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1874_1 | Geographic characteristics and early history |
1874_2 | With insufficient understanding of the ecology of the plains, farmers had conducted extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains during the previous decade; this had displaced the native, deep-rooted grasses that normally trapped soil and moisture even during periods of drought and high winds. The rapid mechanization of farm equipment, especially small gasoline tractors, and widespread use of the combine harvester contributed to farmers' decisions to convert arid grassland (much of which received no more than 10 inches (~250 mm) of precipitation per year) to cultivated cropland. During the drought of the 1930s, the unanchored soil turned to dust, which the prevailing winds blew away in huge clouds that sometimes blackened the sky. These choking billows of dust – named "black blizzards" or "black rollers" – traveled cross country, reaching as far as the East Coast and striking such cities as New York City and Washington, D.C. On the plains, they often reduced |
1874_3 | visibility to or less. Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma, to witness the "Black Sunday" black blizzards of April 14, 1935; Edward Stanley, the Kansas City news editor of the Associated Press, coined the term "Dust Bowl" while rewriting Geiger's news story. |
1874_4 | While the term "the Dust Bowl" was originally a reference to the geographical area affected by the dust, today it usually refers to the event itself (the term "Dirty Thirties" is also sometimes used). The drought and erosion of the Dust Bowl affected that centered on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and touched adjacent sections of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. The Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of poverty-stricken families, who were unable to pay mortgages or grow crops, to abandon their farms, and losses reached $25 million per day by 1936 (). Many of these families, who were often known as "Okies" because so many of them came from Oklahoma, migrated to California and other states to find that the Great Depression had rendered economic conditions there little better than those they had left. |
1874_5 | The Dust Bowl area lies principally west of the 100th meridian on the High Plains, characterized by plains which vary from rolling in the north to flat in the Llano Estacado. Elevation ranges from in the east to at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The area is semiarid, receiving less than of rain annually; this rainfall supports the shortgrass prairie biome originally present in the area. The region is also prone to extended drought, alternating with unusual wetness of equivalent duration. During wet years, the rich soil provides bountiful agricultural output, but crops fail during dry years. The region is also subject to high winds.
During early European and American exploration of the Great Plains, this region was thought unsuitable for European-style agriculture; explorers called it the Great American Desert. The lack of surface water and timber made the region less attractive than other areas for pioneer settlement and agriculture. |
1874_6 | The federal government encouraged settlement and development of the Plains for agriculture via the Homestead Act of 1862, offering settlers ”quarter section” plots. With the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, waves of new migrants and immigrants reached the Great Plains, and they greatly increased the acreage under cultivation. An unusually wet period in the Great Plains mistakenly led settlers and the federal government to believe that "rain follows the plow" (a popular phrase among real estate promoters) and that the climate of the region had changed permanently. While initial agricultural endeavors were primarily cattle ranching, the adverse effect of harsh winters on the cattle, beginning in 1886, a short drought in 1890, and general overgrazing, led many landowners to increase the amount of land under cultivation. |
1874_7 | Recognizing the challenge of cultivating marginal arid land, the United States government expanded on the offered under the Homestead Act – granting to homesteaders in western Nebraska under the Kinkaid Act (1904) and elsewhere in the Great Plains under the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. Waves of European settlers arrived in the plains at the beginning of the 20th century. A return of unusually wet weather seemingly confirmed a previously held opinion that the "formerly" semiarid area could support large-scale agriculture. At the same time, technological improvements such as mechanized plowing and mechanized harvesting made it possible to operate larger properties without increasing labor costs. |
1874_8 | The combined effects of the disruption of the Russian Revolution, which decreased the supply of wheat and other commodity crops, and World War I increased agricultural prices; this demand encouraged farmers to dramatically increase cultivation. For example, in the Llano Estacado of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, the area of farmland was doubled between 1900 and 1920, then tripled again between 1925 and 1930. The agricultural methods favored by farmers during this period created the conditions for large-scale erosion under certain environmental conditions. The widespread conversion of the land by deep plowing and other soil preparation methods to enable agriculture eliminated the native grasses which held the soil in place and helped retain moisture during dry periods. Furthermore, cotton farmers left fields bare during winter months, when winds in the High Plains are highest, and burned the stubble as a means to control weeds prior to planting, thereby depriving the soil |
1874_9 | of organic nutrients and surface vegetation. |
1874_10 | Drought and dust storms |
1874_11 | After fairly favorable climatic conditions in the 1920s with good rainfall and relatively moderate winters, which permitted increased settlement and cultivation in the Great Plains, the region entered an unusually dry era in the summer of 1930. During the next decade, the northern plains suffered four of their seven driest calendar years since 1895, Kansas four of its twelve driest, and the entire region south to West Texas lacked any period of above-normal rainfall until record rains hit in 1941. When severe drought struck the Great Plains region in the 1930s, it resulted in erosion and loss of topsoil because of farming practices at the time. The drought dried the topsoil and over time it became friable, reduced to a powdery consistency in some places. Without the indigenous grasses in place, the high winds that occur on the plains picked up the topsoil and created the massive dust storms that marked the Dust Bowl period. The persistent dry weather caused crops to fail, leaving the |
1874_12 | plowed fields exposed to wind erosion. The fine soil of the Great Plains was easily eroded and carried east by strong continental winds. |
1874_13 | On November 11, 1933, a very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from desiccated South Dakota farmlands in one of a series of severe dust storms that year. Beginning on May 9, 1934, a strong, two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil in one of the worst such storms of the Dust Bowl. The dust clouds blew all the way to Chicago, where they deposited 12 million pounds of dust (~ 5500 tonnes). Two days later, the same storm reached cities to the east, such as Cleveland, Buffalo, Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. That winter (1934–1935), red snow fell on New England. |
1874_14 | On April 14, 1935, known as "Black Sunday", 20 of the worst "black blizzards" occurred across the entire sweep of the Great Plains, from Canada south to Texas. The dust storms caused extensive damage and appeared to turn the day to night; witnesses reported that they could not see five feet in front of them at certain points. Denver-based Associated Press reporter Robert E. Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma, that day. His story about Black Sunday marked the first appearance of the term Dust Bowl; it was coined by Edward Stanley, Kansas City news editor of the Associated Press, while rewriting Geiger's news story. |
1874_15 | Much of the farmland was eroded in the aftermath of the Dust Bowl. In 1941, a Kansas agricultural experiment station released a bulletin that suggested reestablishing native grasses by the "hay method". Developed in 1937 to speed up the process and increase returns from pasture, the "hay method" was originally supposed to occur in Kansas naturally over 25–40 years. After much data analysis, the causal mechanism for the droughts can be linked to ocean temperature anomalies. Specifically, Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures appear to have had an indirect effect on the general atmospheric circulation, while Pacific sea surface temperatures seem to have had the most direct influence.
