diff --git "a/wikipedia_34.txt" "b/wikipedia_34.txt" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/wikipedia_34.txt" @@ -0,0 +1,10000 @@ + +Bidding rules violation +In 2020, BT was fined £6.3m by the telecoms regulator Ofcom for violating the law on a large public sector deal in Northern Ireland. Under Ofcom's regulations, the BT network shall handle all wholesale customers similarly. In its report, Ofcom found that BT's network violated the rules by failing to supply Eir with the same details on its on-demand fiber-to-the-premises offering as its own rival team. + +Historical documents +Records of the Post Office Corporation (Telecommunications division) 19691981 and its predecessors (including Post Office Telegraph and Telephone Service 18641969 and some private telegraph and telephone companies) are Public Records, and are held by BT Archives. + +See also + + List of telephone operating companies + UK telephone area codes (STD codes) + +References + +Further reading + + Baldwin, F.G.C. The History of the Telephone in the United Kingdom (1925) + Foreman-Peck, J. "The development and diffusion of telephone technology in Britain, 1900–1940," Transactions of the Newcomen Society, (1991–92). 63, pp165–180. + Foreman-Peck, J., & Millward, R. Public and private ownership of British industry 1820–1990 (1994). + Hazlewood, A. "The origins of the state telephone service in Britain" Oxford Economic Papers (1953). 5:13–25. in JSTOR + + Johannessen, Neil. Ring up Britain: the Early Years of the Telephone in the United Kingdom (British Telecommunications plc, London, 1991) + Johnston, S. F. "The telephone in Scotland." in: K. Veitch, ed., Transport and Communications. Publications of the European Ethnological Research Centre; Scottish life and society: a compendium of Scottish ethnology (2009): pp. 716–727 online + Magill, Frank N. Great Events from History II: Business and Commerce Series, volume 1:1897–1923 (1994) pp 218–23; historiography + Meyer, Hugo Richard. Public Ownership and the Telephone in Great Britain: Restriction of the Industry by the State and the Municipalities (1907). online + Pitt, D.C. The telecommunications function in the British Post Office. A case study of bureaucratic adaption (Westmead: Saxon House, 1980). + Robertson, John Henry. The story of the telephone: A history of the telecommunications industry of Britain (1947) + +External links + + + BT Archives + BT Archives online catalogue + BT Login Links + + +1846 establishments in the United Kingdom +1912 establishments in the United Kingdom +1969 establishments in the United Kingdom +1981 establishments in the United Kingdom +British royal warrant holders +Companies based in the City of London +Telecommunications companies established in 1846 +Telecommunications companies established in 1912 +Telecommunications companies established in 1969 +Telecommunications companies established in 1981 +British companies established in 1846 +British companies established in 1912 +British companies established in 1969 +British companies established in 1981 +Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange +Internet service providers of the United Kingdom +Multinational companies based in the City of London +Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom +1960s initial public offerings +1980s initial public offerings +Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom +History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom +Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen. + +The estate and its original castle were bought from the Farquharson family in 1852 by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Soon afterwards the house was found to be too small and the current Balmoral Castle was commissioned. The architect was William Smith of Aberdeen, and his designs were amended by Prince Albert. Balmoral remains the private property of the monarch and is not part of the Crown Estate. It was the summer residence of Queen Elizabeth II, who died there on 8 September 2022. + +The castle is an example of Scottish baronial architecture, and is classified by Historic Environment Scotland as a category A listed building. The new castle was completed in 1856 and the old castle demolished shortly thereafter. + +The Balmoral Estate has been added to by successive members of the royal family, and now covers an area of approximately . It is a working estate, including grouse moors, forestry and farmland, as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle, sheep and ponies. + +Etymology + +Balmoral is pronounced or sometimes locally . It was first recorded as 'Bouchmorale' in 1451, and it was pronounced by local Scottish Gaelic speakers. The first element in the name is thought to be the Gaelic both, meaning "a hut", but the second part is uncertain. Adam Watson and Elizabeth Allan wrote in The Place Names of Upper Deeside that the second part meant "big spot (of ground)". Alexander MacBain suggested this was originally the Pictish *mor-ial, "big clearing" (c.f. Welsh mawr-ial). Alternatively, the second part could be a saint's name. + +History + +King Robert II of Scotland (1316–1390) had a hunting lodge in the area. Historical records also indicate that a house at Balmoral was built by Sir William Drummond in 1390. The estate was later tenanted by Alexander Gordon, second son of the 1st Earl of Huntly. A tower house was built on the estate by the Gordons. + +In 1662, the estate passed to Charles Farquharson of Inverey, brother of John Farquharson, the "Black Colonel". The Farquharsons were Jacobite sympathisers and James Farquharson of Balmoral was involved in both the 1715 and 1745 rebellions. He was wounded at the Battle of Falkirk in 1746. The Farquharson estates were forfeit, and passed to the Farquharsons of Auchendryne. In 1798, James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife, acquired Balmoral and leased the castle. Sir Robert Gordon, a younger brother of the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, acquired the lease in 1830. He made major alterations to the original castle at Balmoral, including baronial-style extensions that were designed by John Smith of Aberdeen. + +Royal acquisition + +Queen Victoria and Prince Albert first visited Scotland in 1842, five years after she acceded to the throne and two years after their marriage. During this first visit they stayed at Edinburgh, and at Taymouth Castle in Perthshire, the home of the Marquess of Breadalbane. They returned in 1844 to stay at Blair Castle and, in 1847 when they rented Ardverikie House by Loch Laggan. Frequent rain during the last trip led Sir James Clark, the queen's doctor, to recommend Deeside instead, for its healthier climate. + +Sir Robert Gordon died in 1847 and his lease on Balmoral reverted to Lord Aberdeen. In February 1848 an arrangement was made that Prince Albert would acquire the remaining part of the lease on Balmoral, together with its furniture and staff, without having seen the property first. + +The royal couple arrived for their first visit on 8 September 1848. Victoria found the house "small but pretty", and recorded in her diary that: "All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils". The surrounding hilly landscape reminded them of Thuringia, Albert's homeland in Germany. + +The house was soon confirmed to be too small, and in 1848, John and William Smith were commissioned to design new offices, cottages, and other ancillary buildings. Improvements to the woodlands, gardens and estate buildings were also being made, with the assistance of the landscape gardener James Beattie, and possibly the painter James Giles. + +Major additions to the old house were considered in 1849, but by then negotiations were under way to purchase the estate from the trustees of the deceased Earl Fife. After seeing a corrugated iron cottage at the Great Exhibition of 1851, Prince Albert ordered a prefabricated iron building for Balmoral from E. T. Bellhouse & Co., to serve as a temporary ballroom and dining room. It was in use by 1 October 1851, and would serve as a ballroom until 1856. + +The sale was completed in June 1852, the price being £32,000 () and Prince Albert formally took possession that autumn. The neighbouring estate of Birkhall was bought at the same time, and the lease on Abergeldie Castle secured as well. To mark the occasion, the Purchase Cairn was erected in the hills overlooking the castle, the first of many cairns on the estate. + +Construction of the new house + +Space was needed for the growing family of Victoria and Albert, for additional staff, and for accommodation for visiting friends and official visitors such as cabinet members. Thus extension of the existing structure would not provide enough space, and a larger house needed to be built. In early 1852, this was commissioned from William Smith. The son of John Smith (who designed the 1830 alterations of the original castle), William Smith was the city architect of Aberdeen from 1852. On learning of the commission, William Burn sought an interview with the prince, apparently to complain that Smith previously had plagiarised his work, however, Burn was unsuccessful in depriving Smith of the appointment. William Smith's designs were amended by Prince Albert, who took a close interest in details such as turrets and windows. + +Construction began in mid-1853, on a site some northwest of the original building that was considered to have a better vista. Another consideration was that during construction the family would still be able to use the old house. