australian courts and tribunals have now adopted a neutral citation standard for case law. The format provides a naming system that does not depend on the publication of the case in a law report. Most cases are now published on AustLII using neutral citations.
The standard format looks like this:
So the above-mentioned Mabo case would then be cited like this: Mabo v Queensland (No 2) [1992] HCA 23.
There is a unique court identifier code for most courts. The court and tribunal identifiers include:
References
Australian Guide to Legal Citation
Canada
The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation
There are a number of citation standards in Canada. Many legal publishing companies and schools have their own standard for citation. Since the late 1990s, however, much of the legal community has converged to a single standard—formulated in The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation / Manuel canadien de la référence juridique, commonly known as the "McGill Guide" after the McGill Law Journal, which first published it. The following format reflects this standard:
Hunter v Southam, [1984] 2 SCR 145.
Broken into its component parts, the format is:
The Style of Cause is italicized as in all other countries and the party names are separated by v (English) or c (French). Prior to 1984 the appellant party would always be named first. However, since then case names do not switch order when the case is appealed.
Undisclosed parties to a case are represented by initials (e.g., R v RDS). Criminal cases are prosecuted by the Crown, which is always represented by R for Regina (queen) or Rex (king). Reference questions (advisory opinions) are always entitled Reference re followed by the subject title.
If the year of decision is the same as the year of the report and the date is a part of the reporter's citation, then the date need not be listed after the style of cause. If the date of the decision is different from the year of the report, then both should be shown.
Where available, cases should be cited with their neutral citation immediately after the style of cause and preceding the print citation. For example,
Chaoulli v Quebec (Attorney General), 2005 SCC 35, [2005] 1 SCR 791.
This format was adopted as the standard in 2006, in the sixth edition of the McGill Guide. Prior to this format, the opposite order of parallel citation was used.
The seventh edition of the McGill Guide, published 2010-08-20, removes most full stop/period (".") characters from the citations, e.g., a citation to the Supreme Court Reports that previously would have been [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791, is now [2005] 1 SCR 791. Most full stops are also removed from styles of cause. The seventh edition also further highlights the significance of neutral citations (i.e., tribunal-assigned citations that are publisher-independent).
Reports
Neutral citation
In 1999 the Canadian Judicial Council adopted a neutral citation standard for case law. The format provides a naming system that does not depend on the publication of the case in a law report.
The standard format looks like this:
Court identifiers
There is a unique court identifier code for most courts.
Denmark
Denmark has no official standard or style guide governing case citation. However, most case citations include the same elements.
Published decisions
Citations of decisions published in a reporter usually consist of the name or abbreviation of the reporter, the year or volume, the page number where the decision begin (sometimes followed by an identifying number if more than one judgment is on a page), as well as the name or abbreviation of the court which decided the case. As an example, the "Aalborg Kloster-judgment", a precedent-setting Supreme Court judgment regarding strict liability, is published in Ugeskrift for Retsvæsen volume 1968 as the second judgment on page 84. A citation of this case could take the form , , , or something similar. In this case U, UfR and Ugeskrift for Retsvæsen identify the reporter, 1968 identifies the year or volume, 84 identifies the starting page, /2 indicates that the judgment is the second one on that particular page, and H identifies the court which decided the case.
Certain reporters, such as Tidsskrift for Skatter og Afgifter, do not identify published decisions by page number, but by a serial number. Citations to these reporters use the serial number in place of a page number.
Unpublished decisions
If a decision has not been published in a reporter, more identifying information is needed. Generally, citations to unreported cases involve the name of the court, the date of the decision and the case number assigned by the court. For example: Sø- og Handelsrettens dom af 3. maj 2018 i sag nr. V-17-17 (The Maritime and Commercial Court's judgment of May 3 in case no. V-17-17). Certain authors format these citations to mimic the "short citation" of published cases.
Neutral citations and the ECLI
The Danish Court Administration is currently working on a public database which will make all judgments available to the public (currently only the Supreme Court as well as the Maritime and Commercial Court do this). The database is expected to implement the European Case Law Identifier, which will make uniform, neutral citations of decisions possible.
Reporters
References
Biao v. Denmark, no. 38590/10, § 26
Christensen v. Denmark, no. 247/07, § 59
FT 2015-16, appendix A (L 22 as submitted), pp. 9–10
Jersild v. Denmark, no. 15890/89, § 18
Germany
In Germany there are two types of citation: the full citation of a case and its shortened form. In e.g. scientific articles, the full citation of a particular case is only used at its first occurrence; after that, its shortened form is used. In most law journals, the articles themselves only use the shortened form; the full citations for all articles sometimes are summarized at the beginning of that journals edition.
A third type (yet not too widely spread) is the citation by using the European Case Law Identifier, a ″neutral″ citation system introduced by the Council of the European Union in 2011, which Germany is participating in.
Federal Constitutional Court
The most important cases of the Federal Constitutional Court are published by the court in its official collection. This collection is abbreviated BVerfGE, whereas BVerfG is short for , the German court name, and E stands for (decision).
Starting in 2004, the court also publishes the BVerfGK collection, containing decisions made only by a , a specific panel of the court.
The so-called for example could be cited
BVerfGE 65, 1 (43), Urteil des Ersten Senats vom 15. Dezember 1983 auf die mündliche Verhandlung vom 18. und 19. Oktober 1983, Az. 1 BvR 209, 269, 362, 420, 440, 484/83.
in full and
BVerfGE 65, 1 (43).
in short.
For the meaning of the different case numbers of the BVerfG see the German article.
If decisions are not yet published by the court, or will not be published at all, law journals can be cited, e.g.,
BVerfG, NJW 2009, 1234 (1235 f.).
Where NJW stands for the law journal Neue Juristische Wochenschrift, 2009 is the year, 1234 the page of the beginning and 1235 the cited page(s) – "f." stands for "seq.". In general, citations of the official collections are preferred.
Federal Court of Justice
The Federal Court of Justice (, short BGH) publishes the official collections for its criminal law decisions and for those in private law.
The e.g. would be cited
BGHSt 35, 347 ff., Urteil des 4. Strafsenats vom 15. September 1988, Az. 4 StR 352/88.
in full and
BGHSt 35, 347 ff.
in short (in this example, the page cited is not specifically page 347 but that and those which follow, as indicated by the abbreviation "ff.").
Other federal courts
The official collection of the Federal Social Court (, BSG) is abbreviated .
The official collection of the Federal Fiscal Court (, BFH) is .
The official collection of the Federal Labour Court (, BAG) is .
The official collection of the Federal Administrative Court (, BVerwG) is .
Other courts
For other courts, generally the same rules apply, though most do not publish an official collection, so they must be cited from a law journal.
European Case Law Identifier
According to the ECLI system the Volkszählungsurteil would be cited as
and the Katzenkönigfall as
India
India's vast federated judicial system admits to a large number of reporters, each with their own style of citation. There are over 200 law reports in India – subject-wise and state (province)-wise, authorized and unauthorized.
Supreme Court of India
The official reporter for Supreme Court decisions is the Supreme Court Reports. These reports however lag behind other journals in the speed of reporting. While decisions themselves are uploaded by the Supreme Court itself on www.courtnic.nic.in, the edited versions with headnotes in the official reporter take years to compile. However, some reporters have been authorised to publish the Court's decisions. The All India Reporter (AIR) is an old and respected reporter that, in addition to the Supreme Court, also reports decisions of the various State High Courts. Other popular reporters include Supreme Court Cases, which has become the most cited report in the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court Almanac, and Judgements Today.
Sebastian Hongray v. Union of India:
AIR 1984 SC 571 – "AIR" refers to the All India Reporter, "1984" is the year of judgement (AIR does not use a volume-based classification), "SC" refers to the Supreme Court of India, and "571" is the first page number of the report within the volume;
(1984) 1 SCC 339 – "1984" is the year of publication, "1" is the volume number of the reporter, "SCC" stands for Supreme Court Cases (the name of the reporter), and "339" is the first page number of the report within the volume; and
1984 Cri LJ 289 (SC) – "1984" is the year of publication, "Cri LJ" is an abbreviation for the Criminal Law Journal (the name of the reporter), and "289" is the first page number of the report within the volume. The "SC" in parentheses indicates that the case was heard by the Supreme Court.
A citation of the "Supreme Court Almanac":
Additional Secretary, Government of India v. Alka Subhash Gadia (1990) 2 Scale 1352
A citation in "Judgements Today":
Premium Granites v. State of Tamil Nadu JT (1994) 1 SC 374
The "Supreme Court Cases (SCC)" published supplementary reports for a few years in the early 1990s. Those citations looked like this:
Federation of Mining Associations v. State of Rajasthan 1992 Supp (2) SCC 239, which points to page 239 of the Second Supplementary Volume of the SCC reports in the year 1992. From 1996 the Supplementary Volumes were numbered in sequence after the regular volumes.
The SCC also have a separate series of subject-based reporting of the decisions of the Supreme Court:
Rathinam Nagbhushan Patnaik v. Union of India 1994 SCC (Cri) 740, which refers to the SCC Criminal Reports
Delhi Transport Corporation v. Mazdoor Congress 1991 SCC (L&S) 1213, which refers to the SCC Labour & Services Reports
National Judicial Reference System (NJRS)
National Judicial Reference System (NJRS) is a project started by the Income-tax Department, Government of India. It has been envisaged as a tool to achieve efficiency in the tax litigation process of Income Tax Department (ITD). Within this project the Judicial Research & Reference System (JRRS) – JRRS is a repository of judicial orders as a single, indexed, searchable, cross-linked, database of Judgments / orders of ITAT, Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR), HC and SC.
The Citation nomenclature followed within NJRS :
Chandra Ranganathan & Ors. v. Commissioner of Income-tax 2009-LL-1021, which refers to NJRS citations.
This Citation further allows to add the Authority where the judgment / order was pronounced.
Chandra Ranganathan & Ors. v. Commissioner of Income-tax 2009-LL-1021-SC, which refers to NJRS citations.
New Zealand
The standard case citation format in New Zealand is:
Several leading law reviews in New Zealand have also adopted the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) such as the Canterbury Law Review. The AGLC style is also rather similar to citation style in New Zealand.
Reporters
Additionally, a number of other report series exist for specialist areas such as Family, Employment and Tax Law.
Neutral citation
New Zealand courts and tribunals have begun to adopt a neutral citation standard for case law. The format provides a naming system that does not depend on the publication of the case in a law report.
The standard format looks like this:
There is a unique court identifier for each court or tribunal. These identifiers are:
Where both a neutral citation and a reporter citation exist, the neutral citation should come first e.g. R v AM [2010] NZCA 114, [2010] 2 NZLR 750
Norway
The Norwegian standard case citation format for published court decisions is:
Rt. 1952 s. 989 (Telefonsjikanedommen)
where:
Rt. identifies the report series.
All supreme court judgments are published in Retstidende (Court Times), abbreviated Rt.
Many judgments and decisions from lower courts are published in Rettens gang (RG).
1952 is the year of reporter
s. is the Norwegian abbreviation for page. This is optional.