Human displacement
This catastrophe intensified the economic impact of the Great Depression in the region. |
1874_16 | In 1935, many families were forced to leave their farms and travel to other areas seeking work because of the drought (which at that time had already lasted four years). The abandonment of homesteads and financial ruin resulting from catastrophic topsoil loss led to widespread hunger and poverty. Dust Bowl conditions fomented an exodus of the displaced from Texas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains to adjacent regions. More than 500,000 Americans were left homeless. More than 350 houses had to be torn down after one storm alone. The severe drought and dust storms had left many homeless; others had their mortgages foreclosed by banks, or felt they had no choice but to abandon their farms in search of work. Many Americans migrated west looking for work. Parents packed up "jalopies" with their families and a few personal belongings, and headed west in search of work. Some residents of the Plains, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma, fell ill and died of dust pneumonia or |
1874_17 | malnutrition. |
1874_18 | Between 1930 and 1940, approximately 3.5 million people moved out of the Plains states. In just over a year, over 86,000 people migrated to California. This number is more than the number of migrants to that area during the 1849 gold rush. Migrants abandoned farms in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico, but were often generally referred to as "Okies", "Arkies", or "Texies". Terms such as "Okies" and "Arkies" came to be known in the 1930s as the standard terms for those who had lost everything and were struggling the most during the Great Depression.
However, not all migrants traveled long distances; most migrants participated in internal state migration moving from counties that the Dust Bowl highly impacted to other less affected counties. So many families left their farms and were on the move that the proportion between migrants and residents was nearly equal in the Great Plains states. |
1874_19 | An examination of Census Bureau statistics and other records, and a 1939 survey of occupation by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of about 116,000 families who arrived in California in the 1930s, showed that only 43 percent of Southwesterners were doing farm work immediately before they migrated. Nearly one-third of all migrants were professional or white-collar workers. Specifically for farmers, while some of them had to take on unskilled labor when they moved, leaving the farming sector commonly led to greater social mobility in the future as there was a far greater likelihood that migrant farmers would later go into semi-skilled or high-skilled fields which paid better. Non-farmers experienced more downward occupational moves than farmers, but in most cases they were not significant enough to bring them into poverty, because high-skilled migrants were most likely to experience a downward shift into semi-skilled work. While semi-skilled work did not pay as well as high-skilled |
1874_20 | work, most of these workers were not impoverished. For the most part, by the end of the Dust Bowl the migrants generally were better off than those who chose to stay behind according to their occupational changes. |
1874_21 | After the Great Depression ended, some migrants moved back to their original states. Many others remained where they had resettled. About one-eighth of California's population is of Okie heritage.
Government response
The greatly expanded participation of government in land management and soil conservation was an important outcome from the disaster. Different groups took many different approaches to responding to the disaster. To identify areas that needed attention, groups such as the Soil Conservation Service generated detailed soil maps and took photos of the land from the sky. To create shelterbelts to reduce soil erosion, groups such as the United States Forestry Service's Prairie States Forestry Project planted trees on private lands. Finally, groups like the Resettlement Administration, which later became the Farm Security Administration, encouraged small farm owners to resettle on other lands, if they lived in drier parts of the Plains. |
1874_22 | During President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first 100 days in office in 1933, his administration quickly initiated programs to conserve soil and restore the ecological balance of the nation. Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes established the Soil Erosion Service in August 1933 under Hugh Hammond Bennett. In 1935, it was transferred and reorganized under the Department of Agriculture and renamed the Soil Conservation Service. It is now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). |
1874_23 | As part of New Deal programs, Congress passed the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act in 1936, requiring landowners to share the allocated government subsidies with the laborers who worked on their farms. Under the law, "benefit payments were continued as measures for production control and income support, but they were now financed by direct Congressional appropriations and justified as soil conservation measures. The Act shifted the parity goal from price equality of agricultural commodities and the articles that farmers buy to income equality of farm and non-farm population." Thus, the parity goal was to re-create the ratio between the purchasing power of the net income per person on farms from agriculture and that of the income of persons not on farms that prevailed during 1909–1914. |
1874_24 | To stabilize prices, the government paid farmers and ordered more than six million pigs to be slaughtered, as part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). It paid to have the meat packed and distributed to the poor and hungry. The Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC) was established to regulate crop and other surpluses. FDR in an address on May 14, 1935, to the AAA commented, |
1874_25 | Let me make one other point clear for the benefit of the millions in cities who have to buy meats. Last year the Nation suffered a drought of unparalleled intensity. If there had been no Government program, if the old order had obtained in 1933 and 1934, that drought on the cattle ranges of America and in the corn belt would have resulted in the marketing of thin cattle, immature hogs and the death of these animals on the range and on the farm, and if the old order had been in effect those years, we would have had a vastly greater shortage than we face today. Our program – we can prove it – saved the lives of millions of head of livestock. They are still on the range, and other millions of heads are today canned and ready for this country to eat.
The FSRC diverted agricultural commodities to relief organizations. Apples, beans, canned beef, flour and pork products were distributed through local relief channels. Cotton goods were later included, to clothe needy. |
1874_26 | In 1935, the federal government formed a Drought Relief Service (DRS) to coordinate relief activities. The DRS bought cattle in counties which were designated emergency areas, for $14 to $20 a head. Animals determined unfit for human consumption were killed; at the beginning of the program, more than 50 percent were so designated in emergency areas. The DRS assigned the remaining cattle to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC) to be used in food distribution to families nationwide. Although it was difficult for farmers to give up their herds, the cattle slaughter program helped many of them avoid bankruptcy. "The government cattle buying program was a blessing to many farmers, as they could not afford to keep their cattle, and the government paid a better price than they could obtain in local markets." |
1874_27 | President Roosevelt ordered the Civilian Conservation Corps to plant the Great Plains Shelterbelt, a huge belt of more than 200 million trees from Canada to Abilene, Texas to break the wind, hold water in the soil, and hold the soil itself in place. The administration also began to educate farmers on soil conservation and anti-erosion techniques, including crop rotation, strip farming, contour plowing, terracing, and other improved farming practices. In 1937, the federal government began an aggressive campaign to encourage farmers in the Dust Bowl to adopt planting and plowing methods that conserved the soil. The government paid reluctant farmers a dollar an acre to practice the new methods. By 1938, the massive conservation effort had reduced the amount of blowing soil by 65%. The land still failed to yield a decent living. In the fall of 1939, after nearly a decade of dirt and dust, the drought ended when regular rainfall finally returned to the region. The government still |
1874_28 | encouraged continuing the use of conservation methods to protect the soil and ecology of the Plains. |
1874_29 | At the end of the drought, the programs which were implemented during these tough times helped to sustain a positive relationship between America's farmers and the federal government.