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone on 28 September 1853, during her annual autumn visit. By the autumn of 1855, the royal apartments were ready for occupancy, although the tower was still under construction and the servants had to be lodged in the old house. By coincidence, shortly after their arrival at the estate that autumn, news circulated about the fall of Sevastopol, ending the Crimean War, resulting in wild celebrations by royalty and locals alike. While visiting the estate soon afterwards, Prince Frederick of Prussia asked for the hand of Princess Victoria. + +The new house was completed in 1856, and the old castle was later demolished. By autumn 1857, a new bridge across the Dee, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel linking Crathie and Balmoral was finished. + +Balmoral Castle is built from granite quarried at Invergelder on the estate. It consists of two main blocks, each arranged around a courtyard. The southwestern block contains the main rooms, while the northeastern contains the service wings. At the southeast is an clock tower topped with turrets, one of which has a balustrade similar to a feature at Castle Fraser. Being similar in style to the demolished castle of the 1830s, the architecture of the new house is considered to be somewhat dated for its time when contrasted with the richer forms of Scots baronial being developed by William Burn and others during the 1850s. As an exercise in Scots baronial, it is sometimes described as too ordered, pedantic, and even Germanic as a consequence of Prince Albert's influence on the design. + +However, the purchase of a Scottish estate by Victoria and Albert and their adoption of a Scottish architectural style were influential for the ongoing revival of Highland culture. They decorated Balmoral with tartans and attended highland games at Braemar. Queen Victoria expressed an affinity for Scotland, even professing herself to be a Jacobite. Added to the work of Sir Walter Scott, this became a major factor in promoting the adoption of Highland culture by Lowland Scots. Historian Michael Lynch comments that "the Scottishness of Balmoral helped to give the monarchy a truly British dimension for the first time". + +Victoria and Albert at Balmoral +Even before the completion of the new house, the pattern of the life of the royal couple in the Highlands was soon established. Victoria took long walks of up to four hours daily and Albert spent many days hunting deer and game. In 1849, diarist Charles Greville described their life at Balmoral as resembling that of gentry rather than royalty. Victoria began a policy of commissioning artists to record Balmoral, its surroundings, and its staff. Over the years, numerous painters were employed at Balmoral, including Edwin and Charles Landseer, and Carl Haag. + +During the 1850s, new plantations were established near the house and exotic conifers were planted on the grounds. Prince Albert had an active role in these improvements, overseeing the design of parterres, the diversion of the main road north of the river via a new bridge, and plans for farm buildings. These buildings included a model dairy that he developed in 1861, the year of his death. The dairy was completed by Victoria. Subsequently, she also built several monuments to her husband on the estate. These include a pyramid-shaped cairn built a year after Albert's death, on top of Craig Lurachain. A large statue of Albert with a dog and a gun by William Theed, was inaugurated on 15 October 1867, the twenty-eighth anniversary of their engagement. + +Following Albert's death, Victoria spent increasing periods at Balmoral, staying for as long as four months a year during early summer and autumn. She placed numerous mementos of Albert on display. + +Few further changes were made to the grounds, with the exception of some alterations to mountain paths, the erection of various cairns and monuments, and the addition of some cottages (Karim Cottage and Baile na Coille) built for senior staff. It was during this period that Victoria began to depend on her servant, John Brown. He was a local ghillie from Crathie, who became one of her closest companions during her long mourning. + +In 1887, Balmoral Castle was the birthplace of Victoria Eugenie, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was born to Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter of Victoria and Albert. Victoria Eugenie became queen of Spain when she married King Alfonso XIII in 1906. + +In September 1896, Victoria welcomed Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra, a granddaughter of Victoria, to Balmoral. Four years later Victoria made her last visit to the estate, three months before her death on 22 January 1901. + +After Victoria +After Victoria's death, the royal family continued to use Balmoral during annual autumn visits. George V had substantial improvements made during the 1910s and 1920s, including formal gardens to the south of the castle. + +During the Second World War, royal visits to Balmoral ceased. In addition, due to the conflict with Germany, Danzig Shiel, a lodge built by Victoria in Ballochbuie, was renamed Garbh Allt Shiel and the "King of Prussia's Fountain" was removed from the grounds. + +In the 1950s, Prince Philip added herbaceous borders and a water garden. During the 1980s, new staff buildings were built close to the castle. + +Death of Queen Elizabeth II +Queen Elizabeth II had been at the castle since July 2022 for her annual summer holiday and had been receiving medical care there. In a break with tradition, Balmoral Castle, rather than Buckingham Palace, was the location of the appointment of British Prime Minister Liz Truss on 6 September 2022, due to concerns regarding the Queen's mobility issues. Elizabeth died at Balmoral at 15:10 BST on 8 September 2022 at the age of 96. She was the first monarch to die at Balmoral, and this was the first time a monarch had died in Scotland since James V died in 1542 at Falkland Palace. The Queen's coffin lay in repose in the ballroom of the castle for three days, to allow the Royal Family, estate staff and neighbours to pay their respects. On 11 September, the coffin was transported to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh for the start of the state funeral proceedings. + +Architecture + +Though called a castle, Balmoral's primary function is that of a country house. It is a "typical and rather ordinary" country house from the Victorian period. The tower and "pepper pot turrets" are characteristic features of the residence's Scottish baronial style. The seven-storey tower is an architectural feature borrowed from medieval defensive tower houses. The "pepper pot" turrets were influenced by the style of 16th-century French châteaux. Other features of the Scottish baronial style are the crow-stepped gables, dormer windows, and battlemented porte-cochère. + +Ownership +Balmoral is private property and, unlike the monarch's official residences, is not the property of the Crown. It was originally purchased privately by Prince Albert, for Queen Victoria, meaning that no revenues from the estate go to Parliament or the public