989 is the first page number of the decision in the reporter.
Finally, one can add the popular name of the decision. It is unusual to refer to name of the plaintiff(s) and defendant(s), but often there is an unofficial name. Telefonsjikanedommen refers to a 1952 case where the Supreme Court ruled that telephone harassment ("telefonsjikane") was not illegal under the current criminal code.
Philippines
Despite the long-standing civil law tradition in the Philippines, reliance on judicial precedents has become indispensable since the period of American rule. Supreme Court decisions are expressly recognized as part of the internal law, and are thus frequently cited in court decisions and legal pleadings. Though there is only one Supreme Court in the Philippines, the citation of its decisions varies, depending on which reporter of a case is relied on by the person citing that case.
Supreme Court
Philippine Reports
The Philippine Reports is the official reporter of decisions of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. The standard format for citation of the Philippine Reports is:
People v. Flores, 442 Phil. 561 (2002)
where:
People v. Flores is the name of the case
442 is the volume number of the Philippine Reports where the case may be found
Phil. is the standard abbreviation of Philippine Reports
561 is the page number in the Philippine Reports that contains the beginning of the decision. If this number is followed by a comma then another page number (i.e., 442 Phil. 561, 563), the latter number indicates the particular page where the annotated text can be found
(2002) is the year the case was decided.
As of present, Philippine cases are contained in quarterly issues.The Supreme Court Reports Annotated or SCRA are cited as such:
Juarez v. Court of Appeals 214 SCRA 475
where 214 is the volume of the book, and 475 is the page number. There are already over 700 SCRAs in circulation.
Supreme Court Reports Annotated
In the last few decades, the Philippine Reports has suffered from production problems, resulting in long delays in publication, as well as significant gaps within its published series. As a result, the privately published Supreme Court Reports Annotated (published by Central Professional Books, Inc.) has become more widely used than the Philippine Reports, even by the courts. The proper format for citation of the Supreme Court Reports Annotated is:
Fortich v. Corona, G.R. No. 131457, 24 April 1998, 289 SCRA 624
where:
Fortich v. Corona is the name of the case
G.R. No. 131457 is the case docket number originally assigned by the Supreme Court at the time the action was filed with the Court (G.R. stands for General Register)
24 April 1998 is the exact date the decision of this case was promulgated
289 is the volume number of the Supreme Court Reports Annotated where the case may be found
SCRA is the standard abbreviation of Supreme Court Reports Annotated
624 is the page number in the Supreme Court Reports Annotated that contains the beginning of the decision. If this number is followed by a comma then another page number (i.e., 289 SCRA 624, 627), the latter number indicates the particular page where the annotated text can be found
When citing cases not yet reported in the SCRA or Philippine Reports, the above citation without reference to the SCRA is preferred (i.e., Fortich v. Corona, G.R. No. 131457, 24 April 1988)
Lower court decisions
As there are no official or unofficial reporters that regularly publish decisions of the Court of Appeals and other lower courts, citation of their decisions hews to the same format as cases not reported either in the Philippine Reports or the SCRA. Thus: (case name), (docket number), (date of promulgation of decision). For the Court of Appeals, docket numbers begin as CA-G.R. No., followed by either CR for criminal, CV for civil, and SP for the "Special Cases Section".
South Africa
Cape
Eastern Districts
Griqualand
Natal
Orange
Transvaal
Switzerland
Citations vary by court and by language. Cases of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court are cited as follows:
Officially published cases are cited as BGE 133 II 292 [E. 3.2 S. 296] (German: Bundesgerichtsentscheide) or ATF 133 II 292 [consid. 3.2 p. 296] (French: arrêts du tribunal fédéral). In this example, 133 is the annual issue of the court reports, II the part indicating the division of the Court, and 292 the page on which the decision begins. Optionally, "E. 3.2" and "S. 296" are the section and page specifically cited.
Supreme Court decisions not selected for official publication are cited as Urteil [des Bundesgerichts] 5C.260/2006 vom 30. März 2007 or arrêt [du Tribunal fédéral] 5C.260/2006 du 30 mars 2007 respectively. In this example, 5C is the division of the Court, 260 the case number and 2006 the year in which the case was opened.
The citation style for cases of the inferior federal courts of Switzerland is similar.
United Kingdom
Neutral citation
Since 2001, judgments in the House of Lords, Privy Council, Court of Appeal and Administrative Court have been issued with neutral citations. This system was extended to other parts of the High Court in 2002. Judgments with neutral citations are freely available on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute website (www.bailii.org).
Neutral citations identify judgments independently of any series of reports, and cite only parties, year of judgment, court and case number. For example, Rottman v MPC [2002] UKHL 20 identifies the 20th judgment in 2002 in the UK House of Lords. UKHL stands for UK House of Lords. EWHC and EWCA identify the England and Wales High Court and Court of Appeal respectively. These abbreviations are generally followed by an abbreviation indicating the court or division (e.g. Admin, Ch, Crim, Pat).
How to cite a case
If a neutral citation is available for a judgment, it should immediately follow the party names. If the judgment has also been reported in a law reports series, follow the neutral citation with the best report, which is usually from the official Law Reports series (Appeals Cases – AC, Chancery – Ch, Family – Fam, Queen's Bench – QB etc.).
The case of Rottman v MPC was reported in the Appeals Cases, so the citation should be:
Rottman v MPC [2002] UKHL 20, [2002] 2 AC 692.
This means that a report of the case and the judgment can be found in the 2002 volumes, vol 2, of the Law Reports series called Appeals Cases, beginning at page 692.
To cite a particular paragraph from the judgment, add the paragraph number in square brackets at the end of the citation:
Rottman v MPC [2002] UKHL 20, [2002] 2 AC 692 [58].
If a case is not reported in the Law Reports, the next best report is the Weekly Law Reports (e.g. [2002] 2 WLR 1315), and then the All England Reports (e.g., [2002] 2 All ER 865). In some situations, it might be preferable to cite a specialist series, e.g., Rottman v MPC was also cited in the Human Rights Law Reports, at [2002] HRLR 32.
For cases before 2001, cite the best report. If referring to a particular page of the judgment, give that page number after the page number on which the report begins. The following citation refers to page 573 of the Donoghue v Stevenson judgment:
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562, 573.
See Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities
England and Wales
The standard case citation format in England and Wales is:
In England and Wales as with certain Commonwealth countries, the abbreviation "R" for rex (king) or regina (queen), is used for cases in which the state is a party (typically criminal cases or judicial review cases). If the Attorney General for England and Wales or the Director of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales) prosecute the case, the abbreviation "AG" or "DPP" will be used instead of "R"
Square brackets "[ ]" are used when the year is essential to locating the report (e.g., the official law reports either—as with Donoghue v Stevenson, above—do not have volume numbers or, if there are multiple volumes in a single year, they are numbered 1, 2, etc.). Round brackets "( )" are used when the year is not essential but is useful for information purposes, e.g., in reports that have a cumulative volume number such as R v Dudley and Stephens, above.
Law reports
The term "reporter", meaning a law report or a series of them, is not widely used in England and Wales. Before 1865, English courts used a large number of privately printed reports, and cases were cited based on which report they appeared in. (This system was also used in the United States and other common law jurisdictions during that period.)
Two main unofficial law reports report all areas of law: the Weekly Law Reports (WLR) and the All England Reports (All ER). In addition, a number of unofficial specialist law reports focus on particular areas, e.g., Entertainment and Media Law Reports (EMLR) or the Criminal Appeal Reports (Cr App R).
For the citation of "The Law Reports" of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, see Law Reports. These have been published since 1865. They have always been split into a number of different series, the current series being the Appeal Cases (AC), Chancery (Ch), Family (Fam), and Queen's Bench (QB) (or King's Bench—KB—depending on the monarch of the time). These four series are cited in preference to all others in court.
The table below is an incomplete list of law reports other than "The Law Reports", nominate reports and reprints.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Abbreviation
! Law Report
! years
|- valign="top"
| All ER
| The All England Law Reports
| 1936 –
|- valign="top"
|BCLC
|Butterworths Company Law Cases
|1983 –
|- valign="top"
|BHRC
|Butterworths Human Rights Cases
|1996 –
|- valign="top"
|BMLR
|Butterworths Medico-Legal Reports
|???? –
|- valign="top"
|Con LR
|Construction Law Reports
|1985 –
|- valign="top"
|Cox CC
|Cox's Criminal Cases
|1843–1941
|- valign="top"
|Cr App R
|Criminal Appeal Reports
|1908 –
|- valign="top"
|Cr App R (S)
|Criminal Appeal Reports (Sentencing)
|1979 –
|- valign="top"
|Crim LR
|The Criminal Law Review
|
|- valign="top"
|ECHR
|European Court of Human Rights Cases
|1960 –
|- valign="top"
|EGLR
|Estates Gazette Law Reports
|1975 –
|- valign="top"
|FCR
|Family Court Reports
|1987 –
|- valign="top"
|FLR
|Family Law Reports
|1864 –
|- valign="top"
|GCCR
|Goode Consumer Credit Reports
|1882 –
|- valign="top"
|The Independent
|The Independent
|
|- valign="top"
|IRLR
|Industrial Relations Law Reports
|1972 –
|- valign="top"
|IP & T
|Butterworths Intellectual Property and Technology Cases
|1999 –
|- valign="top"
|JP
|Justice of the Peace Law Reports
|2003 –
|- valign="top"
|ITLR
|International Tax Law Reports
|1998 –
|- valign="top"
|Lloyd's Rep
|Lloyd's Law Reports
|1919 –
|- valign="top"
|LGR
|Butterworths Local Government Reports
|1997 –
|- valign="top"
|LRC
|Law Reports of the Commonwealth
|1985 –
|- valign="top"
|LT
|The Law Times Reports
|1859 – 1947
|- valign="top"
|LT (OS)
|The Law Times Reports, Old Series
|1843 – 1859
|- valign="top"
|OPLR
|Occupational Pensions Law Reports
|1992 –
|- valign="top"
|PLR
|Estates Gazette Planning Law Reports
|1988 –
|- valign="top"
|RPC
|Reports of Patent Cases
|1939 –
|- valign="top"
|SJ
|The Solicitors' Journal
|1856 -
|- valign="top"
|STC
|Simon's Tax Cases
|1973 –
|- valign="top"
|TC
|Official Tax Case Reports
|1883 –
|- valign="top"
|The Times
|The Times
|
|- valign="top"
|TLR
|The Times Law Reports
|1885 – 1952
|- valign="top"
|WLR
|The Weekly Law Reports
|1953 –
|- valign="top"
|WN
|Weekly Notes
|1866 – 1952
|}
The table below is a list of series that are reprints of earlier reports.
For nominate reports, see Nominate reports.
Scotland
The standard case citation formats in Scotland are:
The Supreme Court has issued a practice note on the use of neutral citation. The Scots Law Times is cited as "SLT".