The President's Drought Committee issued a report in 1935 covering the government's assistance to agriculture during 1934 through mid-1935: it discussed conditions, measures of relief, organization, finances, operations, and results of the government's assistance.<ref>United States. Agricultural Adjustment Administration and Murphy, Philip G., (1935), Drought of 1934: The Federal Government's Assistance to Agriculture ". Accessed October 15, 2014.</ref> Numerous exhibits are included in this report.
Long-term economic impact
In many regions, more than 75% of the topsoil was blown away by the end of the 1930s. Land degradation varied widely. Aside from the short-term economic consequences caused by erosion, there were severe long-term economic consequences caused by the Dust Bowl. |
1874_30 | By 1940, counties that had experienced the most significant levels of erosion had a greater decline in agricultural land values. The per-acre value of farmland declined by 28% in high-erosion counties and 17% in medium-erosion counties, relative to land value changes in low-erosion counties. Even over the long-term, the agricultural value of the land often failed to recover to pre-Dust Bowl levels. In highly eroded areas, less than 25% of the original agricultural losses were recovered. The economy adjusted predominantly through large relative population declines in more-eroded counties, both during the 1930s and through the 1950s. |
1874_31 | The economic effects persisted, in part, because of farmers' failure to switch to more appropriate crops for highly eroded areas. Because the amount of topsoil had been reduced, it would have been more productive to shift from crops and wheat to animals and hay. During the Depression and through at least the 1950s, there was limited relative adjustment of farmland away from activities that became less productive in more-eroded counties. |
1874_32 | Some of the failure to shift to more productive agricultural products may be related to ignorance about the benefits of changing land use. A second explanation is a lack of availability of credit, caused by the high rate of failure of banks in the Plains states. Because banks failed in the Dust Bowl region at a higher rate than elsewhere, farmers could not get the credit they needed to obtain capital to shift crop production. In addition, profit margins in either animals or hay were still minimal, and farmers had little incentive in the beginning to change their crops. |
1874_33 | Patrick Allitt recounts how fellow historian Donald Worster responded to his return visit to the Dust Bowl in the mid-1970s when he revisited some of the worst afflicted counties:
Capital-intensive agribusiness had transformed the scene; deep wells into the aquifer, intensive irrigation, the use of artificial pesticides and fertilizers, and giant harvesters were creating immense crops year after year whether it rained or not. According to the farmers he interviewed, technology had provided the perfect answer to old troubles, such of the bad days would not return. In Worster's view, by contrast, the scene demonstrated that America's capitalist high-tech farmers had learned nothing. They were continuing to work in an unsustainable way, devoting far cheaper subsidized energy to growing food than the energy could give back to its ultimate consumers. |
1874_34 | In contrast with Worster's pessimism, historian Mathew Bonnifield argued that the long-term significance of the Dust Bowl was "the triumph of the human spirit in its capacity to endure and overcome hardships and reverses."
Influence on the arts and culture |
1874_35 | The crisis was documented by photographers, musicians, and authors, many hired during the Great Depression by the federal government. For instance, the Farm Security Administration hired numerous photographers to document the crisis. Artists such as Dorothea Lange were aided by having salaried work during the Depression. She captured what have become classic images of the dust storms and migrant families. Among her most well-known photographs is Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children, which depicted a gaunt-looking woman, Florence Owens Thompson, holding three of her children. This picture expressed the struggles of people caught by the Dust Bowl and raised awareness in other parts of the country of its reach and human cost. Decades later, Thompson disliked the boundless circulation of the photo and resented the fact she did not receive any money from its broadcast. Thompson felt it gave her the perception as a Dust Bowl "Okie." |
1874_36 | The work of independent artists was also influenced by the crises of the Dust Bowl and the Depression. Author John Steinbeck, borrowing closely from field notes taken by Farm Security Administration worker and author Sanora Babb, wrote The Grapes of Wrath (1939) about migrant workers and farm families displaced by the Dust Bowl. Babb's own novel about the lives of the migrant workers, Whose Names Are Unknown, was written in 1939 but was eclipsed and shelved in response to the success of Steinbeck's work, and was finally published in 2004. Many of the songs of folk singer Woody Guthrie, such as those on his 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads, are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression when he traveled with displaced farmers from Oklahoma to California and learned their traditional folk and blues songs, earning him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Troubadour". |
1874_37 | Migrants also influenced musical culture wherever they went. Oklahoma migrants, in particular, were rural Southwesterners who carried their traditional country music to California. Today, the "Bakersfield Sound" describes this blend, which developed after the migrants brought country music to the city. Their new music inspired a proliferation of country dance halls as far south as Los Angeles.
The 2014 science fiction film Interstellar features a ravaged 21st-century America which is again scoured by dust storms (caused by a worldwide pathogen affecting all crops). Along with inspiration from the 1930s crisis, director Christopher Nolan features interviews from the 2012 documentary The Dust Bowl to draw further parallels. |
1874_38 | In 2017, Americana recording artist Grant Maloy Smith released the album Dust Bowl – American Stories, which was inspired by the history of the Dust Bowl. In a review, the music magazine No Depression wrote that the album's lyrics and music are "as potent as Woody Guthrie, as intense as John Trudell and dusted with the trials and tribulations of Tom Joad – Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath."
Changes in agriculture and population on the Plains
Agricultural land and revenue boomed during World War I, but fell during the Great Depression and the 1930s. The agricultural land that was worst affected by the Dust Bowl was of land by the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. These twenty counties that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service identified as the worst wind-eroded region were home to the majority of the Great Plains migrants during the Dust Bowl. |
1874_39 | While migration from and between the Southern Great Plain States was greater than migration in other regions in the 1930s, the numbers of migrants from these areas had only slightly increased from the 1920s. Thus, the Dust Bowl and Great Depression did not trigger a mass exodus of southern migrants, it simply encouraged these migrants to keep moving where in other areas the Great Depression limited mobility due to economic issues, decreasing migration. While the population of the Great Plains did fall during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, the drop was not caused by extreme numbers of migrants leaving the Great Plains but because of a lack of migrants moving from outside of the Great Plains into the region. |
1874_40 | See also
1936 North American heat wave
Desertification
Goyder's Line – semiarid area of Australia
Global warming
List of environmental disasters
Monoculture
Ogallala Aquifer
Palliser's Triangle – semiarid area of Canada
Semi-arid climate
Tragedy of the commons
U.S. Route 66 – notable Dust Bowl migration route to California
Navajo Livestock Reduction – simultaneous program to prevent overgrazing and erosion
References
Bibliography |
1874_41 | Bonnifield, Mathew Paul. (1979) Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt and Depression Cunfer, Geoff. (2008) "Scaling the Dust Bowl" , Placing history: How maps, spatial data, and GIS are changing historical scholarship, ESRI Press, Redlands.