purse, as would otherwise be the case for property owned outright by the monarch by the Civil List Act 1760. Along with Sandringham House in Norfolk, ownership of Balmoral was inherited by Edward VIII on his accession in 1936. When he abdicated later the same year, however, he retained ownership of them. A financial settlement was devised, under which Balmoral and Sandringham were purchased by Edward's brother and successor to the Crown, George VI. + +Elizabeth II inherited the Balmoral estate from her father, and then after her death, ownership passed to her eldest son King Charles III, but the estate is managed by trustees under Deeds of Nomination and Appointment. + +Estate + +Extent and operation + +Balmoral Estate is within the Cairngorms National Park and is partly within the Deeside and Lochnagar National Scenic Area. The estate contains a wide variety of landscapes, from the Dee river valley to open mountains. There are seven Munros (hills in Scotland over ) within the estate, the highest being Lochnagar at . This mountain was the setting for a children's story, The Old Man of Lochnagar, told originally by Prince Charles to his younger brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. The story was published in 1980, with royalties accruing to The Prince's Trust. The estate also incorporates the Delnadamph Lodge estate, bought by Elizabeth II in 1978. + +The estate extends to Loch Muick in the southeast where an old boat house and the Royal Bothy (hunting lodge) now named Glas-allt-Shiel, built by Victoria, are located. + +The working estate includes grouse moors, forestry, and farmland, as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle, and ponies. It also offers access to the public for fishing (paid) and hiking during certain seasons. + +Approximately of the estate are covered by trees, with almost used for forestry that yields nearly 10,000 tonnes of wood per year. Ballochbuie Forest, one of the largest remaining areas of old Caledonian pine growth in Scotland, consists of approximately . It is managed with only minimal or no intervention. The principal mammal on the estate is the red deer with a population of 2,000 to 2,500 head. + +The areas of Lochnagar and Ballochbuie were designated in 1998 by the Secretary of State for Scotland as Special Protection Areas (SPA) under the European Union (EU) Birds Directive. Bird species inhabiting the moorlands include red grouse, black grouse, ptarmigan, and the capercaillie. Ballochbuie is also protected as a Special Area of Conservation by the EU Habitats Directive, as "one of the largest remaining continuous areas of native Caledonian Forest". In addition, there are four sites of special scientific interest on the estate. + +The royal family employs approximately 50 full-time and 50–100 part-time staff to maintain the working estate. + +There are approximately 150 buildings on the estate, including Birkhall, formerly home to Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Craigowan Lodge is regularly used by the family and friends of the royal family and has also been used while Balmoral Castle was being prepared for a royal visit. Six smaller buildings on the estate are let as holiday cottages. + +Public access to gardens and castle grounds + +In 1931, the gardens and castle grounds were opened to the public for the first time. They are now open daily between April and the end of July, after which royal family members arrive at the castle for their annual stay. The ballroom is the only room in the castle that may be viewed by the public. + +Craigowan Lodge +Craigowan Lodge is a seven-bedroom stone house approximately from the main castle in Balmoral. More rustic than the castle, the lodge was often used by Prince Charles and Princess Diana when they visited. In May 1981 Charles and Diana posed for a photo at the lodge before their July 1981 wedding. + +In the obituary of Prince Michael Andreevich of Russia in 2008, it was noted that his family spent most of World War II at Craigowan Lodge. + +The lodge has been in the news periodically since 2005 because Elizabeth II and Prince Philip often spent the first few days of their summer holiday there. During the summer, the castle is a lucrative source of income from tourists. Sometimes, the Queen arrived at Balmoral before the tourist season was over. + +In popular culture +Parts of the films Mrs Brown (1997) and The Queen (2006) were based on events at Balmoral. In both films, substitute locations were used: Blairquhan Castle in The Queen and Duns Castle in Mrs Brown. In the Netflix series The Crown, Ardverikie House was used as a stand-in. In the sci-fi film The Day After Tomorrow (2004), three helicopters of the Royal Air Force crash in Scotland during an attempt to evacuate the Royal Family from Balmoral Castle. + +An illustration of the castle features on the reverse of £100 notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland. + +See also + + Ardverikie House, often used as a stand-in for Balmoral Castle in film + Crathie Kirk + List of British royal residences + Scottish castles + Alatskivi Castle, an Estonian castle influenced by the Balmoral Castle style + +References + +Citations + +General and cited references + +External links + + + +1856 establishments in Scotland +Art museums and galleries in Aberdeenshire +Carriage museums in Scotland +Castles in Aberdeenshire +Category A listed buildings in Aberdeenshire +Country houses in Aberdeenshire +Decorative arts museums in Scotland +Gardens in Aberdeenshire +Historic house museums in Aberdeenshire +Houses completed in 1856 +Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes +Listed museum buildings in Scotland +Royal residences in Scotland +Scottish baronial architecture +Tourist attractions in Aberdeenshire +Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha +Breton ( , ; or in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of the insular branch instead of the continental grouping. + +Breton was brought from Great Britain to Armorica (the ancient name for the coastal region that includes the Brittany peninsula) by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages, making it an Insular Celtic language. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, another Southwestern Brittonic language. Welsh and the extinct Cumbric, both Western Brittonic languages, are more distantly related, and the Goidelic languages (Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic) have a slight connection due to both of their origins being from Insular Celtic. + +Having declined from more than one million speakers around 1950 to about 200,000 in the first decade of the 21st century, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes rose 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709. + + + +History and status + +Breton is spoken in Lower Brittany (), roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha (west of Saint-Brieuc) and La Roche-Bernard (east of Vannes). It comes from a Brittonic language community that once extended from Great Britain to Armorica (present-day Brittany) and had even established a toehold in Galicia (in present-day Spain). Old Breton is attested from the 9th century. It was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French. The written language of the Duchy of Brittany was Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a limited tradition of Breton literature. Some philosophical and scientific terms in Modern Breton come from Old Breton. The recognized stages of the Breton language are: Old Breton – to , Middle Breton – to , Modern Breton – to present. + +The French monarchy was not concerned with the minority languages of France, spoken by the lower classes, and required the use of French for government business as part of its policy of national unity. During the French Revolution, the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to as . The revolutionaries assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages to try to keep the peasant masses under-informed. In 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his "report on the " to the Committee of Public Safety in which he said that "federalism and superstition speak Breton". + +Since the 19th century, under the Third, Fourth and now Fifth Republics, the French government has attempted to stamp out minority languages—including Breton—in state schools, in an effort to build a national culture. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s. + +In the early 21st century, due to the political centralization of France, the influence of the media, and the increasing mobility of people, only about 200,000 people are active speakers of Breton, a dramatic decline from more than 1 million in 1950. The majority of today's speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton is now classified as an endangered language. + +At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton; the other half were bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Lower Brittany, of whom about 190,000 were aged 60 or older. Few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton. In 1993, parents were finally legally allowed to give their children Breton names. + +Revival efforts + +In 1925, Professor Roparz Hemon founded the Breton-language review . During its 19-year run, tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of original literature in all genres, and proposed Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works. In 1946, replaced . Other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language. + +In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion. Since their establishment, Diwan schools have provided fully immersive primary school and partially immersive secondary school instruction in Breton for thousands of students across Brittany. This has directly contributed to the growing numbers of school-age speakers of Breton. + +The Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton. According to the comic, the Gaulish village where Asterix lives is in the Armorica peninsula, which is now Brittany. Some other popular comics have also been translated into Breton, including The Adventures of Tintin, , Titeuf, Hägar the Horrible, Peanuts and Yakari. + +Some original media are created in Breton. The sitcom, , is in Breton. Radio Kerne, broadcasting from Finistère, has exclusively Breton programming. Some movies (Lancelot du Lac, Shakespeare in Love, Marion du Faouet, Sezneg) and TV series (Columbo, Perry Mason) have also been translated and broadcast in Breton. Poets, singers, linguists, and writers who have written in Breton, including Yann-Ber Kallocʼh, Roparz Hemon, Anjela Duval, Xavier de Langlais, Pêr-Jakez Helias, Youenn Gwernig, Glenmor, Vefa de Saint-Pierre and Alan Stivell are now known internationally. + +Today, Breton is the only living Celtic language that is not recognized by a national government as an official or regional language. + +The first Breton dictionary, the Catholicon, was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagadec in 1464, it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today bilingual dictionaries have been published for Breton and languages including English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Welsh. A monolingual dictionary, was published in 1995. The first edition contained about 10,000 words, and the second edition of 2001 contains 20,000 words. + +In the early 21st century, the ("Public Office for the Breton language") began a campaign to encourage daily use of Breton in the region by both businesses and local communes. Efforts include installing bilingual signs and posters for regional events, as well as encouraging the use of the Spilhennig to let speakers identify each other. The office also started an Internationalization and localization policy asking Google, Firefox and SPIP to develop their interfaces in Breton. In 2004, the Breton Wikipedia started, which now counts more than 75,000 articles. In March 2007, the signed a tripartite agreement with Regional Council of Brittany and Microsoft for the consideration of the Breton language in Microsoft products. In October 2014, Facebook added Breton as one of its 121 languages after three years of talks between the and Facebook. + +France has twice chosen to enter the Eurovision Song Contest with songs in Breton; once in 1996 in Oslo with "" by Dan Ar Braz and the fifty piece band Héritage des Celtes, and most recently in 2022 in Turin with "" by Alvan Morvan Rosius and vocal trio Ahez. These are two of five times France has chosen songs in one of its minority languages for the contest, the others being in 1992 (bilingual French and Antillean Creole), 1993 (bilingual French and Corsican), and 2011 (Corsican). + +Geographic distribution and dialects + +Breton is spoken mainly in Lower Brittany, but also in a more dispersed way in Upper Brittany (where it is spoken alongside Gallo and French), and in areas around the world that have Breton emigrants. + +The four traditional dialects of Breton correspond to medieval bishoprics rather than to linguistic divisions. They are (, of the county of Léon), (, of Trégor), (, of ), and (, of Vannes). was spoken up to the beginning of the 20th century in the region of Guérande and Batz-sur-Mer. There are no clear boundaries between the dialects because they form a dialect continuum, varying only slightly from one village to the next. , however, requires a little study to be intelligible with most of the other dialects. + +Official status + +Nation +As noted, only French is an official language of France. Supporters of Breton and other minority languages continue to argue for their recognition, and for their place in education, public schools, and public life. + +Constitution +In July 2008, the legislature amended the French Constitution, adding article 75-1: (the regional languages belong to the heritage of France). + +The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which obliges signatory states to recognize minority and regional languages, was signed by France in 1999 but has not been ratified. On 27 October 2015, the Senate rejected a draft constitutional law ratifying the charter. + +Region +Regional and departmental authorities use Breton to a very limited extent. Some bilingual signage has also been installed, such as street name signs in Breton towns. One station of the Rennes metro system has signs in both French and Breton. + +Under the French law known as Toubon, it is illegal for commercial signage to be in Breton alone. Signs must be bilingual or French only. Since commercial signage usually has limited physical space, most businesses have signs only in French. + +, the Breton language agency, was set up in 1999 by the Brittany region to promote and develop the daily use of Breton. It helped to create the campaign, to encourage enterprises, organisations and communes to promote the use of Breton, for example by installing bilingual signage or translating their websites into Breton. + +Education + +In the late 20th century, the French government considered incorporating the independent Breton-language immersion schools (called ) into the state education system. This action was blocked by the French Constitutional Council based on the 1994 amendment to the Constitution that establishes French as the language of the republic. Therefore, no other language may be used as a language of instruction in state schools. The Toubon Law implemented the amendment, asserting that French is the language of public education. + +The Diwan schools were founded in Brittany in 1977 to teach Breton by immersion. Since their establishment, Diwan schools have provided fully immersive primary school and partially immersive secondary school instruction in Breton for thousands of students across Brittany. This has directly contributed to the growing numbers of school-age speakers of Breton. The schools have also gained fame from their high level of results in school exams, including those on French language and literature. Breton-language schools do not receive funding from the national government, though the Brittany Region may fund them. + +Another teaching method is a bilingual approach by ("Two Languages") in the State schools, created in 1979. ("Awakening") was created in 1990 for bilingual education in the Catholic schools. + +Statistics +In 2018, 18,337 pupils (about 2.00% of all pupils in Brittany) attended , and schools, and their number has increased yearly. The goal of Jean-Yves Le Drian (president of the Regional Council) of 20,000, and of "their recognition" for "their place in education, public schools, and public life", by 2010, was not achieved, but he describes being encouraged by their