United States
The standard case citation format in the United States is:Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
where:Roe v. Wade is the abbreviated name of the case. Generally, the first name (here, Roe) is the surname of the plaintiff, who is the party who filed the suit for an original case, or the appellant, the party appealing in a case being appealed from a lower court, or the petitioner when litigating in the high court of a jurisdiction; and the second name (here, Wade) is the surname of the defendant, the party responding to the suit, or the appellee, the party responding to the appeal, or the respondent, when defending in the high court of the jurisdiction. Litigants are generally referred to by their last name (when they are natural persons), and a case is generally referred to by the first named litigant on each side of the case. In this example, Roe refers to "Jane Roe," a pseudonym commonly used when it is appropriate to keep the identity of a litigant out of the public spotlight, and Wade refers to Henry Wade, the Dallas County District Attorney at the time.
410 is the volume number of the "reporter" that reported the Court's written opinion in the case titled Roe v. Wade.
U.S. is the abbreviation of the reporter, or printed book of court opinions. Here, "U.S." stands for United States Reports.
113 is the page number (in volume 410 of United States Reports) where the opinion begins.
1973 is the year when the court rendered its decision.
The abbreviated name of the court is included inside the parenthesis before the year if the name of the court is not obvious from the reporter. This rule comes into play because certain reporters, such as members of the West National Reporter System, publish opinions originating from multiple courts. In this example, the name of the court (United States Supreme Court) is obvious (since only decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are published in United States Reports) and is thus omitted as a matter of convention.
Case citations are used to find a particular case, both when looking up a case in a printed reporter and when accessing it via the Internet or services such as LexisNexis or Westlaw.
This format also allows different cases with the same parties to be easily differentiated. For example, looking for the U.S. Supreme Court case of Miller v. California would yield four cases, some involving different people named Miller, and each involving different issues.
Supreme Court of the United States
Cases from the Supreme Court of the United States are officially printed in the United States Reports. A citation to the United States Reports looks like this:Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
Many court decisions are published in more than one reporter. A citation to two or more reporters for a given court decision is called a "parallel citation". For U.S. Supreme Court decisions, there are several unofficial reporters, including the Supreme Court Reporter (abbreviated S. Ct.) and United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (commonly known simply as Lawyers' Edition) (abbreviated L. Ed.), which are printed by private companies and provide further annotations to the opinions of the Court. Although a citation to the latter two is not required, some attorneys and legal writers prefer to cite all three case reporters at once:Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S. Ct. 1678, 14 L. Ed. 2d 510 (1965)
The "2d" after the L. Ed. signifies the second series of the Lawyers' Edition. United States case reporters are sequentially numbered, but the volume number is never higher than 999. When the 1,000th volume is reached (the threshold in earlier years was lower), the volume number is reset to 1 and a "2d" is appended after the reporter's abbreviation. Some case reporters are in their third series, and a few are approaching their fourth.
Some very old Supreme Court cases have odd-looking citations, such as Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803). The "(1 Cranch)" refers to the fact that, before there was a reporter series known as the United States Reports compiled by the Supreme Court's Reporter of Decisions, cases were gathered, bound together, and sold privately by the Court's Reporter of Decisions. In this example, Marbury was first reported in an edition by William Cranch, who was responsible for publishing Supreme Court reports from 1801 to 1815. Such reports, named for the individual who gathered them and hence called "nominative reports", existed from 1790 to 1874. Beginning in 1874, the U.S. government created the United States Reports, and at the same time simultaneously numbered the volumes previously published privately as part of a single series and began numbering sequentially from that point. In this way, "5 U.S. (1 Cranch)" means that it is the 5th overall volume of the United States Reports series, but the first that was originally published by William Cranch; four volumes of opinions prior to that were (for example) published by Alexander Dallas (for example, "4 U.S. (4 Dall.)"), and after Cranch's 9 volumes, 12 more were published by Henry Wheaton (e.g., "15 U.S. (2 Wheat.)"). See the Supreme Court of the United States Reporter of Decisions for other edition names. The name of the reporter of decisions has not been used in citations since the U.S. government began printing the United States Reports.
When a case has been decided, but not yet published in the case reporter, the citation may note the volume but leave blank the page of the case reporter until it is determined. For example, Golan v. Holder, 565 U.S. 302 (2012) was properly cited as Golan v. Holder, before publication.
In the caption of a Supreme Court case, the first name listed is the name of the petitioning (appealing) party, followed by the party responding (respondent) to the appeal. In most cases, the appealing party was the losing party in the prior court. This is no longer the practice used in cases in the federal courts of appeal, in which the original alignment of parties from the lower court is preserved.
Lower federal courts
United States court of appeals cases are published in the Federal Reporter (F., F.2d, or F.3d). United States district court cases and cases from some specialized courts are published in the Federal Supplement (F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d, or F. Supp. 3d). Both series are published by Thomson West; they are technically unofficial reporters, but have become widely accepted as the de facto "official" reporters of the lower federal courts because of the absence of a true official reporter. (Of the federal appeals and district courts, only one, the D.C. Circuit, has an official reporter, United States Court of Appeals Reports, and even that one is rarely used today.)
When lower federal court opinions are cited, the citation includes the name of the court. This is placed in the parentheses immediately before the year. Some examples:Geary v. Visitation of Blessed Virgin Mary School, 7 F.3d 324 (3d Cir. 1993) – a 1993 case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third CircuitGlassroth v. Moore, 229 F. Supp. 2d 1290 (M.D. Ala. 2002) – a 2002 case in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
U.S. circuit and district court cases from 1789 to 1880 were reported in Federal Cases, abbreviated F. Cas. An example of the citation form is: Wheaton v. Peters, 29 F. Cas. 862 (C.C.E.D. Pa. 1832) (No. 17,486).
State courts
State court decisions are published in several places. Many states have their own official state reporters, which publish decisions of one or more of that state's courts. Reporters that publish decisions of a state's highest court are abbreviated the same as the state's name (note: this is the traditional abbreviation, not the postal abbreviation), regardless of what the actual title of the reporter is. Thus, the official reporter of decisions of the California Supreme Court (titled California Reports) is abbreviated "Cal." (or, for subsequent series, "Cal. 2d," "Cal. 3d", or "Cal. 4th").Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., 248 N.Y. 339 (1928), a case in the New York Court of Appeals, reported in New York Reports. Note that the New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in New York. Because the New York Reports only report opinions of the New York Court of Appeals, there is no need to repeat the court designation before the year.Green v. Chicago Tribune Company, 286 Ill. App. 3d 1 (1996) – a case in the Illinois Appellate Court, reported in Illinois Appellate Court Reports. Note that, in contrast to New York, the Illinois Appellate Court is only the intermediate court of appeals in Illinois; decisions of the Illinois Supreme Court are reported in Illinois Reports, abbreviated "Ill." (or "Ill. 2d"). Because the Illinois Appellate Court Reports are dedicated solely to reporting decisions of the Illinois Appellate Court, there is no need to repeat the court designation before the year.Harte v. Hand, 438 N.J. Super. 545 (Ch. Div. 2014). Note that although all published opinions of the New Jersey Superior Court are published in the New Jersey Superior Court Reports, the organization of the Superior Court into three divisions (the Law Division, the Chancery Division, and the Appellate Division) means the citation must specify which division issued the opinion. This is especially salient as the Appellate Division hears appeals from the Law and Chancery Divisions, as occurred with the example case (a rehearing on remand of Harte v. Hand, 433 N.J. Super. 457 (App. Div. 2013)).
In addition to the official reporters, Thomson West publishes several series of "regional reporters" that cover several states each. These are the North Eastern Reporter, Atlantic Reporter, South Eastern Reporter, Southern Reporter, South Western Reporter, North Western Reporter, and Pacific Reporter. California, Illinois, and New York also each have their own line of Thomson West reporters, because of the large volume of cases generated in those states (titled, respectively, West's California Reporter, Illinois Decisions, and West's New York Supplement). Some smaller states (like South Dakota) have stopped publishing their own official reporters, and instead have certified the appropriate West regional reporter as their "official" reporter.
Here are some examples of how to cite West reporters:Jackson v. Commonwealth, 583 S.E.2d 780 (Va. Ct. App. 2003) – a case in the Virginia Court of Appeals (an intermediate appellate court) published in the South Eastern Reporter's 2nd seriesFoxworth v. Maddox, 137 So. 161 (Fla. 1931) – a case in the Florida Supreme Court published in the Southern ReporterPeople v. Brown, 282 N.Y.S.2d 497 (N.Y. 1967) – a case in the New York Court of Appeals (New York's highest court) published in West's New York Supplement's 2nd series. The case also appears in West's regional reporter: People v. Brown, 229 N.E.2d 192 (N.Y. 1967). Note, in both forms, that "N.Y." is placed in the parenthetical, because both West's New York Supplement and the North Eastern Reporter report the opinions of more courts than only the New York Court of Appeals. A citation to the officially published reports, People v. Brown, 20 N.Y.2d 238 (1967), however, does not require the court name in the parenthetical, because the official New York Reports only report opinions of the New York Court of Appeals.
Abbreviations for lower courts vary by state, as each state has its own system of trial courts and intermediate appellate courts. When a case appears in both an official reporter and a regional reporter, either citation can be used. Generally, citing to the regional reporter is preferred, since out-of-state attorneys are more likely to have access to these. Many lawyers prefer to include both citations. Some state courts require that parallel citations (in this case, citing to both the official reporter and an unofficial regional reporter) be used when citing cases from any court in that state's system.
Like the United States Supreme Court, some very old state case citations include an abbreviation of the name of either the private publisher or the reporter of decisions, a state-appointed officer who originally collected and published the cases. For example, in Hall v. Bell, 47 Mass. (6 Met.) 431 (1843), the citation is to volume 47 of Massachusetts Reports, which, like United States Reports, was started in the latter half of the 19th century and incorporated into the series a number of prior editions originally published privately, and began numbering from that point; "6 Met." refers to the 6th volume that had originally been published privately by Theron Metcalf. An example of a case cited to a reporter that has not been subsequently incorporated into an officially published series is Pierson v. Post, 3 Cai. 175 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1804), reported in volume 3 of Caines' Reports, page 175, named for George Caines, who had been appointed to report New York cases; the case was before the New York Supreme Court of Judicature (now defunct). Most states gave up this practice in the mid-to-late 19th century, but Delaware persisted until 1920.
Some states, notably California and New York, have their own citation systems that differ significantly from the various federal and national standards. In California, the year is placed between the names of the parties and the reference to the case reporter; in New York, the year is wrapped in brackets instead of parentheses, while California uses brackets for parenthetical explanations of a case's holding or relevance. Both New York and California styles wrap an entire citation in parentheses when used as a stand-alone sentence to support the preceding sentence, although New York places the terminating period outside the parentheses, whereas California places it inside. New York wraps just the reporter and page references in parentheses when the citation is used as a clause.
Either way, both state styles differ from the national/Bluebook style of simply dropping in the citation as a separate sentence without further adornment. Both systems use less punctuation and spacing in their reporter abbreviations.
For example, assuming that it is being placed as a stand-alone sentence, the Brown case above would be cited (using the official reporter) to a New York court as:
(People v. Brown, 20 NY2d 238 [1967]).