Gregory, James Noble. American exodus: The dust bowl migration and Okie culture in California (Oxford University Press, 1989)
Lassieur, Allison. (2009) The Dust Bowl: An Interactive History Adventure Capstone Press,
Reis, Ronald A. (2008) The Dust Bowl Chelsea House
Sylvester, Kenneth M., and Eric S. A. Rupley, "Revising the Dust Bowl: High above the Kansas Grassland", Environmental History, 17 (July 2012), 603–33.
Worster, Donald 2004 (1979)Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (25. anniversary ed) Oxford University Press.
Woody Guthrie, (1963) The (Nearly) Complete Collection of Woody Guthrie Folk Songs, Ludlow Music, New York.
Alan Lomax, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, (1967) Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People, Oak Publications, New York. |
1874_42 | Timothy Egan (2006) The Worst Hard Time , Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, hardcover. .
Katelan Janke, (1935) Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards, Dalhart, Texas, Scholastic (September 2002). .
Karen Hesse (paperback January 1999) Out of the Dust, Scholastic Signature. New York First Edition, 1997, hardcover. .
Sanora Babb (2004) Whose Names Are Unknown , University of Oklahoma Press, .
Sweeney, Kevin Z. (2016). Prelude to the Dust Bowl: Drought in the Nineteenth-Century Southern Plains Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. |
1874_43 | Documentary films
1936 – The Plow That Broke the Plains – 25 minutes, directed by Pare Lorentz
1998 – Surviving the Dust Bowl – 52 minutes, season 10 episode of American Experience documentary tv series
2012 – The Dust Bowl'' – 240 minutes, 4 episodes, directed by Ken Burns |
1874_44 | External links
The Dust Bowl photo collection
"The Dust Bowl", a PBS television series by filmmaker Ken Burns
The Dust Bowl (EH.Net Encyclopedia)
Black Sunday, April 14, 1935, Dodge City, KS
The Bibliography of Aeolian Research
Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940–1941 Library of Congress, American Folklife Center Online collection of archival sound recordings, photographs, and manuscripts
Farming in the 1930s (Wessels Living History Farm)
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Dust Bowl
Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: Oklahoma Women in the Dust Bowl Oral History Project, Oklahoma Oral History Research Program
Voices of Oklahoma interview with Frosty Troy. First person interview conducted on November 30, 2011 with Frosty Troy talking about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Original audio and transcript archived with Voices of Oklahoma oral history project. |
1874_45 | Great Plains
Great Depression in the United States
Internal migrations in the United States
History of agriculture in the United States
History of the American West
Environmental disasters in the United States
Soil in the United States
Droughts in the United States
Agriculture in the United States
Agriculture in Oklahoma
Agriculture in Texas
Agriculture in Kansas
Agriculture in Canada
20th-century droughts
1930s natural disasters in the United States
Natural disasters in Oklahoma
1930s droughts |
1875_0 | The Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) is a set of model rules drawn up by leading contract law academics in Europe. It attempts to elucidate basic rules of contract law and more generally the law of obligations which most legal systems of the member states of the European Union hold in common. The Principles of European Contract Law are based on the concept of a uniform European contract law system and were created by the self-styled Commission on European Contract Law set up by Ole Lando ("Lando Commission"). The PECL take into account the requirements of the European domestic trade.
History
In the broader sense the PECL proposals are a "set of general rules which are designed to provide maximum flexibility and thus accommodate future development in legal thinking in the field of contract law." |
1875_1 | The impetus for the work on the PECL were resolutions of the European Parliament of 1989 and 1994 which expressed the desire to establish a common European civil law. As an initial foundation, a common contract law was to be first created. |
1875_2 | Probably the first response was Harvey McGregor's 1993 "Contract Code" which was produced in response to a request from the English and Scots Law Commission for proposals for the possible codification of a combined law of contract for England and Scotland. McGregor made this work available to the EU, who seemingly ignored it.
Instead, the Commission on European Contract Law (an organisation independent from any national obligations) started work in 1982 under the chairmanship of Ole Lando, a lawyer and professor from Denmark. The Commission consisted of 22 members from all member states of the European Union and was partly financed by the EU. In the year 1995 the first part of the PECL was published; since 1999 the second part has been available and the third part was completed in 2002. |
1875_3 | Today, the work of the Commission on European Contract Law is continued by the Study Group on a European Civil Code. The Group is managed by Christian von Bar, a German law professor. The Group was founded in 2005.
The PECL were inspired by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) from 1980; however, they are a so-called Soft Law, such as the American Restatement of the Law of Contract, which is supposed to restate the Common Law of the United States. Therefore, the PECL do not represent a legally enforceable regulation: "The term 'soft law' is a blanket term for all sorts of rules, which are not enforced on behalf of the state, but are seen, for example, as goals to be achieved." |
1875_4 | Thus, the PECL are very similar to the Principles of International Commercial Contracts of UNIDROIT – International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit Principles) which were already published in 1994. As is the case with the PECL, the Unidroit-Principles are a "private codification" prepared by top-class jurists without any national or supranational order or authorisation. Their main goal of both the PECL and the Unidroit Principles was the compilation of uniform legal principles for reference, and, if necessary, the development of national legal systems.
In the compilation of the PECL, the Law of the EU member states, and thus common and civil law, as well as Non-European Law were taken into consideration. In the PECL regulations are available which in this form have not been included so far in any legal system. The authors of the PECL also pursued the long-term goal of influencing the development of laws in Europe. |
1875_5 | Meaning of the Principles of European Contract Law
The PECL as "Common Core of the European Systems"
In the formulation of the PECL the Lando Commission also used various European legal systems. In comparing these legal systems, there are often considerable differences with regard to certain regulations.
To make available to the concerned parties a fair legal construct for their business dealings that do not prefer a party from a particular jurisdiction, the differing national law in question was, more or less, merged to form a common core. |
1875_6 | This approach is intended to eliminate insecurity in international transactions. Each party can be assured not to have disadvantages due to unfavorable aspects of particular national law after the parties have agreed to the application of the Principles: "... the only way to a really unified market was and is that of having a common set of rules in order to overcome the traditional barriers of each national legal order having a distinct and disparate regulation on the subject."
The disadvantageous effects of differing national laws on the behaviour of the market participants will thus be avoided, Trade will be promoted, as will a legally uniform European market.
In this manner, the PECL succeed in bridging the gap between the civil law of the European continent and the common law of the Anglo-American system by offering regulations which were created to reconcile the divergent views of two systems. |
1875_7 | At the same time, the PECL provide assistance to judges in national courts and arbitrators in arbitration proceedings deciding cross-border issues. Should there not result any satisfactory solution from the national laws, "the Court [...] may adopt the solution provided by the Principles knowing that it represents the common core of the European systems."