progress. + +In 2007, some 4,500 to 5,000 adults followed such a Breton language course as an evening or correspondence one. The transmission of Breton in 1999 is estimated to be 3 percent. + +Municipalities + +Other forms of education +In addition to bilingual education (including Breton-medium education) the region has introduced the Breton language in primary education, mainly in the department of Finistère. These "initiation" sessions are generally one to three hours per week, and consist of songs and games. + +Schools in secondary education ( and ) offer some courses in Breton. In 2010, nearly 5,000 students in Brittany were reported to be taking this option. Additionally, the University of Rennes 2 has a Breton language department offering courses in the language along with a master's degree in Breton and Celtic Studies. + +Phonology + +Vowels +Vowels in Breton may be short or long. All unstressed vowels are short; stressed vowels can be short or long (vowel lengths are not noted in usual orthographies as they are implicit in the phonology of particular dialects, and not all dialects pronounce stressed vowels as long). An emergence of a schwa sound occurs as a result of vowel neutralization in post-tonic position, among different dialects. + +All vowels can also be nasalized, which is noted by appending an 'n' letter after the base vowel, or by adding a combining tilde above the vowel (most commonly and easily done for a and o due to the Portuguese letters), or more commonly by non-ambiguously appending an letter after the base vowel (this depends on the orthographic variant). + +Diphthongs are . + +Consonants + + The pronunciation of the letter varies nowadays: is used in the French-influenced standard language and, generally speaking, in the central parts of Lower Brittany (including the south of Trégor, the west of Vannetais and virtually all parts of Cornouaille) whereas is the common realisation in Léon and often in the Haut-Vannetais dialect of central Morbihan (in and around the city of Vannes and the Pays de Pontivy), though in rapid speech mostly a tapped occurs. In the other regions of Trégor or even may be found. + The voiced dental fricative () is a conservative realisation of the lenition (or the "spirant mutation" in cases where the phenomenon originates from the mutation of , respectively) of the consonants and which is to be found in certain varieties of Haut-Vannetais. Most of the Breton dialects do not inherit the sound and thus it is mostly not orthographically fixed. The Peurunvan, for instance, uses for both mutations, which are regularly and more prominently pronounced in Léonais, Cornouaillais, Trégorrois and Bas-Vannetais. In traditional literature written in the Vannetais dialect, two different graphemes are employed for representing the dental fricative, depending on the scripture's historical period. There once was a time when was used to transcribe the sound, but today mostly the regular is instead used, and this practice can be traced back to at least the end of the 17th century. The area this phenomenon has been found to be evident in encompasses the towns of Pontivy and Baud and surrounding smaller villages like Cléguérec, Noyal-Pontivy, Pluméliau, St. Allouestre, St. Barthélemy, Pluvigner and also parts of Belle-Île. The only known place where the mutation occurs outside of the Vannes country is the Île de Sein, an island located off Finistère's coast. Some scholars also used as the symbol for the sound to indicate that it was rather an "infra-dental" consonant than a clear interdental, which is the sound the symbol is usually describes. Other linguists, however, did not draw that distinction, either because they identified the sound to actually be an interdental fricative (such as Roparz Hemon in his phonetic transcription of the dialect used in Pluméliau or Joseph Loth in his material about the dialect of Sauzon in Belle-Île) or due to the fact that they attached no importance to it and ascertained that their descriptions were not in need of a further clarification of the sound's phonetic realisation as it was a clearly distinguishable phoneme. + The digraph zh represents a variable sound that may exhibit as /s/, /z/, or /h/, and descends from a now-extinct sound , which is still extant in Welsh as th. + +Grammar + +Nouns +Breton nouns are marked for gender and number. While Breton gender is fairly typical of gender systems across western Europe (with the exception of Basque and modern English), Breton number markers demonstrate rarer behaviors. + +Gender +Breton has two genders: masculine () and feminine (), having largely lost its historic neuter () as has also occurred in the other Celtic languages as well as across the Romance languages. Certain suffixes (-ach/-aj, -(a)dur, -er, -lecʼh, -our, -ti, -va) are masculine, while others (-enti, -er, -ez, -ezh, -ezon, -i, -eg, -ell, and the singulative -enn) are feminine. The suffix -eg can be masculine or feminine. + +There are certain non-determinant factors that influence gender assignment. Biological sex is applied for animate referents. Metals, time divisions (except for "hour", "night" and "week") and mountains tend to be masculine, while rivers, cities and countries tend to be feminine. + +However, gender assignment to certain words often varies between dialects. + +Number +Number in Breton is primarily based on an opposition between singular and plural. However, the system is full of complexities in how this distinction is realized. + +Although modern Breton has lost its ancestral dual number marker, relics of its use are preserved in various nouns pertaining to body parts, including the words for eyes, ears, cheeks, legs, armpits, arms, hands, knees, thighs, and wings. This is seen in a prefix (formed in , or ) that is etymologically derived from the prefixation of the number two. The dual is no longer productive, and has merely been lexicalized in these cases rather than remaining a part of Breton grammar. The (etymologically) already dual words for eyes () and ears () can be pluralized "again" to form and . + +Like other Brythonic languages, Breton has a singulative suffix that is used to form singulars out of collective nouns, for which the morphologically less complex form is the plural. Thus, the singulative of the collective "mice" is "mouse". However, Breton goes beyond Welsh in the complications of this system. Collectives can be pluralized to make forms which are different in meaning from the normal collective-- "fish" (singular) is pluralized to , singulativized to , referring to a single fish out of a school of fish, and this singulative of the plural can then be pluralized again to make "fishes". + +On top of this, the formation of plurals is complicated by two different pluralizing functions. The "default" plural formation is contrasted with another formation which is said to "emphasize variety or diversity" – thus two semantically different plurals can be formed out of : "parks" and "various different parks". Ball reports that the latter pluralizer is used only for inanimate nouns. Certain formations have been lexicalized to have meanings other than that which might be predicted solely from the morphology: "water" pluralized forms which means not "waters" but instead "rivers", while now has come to mean "running waters after a storm". Certain forms have lost the singular from their paradigm: means "news" and is not used, while has become the regular plural, ‘different news items’. + +Meanwhile, certain nouns can form doubly marked plurals with lexicalized meanings – "child" is pluralized once into "children" and then pluralized a second time to make "groups of children". + +The diminutive suffix also has the somewhat unusual property of triggering double marking of the plural: means "little child", but the doubly pluralized means "little children"; boat has a singular diminutive and a simple plural , thus its diminutive plural is the doubly pluralized . + +As seen elsewhere in many Celtic languages, the formation of the plural can be hard to predict, being determined by a mix of semantic, morphological and lexical factors. + +The most common plural marker is , with its variant ; most nouns that use this marker are inanimates but collectives of both inanimate and animate nouns always use it as well. + +Most animate nouns, including trees, take a plural