And, again, as a stand-alone sentence, the famous Greenman product liability case would be cited to a California court as:
(Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc. (1963) 59 Cal.2d 57.)
Unpublished decisions
A growing number of court decisions are not published in case reporters. For example, only 7% of the opinions of the California intermediate courts (the Courts of Appeal) are published each year. This is mainly because judges certify only significant decisions for publication, due to the massive number of frivolous appeals flowing through the courts and the importance of avoiding information overload.
It is also argued that this is in part because in many states, especially California, the legislature has failed to expand the judiciary to keep up with population growth (for various political and fiscal reasons). To deal with their crushing caseloads, many judges prefer to write shorter-than-normal opinions that dispose of minor issues in the case in a sentence or two. They avoid publishing such abbreviated opinions, however, so as not to risk creating bad precedents.
Attorneys have several options in citing "unpublished" decisions:
For cases that have not been published or put in an electronic database, or very recently decided cases that have not yet been published or put in an electronic database, a citation to the case's docket number before the court that decided it is required.Groucho Marx Prods. v. Playboy Enters., No. 77 Civ. 1782 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 30, 1977) – a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; the docket number and specific date allow a researcher to track down the printed copy maintained by the court if needed (legal citation forms strongly prefer citations to traditional printed resources).
Even though only some decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeal are considered "published" (those appearing in Federal Reporter), Thomson West has recently started making available all decisions officially considered "unpublished" in a separate publication called Federal Appendix (abbreviated "F. App'x").
Cases intentionally left officially unpublished are nonetheless often "published" on computer services, such as LexisNexis and Westlaw. These services have their own citation formats based on the year of the case, an abbreviation indicating the computer service (or a specific database of that computer service), and an identification number; citations to online databases also usually include the case's docket number and the specific date when it was decided (due to the preference for citation to traditional printed resources). Examples include:Fuqua Homes, Inc. v. Beattie, No. 03-3587, 2004 WL 2495842 (8th Cir. Nov. 8, 2004) – a case found on the Westlaw electronic database, decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; the citation includes the case's original docket number (No. 03-3587), and a citation to the electronic database that indicates the date of decision, the database (WL for Westlaw) and a unique serial number in that database (2495842).Chavez v. Metro. Dist. Comm'n, No. 3:02CV458(MRK), 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11266 (D. Conn. June 1, 2004) – a case decided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut; the citation includes the case's original docket number (No. 3:02CV458(MRK)), the date of decision, the database (U.S. Dist. LEXIS, indicating the LexisNexis database for U.S. District Court cases), and a unique serial number in that database (11266).
Some court systems—such as the California state court system—forbid attorneys to cite unpublished cases as precedent. Other systems allow citation of unpublished cases only under specific circumstances. For example, in Kentucky, unpublished cases from that state's courts can only be cited if the case was decided after January 1, 2003, and "there is no published opinion that would adequately address the issue before the court". From 2004 to 2006, federal judges debated whether the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP) should be amended so that unpublished cases in all circuits could be cited as precedent. In 2006, the Supreme Court, over the objection of several hundred judges and lawyers, adopted a new Rule 32.1 of FRAP requiring that federal courts allow citation of unpublished cases. The rule took effect on January 1, 2007.
Vendor-neutral citations
With the rise of the web, many courts placed new cases on websites. Some were published while others never lost their "unpublished" status. The major legal citation systems required cites to the officially published page numbers, in which publishers such as West Publishing claimed a copyright interest.
A vendor-neutral citation movement led to provisions being made for citations to web-based cases and other legal materials. A few courts modified their rules to specifically take into account cases "published" on the web.
An example of a vendor-neutral citation:Equal. Found. of Greater Cincinnati, Inc. v. City of Cincinnati, 1997 FED App. 0318P (6th Cir.) – a 1997 case decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; the citation to the numbering system adopted by the court ("1997 FED App. 0318P") eliminates the need to cite to a specific vendor's product, in this case Thomson West's Federal Reporter (i.e., 128 F.3d 289).
Pinpoint citations
In practice, most lawyers go one step farther, once they have developed the correct citation for a case using the rules discussed above. Most court opinions contain holdings on multiple issues, so lawyers need to cite to the page that contains the specific holding they wish to invoke in their own case. Such citations are known as pinpoint citations, "pin cites", or "jump cites".
For example, in Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the word "person" as used in the Fourteenth Amendment does not include the unborn. That particular holding appears on page 158 of the volume in which the Roe decision was published. A full pin cite to Roe for that holding would be as follows:
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158 (1973).
And a parallel cite to all three U.S. Supreme Court reporters, combined with pin cites for all three, would produce:
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158, 93 S. Ct. 705, 729, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147, 180 (1973).
But in its opinions, the Court usually provides a direct pin cite only to the official reporter. The two unofficial reporters, when they reprint the Court's opinions, add on parallel cites to each other, but do not add pin cites. Therefore, a citation to Roe v. Wade in a later Supreme Court decision as viewed on Lexis or Westlaw would appear as follows:
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147 (1973).
Even then, such citations are still quite lengthy, and may look quite mysterious and intimidating to laypersons when they read court opinions. Since the 1980s, there has been an ongoing debate among American judges as to whether they should relegate such lengthy citations to footnotes to improve the readability of their opinions, as strongly urged by Bryan A. Garner, one of the leading authors on legal writing and style. Most judges do relegate some citations to footnotes, but jurists such as Justice Stephen Breyer and Judge Richard Posner refuse to use footnotes in their opinions.
Types of citations
There are two types of citations: proprietary and public domain citations. There are many citation guides; the most commonly acknowledged is called The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, compiled by the Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal. Public domain citations'' refer to the official reporters, rather than a publication service such as Westlaw, LexisNexis, particular legal journals, or specialization-specific reporters. States with their own unique style for court documents and case opinions also publish their own style guides, which include information on their citation rules.
See also
Oxford Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA)
Category:Case law reporters
Citator
German legal citation
Law report
Legal research
Template for citing cases on Wikipedia
Law by state (US)
State Laws, Code, & Statutes
State Statutes by Topic
State Statutes by Jurisdiction
Notes and references
Notes
References
External links
American Association of Law Libraries Legal Citation Guide
Introduction to Basic Legal Citation by Peter Martin
FindLaw for Legal Professionals
Oxford Standard Citation Of Legal Authorities
Screencast introduction to OSCOLA
Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
WorldLII
Australian Guide to Legal Citation official website
Australian Guide to Legal Citation in PDF format
Legal citation
Legal research
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexton%20Blake
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Sexton Blake
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Sexton Blake is a fictional character, a detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels and dramatic productions since 1893. Sexton Blake adventures were featured in a wide variety of British and international publications (in many languages) from 1893 to 1978, comprising more than 4,000 stories by some 200 different authors. Blake was also the hero of numerous silent and sound films, radio serials, and a 1960s ITV television series.
Publication history
The first Sexton Blake story was "The Missing Millionaire". Written by Harry Blyth (using the pseudonym Hal Meredeth), it was published in The Halfpenny Marvel number 6, on 20 December 1893, a story paper owned by the Amalgamated Press. Blyth wrote six more Sexton Blake tales, three for the Marvel and three for The Union Jack a story paper launched in April 1894.
The Amalgamated Press purchased the copyright to Blake along with the first story Blyth had submitted and from 1895 onwards several authors began to pen Blake tales. From August 1905 Blake became the resident character in Union Jack, appearing in every issue until its transformation into the Detective Weekly in 1933. Blake continued as the main feature until Detective Weekly ended in 1940.
Blake's popularity began to grow during the Edwardian era, and he appeared in a number of different story papers. These appearances included serials in the tabloid sized Boys' Friend (1905), complete tales in the pocket-sized Penny Pictorial (from 1907 to 1913 (when that magazine ended), and short stores in Answers, (1908-1911) one of the Amalgamated Press' most popular papers. Writers from this era include: William Murray Graydon, Maxwell Scott, Norman Goddard, Cecil Hayter, D. H. Parry, E. W. Alais, W. J Lomax, and Michael Storm.
In the second decade of the 20th century, new writers joined the ranks and created the formidable master criminals that matched wits with Blake. These include Andrew Murray, Anthony Skene, Robert Murray Graydon, Edwy Searles Brooks and George Hamilton Teed.
Blake gets his own title
Longer tales of 60,000 words or so appeared in The Boys' Friend Library and the success of these led to the creation of The Sexton Blake Library in 1915. This digest-sized publication specialized in longer tales, and at the height of its popularity was published 5 times a month. It ran for just under 50 years.
The majority of Sexton Blake Library covers (prior to editor William Howard Baker's 1956 revamp of the character) were painted by master Sexton Blake illustrator Eric Parker
Writers who worked on Sexton Blake stories throughout this 53-year span included Charles Henry St. John Cooper, John Creasey, Jack Trevor Story, John G. Brandon Michael Moorcock, and (allegedly) Brian O'Nolan (aka Flann O'Brien and Myles Coppaleen.)
In 1959 Fleetway Publications acquired the rights to Sexton Blake adventures and published The Sexton Blake Library until the title's demise. The final tale, The Last Tiger, was published in June 1963.
In 1965, Blake editor William Howard Baker licensed the rights of the Sexton Blake character. He published the fifth series of The Sexton Blake Library independently via Mayflower-Dell Books, which ran until 1968. He then issued a final series of four Sexton Blake novels, using his Howard Baker Books imprint, in 1969. From 1968 to 1971 Valiant published new comic strips in the style of the Knockout strips from decades earlier. Blake's last original appearance was in Sexton Blake and the Demon God “a period thriller with ancient curses and cliff-hanger endings” in 1978.
Comic strips: 1939–1979
Blake comic strips featured in The Knock-Out Comic (later Knock-Out Comic & Magnet and, finally, simply Knockout) from 1939 to 1960. The Blake strip was illustrated originally by artist Jos Walker and then by Alfred Taylor, who illustrated Blake's adventures for ten years. The undoubted highlight of Blake's 21-year run in Knockout was a 14-part 1949 strip drawn by Blake's greatest illustrator Eric Parker, entitled The Secret of Monte Cristo. This was Parker's only contribution to Blake's comic strip adventures.
There was one Super Detective Library story about Blake: issue 68 (published November 1955), featuring a comic strip entitled Sexton Blake's Diamond Hunt.
A final Sexton Blake comic strip (initiated to tie in with the 1967–1971 television show) featured in IPC's weekly boys' anthology Valiant, from January 1968 to May 1970.
A seven-part Blake comic strip featured in IPC's comic Tornado from March 1979 to May 1979. A contract dispute (subsequently resolved in IPC's favour) caused the Tornado editorial team to rename Blake "Victor Drago" (and Tinker & Pedro "Spencer & Brutus") for the duration of this strip.
Other publications
A series of 160-page Sexton Blake annuals, featuring old stories and new material, began in 1938 and lasted till 1941.
Four hardbacks designed for the younger market were published by Dean & Son Ltd during 1968. The third of these, Raffles' Crime in Gibraltar, portrayed Blake contending with A. J. Raffles, E.W. Hornung's amateur cracksman.