Written in a language known to all parties and using a uniform terminology, the PECL also serve as a "... basis for any future European Code of Contracts", consistent with the above-mentioned EU resolutions, which may eventually replace separate national laws.
The PECL as part of a European Lex Mercatoria
Often, parties to international sales contracts do not agree on a national law governing their contractual agreement. Instead, they sometimes agree on the validity of internationally approved legal principles, the so-called "general principles of law." |
1875_8 | These law principles, the Lex mercatoria, on which a court can then make its decision to settle the disputes of the parties, are composed of the "laws of several systems, the work of the legal writers and the published arbitral awards," and thus the entirety of the international legal practices in a special field of law. Thus, the PECL are, like the Unidroit Principles or the CISG, also part of the Lex Mercatoria.
Whether Lex Mercatoria is subject to choice of law by the parties, is, however, actively disputed in international private law. This is also true for its legal nature per se. The PECL do not play a significant role in drafting of international sales contracts, or as a law governing such contracts. The possibility of including the PECL in such contracts – either expressly or by reference to "general trade principles" or similar – is indeed expressly mentioned in the PECL. |
1875_9 | In practice, however, the PECL are rarely agreed upon as applicable law. Within the trade between the member states of the European Union, the PECL nevertheless have a certain influence, since they were precisely created for such trade. The PECL enable the court, should it make use of them, to find a balanced decision. Further, it is possible that national legislative bodies will consult the PECL in connection with possible reforms to obtain a view of the current European consensus on contract law, without having to analyse the law of the individual states in detail.
Influence on development of law and national legal systems
The PECL were created, as was the case with the CISG and the Unidroit Principles, with the intention to be an example for existing and future national legal systems. |
1875_10 | Regulations under these soft laws were integrated in the new laws of various Central European and East European states. For example, parts of regulations of the PECL became part of the German Civil Code (BGB) in the course of the reform of the law of obligations in 2002.
Influence on a European Civil Code
There is an ongoing legal dispute as to whether an independent European civil code beyond the existing substantial EU regulatory framework is needed. If it is determined that a European Civil Code is needed, the PECL provides important steps toward the establishment of such a Code.
The Study Group on a European Civil Code (SGECC), based on the PECL and, respectively, the Lando-Commission, presented in 2009 a draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) in co-operation with other institutions. It is a draft for the codification of the whole European contract law and related fields of law. |
1875_11 | Within its efforts regarding a coherent European legal framework, the European Commission published a green paper for a European contract law in July 2010 where it puts seven options for the further handling with the prepared Draft Common Frame of Reference up for discussion.
These options range from the fully non-binding presentation of the results as a "Toolbox" and a "facultative European contract law instrument" up to an EU-Regulation for the introduction of a binding European Civil Code. Although the European Commission affirms that the options would be put up for an open-ended discussion, it is already preparing concrete regulations for an optional instrument by an "Expert Group" and a "Stakeholder Sounding Board." |
1875_12 | Actually, the solution of a facultative European contract law seems to be favoured (so-called 28th regulation – besides the 27 contract law systems of the member states) for which the users and companies within the European Union could use at their will (opt-in rule). This facultative regulation would be offered as an alternative to the existing individual-state contract law systems of the member states in all official languages. It could optionally be used for transnational contracts only or also for domestic contractual relationships.
However, the concept of the prepared Draft Common Frame of Reference has met with strong criticism in the European member states. There are fears that a reliable application of law is not possible without a thorough revision of the draft. Further developments remain to be seen.
See also
Principles of European Tort Law
Rome I Regulation
Rome II Regulation
References
External links
Full text of the Principles of European Contract Law |
1875_13 | Contract law
European Union law |
1876_0 | Onward, formerly Symphony Housing Group, is a housing association in North West England which manages 35,000 properties. Onward is based in Liverpool. Bronwen Rapley is the Chief Executive. In 2020 it moved its headquarters to the new Watson Building in Liverpool’s Renshaw Street. It also from Manchester’s Christie Fields. Rob Loughenbury, former campaign manager for the Conservative Party, was appointed director of strategy in 2020 with a brief to contribute to the regional plans to ‘build back better’ in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, both as a social landlord and a housebuilder working across Liverpool, Manchester and Cheshire.
Onward was formed as a merger in 2018 of five smaller associations - Contour Homes, Liverpool Housing Trust, Ribble Valley Homes, Hyndburn Homes and Peak Valley Housing Association. At that time it had about 800 staff and had plans to build more than 1,600 new homes over the next five years. |
1876_1 | It got an A1 credit rating with a ‘stable’ outlook from ratings agency Moody's Investors Service in February 2021, and an award for Best Application of Tech in the Public Sector in December 2020. It conducted a rapid automated telephone survey of its tenants to identify the most vulnerable. 91% confirmed they were OK and 1,698 asked for assistance.
Radon testing kits from Public Health England were supplied to 581 properties in Merseyside which are "located within a radon area" in 2020 in case remedial works were required.
It was fined £80,000 for breaches of the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 in December 2020 after four employees developed Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome from using vibrating power tools regularly. The company pleaded guilty. |
1876_2 | There were complaints about how the firm dealt with reports of rat infestation at its properties in Rishton in 2020. A family in Fairfield, Liverpool abandoned their property and were given temporary accommodation by the council when it was infested with mice. Onward said pest control was usually "the responsibility of the tenant" and claimed the family had "been unwilling to allow access to the property". A tenant in Toxteth claimed that his flat was left to rot despite frequent complaints about leaking sewage and damp which caused his ceiling to collapse. He accused Onward Homes of behaviour in a 'patronising' way towards him and that conditions in his flat 'ripped [him] apart'. They put him in temporary accommodation while his flat was repaired. Complaints to the Housing Ombudsman about the organisation increased from 35 and 39 in 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively, to 141 in 2019/20. The biggest growth was ‘property condition’ – the ombudsman’s umbrella term for repairs and |
1876_3 | maintenance issues. Onward Homes attributed the growth to their merger and a change in the repair contract. |
1876_4 | It supports the East Lancashire Homeless Families project and the Speke Up project.