in . However, in some dialects the use of this affix has become rare. Various masculine nouns including occupations as well as the word ("Englishman", plural ) take the suffix , with a range of variants including , , and . + +The rare pluralizing suffixes / and are used for a few nouns. When they are appended, they also trigger a change in the vowel of the root: triggers a vowel harmony effect whereby some or all preceding vowels are changed to ( "cousin" → "cousins"; "crow" → "crows"; "partridge" → "partridges"); the changes associated with / are less predictable. + +Various nouns instead form their plural merely with ablaut: or in the stem being changed to : "wing" → "wings"; "tooth" → "teeth"; "rope" → "ropes". + +Another set of nouns have lexicalized plurals that bear little if any resemblance to their singulars. These include "girl" → , "pig" → , "cow" → , and "dog" → . + +In compound nouns, the head noun, which usually comes first, is pluralized. + +Verbal aspect +As in other Celtic languages as well as English, a variety of verbal constructions is available to express grammatical aspect, for example: showing a distinction between progressive and habitual actions: + +Inflected prepositions +As in other modern Celtic languages, Breton pronouns are fused into preceding prepositions to produce a sort of inflected preposition. Below are some examples in Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx, along with English translations. + +Note that in the examples above the Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx) use the preposition meaning at to show possession, whereas the Brittonic languages use with. The Goidelic languages, however, do use the preposition with to express "belong to" (Irish , Scottish , Manx , The book belongs to me). + +The Welsh examples are in literary Welsh. The order and preposition may differ slightly in colloquial Welsh (Formal , North Wales , South Wales ). + +Initial consonant mutations + +Breton has four initial consonant mutations: though modern Breton lost the nasal mutation of Welsh (but for rare words such the word "door": "dor" "an nor"), it also has a "hard" mutation, in which voiced stops become voiceless, and a "mixed" mutation, which is a mixture of hard and soft mutations. + +Word order + +Normal word order, like the other Insular Celtic languages, is at its core VSO (verb-subject-object), which is most apparent in embedded clauses. However, Breton finite verbs in main clauses are additionally subject to V2 word order in which the finite main clause verb is typically the second element in the sentence. That makes it perfectly possible to put the subject or the object at the beginning of the sentence, largely depending on the focus of the speaker. The following options are possible (all with a little difference in meaning): + +the first places the verbal infinitive in initial position (as in (1)), followed by the auxiliary 'to do'. +the second places the Auxiliary verb 'to be' in initial position (as in (2)), followed the Subject, and the construction + infinitive. At the end comes the Object. This construction is an exception to verb-second. +the third places the construction + infinitive in the initial position (as in (3)), followed by the Auxiliary verb , the Subject, and the Object. +the fourth option places the Object in initial position (as in (4)), followed by an inflected verb, followed by the Subject. +the fifth, and originally least common, places the Subject in initial position (as in (5)), followed by an inflected verb, followed by the Object, just like in English (SVO). + +Vocabulary + +Breton uses much more borrowed vocabulary than its relatives further north; by some estimates a full 40% of its core vocabulary consists of loans from French. + +Orthography +The first extant Breton texts, contained in the Leyde manuscript, were written at the end of the 8th century: 50 years prior to the Strasbourg Oaths, considered to be the earliest example of French. Like many medieval orthographies, Old- and Middle Breton orthography was at first not standardised, and the spelling of a particular word varied at authors' discretion. In 1499, however, the Catholicon, was published; as the first dictionary written for both French and Breton, it became a point of reference on how to transcribe the language. The orthography presented in the Catholicon was largely similar to that of French, in particular with respect to the representation of vowels, as well as the use of both the Latinate digraph —a remnant of the sound change > in Latin—and Brittonic or to represent before front vowels. + +As phonetic and phonological differences between the dialects began to magnify, many regions, particularly the Vannes country, began to devise their own orthographies. Many of these orthographies were more closely related to the French model, albeit with some modifications. Examples of these modifications include the replacement of Old Breton - with - to denote word-final (an evolution of Old Breton in the Vannes dialect) and use of - to denote the initial mutation of (today this mutation is written ). and thus needed another transcription. + +In the 1830s Jean-François Le Gonidec created a modern phonetic system for the language. + +During the early years of the 20th century, a group of writers known as elaborated and reformed Le Gonidec's system. They made it more suitable as a super-dialectal representation of the dialects of Cornouaille, Leon and Trégor (known as from , and in Breton). This KLT orthography was established in 1911. At the same time writers of the more divergent Vannetais dialect developed a phonetic system also based on that of Le Gonidec. + +Following proposals made during the 1920s, the KLT and Vannetais orthographies were merged in 1941 to create an orthographic system to represent all four dialects. This ("wholly unified") orthography was significant for the inclusion of the digraph , which represents a in Vannetais and corresponds to a in the KLT dialects. + +In 1955 François Falcʼhun and the group Emgleo Breiz proposed a new orthography. It was designed to use a set of graphemes closer to the conventions of French. This ("University Orthography", known in Breton as ) was given official recognition by the French authorities as the "official orthography of Breton in French education." It was opposed in the region and today is used only by the magazine and the publishing house Emgléo Breiz. + +In the 1970s, a new standard orthography was devised — the or . This system is based on the derivation of the words. + +Today the majority of writers continue to use the Peurunvan orthography, and it is the version taught in most Breton-language schools. + +Alphabet +Breton is written in the Latin script. Peurunvan, the most commonly used orthography, consists of the following letters: + + a, b, ch, cʼh, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, y, z + +The circumflex, grave accent, trema and tilde appear on some letters. These diacritics are used in the following way: + + â, ê, î, ô, û, ù, ü, ñ + +Differences between and +Both orthographies use the above alphabet, although is used only in . + +Differences between the two systems are particularly noticeable in word endings. In Peurunvan, final obstruents, which are devoiced in absolute final position and voiced in sandhi before voiced sounds, are represented by a grapheme that indicates a voiceless sound. In OU they are written as voiced but represented as voiceless before suffixes: "big", "bigger". + +In addition, Peurunvan maintains the KLT convention, which distinguishes noun/adjective pairs by nouns written with a final voiced consonant and adjectives with a voiceless one. No distinction is made in pronunciation, e.g. "Breton language" vs. "Breton (adj)". + +Pronunciation of the Breton alphabet + +Notes: + Vocative particle: "O Brittany". + Word-initially. + Word-finally. + Unwritten lenition of and spirantization of > . + Unstressed represent in Leoneg but in the other dialects. The realisations appear mainly before (also less often before ), semivowels , consonant clusters beginning with or . Stressed long represent . + In Gwenedeg velars are palatalized before and , i.e. , , , , , , represent . In the case of word-final and palatalization to also occurs after . + Before a vowel other than the digraph is written instead of , e.g. "to