There were a few anthologies and reprints in the 80s and 90s.
In 2009, IPC's information manager, David Abbott, signed licenses to publish two Blake omnibus archive editions: The Casebook of Sexton Blake, published by Wordsworth Editions, and Sexton Blake, Detective published by Snowbooks.
In 2009 Wordsworth Books published the casebook of Sexton Blake and Snowbooks published Sexton Blake Detective.
In 2013, Obverse Books licensed the character and published The Silent Thunder Caper by Mark Hodder, the first book in a proposed sixth series of the Sexton Blake Library, The imprint had previously published a collection of short stories featuring Blake villain Zenith the Albino.
2018 saw an uptick in Sexton Blake reprints, with the first print novels published by Stillwoods Publishing, a Canadian publisher out of Nova Scotia.
In 2020 ROH Press began publishing Sexton Blake tales with Sexton Blake The Early Years, a collection of Blake's first cases.
That same year British publishers Rebellion Developments released a Sexton Blake special under its Treasury of British Comics imprint. They also produced four anthologies in 2020-21, each introduced by Blakeologist Mark Hodder.
Sexton Blake bibliography
The Sexton Blake is so extensive it has been divided into four sections. For a list of titles from the different Blake eras check out the links below.
1893-1911: The Victorian/Edwardian Era Sexton Blake bibliography
In this era Blake works solo and with a variety of partners and detectives. In 1904 he acquires a sidekick, a young boy named Tinker. The following year he moved to Baker Street and acquired a dog named Pedro and a landlady named Mrs Bardell.
1912-1945: The Master Criminals Era Sexton Blake bibliography part 2: 1912-1945
From 1913 onwards the master criminals reigned supreme, regularly matching with Blake.
1946-1978: The Post War Era Sexton Blake bibliography part 3: 1946-1978
The era of the New Order saw Blake become more of a James Bond type. It also saw the end of the Sexton Blake Library in 1963. There were a few attempts at bringing him back, but the last original Sexton Blake story was published in 1978.
1979-present: Revivals and Republications Sexton Blake bibliography part 4: 1979-present
Various publishers issued Blake novels and anthologies, collections of some of his most popular adventures.
Blake's evolution
As the years passed, Blake's character experienced various permutations. He was originally created to be similar to earlier 19th-century detectives, but during the late 1890s, Blake's authors consciously modelled him on Sherlock Holmes. It was not until 1919 that Blake was given a more distinctive personality. Blake became much more action-oriented than Holmes and duelled with a variety of memorable enemies.
Blake used medical knowledge to solve some cases in the very early years. In "The Tattooed Eye" (21 November 1908) he says he is a duly qualified medical man but has never practised medicine.
Many of Blake's writers had been men of adventure who had travelled the world. When World War II started, they enlisted, leaving just a small group of writers behind (with the addition of the occasional guest writer). Consequently, the standard of Blake's stories suffered.
In November 1955, William Howard Baker became editor of the Sexton Blake Library and, during 1956, introduced a successful update of the Blake formula. The Sexton Blake Library found new popularity with faster-moving, more contemporary stories (often influenced by American pulp fiction).
Blake, who had been relocated a number of times over the years, was relocated to a suite of plush offices in Berkeley Square (while retaining lodgings at Baker Street) and acquired a secretary, Paula Dane, who became a not-quite-love interest for Blake. Tinker was given a real name, Edward Carter, and Blake's office receptionist, Marion Lang, was introduced as his female counterpart.
Covers, which had become rather staid during the early 1950s, became much more dynamic and a new group of authors was commissioned.
Baker remained as editor until 1963 (his last story was "The Last Tiger") before becoming Blake's licensor/publisher and continuing to oversee Blake's print adventures until 1969.
Blake's associates
Blake's first associate from The Halfpenny Marvel No. 6 ("The Missing Millionaire") is the Frenchman Jules Gervaise, who gives him the first recorded case. By issue No. 7 ("A Christmas Crime"), they initiate an investigative company together. In the third story of issue No. 11 ("A Golden Ghost"), Gervaise is not mentioned.
Blake's team
In Union Jack number 53, in a story titled "Cunning Against Skill" (1904), (written by
W. J. Lomax under the pen-name of Herbert Maxwell), Blake picked up a wiry street-wise orphan as an assistant who was known only as Tinker until the 1950s. With the popularity of school stories during the early 1900s, Tinker's schooldays were chronicled in issues 229 and 232. Over the years, Tinker changed from a boy and good fighter to a rugged and capable young man. As well as assisting the "guv'nor", as he called Blake, Tinker kept Blake's crime files up to date with clippings from the daily newspapers, in addition to assisting Blake in his fully equipped crime laboratory. The Edwardian British private detective Herbert Marshall was a friend of one of the Blake authors', Charles Henry St John Cooper (1869–1926), and stated that Cooper had based the character of Tinker on Marshall's own teenaged assistant Henry Drummond. Drummond sold newspapers in Northumberland Avenue in order to support his widowed mother until, aged just 14, he was offered a job by Marshall. Drummond died in around 1905 from tuberculosis, aged 19.
In 1905, Blake's bustling housekeeper Mrs Bardell (created by William Murray Graydon, who also created Pedro the bloodhound), was introduced and remained until the end. Her misuse of the English language was legendary in stories – she was a gifted cook and would always be on hand if a client needed food or a cup of tea. Mrs Bardell even featured as the main character in stories such as: "The Mystery Of Mrs Bardell's Xmas Pudding" in 1925 and "Mrs Bardell's Xmas Eve" in 1926.
In Union Jack number 100 (9 September 1905), a story entitled "The Dog Detective" introduced Blake's faithful, wise and ferocious bloodhound, Pedro. Pedro was originally owned by Rafael Calderon, ex-president of a South American state, but after performing various services for Calderon, Blake was given Pedro by Calderon, using the guise of "Mr. Nemo". Pedro tracked many villains to their lairs in subsequent stories.
Another notable non-human associate (and almost a character in itself) was Blake's bullet-proof Rolls-Royce, named The Grey Panther (introduced at a time when most other sleuths were still taking cabs). For a short while, Blake also flew a Moth monoplane (also called The Grey Panther and designed by Blake himself).
Blake's enemies
Sexton Blake had a large rogues gallery of supervillains from around the globe. Some of the most famous included:
George Marsden Plummer (created by Ernest Semphill in 1908), a dishonest Detective Sergeant at Scotland Yard, opposed Blake, but like many others, Plummer ended in a police cell. Unlike many before him, he repeatedly escaped and became Blake's arch-enemy.
Count Ivor Carlac (created by Andrew Murray in 1912) was a Polish nobleman and former pilot who turned to a life of crime. He was highly cunning, a master of disguise, and utterly ruthless.
Professor Francis Kew (created by Andrew Murray in 1913) A higly respected surgeon who moonlighted as an arch criminal. He teamed up with Carlac in 1916 and the two would often match wits against Blake over the next twenty years.
Dr Huxton Rymer (created by George Hamilton Teed in 1913) a world renowned surgeon turned master criminal.
Prince Wu Ling (created by George Hamilton Teed in 1913) a former Chinese royal bent on world domination.
Waldo the Wonderman (created by Edwy Searles Brooks in 1918), a circus strongman who had tremendous strength, could contort his body like a rubber man, and was insensitive to pain. He first appeared as a villain and ended in later stories as a friend of Blake's, helping him with a number of cases. But despite his reformation, he continued to steal money (but his victims were now blackmailers, swindlers, and other no-good members of the underworld).
Zenith the Albino (created by Anthony Skene in 1919) the Byronic master thief.
The Criminals' Confederation (created by Robert Murray Graydon in 1919) was an insidious criminal organisation that spanned the globe. The Confederation featured in 50 tales from 1919 to 1926.
The type of villain Blake opposed changed with the times (as did Blake himself). After World War II, his opponents became more ordinary, their personalities and motives less fantastic. Veteran writers John Hunter and Walter Tyrer excelled at this type of writing, but others failed to maintain their standards.
Blake's allies
Sexton Blake also teamed up with a variety of police officers, private detectives and other assorted crime fighters from time to time. Some of the most popular include:
Detective-Inspector Will Spearing (created by Norman Goddard) Blake's first ally from Scotland Yard. Spearing made his debut in Sexton Blake PC in 1905.
Sir Richard Losely and Lobangu (created by Cecil Hayter in 1907) Sir Richard was a British explorer and Blake's former school mate. Lobangu is the mighty chief of the Etbaia tribe of Zulus.
Honourable John Lawless (created by Andrew Murray) Lawless is an adventurer and proud Britisher who made his debut in The Boundary Raiders (1916). Though not officially employed by the Empire he often fights for King and Country
Detective-Inspector Coutts (created by Robert Murray Graydon) Coutts made his debut in The Hidden Hand (1916) and fought alongside Blake against the Criminals' Confederation.
The Bat (created by Robert Murray Graydon) The Bat made his debut in The Hidden Hand (1916). At first a highly talented cracksman the Bat eventually became a strong ally of Blake's against the Criminals' Confederation.
Nelson Lee (created by Maxwell Scott) Like Blake, Lee was a private investigator created in the 1890s. The two first appeared together in Christmas Clues in 1895. They would team up again in The Winged Terror (1909) and in several tales in 1918.
Mademoiselle Yvonne Cartier (created by George Hamilton Teed) was at first a Blake foe then a loyal ally and eventually became a detective. She made her debut in Beyond Reach of the Law (1913) and appeared in Blake tales until 1926.
James "Granite" Grant and Mademoiselle Julie (created by W. W. Sayer) Grant of the British Secret Service and Mademoiselle Julie of the French Secret Service made their debuts in 1920 and fought alongside in numerous adventures for the next six years. The tales were reprinted in the 1930s.
Other associates included Derek "Splash" Page of the Daily Radio; Ruff Hanson, a tough American investigator (both created by Gwyn Evans), and Blake's friends at Scotland Yard: Chief Detective Inspector Lennard, and Superintendent Venner.