Developments
It is proposing to build a playground with ‘state of the art’ equipment in Hattersley on a former bowling green. This is part of the wider regeneration of the estate which is driven by a partnership between Tameside Council, Onward Homes and Homes England. |
1876_5 | It is developing a 450-home scheme in Basford, Cheshire. 123 properties are to be designated as affordable and the remainder for sale. This site is designated a strategic location for housing in the Cheshire East Local Plan, part of Cheshire East Council's plan for 850 homes in the village with a new local centre, including a primary school, shops and community centre, supported by a £2.2 million Homes England grant with investments of £4.5 million for road improvements, £1.5 million towards a new local primary school and £670,000 for new bus services, cycle lanes and pedestrian routes. They say "Onward is laying the foundations for a new community where individuals, couples and families can achieve their housing aspirations, from home ownership to affordable rent." |
1876_6 | Its project in Great Harwood is for 40 houses, all available at affordable rent, and backed by a £1.56m grant from Homes England. In Wincham it is planning 98 detached, semi-detached and mews-style houses. 40% of the site will be developed, with the remaining 60% for use as public open space, an attenuation zone, and the retention of existing natural habitats and open areas. 21 one-bedroom apartments and six two-bedroom apartments on three storeys are under construction in Whitefield, Greater Manchester.
A 58-home scheme in Runcorn was left half-finished in October 2020 following the collapse of the building contractor Cruden. Anwyl Construction were engaged to make to site safe and complete the works. The 119 units have a mix of two, three-and four-bedroom homes in a community identified as needing a boost to the supply of homes available for shared ownership and affordable rent.
See also
Public housing in the United Kingdom
References
Housing associations based in England |
1877_0 | Family is the ninth studio album by American country recording artist LeAnn Rimes, released October 9, 2007, by Curb Records in the United States. It was produced primarily by musician and record producer Dann Huff, with additional production by Tony Brown and guest vocalist Reba McEntire.
Family is the first album in Rimes' career where she has co-written every song for an album.
The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 74,200 copies in its first week. Upon its release, Family received positive reviews from most music critics, who complimented Rimes' performance and songwriting. The lead single "Nothin' Better to Do" earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance while the third single "What I Cannot Change" also earned her a nomination the following year . |
1877_1 | Singles
The first single, "Nothin' Better to Do", was released to radio on May 29, 2007 which she was nominated for a Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy for the 50th Grammy Awards, followed by "Good Friend and a Glass of Wine" and "What I Cannot Change," which was nominated for a Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy for the 51st Grammy Awards and went to number one on the Billboard Dance chart.
Reception
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 74,200 copies in the United States. It spent a total of 20 weeks in Billboard 200. As of July 2011 it has sold 401,000 copies in United States.
In the United Kingdom, Family debuted at number 31 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Rimes's first album to miss the top 20 of the chart (though not all of her albums were released in the UK).
Critical response |
1877_2 | Family received positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 70, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four out of five stars and called it "surprisingly far-ranging underneath its soft country-pop veneer [...] a canny blend of the commercial and the confessional". Blenders Jane Dark complimented its "lighthearted genre-hopping", writing that it "suggests nothing so much as a Broadway smash about a restless country star, borrowing from many styles, beholden to none." Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe praised Rimes' songwriting and dubbed Family "the best, most cogent album of her career". Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times complimented her "gentle belting-out" and commented that "the music echoes the fearlessness in the lyrics". Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe called Rimes "a |
1877_3 | distinctive interpretive singer" and viewed that her songwriting gives the album "the kind of focus and thematic coherence that most Nashville acts can't be bothered with". Keefe cited Family as "among the strongest mainstream country albums of the past several years". Ken Tucker of Billboard gave the album a favorable review and said, "It took personal experience for LeAnn Rimes to get to the point where she could write, record and release Family, the sum of a so-far extraordinary but still young life. But just because it's a personal album doesn't mean it doesn't speak to the masses." |
1877_4 | However, Q gave the album two out of five stars and stated "There's little spark, despite her admirable willingness to take chances." Entertainment Weeklys Alanna Nash gave it a B rating and commented that "Rimes displays new maturity in songwriting [...] though too often she lapses into posturing power pop". Adam Sweeting of Uncut criticized its music, writing that the songs "sound like an update of the kind of AOR racket Pat Benatar and Heart were making in the '80s". Dave Simpson of The Guardian noted "A slightly too-smooth production and typically overblown Bon Jovi collaboration", but called it "an album full of swaggering rhythm'n'booze and emotional confessionals that explore a dysfunctional childhood". Despite finding the song "uneven", Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and cited "Nothin' Better to Do", "Family", and "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" as highlights. Thomas Kintner of The Hartford Courant called Family "a |
1877_5 | carefully manicured, but still lively assortment that highlights her substantial vocal strengths", and praised Rimes' singing, stating "She is prone to embracing tunes so disposable that they should be beneath her notice, but the melodic richness she showers on even the most lackluster lyrics makes for interesting listening". |
1877_6 | Track listing
Personnel
Credits for Family adapted from Allmusic.
Musicians |
1877_7 | Tim Akers – keyboards, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer
Jon Bon Jovi – vocals on "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore"
Marc Broussard - vocals on "Nothing Wrong"
Tom Bukovac – electric guitar
John Catchings – cello
Eric Darken – percussion
Mark Douthit – tenor saxophone
Dan Dugmore – steel guitar
Paul Franklin – steel guitar
Carl Gorodetzky – violin
Barry Green – trombone
Kenny Greenberg – electric guitar
Mike Haynes – trumpet
Dann Huff – acoustic guitar
Rami Jaffee – Hammond organ
Joanna Janét – background vocals
Charles Judge – keyboards, programming, string arrangements, conductor, synthesizer
Russ Kunkel – drums
Tim Lauer – accordion, Casio, Farfisa organ, keyboards, Mellotron, Hammond organ, piano, solina, synthesizer
Reba McEntire – vocals on "When You Love Someone Like That"
Chris McHugh – drums
JayDee Mannes – steel guitar
Stuart Mathis – electric guitar
Doug Moffet – baritone saxophone
Steve Nathan – Hammond organ, piano
Michael Omartian – horn arrangements |
1877_8 | Carole Rabinowitz-Neuen – cello
LeAnn Rimes – lead vocals, background vocals
Matt Rollings – Hammond organ, piano
Pamela Sixfin – violin
Leland Sklar – bass guitar
Jimmie Lee Sloas – bass guitar
Michael Thompson – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Kris Wilkinson – viola
Jonathan Yudkin – banjo, fiddle, mandola |
1877_9 | Production
Derek Bason – engineer
Drew Bollman – assistant
Tony Brown – producer
Mike Butler – engineer
Terry Christian – engineer
John Coulter – design
Richard Dodd – engineer
Ben Fowler – engineer
Darrell Franklin – A&R
Mike "Frog" Griffith – project coordinator
Mark Hagen – engineer, overdub engineer
Nathaniel Hawkins – hair stylist
Nate Hertweck – assistant
Dann Huff – producer
Scott Kidd – assistant
David McClister – photography
Reba McEntire – producer
Steve Marcantonio – mixing
J.C. Monterrosa – assistant
John Netti – assistant
Justin Niebank – mixing
Lowell Reynolds – assistant
Troy Surratt – make-up
Todd Tidwell – assistant
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Release history
References
External links
Family at Discogs
Family at Metacritic
LeAnn Rimes albums
Asylum-Curb Records albums
2007 albums
Albums produced by Dann Huff
albums produced by Tony Brown (record producer) |
1878_0 | The military history of Pakistan () encompasses an immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas constituting modern Pakistan and greater South Asia. The history of the modern-day military of Pakistan began in 1947, when Pakistan achieved its independence as a modern nation. |
1878_1 | The military holds a significant place in the history of Pakistan, as the Pakistani Armed Forces have played, and continue to play, a significant role in the Pakistani establishment and shaping of the country. Although Pakistan was founded as a democracy after its independence from the British Raj, the military has remained one of the country's most powerful institutions and has on occasion overthrown democratically elected civilian governments on the basis of self-assessed mismanagement and corruption. Successive governments have made sure that the military was consulted before they took key decisions, especially when those decisions related to the Kashmir conflict and foreign policy. Political leaders of Pakistan are aware that the military has stepped into the political arena through coup d'état to establish military dictatorships, and could do so again. |
1878_2 | The Pakistani Armed Forces were created in 1947 by division of the British Indian Army. Pakistan was given units such as the Khyber Rifles, which had seen intensive service in World Wars I and II. Many of the early leaders of the military had fought in both world wars. Military history and culture is used to inspire and embolden modern-day troops, using historic names for medals, combat divisions, and domestically produced weapons.