drive", radical , 1PS preterite , 3PS preterite . + Silent in words such as , , , , , and . Always silent in Gwenedeg and Leoneg. + is realized as when it precedes or follows a vowel (or when between vowels), but in words such as , , it represents (in orthography may be used: , , ). + represents when it follows a vowel, after a consonant it represents . But before a vowel other than , is written instead of , e.g. "to follow", radical , 1PS preterite , 3PS preterite . In some regions may be heard instead of . + Word-finally after a cluster of unvoiced consonants. + In front of . + The digraph is realized like when preceded or followed by a vowel (or when between vowels), but in words such as , , it represents . + The digraph represents plural endings. Its pronunciation varies by dialect: rating geographically from Northwest Leon to Southeast Gwened. + usually represents , but word-finally (except in word-final ) it represents in KLT, in Gwenedeg and in Goëlo. The pronunciation is retained word-finally in verbs. In words , , , , , it represents in KLT, in Gwenedeg and in Goëlo. Word-finally following it represents . + But silent in words such as , , , , , , , , , , ', , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . is generally silent in Kerneweg, Tregerieg and Gwenedeg, but in Leoneg is always pronounced. + Used to distinguish words such as "river", "heir", "town" (also written ) from "sense", "bold", "dear". + Used to distinguish "circuit/tour" from "foot". + In northern dialects (mainly in Leoneg), there is a tendency to voice between vowels. also appears as the lenition of and mixed mutation of . + The lenition of and the spirantization of are both represented by is mainly pronounced although in certain regions (especially for the spirantization of in Cornouaille) and (in some Haut-Vannetais varieties) also occur. + The pronunciation of varies by dialect, nowadays uvular (or ) is standard; occurs in Leoneg, or in Tregerieg, and in Gwenedeg. + In Gwenedeg an unstressed often represents . + Lenited varieties of may appear word-initially in case of soft mutation. + In Leoneg in front of a nasal. + In Leoneg represents before . + In Leoneg represents or before . + In Leoneg represents . + Before a vowel. + Forms of the indefinite article. + A conservative realisation of the initial mutation of and , used in certain parts of the Vannes country. + +Sample texts + +Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights + +Lord's Prayer + + Hon Tad, + cʼhwi hag a zo en Neñv, + ra vo santelaet hocʼh anv. + Ra zeuio ho Rouantelezh. + Ra vo graet ho youl war an douar evel en neñv. + Roit dimp hiziv bara hor bevañs. + Distaolit dimp hon dleoù + evel m'hor bo ivez distaolet d'hon dleourion. + Ha n'hon lezit ket da vont gant an temptadur, + met hon dieubit eus an Droug. + +Words and phrases in Breton + +Visitors to Brittany may encounter words and phrases (especially on signs and posters) such as the following: + +Language comparison + +Borrowing from Breton by other languages +The English words and have been borrowed from French, which took them from Breton. However, this is uncertain: for instance, is or ("long stone"), ("straight stone") (two words: noun + adjective) in Breton. Dolmen is a misconstructed word (it should be ). Some studies state that these words were borrowed from Cornish. can be directly translated from Welsh as "long stone" (which is exactly what a or is). The Cornish surnames Mennear, Minear and Manhire all derive from the Cornish ("long stone"), as does "settlement by the long stone". + +The French word ("to jabber in a foreign language") is derived from Breton ("bread") and ("wine"). The French word ("large seagull") is derived from Breton , which shares the same root as English "gull" (Welsh , Cornish ). + +See also + Armoricani + Gaelic revival, Irish language revival + Julian Maunoir, 17th-century Breton language orthographer + List of Celtic-language media + an association promoting the language + +References +Notes + +Further reading +Overviews + + + +Historical development + Hemon, Roparz. A Historical Morphology and Syntax of Breton. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975. + + + + +Grammars and handbooks + + + Favereau, Francis. Grammaire du breton contemporain. Morlaix: Skol Vreizh, 1997. + Hemon, Roparz. Breton Grammar, 3rd edn. Trans. & rev'd by Michael Everson. Westport: Evertype, 2011. + + McKenna, Malachy. A handbook of modern spoken Breton. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1988 (repr. 2015). + (repr. 2011). + Press, Ian & Hervé Le Bihan. Colloquial Breton: the complete course for beginners. London: Routledge, 2004 (repr. 2007, 2015). + +External links + + Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg official website. + , the public Breton TV channel. + : an essay about the situation of the Breton language. + + : news in Breton. + : Brittany information, articles about Breton. + . + . + +Dictionaries + English online dictionary and grammar for Breton + A multilingual dictionary containing many Breton words alongside those of other languages + +Learning + Breton site including online lessons + Audio CD, workbooks, software in English to learn Breton + Breton site with learners' forum and lessons (mostly in French with some English) + Jouitteau, M. Grammaire du breton, (extensive Breton grammar in French, with glossed examples and typological comparisons), IKER, CNRS, 2009 > 2017]. + +Bible + Ar Bibl Santel (Jenkins) 1897 (JEN1897). History of Bible translation in Breton and Breton Bible + + +Languages attested from the 9th century +Southwestern Brittonic languages + +History of Brittany +Endangered Celtic languages +Languages of France +Verb–subject–object languages +Severely endangered languages +In archaeology, a broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. + +Brochs are roundhouse buildings found throughout Atlantic Scotland. The word broch is derived from the Lowland Scots 'brough', meaning fort. In the mid-19th century, Scottish antiquaries called brochs 'burgs', after Old Norse borg, with the same meaning. Brochs are often referred to as duns in the west, and they are the most spectacular of a complex class of buildings found in northern Scotland. There are approximately 571 candidate broch sites throughout the country, according to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. + +The origin of brochs is still subject to ongoing research. While most archaeologists believed 80 years ago that brochs were built by immigrants, there is now little doubt that the hollow-walled broch tower was an invention in what is now Scotland. The first brochs may have been built in the first century BC, and there is evidence to suggest that they were used primarily for defensive or offensive purposes. + +The distribution of brochs is centred on northern Scotland, with the densest concentrations found in Caithness, Sutherland, and the Northern Isles. A few examples occur in the Borders and on the west coast of Dumfries and Galloway, and near Stirling. The original interpretation of brochs was that they were defensive structures, places of refuge for the community and their livestock. They were sometimes regarded as the work of Danes or Picts, and from the 1930s to the 1960s, archaeologists regarded them as castles where local landowners held sway over a subject population. + +However, the castle theory fell from favour among Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s, due to a lack of supporting archaeological evidence. These archaeologists suggested defensibility was never a major concern in the siting of a broch, and argued that they may have been the "stately homes" of their time, objects of prestige and very visible demonstrations of superiority for important families. Once again, however, there is a lack of archaeological proof for this reconstruction, and the sheer number of brochs makes it problematic. The article concludes by stating that the purpose of brochs may have been a combination of defensive, offensive, and symbolic functions. + +Origin and definition +The word broch is derived from Lowland Scots 'brough', meaning (among other things) fort. In the mid-19th century Scottish antiquaries called brochs 'burgs', after Old Norse , with the same meaning. Place names in Scandinavian Scotland such as Burgawater and Burgan show that Old Norse is the older