Bibliography
Stories
"Sexton Blake and the Demon God" (1978) John Garforth
"Sexton Blake and the White Fairy" (2000) John Hall
"Sexton Blake and the Curse of Ozymandias" (2000) John Hall
"The Seance at Stillwater Mansion" (2006) Mark Hodder
"The Return of the Yellow Beetle" (2006) Mark Hodder
"Special Dispensation 5 and 6" (Plus 5, Appendix 1) (2006) Mark Hodder
"The Case of the Left Hand of Thoth" (2006) Mark Hodder
"The Shades of Pemberley" (2007) Win Scott Eckert
"The Case of the Flying Submarine" (2009) Mark Hodder
"Pedro Pulls Through!" (2009) Mark Hodder
"The Day of the Dragon" (2009) Mark Hodder
"The Mystery of Devil's Forest" (2009) Mark Hodder
"Sexton Blake Versus Doctor Fu Manchu" (2009) Mark Hodder
"The Silent Thunder Caper" (2014) Mark Hodder
"Sexton Blake and the Ghost of Otis Maunder" (2018) David Friend
Manuscripts
Regan's Rum Racket by Edwy Searles Brooks
The Doomed Valley by Rex Dolphin
The Case of the Missing Diplomat by Dail Ambler
Riviera Racket by W. Howard Baker (?) as Peter Saxon
A Pinch of Sniff by W. Howard Baker (?) as Peter Saxon
The Odd Affair of Diane Starr by W. Howard Baker (?) as Peter Saxon
The Branded Blonde by W. Howard Baker (?) as Peter Saxon
Collections
Sexton Blake: Star of Union Jack and Detective Weekly (1972)
Crime at Christmas (1974)
Sexton Blake's Early Cases (1976)
Sexton Blake Wins (1986)
The Sexton Blake Casebook (1987)
The Sexton Blake Detective Library (1989)
The Casebook of Sexton Blake (2009)
Sexton Blake, Detective (2009)
Sexton Blake and the Great War (2020)
Sexton Blake Versus the Master Crooks (2020)
Sexton Blake's Allies (2020)
Sexton Blake On the Home Front (2021)
Sexton Blake's New Order (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Early Years (2020)
Sexton Blake: The Answers Casebook (2020)
Sexton Blake: Friends and Allies (2020)
Sexton Blake: The First Super Villains (2020)
Sexton Blake: The Master Criminals (2020)
Sexton Blake: Yvonne's Vengeance (2020)
Sexton Blake: Rymer and Wu Ling (2020)
Sexton Blake: Wu Ling Strikes Again (2020)
Sexton Blake: Cunning Schemes (2020)
Sexton Blake: The Storm Files (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Plummer Files (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Kew Files (2021)
Sexton Blake & Nelson Lee (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Claire Delisle Files (2022)
Sexton Blake: The Clique of Death (2022)
Sexton Blake: Spy Stories (2023)
Sexton Blake: Schooldays #1 (2023)
Sexton Blake: Schooldays #2 (2023)
The Criminals' Confederation series
Sexton Blake: The Bat Files (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Bat Files #2 (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Bat Files #3 (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Bat Files #4 (2021)
Sexton Blake: Confederation Rising (2021)
Sexton Blake: The Sinister Island Saga (2021)
Sexton Blake: Yvonne Joins the Fight (2022)
Sexton Blake: Beware the Shadow (2022)
Sexton Blake: Plots and Intrigues (2022)
Sexton Blake: Reversals of Fortune (2022)
Sexton Blake: The Rival Presidents (2022)
Sexton Blake: Reece's Republic (2022)
Sexton Blake: Twists in the Trail (2022)
Sexton Blake: Final Curtain (2022)
Adaptations
Stage
There were several Sexton Blake stage plays:
The Case of the Coiners (1907), was the earliest produced
Percy Holmshaw produced Sexton Blake: A Detective Story in Four Acts in 1931. Blake was played by Arthur Wontner, whose performance then led to him being cast as Sherlock Holmes in five films.
Movies
Silent movies
There was also a spoof film titled Sexton Pimple (1914), starring the comedian Fred Evans.
Talkies
Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor was the first of three Blake talkies produced during the 1930s. Based on a novel by Rex Hardinge, this movie featured George Curzon as Sexton Blake and Tony Sympson as Tinker.
Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle (featuring Mlle. Roxanne as the female villain from the books), from a story by G H Teed, followed soon afterwards.
The third production was Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror with Tod Slaughter playing the villain.
Two movies Meet Sexton Blake and The Echo Murders were made in 1945. They were directed by John Harlow, and featured David Farrar as Blake. (Farrar had played a small role in Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror.)
The Hammer film Murder at Site 3 (1958) featuring Geoffrey Toone did not launch a series.
Radio
On 26 January 1939, BBC Radio broadcast a serial named Enter Sexton Blake, featuring George Curzon as Blake and Brian Lawrence as Tinker.
30 March 1940, BBC broadcast A Case for Sexton Blake, adapted by Francis Durbridge.
During 1967, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a popular series of Sexton Blake radio adventures starring William Franklyn as Blake, David Gregory as Tinker, and Heather Chasen as Blake's secretary, Paula Dane. Broadcast on Thursday nights at 7.00pm, this series of 17 programmes (which ran weekly from 24 August to 14 December) was scripted by Donald Stuart, devised for radio by Philip Ridgeway, and produced by veteran BBC radio producer Alastair Scott-Johnston.
On 6 March 2006, after discussions between noted British radio producer Dirk Maggs and IPC publishing director Andrew Sumner, Maggs recorded a half-hour Adventures of Sexton Blake pilot show for his newly formed Perfectly Normal Productions. This humorous satire of Blake's adventures featured Simon Jones as Blake, Wayne Forester as Tinker, and a returning William Franklyn, in one of his final performances, as the elderly Blake (who narrates the adventure). As a result of the success of this pilot, Maggs directed a new series of Blake adventures for BBC Radio 2. The Adventures of Sexton Blake again featured Jones and Forester, joined by June Whitfield as Mrs Bardell, and Graham Hoadly as Professor Kew. The series was written by Jonathan Nash and Mil Millington and broadcast, in six weekly 15 minute instalments, during late summer 2009. An extended version of the complete series was released on CD by BBC Audiobooks on 10 September 2009. David Quantick's accompanying Blake documentary, The Hunt For Sexton Blake (also produced by Perfectly Normal Productions) was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 before the series started.
Television
Sexton Blake (1967–71)
ITV broadcast Rediffusion/Thames Television's Sexton Blake featuring Laurence Payne as Blake and Roger Foss as Tinker from Monday 25 September 1967 to Wednesday 13 January 1971. In keeping with Sexton Blake's classic print adventures, Payne's Blake drove a white Rolls-Royce named "The Grey Panther" and owned a bloodhound named Pedro. The show was produced originally by Ronald Marriott for Associated Rediffusion, with Thames Television assuming production in 1968.
Pedro was played by one or more bloodhounds (bitches), which doubled as 'Henry', for Chunky dog food advertisements with Clement Freud, and were owned by the then secretary of the Bloodhound Club, Mrs Bobbie Edwards.
During rehearsals for the show in 1968, Laurence Payne was blinded in his left eye by a rapier.
Typical of the TV series's sometimes-fantastic storylines (all of which lasted 2–6 episodes) was 1968's "The Invicta Ray" in which a villain dressed in a costume and hood of sackcloth-like material and, under the rays of The Invicta Ray, became invisible so that he could commit crimes without being seen.
Of 50 episodes, only the first episode is thought to exist still.
Season One: The Find-The-Lady Affair. 4 episodes. Monday 25 September 1967 to Monday 16 October 1967.
Season One: Knave of Diamonds. 5 episodes. Monday 23 October 1967 to Monday 20 November.
Season One: The Great Tong Mystery. 4 episodes. Monday 27 November 1967 to Monday 18 December 1967.
Season One: The Vanishing Snowman. Christmas Special. Monday 25 December 1967.
Season One: House of Masks. 4 episodes. Monday 1 January 1968 to Monday 22 January 1968.
Season One: The Invicta Ray. 4 episodes. Monday 29 January 1968 to Monday 19 February 1968.
Season Two: The Case of the Gasping Goldfish. 2 episodes. Thursday 14 November 1968 to Thursday 21 November 1968.
Season Two: Return of the Scorpion. 2 episodes. Thursday 28 November 1968 to Thursday 5 December 1968.
Season Two: The Great Train Robbery. 2 episodes. Thurs 16 January 1969 to Thurs 23 January 1969.
Season Two: The Great Soccer Mystery. 3 episodes. Thurs 30 January 1969 to Thurs 13 Feb 1969.
Season Three: Sexton Blake and Captain Nemesis. 3 episodes. Wed 8 Oct 1969 to Wed 22 Oct 1969.
Season Three: Sexton Blake verses The Gangsters. 3 episodes. Wed 29 Oct 1969 to Wed 12 Nov 1969.
Season Three: Sexton Blake and the Frightened Man. 2 eps. Wed 19 Nov 1969 to Wed 26 Nov 1969.
Season Three: Sexton Blake and the Undertaker. 3 episodes. Wed 3 Dec 1969 to Wed 17 Dec 1969.
Season Three: Sexton Blake and the Toy Family. 2 episodes. Wed 23 Dec 1969 to Wed 30 Dec 1969.
Season Four: Sexton Blake and the Puff Adder. 6 episodes. Wed 9 Dec 1970 to Wed 13 January 1971.
The cast:
Laurence Payne as Sexton Blake
Roger Foss as Edward Clark (Tinker)
Dorothea Phillips as Mrs Bardell
Ernest Clark as Inspector Coutts
Leonard Sachs as Inspector Van Steen
Meredith Edwards as Inspector (Taff) Evans
Eric Lander as Inspector Cardish
Charles Morgan as Inspector Davies
Sexton Blake and the Demon God (1978)
Simon Raven's Sexton Blake and the Demon God was a six-part television serial produced by Barry Letts for the BBC in 1978. The serial was broadcast by BBC One at tea-time from Sunday 10 September 1978 until Sunday 15 October 1978 and was directed by Roger Tucker.
Jeremy Clyde played Blake, with Philip Davis appearing as Tinker and Barbara Lott playing Mrs Bardell.
The Sexton Blake Library (Obverse Books) )
Sexton Blake and the Silent Thunder Caper by Mark Hodder (2014)
Zenith Lives! (2012)
Other Blake appearances
A seven-minute 78 rpm record, titled Murder on the Portsmouth Road, had a script written by Donald Stuart and featured Arthur Wontner (who also featured as Sherlock Holmes in early British talkies) as Blake.
Michael Moorcock used Blake as the basis for The Metatemporal Detective, Seaton Begg. Moorcock also borrowed the character of Zenith the Albino, both as partial inspiration for Elric of Melniboné and as an actual character (who was implied to be an avatar of Elric's). Both Begg and Zenith featured in Obverse Books' collection Zenith Lives! (2012), which includes a new Begg/Zenith novella from Moorcock. Seaton Begg was also the lead character in The novella Immortal Seaston Begg (2019). Which was released as part of Sextet (An Obverse Celebration), a series of six interconnected novellas released in the second half of 2019 to celebrate Obverse Books' tenth anniversary
Bengali novelist Dinendra Kumar Roy wrote 217 stories in Bengali, following the Sexton Blake series in the name of Robert Blake.
References
Further reading
History of British boys' weeklies from Victorian times up to the 1950s.