Since the time of independence, the military has fought three major wars with India.
It has also fought a limited conflict at Kargil with India after acquiring nuclear capabilities. In addition, there have been several minor border skirmishes with neighbouring Afghanistan. After the September 11 attacks, the military is engaged in a protracted low intensity conflict along Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan, with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, as well as those who support or provide shelter to them. |
1878_3 | In addition, Pakistani troops have also participated in various foreign conflicts, usually acting as United Nations peacekeepers. At present, Pakistan has the largest number of its personnel acting under the United Nations with the number standing at 10,173 as of 31 March 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20090327120646/http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/contributors/2007/march07_1.pdf
1857–1947
British Raj |
1878_4 | The British Raj ruled from 1858 to 1947, the period when India was part of the British Empire. Following the famous Sepoy Mutiny, the British took steps to avoid further rebellions taking place including changing the structure of the Army. They banned Indians from the officer corp and artillery corp to ensure that future rebellions would not be as organised and disciplined and that the ratio of British soldiers to Indians would be drastically increased. Recruiting percentages changed with an emphasis on Sikhs and Gurkhas whose loyalties and fighting prowess had been proven in the conflict and new caste- and religious-based regiments were formed.
The World Wars
During World War I the British Indian Army fought in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, and France and suffered very heavy casualties. |
1878_5 | The British Indian Army's strength was about 189,000 in 1939. There were about 3,000 British officers and 1,115 Indian officers. The army was expanded greatly to fight in World War II. By 1945, the strength of the Army had risen to about two-and-a-half million. There were about 34,500 British officers and 15,740 Indian officers. The Army took part in campaigns in France, East Africa, North Africa, Syria, Tunisia, Malaya, Burma, Greece, Sicily and Italy. It suffered 179,935 casualties in the war (including 24,338 killed, 64,354 wounded, 11,762 missing and 79,481 soldiers). Many future military officers and leaders of Pakistan fought in these wars.
Birth of the modern military |
1878_6 | On June 3, 1947, the British Government announced its plan to divide British India between India and Pakistan and the subsequent transfer of power to the two countries resulted in independence of Pakistan. The division of the British Indian Army occurred on June 30, 1947, in which Pakistan received six armoured, eight artillery and eight infantry regiments compared to the forty armoured, forty artillery and twenty-one infantry regiments that went to India. At the Division Council, which was chaired by Rear Admiral Lord Mountbatten of Burma, the Viceroy of India, and was composed of the leaders of the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, they had agreed that the British Indian Army of 11,800 officers and 500,000 enlisted personnel was to be divided to the ratio of 64% for India and 36% for Pakistan. |
1878_7 | Pakistan was forced to accept a smaller share of the armed forces as most of the military assets, such as weapons depots, military bases, etc., were located inside the new Dominion of India, while those that were in the new Dominion of Pakistan were mostly obsolete. Pakistan also had a dangerously low ammunition reserve of only one week. By August 15, 1947, both India and Pakistan had operational control over their armed forces. General Sir Frank Messervy was appointed as the first Army Commander-in-Chief of the new Pakistan Army. General Messervy was succeeded in this post in February 1948, by General Sir Douglas Gracey, who served until January 1951. |
1878_8 | The Pakistani Armed Forces initially numbered around 150,000 men, many scattered around various bases in India and needing to be transferred to Pakistan by train. The independence created large-scale communal violence in India. In total, around 7 million Muslims migrated to Pakistan and 5 million Sikhs and Hindus to India with over a million people dying in the process.
Of the estimated requirement of 4,000 officers for Pakistani Armed Forces, only 2,300 were actually available. The neutral British officers were asked to fill in the gap and nearly 500 volunteered along with many Polish and Hungarian officers to run the medical corps. |
1878_9 | By October 1947, Pakistan had raised four divisions in West Pakistan and one division in East Pakistan with an overall strength of ten infantry brigades and one armoured brigade with thirteen tanks. Many brigades and battalions within these divisions were below half strength, but Pakistani personnel continued to arrive from all over India, the Middle East and North Africa and from South East Asia. Mountbatten and Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, the last Commander-in-Chief, India, had made it clear to Pakistan that in case of war with India, no other member of the Commonwealth would come to Pakistan's aid.
1947–1965
The war of 1947 |
1878_10 | Pakistan experienced combat almost immediately in the First Kashmir War when it sent its forces into Kashmir. Kashmir had a Muslim majority population, but the choice of which country to join was given to Maharaja Hari Singh who was unable to decide whether to join India or Pakistan. By late October, the overthrow of the maharaja seemed imminent. He sought military assistance from India, for which he signed an instrument of accession with India. The Pakistan army was pushed back by the Indians but not before taking control of the northwestern part of Kashmir (roughly 40% of Kashmir), which Pakistan still controls, the rest remaining under Indian control except for the portion ceded by Pakistan to China.
US aid |
1878_11 | With the failure of the United States to persuade India to join an anti-communist pact, it turned towards Pakistan, which in contrast with India was prepared to join such an alliance in return of military and economic aid and also to find a potential ally against India. By 1954, the US had decided that Pakistan along with Turkey and Iran would be ideal countries to counter Soviet influence. Therefore, Pakistan and the US signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement and American aid began to flow into Pakistan. This was followed by two more agreements. In 1955, Pakistan joined the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the Baghdad Pact, later renamed the Central Asian Treaty Organization (CENTO) when Iraq withdrew in 1959. |
1878_12 | Pakistan received over a billion dollars in US military aid between 1954 and 1965. This aid greatly enhanced Pakistan's defence capability as new equipment and weapons were brought into the armed forces, new military bases were created, existing ones were expanded and upgraded, and two new Corps commands were formed. Shahid M Amin, who had served in the Pakistani foreign service, wrote, "It is also a fact, that these pacts did undoubtedly secure very substantial US military and economic assistance for Pakistan in its nascent years and significantly strengthened it in facing India, as seen in the 1965 war."
American and British advisers trained Pakistani personnel and the US was allowed to create bases within Pakistan's borders to spy on the Soviet Union. In this period, many future Pakistani presidents and generals went to American and British military academies, which led to the Pakistan army developing along Western models, especially following the British. |
1878_13 | After Dominion status ended in 1956 with the formation of a Constitution and a declaration of Pakistan as an Islamic Republic, the military took control in 1958 and held power for more than 10 years. During this time, Pakistan had developed close military relations with many Middle Eastern countries to which Pakistan sent military advisers, a practice which continues into the 21st century. |
1878_14 | First military rule
In 1958, retired Major-General and President Iskander Mirza took over the country, deposed the government of Prime Minister Feroz Khan Noon, and declared martial law on October 7, 1958. President Mirza personally appointed his close associate General Ayub Khan as the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan's army. However, Khan ousted Mirza when he became highly dissatisfied by Mirza's policies. As president and commander-in-chief, Ayub Khan appointed himself a 5-star Field Marshal and built relationships with the United States and the West. A formal alliance including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey was formed and was called the Baghdad Pact (later known as CENTO), which was to defend the Middle East and Persian Gulf from Soviet communists designs.
Border clashes with Afghanistan |
1878_15 | Armed tribal incursions from Afghanistan into Pakistan's border areas began with the transfer of power in 1947 and became a continual irritant. Many Pashtun Afghans regarded the 19th century Anglo-Afghan border treaties (historically called the Durand Line) as void and were trying to re-draw the borders with Pakistan or to create an independent state (Pashtunistan) for the ethnic Pashtun people. The Pakistan Army had to be continually sent to secure the country's western borders. Afghan–Pakistan relations were to reach their lowest points in 1955 when diplomatic relations were severed with the ransacking of Pakistan's embassy in Kabul and again in 1961 when the Pakistan Army had to repel a major Afghan incursion in Bajaur region. |
1878_16 | Pakistan used American weaponry to fight the Afghan incursions but the weaponry had been sold under the pretext of fighting Communism and the US was not pleased with this development, as the Soviets at that time became the chief benefactor to Afghanistan. Some sections of the American press blamed Pakistan for driving Afghanistan into the Soviet camp.
Alliance with China
After India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War of 1962, India began a rapid program of reforming and expanding its military. A series of conferences on Kashmir was held from December 1962 to February 1963 between India and Pakistan. Both nations offered important concessions and a solution to the long-standing dispute seemed imminent. However, after the Sino-Indian war, Pakistan had gained an important new ally in China and Pakistan then signed a bilateral border agreement with China that involved the boundaries of the disputed state, and relations with India again became strained. |
1878_17 | Fearing a communist expansion into India, the US for the first time gave large quantities of weapons to India. The expansion of the Indian armed forces was viewed by most Pakistanis as being directed towards Pakistan rather than China. The US also pumped in large sums of money and military supplies to Pakistan as it saw Pakistan as being a check against Soviet expansionist plans.
1965–1979
The War of 1965 |
1878_18 | Pakistan viewed the military of India as being weakened following the Sino-Indian War in 1962. A small border skirmish between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch in April 1965 caught the Indian Army unprepared. The skirmish occurred between the border police of both countries due to poorly defined borders and later the armies of both countries responded. The result was decisive for the Pakistan army which was commended at home. Emboldened by this success, Operation Gibraltar, an infiltration attempt in Kashmir, was launched later that year. Rebellion was fostered among local Kashmiris to attack the Indian Army. Pakistan Army had a qualitative superiority over their neighbours. This caused a full-fledged war across the international border (the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965) broke out between India and Pakistan. The air forces of both countries engaged in massive air warfare. While on the offensive both armies occupied some of the other country's territory, resulting in a stalemate, |
1878_19 | but both sides claim victory. |
1878_20 | The US had imposed an arms embargo on both India and Pakistan during the war and Pakistan was affected more as it lacked spare parts for its Air Force, tanks, and other equipment, while India's quantitative edge making up for theirs. The war ended in a ceasefire. |
1878_21 | Rebuilding the Armed Forces
The US was disillusioned by a war in which both countries fought each other with equipment which had been sold for defensive purposes and to stop the spread of communism. Pakistan claimed that it was compelled to act by the Indian attempt to fully integrate Indian-controlled Kashmir into the union of India, but this had little impact to the Johnson Administration and by July 1967, the US withdrew its military assistance advisory group. In response to these events, Pakistan declined to renew the lease on the Peshawar military facility, which ended in 1969. Eventually, US–Pakistan relations grew measurably weaker as the US became more deeply involved in Vietnam and as its broader interest in the security of South Asia waned. |
1878_22 | The Soviet Union continued the massive build-up of the Indian military and a US arms embargo forced Pakistan to look at other options. It turned to China, North Korea, Germany, Italy and France for military aid. China in particular gave Pakistan over 900 tanks, Mig-19 fighters and enough equipment for three infantry divisions. France supplied some Mirage aircraft, submarines. The Soviet Union gave Pakistan around 100 T-55 tanks and Mi-8 helicopters but that aid was abruptly stopped under intense Indian pressure. Pakistan in this period was partially able to enhance its military capability.
Involvement in Arab conflicts |
1878_23 | Pakistan had sent numerous military advisers to Jordan and Syria to help in their training and military preparations for any potential war with Israel. When the Six-Day War started, Pakistan assisted by sending a contingent of its pilots and airmen to Egypt, Jordan and Syria. PAF pilots downed about 10 Israeli planes including Mirages, Mysteres and Vautours without losing a single plane of their own.
Jordan and Iraq decorated East Pakistani Flight Lieutenant Saif-ul-Azam. Israelis also praised the performance of PAF pilots. Eizer Weizman, then Chief Of Israeli Air Force wrote in his autobiography about Air Marshal Noor Khan (Commander PAF at that time): "...He is a formidable person and I am glad that he is Pakistani and not Egyptian." No Pakistani ground forces participated in the war. |
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