External links
Blakiana, The Sexton Blake Resource
The Other Baker Street Detective, from a 1998 radio talk by Prof. Jeffrey Richards
The Sexton Blake Archive: Rebellion Publishing
Sexton Blake Anthologies: ROH Press
Issues of The Sexton Blake Library at ComicBooksPlus
Sexton Blake: The World's Greatest Detective
Missing Sexton Blake Episode List
BBC 7 – The Radio Detectives – Sexton Blake, the other Baker Street Detective — streaming audio
David Quantick's BBC Radio 2 Documentary – The Hunt For Sexton Blake, 28 July 2009 – BBC iPlayer streaming audio
Literary characters introduced in 1893
Sexton Blake
Characters in pulp fiction
Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake
Fictional gentleman detectives
Fictional private investigators
Fictional secret agents and spies
British male characters in television
Crime film characters
Edwardian era
Fictional criminologists
Fictional English people
Fictional characters from the 19th century
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigation%20and%20arrest%20of%20Alfred%20Dreyfus
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Investigation and arrest of Alfred Dreyfus
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The Dreyfus Affair began when a bordereau (detailed memorandum) offering to procure French military secrets was recovered by French agents from the waste paper basket of Maximilian Von Schwartzkoppen, the military attaché at the German Embassy in Paris. Blame was quickly pinned upon Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer who was in training within the French Army's general staff.
French espionage
Among the military services reorganized after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was that of the French Counter Intelligence Department (disguised under the name of "Section de Statistique") led by a Lt Col Jean Conrad Sandherr. It watched the German embassy as one of its principal occupations. The ambassador, Count Münster, had promised on his word of honor that his attachés would abstain from bribing the French officers or officials. However, it was known at the "Section de Statistique" that the new attaché, Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen, probably without the knowledge of the ambassador, continued to pay spies and was in direct correspondence with the War Office in Berlin. According to indications furnished by a former Spanish military attaché, Valcarlos, Schwartzkoppen and the Italian military representative, Colonel Panizzardi, had agreed to exchange the results of whatever discoveries they might make.
To keep an eye on this plotting, the Counter Intelligence Office (the"Section de Statistique") secured the help of a cleaning lady employed at the German Embassy, a certain Marie Bastian. Madame Bastian, wife of a soldier of the Republican Guard, was "a vulgar, stupid, completely illiterate woman about 40 years in age," according to her boss. However she was of Alsatian descent and spoke German fluently. She was hired as a cleaning woman in the office of the German military attaché, Schwartzkoppen. Madame Bastian carefully collected all the scraps of paper, torn up or half-burnt, which she found in the waste-paper baskets or in the fireplace of Schwartzkoppen's office. She put them all in a paper bag, and once or twice a month took them or had them taken to the "Section de Statistique." There the pieces were carefully fitted together and gummed. By this means it was ascertained that, since 1892, certain secret information concerning the national defense had leaked out. Eventually, the conclusion was reached at high levels in the French General Staff that a traitor was passing on confidential military information to the German Embassy in Paris.
The anonymous letter
During the summer of 1894 a document arrived at the French Counter Intelligence Office which was far more alarming than any which had preceded it. It had been retrieved by French spy and cleaning lady Marie Bastian from the waste paper basket of the military attache at the German Embassy, Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen. It was a handwritten list of potentially available and highly sensitive French military documents. It was unsigned and has since become uniquely celebrated under the name of the "bordereau." This list, written on so-called "papier pelure" (thin notepaper), ruled in squares and almost transparent, was torn from top to bottom in two places, but was otherwise intact. The hand written text was present on both sides of the page.
According to the official version, which was long believed to be the true one, the paper had arrived by the usual means, through Madame Bastian; but the appearance of the document, which was hardly torn, makes this story unlikely. It would appear from other disclosures that the letter was taken intact from the letter-box of Colonel Schwartzkoppen in the porter's lodge at the embassy, and brought to the office by an agent named Brucker, who had formerly acted as a go-between of Madame Bastian and French counter intelligence. The detailed documents that this letter announced as having been sent to the German Embassy, along with the original envelope of the initial "bordereau" letter were never found. Here is a translation of this famous document from its French original:
Being without information as to whether you desire to see me, I send you nevertheless, monsieur, some interesting information, viz.:
1. A note concerning the hydraulic brake of the 120, and the way this gun has performed. [This phrase is a reference to the hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism of a field gun called "120mm court Modele 1890 Baquet." It was a heavy field-piece, recently introduced into French artillery service; the mechanism of its hydraulic plus compressed-air short-recoil brake mechanism was quite novel for the time. But according to Touzin and Vauvillier (2006) as quoted from Les materiels de l'Armee Francaise (Les canons de la Victoire 1914–18): "...the 120mm Baquet Mle 1890 was far from being entirely satisfactory". As a matter of published record, only two hundred and ten (210) Mle 1890 120mm Baquet field guns were eventually built. Conversely, and precisely at the same time as the discovery of the "bordereau" in the summer of 1894, the first successful prototype of the highly advanced long-recoil Mle 1897 French 75 field gun had just been tested in great secrecy. Ultimately, over 20,000 French 75's had been built by 1918.]
2. A note upon the 'troupes de couverture' (some modifications will be carried out, according to the new plan). [This referred to troops that would be called to the frontier at the commencement of mobilization. They were destined to "cover" the concentration of the rest of the army; hence their name. The "new plan" is the plan No. XIII. adopted in 1895.]
3. A note concerning a modification in the formations of artillery. [Most likely the "formations de manœuvre," which were just about to be altered by the new regulations.]
4. A note relative to Madagascar. [The War Office was preparing an expedition to conquer that island.]
5. The proposed 'manuel de tir' of field-artillery manual (March 14, 1894). [See below]
This document is exceedingly difficult to get hold of, and I can have it at my disposal for only a very few days. The minister of war has distributed a certain number of copies among the troops, and the corps are held responsible for them.
Each officer holding a copy is required to return it after the maneuvers.
Therefore if you will glean from it whatever interests you, and let me have it again as soon as possible, I will manage to obtain possession of it. Unless you would prefer that I have it copied in extenso, and send you the copy.
I am just starting for the maneuvers.
–D. [The initial was taken to be Dreyfus']
This communication was clearly written in August, 1894, at the latest. The "manuel de tir" for field-artillery is the résumé of the methods used to regulate the actual firing of ordnance on the battle-field; this shooting never takes place during the grand maneuvers in September but only during the "écoles à feu," which begin in May and finish in August. It is these "écoles à feu" that the writer incorrectly translates as "maneuvers," and the word probably has the same meaning in the last sentence.
It seems evident that the bordereau was handed over to Major Henry, who, with Major Cordier, was then assisting Colonel Sandherr, the head of the military counter-intelligence section at the French War Ministry. According to General Auguste Mercier, the letter in question arrived at the office with other documents whose dates ranged from August 21 to September 2. It is probable that Henry kept the "bordereau" in his possession for a considerable time, making it all the more surprising that he did not recognize the undisguised writing of one of his former fellow officers, Major Esterhazy. It was not until September 24 that he spoke about the document to his close associates and to his chief, Colonel Sandherr. Sandherr immediately informed the head of the French general staff, General de Boisdeffre, and the secretary of war, General Auguste Mercier. They concluded that the informant of the German military attaché was a French officer, and furthermore, from the tone and diverse informations in the "bordereau", that he probably was an officer in the General Staff. Nothing justified this last supposition. On the contrary, the technically and grammatically incorrect wording, the difficulty which the author had in procuring the "manuel de tir" (which was distributed freely among artillerymen), and the inflated importance which the informant appeared to attach to his disclosures, all pointed to the suspected informant as not being a staff-officer.
Investigation
Nevertheless, this "first falsehood," suggested perhaps by the previous warnings of Valcarlos, was generally accepted; right from the start, the investigations led down a false path. At first no result was obtained from an examination of handwritings in the bureaus of the department. But on October 6 Lieutenant-Colonel d'Aboville suggested to his chief, Colonel Fabre, the idea that the bordereau, dealing as it did with questions which were under the jurisdiction of different departments, must be the work of one of the officers going through their "stage" (i.e., staff-schooling), they being the only men who passed successively through the various branches to complete their military education; moreover as, out of the five documents mentioned, three had reference to artillery, the officer probably belonged to this branch of the army. It remained only to consult the list of officers in training with the General Staff who had also come from the artillery. While looking through it, the two colonels came to a halt before the name of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an officer professing the Jewish faith and with family roots in Mulhouse, Alsace a province which had become German in 1871. Captain Dreyfus, who was raised in Paris, was an alumnus of the elite Ecole Polytechnique and a promising young officer. In fact he had been placed in this much coveted temporary assignment on the General Staff as a step up the promotional ladder. However Dreyfus had been in the office of Colonel Fabre during the second quarter of 1893, and Fabre remembered having given him a bad record on the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Roget and Major Bertin-Mourot. Dreyfus had given these gentlemen the impression (upon the most superficial grounds) of presumption and overbearing, and of neglecting the routine of service to go into matters which were kept secret. Fabre and D'Aboville immediately began to search for papers bearing the writing of Dreyfus. By coincidence the writing of Dreyfus showed a likeness to the writing of the bordereau. These officers, inexperienced and prejudiced, mistook a vague resemblance for real identity.
Arrest
From the end of 1892 to September, 1894, Dreyfus went through his "stage" in the Staff Office, receiving excellent reports from all hands, except Colonel Fabre. From 1 October 1894, he went through a placement (stage) in a body of troops, the Thirty-ninth Regiment of the Line, in Paris. His personal characteristics unfitting for command and his slightly foreign accent combined to prejudice people against him; he had also a rather haughty demeanor, associated little with his military companions, and appeared rather too self-confident. But his comrades and superiors, without being much attached to him, recognized his keen intelligence, his retentive memory and his remarkable capacity for work; he was known as a well-informed officer, a daring and vigorous horseman, with decided opinions, which he knew how to set forth skillfully and to uphold in discussion. In short, he was a brilliant and correct soldier, and seemed marked out for a glorious future. Added to all this, he possessed a comfortable private fortune (which brought him an income of $5,000 or $6,000 a year) soundly invested in his brothers' business; he was without any expensive vices, if not without failings, and was leading a settled life. It is difficult to imagine what motive could possibly have incited him to espionage.
His patriotic sentiments were fervent almost to the point of Jingoism. He had also come under the influence of the Boulangist movement, which, for many of his equals, meant revenge on Germany. Antisemitism appears to have been behind the idea that he was a traitor. Even the wording of the listing slip (bordereau) should have shown the absurdity of this supposition: Dreyfus would not have written, "I am just starting for the maneuvers," since that year none of the stage officers went to the maneuvers, having been officially advised by a circular on 17 May not to do so.
Without pausing to consider these objections, Fabre and D'Aboville took their "discovery" to General Gonse, deputy-chief of the staff, and to Colonel Sandherr, an anti-Semite of long standing. General de Boisdeffre, informed in his turn, told the story to the secretary of war. General Auguste Mercier had held this office since December, 1893. Brought face to face with the bordereau, his concern was to act swiftly, because, if the affair came to be known before he had taken any steps, he would be reproached for having shielded a traitor. This fear, and perhaps the hope of being able to pose as the savior of his country, decided him; once started he was forced to pursue the matter. However, he sought the opinion (October 11) of a small council formed of the president of the cabinet (Charles Dupuy), the minister of foreign affairs (Hanotaux), the minister of justice (Guérin), and himself.
The council authorized Mercier to proceed to a careful inquiry; he ordered an examination by an expert in handwriting. The matter was entrusted to Gobert, an expert Forensic document examiner of the Bank of France, who had been recommended to him. With great conscientiousness Gobert pointed out the striking differences between the writing of the bordereau and that of the documents which were given to him for comparison, the "personal folio" of Dreyfus, from which his name had been erased but the dates left, so that it was easy to identify him from the army list. There were some letters which struck the experienced eye at once, such as the open g (made like a y) and the double s made in the form ſs, features which were to be found only in the bordereau.
Gobert concluded (13 October) "that the anonymous letter might be from a person other than the one suspected." This opinion was pronounced "neutral"; a second inquiry was called for, and this time the qualifications of the "expert" for the task were doubtful. Alphonse Bertillon, head of the "service de l'identité judiciaire" at the Prefecture of Police, had already been entrusted with certain photographic enlargements of the bordereau. Bertillon, who already knew the identity of the suspected man, sent in his report the same day. His inference was as follows: "If we set aside the idea of a document forged with the greatest care, it is manifestly evident that the same person has written all the papers given for examination, including the incriminating document." Sheltered by this opinion, Mercier no longer hesitated to order the arrest of Dreyfus. The arrest was conducted in a melodramatic fashion, according to the plans of Major Mercier du Paty de Clam, who, as an amateur graphologist, had been involved from the very beginning in all the details of the affair.
Dreyfus was ordered to appear before the minister of war on the morning of 15 October, dressed in civilian clothes, under pretense of an "inspection of the 'stage' officers." He answered the summons without suspicion. In the office of the head of staff, he found himself in the presence of Du Paty and three others, also in civilian dress, whom he did not know at all; they were Gribelin (the archivist of the Intelligence Office), the "chef de la sûreté," Cochefert, and the latter's secretary. While awaiting the general, Du Paty, pretending that he had hurt his finger, asked Dreyfus to write from his dictation a letter which he wished to present for signature. The wording was most extraordinary; it was addressed to an unknown person, and asked him to send back the documents which had been lent to him by the writer before "starting for the maneuvers"; then followed the enumeration of these documents, taken word for word from the bordereau. Du Paty had flattered himself that the culprit, on recognizing the words, would confess; a loaded revolver lay on a table to allow him to execute justice upon himself.
Things did not turn out as Du Paty had expected. Dreyfus wrote tranquilly on under the major's dictation. There was a moment when Du Paty, who was watching him closely, imagined he saw his hand tremble, and remarked sharply upon it to Dreyfus, who replied, "My fingers are cold." The facsimile of the letter shows no sign of disturbance in the writing, hardly even a slight deviation. After having dictated a few more lines, during which "Dreyfus entirely regained his composure," he ceased the experiment, and placing his hand on the captain's shoulder, he cried: "In the name of the law I arrest you; you are accused of the crime of high treason!" Dreyfus, in his stupefaction, hardly found words to protest his innocence. He pushed away the revolver indignantly, but allowed himself to be searched without resistance, saying: "Take my keys, examine everything in my house; I am innocent." Du Paty and his associates assured him that a "long inquiry" made against him had resulted in "incontestable proofs" which would be communicated to him later on. Then he was placed in the hands of Major Henry, who had been listening from the next room, and whose mission it was to deliver him over to the military prison of Cherche-Midi. In the cab that took them there, Dreyfus renewed his protestations of innocence, and asserted that he had not even been told what the documents in question were, or to whom he was accused of having given them.
At Cherche-Midi Dreyfus was turned over to the governor of the prison, Major Forzinetti, who had received orders to keep his imprisonment secret, even from his chief, General Saussier – an unheard-of measure. Apparently, the minister had some doubts as to the guilt of Dreyfus, and did not wish to publish his arrest until the inquiry furnished decisive proofs.
The conduct of the inquiry was entrusted to Major Du Paty de Clam. Immediately after the arrest he went to see Madame Dreyfus, and ordered her, under the most terrible threats, to keep the matter secret, even from her brothers-in-law. He then made a minute search of the rooms, which furnished no evidence whatever: no suspicious document, no papier pelure (foreign notepaper) was found: nothing but well-kept accounts. A similar search made in the house of M. Hadamard (Dreyfus' father-in-law) ended in the same failure.
Du Paty repeatedly visited Dreyfus in prison. He made him write standing up, seated, lying down, in gloves — all without obtaining any characteristics identical to those of the bordereau. He showed him fragments of a photograph of that document, mixed up with fragments and photographs of Dreyfus' own handwriting. The accused distinguished them with very little trouble. Du Paty questioned him without obtaining any other result than protestations of innocence broken by cries of despair. The suddenness of the catastrophe, and the uncertainty in which he was left as to its cause, reduced the wretched man to such a terrible state of mind that his reason was threatened. For several days he refused to take any food; his nights passed like a frightful nightmare. The governor of the prison, Forzinetti, warned the minister of the alarming state of his prisoner, and declared to General de Boisdeffre that he firmly believed he was innocent.
Not until 29 October did Du Paty show the entire text of the bordereau to Dreyfus, and then he made him copy it. The prisoner protested more forcibly than ever that it was not his writing, and regaining all the clarity of his intellect when faced by a definite accusation, tried to prove to his interlocutor that out of five documents mentioned in the bordereau, three were absolutely unknown to him.
He asked to see the minister: consent was given only on condition that "he start on the road to a confession". In the meantime, writing experts had proceeded with further examinations. Bertillon, to whom the name of the prisoner had now been revealed, set to work again. To explain at the same time the resemblances and the differences between the writing of Dreyfus and that of the bordereau, he said that Dreyfus must have imitated or traced his own handwriting, leaving enough of its natural character for his correspondent to recognize it, but introducing into it, for greater safety, alterations borrowed from the hands of his brother Mathieu Dreyfus and his sister-in-law Alice, in one of whose letters they had discovered the double s made as in the bordereau. This is the hypothesis of "autoforgery", which he complicated later on by a supposed mechanism of "key-words", of "gabarits," of measurements by the "kutsch", of turns and twists. Bertillon's provisional report, submitted on 20 October, inferred that Dreyfus was guilty "without any reservation whatever".
General Auguste Mercier, still not satisfied, had the prefect of police appoint three new experts, Charavay, Pelletier, and Teyssonnières; Bertillon was put at their disposal to furnish them with photographic enlargements. Pelletier simply studied the bordereau and the documents given for comparison, and concluded that the writing of the bordereau was in no way disguised, and that it was not that of the prisoner. The two others, influenced by Bertillon, declared themselves in favor of the theory of identity. Teyssonnières, an expert of no great repute, spoke of feigned writing. Charavay, a distinguished paleographer, judged the prisoner guilty, unless it was a case of "sosie en écritures" – a most extraordinary resemblance of handwriting. He also spoke of simulation to explain away the palpable differences. On 31 October Du Paty finished his inquiry, and handed in his report, which accused Dreyfus but left it to the minister to decide what further steps should be taken. By this time General Mercier was no longer free to decide; the press had interfered. On 28 October Papillaud, a contributor to the Libre Parole, received a note signed "Henry" – under which pseudonym he recognized without hesitation the major of that name; "Henry" revealed to him the name and address of the arrested officer, adding falsely, "All Israel is astir."
The next day the Libre Parole publicized the secret arrest of an individual suspected of espionage. Other newspapers were more precise; days later, on 1 November, the anti-Semitic newspaper founded by Edouard Drumont announced the arrest of "the Jewish officer A. Dreyfus"; there was, it declared, "absolute proof that he had sold our secrets to Germany"; and what was more, he had "made full confession." All this was very awkward for General Mercier. It was too late to drop the case; he would have risked his position as a minister. He summoned a council of ministers, and, without revealing any other charge than that concerning the bordereau, declared that the documents mentioned in the memorandum could have been procured by only Dreyfus. The ministers, most of whom were hearing the story for the first time, unanimously decided to institute proceedings. The papers were made over to the governor of Paris, who gave the order to investigate.
No sooner had the name of Dreyfus been pronounced than the military attachés of Germany and Italy began to wonder if he had been in direct correspondence with the War Office of either country. They made inquiries in Berlin and Rome, and received answers in the negative. In his impatience, Panizzardi had telegraphed in cipher on 2 November: "If Captain Dreyfus has had no intercourse with you, it would be to the purpose to let the ambassador publish an official denial, in order to forestall comments by the press." This telegram, written in cipher, and of course copied at the post office, was sent to the Foreign Office to be deciphered. The first attempt left the last words uncertain; they were thus translated: "our secret agent is warned." This version, communicated to Colonel Sandherr, seemed to him a new proof against Dreyfus. But a few days later the real interpretation was discovered, of which Sandherr himself established the accuracy by a decisive verification. From that time it became morally impossible to bring home to Captain Dreyfus any document which would infer that the traitor was in communication with Panizzardi.
Judicial inquiry
The judicial inquiry had been entrusted to Major Bexon d'Ormescheville, judge-advocate of the first court martial of the Seine département. Comrades of Dreyfus said that they remembered, or thought they remembered, that in his past conduct he had shown signs of excessive curiosity. One officer testified that he had lent him the "manuel de tir" for several days, but that was in July, whereas the bordereau was now believed to have been written in April. An agent named Guénée, charged by Major Henry with the task of inquiring into the question of his morals, picked up a collection of tales which represented Dreyfus as a gambler and a libertine, whose family had been obliged several times to pay his debts. Another inquiry by the Prefecture of Police showed the inanity of these allegations: Dreyfus was unknown in gambling-houses, and Guénée's informants had confused him with one of his numerous namesakes. There was no visible motive; the accusation rested solely on the disputed handwriting.
However, public opinion had already condemned him. The press claimed that Dreyfus had exposed the system of national defense. All the treachery that had remained untraced was blamed on him. People were indignant that the penalty of death for political crimes had been abolished by the constitution of 1848; even death seemed too light a punishment. The only excuse that they found for him was that his race had predisposed him to commit an act of treason, the "fatalité du type."
The yellow press also blamed the minister of war, for keeping the arrest a secret, in the hope of being able to hush up the affair; he was said to be in league with "the Jews". General Mercier now understood that the condemnation of Dreyfus was a question of his own political life or death; convinced or not, he determined to establish the man's guilt. On November 28, he declared in an interview with Le Figaro that Dreyfus' guilt was "absolutely certain." Then, aware of the defects of the evidence, he ordered that a secret dossier should be prepared by collecting from the drawers of the Intelligence Department whatever documents concerning spies could more or less be ascribed to Dreyfus. This dossier, revised and put into a sealed envelope by Mercier himself, with the cooperation of Boisdeffre and of Sandherr, was to be communicated only to the judges in the room where they held their deliberations, without either the accused or his counsel having been able to see it.
As soon as it had become known that General Mercier had decided to pursue the matter, public opinion changed in his favor. "One must be for Mercier or for Dreyfus," proclaimed General Riu. Cassagnac, who, as a personal friend of Dreyfus' lawyer, maintained some doubts as to his guilt, summed up the situation in these words: "If Dreyfus is acquitted, no punishment would be too severe for Mercier!"
References
Dreyfus affair
1894 in France
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