word used for these structures in the north. Brochs are often referred to as dùns in the west. Antiquarians began to use the spelling broch in the 1870s. + +A precise definition for the word has proved elusive. Brochs are the most spectacular of a complex class of roundhouse buildings found throughout Atlantic Scotland. The Shetland Amenity Trust lists about 120 sites in Shetland as candidate brochs, while the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) identifies a total of 571 candidate broch sites throughout the country. Researcher Euan MacKie, using a restricted definition, has proposed a much smaller total for Scotland of 104. + +The origin of brochs is a subject of continuing research. Eighty years ago most archaeologists believed that brochs, usually regarded as the 'castles' of Iron Age chieftains, were built by immigrants who had been pushed northward after being displaced first by the intrusions of Belgic tribes into what is now southeast England at the end of the second century BC and later by the Roman invasion of southern Britain beginning in AD 43. Yet there is now little doubt that the hollow-walled broch tower was an invention in what is now Scotland; even the kinds of pottery found inside them that most resembled south British styles were local hybrid forms. The first of the modern review articles on the subject (MacKie 1965) did not, as is commonly believed, propose that brochs were built by immigrants, but rather that a hybrid culture formed from the blending of a small number of immigrants with the native population of the Hebrides produced them in the first century BC, basing them on earlier, simpler, promontory forts. This view contrasted, for example, with that of Sir W. Lindsay Scott, who argued, + following V. Gordon Childe (1935), for a wholesale migration into Atlantic Scotland of people from southwest England. + +MacKie's theory has fallen from favour too, mainly because starting in the 1970s there was a general move in archaeology away from 'diffusionist' explanations towards those pointing to exclusively indigenous development. Meanwhile, the increasing number – albeit still pitifully few – of radiocarbon dates for the primary use of brochs (as opposed to their later, secondary use) still suggests that most of the towers were built in the 1st centuries BC and AD. A few may be earlier, notably the one proposed for Old Scatness Broch in Shetland, where a sheep bone dating to between 390 and 200 BC has been reported. + +The other broch claimed to be substantially older than the 1st century BC is Crosskirk in Caithness, but a recent review of the evidence suggests that it cannot plausibly be assigned a date earlier than the 1st centuries BC/AD. + +Distribution + +The distribution of brochs is centred on northern Scotland. Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles have the densest concentrations, but there are many examples in the west of Scotland and the Hebrides. Although mainly concentrated in the northern Highlands and the Islands, a few examples occur in the Borders (for example Edin's Hall Broch and Bow Castle Broch), on the west coast of Dumfries and Galloway, and near Stirling. In a sketch there appears to be a broch by the river next to Annan Castle in Dumfries and Galloway. This small group of southern brochs has never been satisfactorily explained. + +Purposes + + +The original interpretation of brochs, favoured by nineteenth century antiquarians, was that they were defensive structures, places of refuge for the community and their livestock. They were sometimes regarded as the work of Danes or Picts. From the 1930s to the 1960s, archaeologists such as V. Gordon Childe and later John Hamilton regarded them as castles where local landowners held sway over a subject population. + +The castle theory fell from favour among Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s, due to a lack of supporting archaeological evidence. These archaeologists suggested defensibility was never a major concern in the siting of a broch, and argued that they may have been the "stately homes" of their time, objects of prestige and very visible demonstrations of superiority for important families (Armit 2003). Once again, however, there is a lack of archaeological proof for this reconstruction, and the sheer number of brochs, sometimes in places with a lack of good land, makes it problematic. + +Brochs' close groupings and profusion in many areas may indeed suggest that they had a primarily defensive or even offensive function. Some of them were sited beside precipitous cliffs and were protected by large ramparts, artificial or natural: a good example is at Burland near Gulberwick in Shetland, on a clifftop and cut off from the mainland by huge ditches. Often they are at key strategic points. In Shetland they sometimes cluster on each side of narrow stretches of water: the Broch of Mousa, for instance, is directly opposite another at Burraland in Sandwick. In Orkney there are more than a dozen on the facing shores of Eynhallow Sound, and many at the exits and entrances of the great harbour of Scapa Flow. In Sutherland quite a few are placed along the sides and at the mouths of deep valleys. Writing in 1956 John Stewart suggested that brochs in Shetland were forts put up by a military society to scan and protect the countryside and seas. + +Finally, some archaeologists consider broch sites individually, doubting that there ever was a single common purpose for which every broch was constructed. There are differences in the positions, dimensions and likely status of broch in the various areas in which brochs are found. For example, the broch "villages" which occur at a few places in Orkney have no parallel in the Western Isles. + +Structures + +Generally, brochs have a single entrance with bar-holes, door-checks and lintels. There are mural cells and there is a scarcement (ledge), perhaps for timber-framed lean-to dwellings lining the inner face of the wall. Also there is a spiral staircase winding upwards between the inner and outer wall and connecting the galleries. Brochs vary from in internal diameter, with walls. On average, the walls only survive to a few metres in height. There are five extant examples of towers with significantly higher walls: Dun Carloway on Lewis, Dun Telve and Dun Troddan in Glenelg, Mousa in Shetland and Dun Dornaigil in Sutherland, all of whose walls exceed in height. + +Mousa's walls are the best preserved and are still tall; it is not clear how many brochs originally stood so high. A frequent characteristic is that the walls are galleried: with an open space between, the outer and inner wall skins are separate but tied together with linking stone slabs; these linking slabs may in some cases have served as steps to higher floors. It is normal for there to be a cell breaking off from the passage beside the door; this is known as the guard cell. It has been found in some Shetland brochs that guard cells in entrance passageways are close to large door-check stones. Although there was much argument in the past, it is now generally accepted among some archaeologists that brochs were roofed, perhaps with a conical timber framed roof covered with a locally sourced thatch. The evidence for this assertion is still very scanty, although excavations at Dun Bharabhat, Lewis, may support it. The main difficulty with the interpretation continues to be identifying potential sources of structural timber, though bog and driftwood may have been sources. + +Very few of the brochs on the islands of Orkney and Shetland have cells on the ground floor. Most brochs have scarcements (ledges) which may have allowed the construction of a wooden first floor (spotted by the antiquary George Low in Shetland in 1774), and excavations at Loch na Berie on the Isle of Lewis may show signs of a further, second floor (e.g. stairs on the first floor, which head upwards). Some brochs such as Dun Dornaigil and Culswick in Shetland have unusual triangular lintels above the entrance door. + +As in the case of Old Scatness in Shetland (near Jarlshof) and Burroughston on Shapinsay, brochs were sometimes located close to arable land and a source of water (some have wells or natural springs rising within their central space). Sometimes, on the other hand, they were sited in wilderness areas (e.g. Levenwick and Culswick in Shetland, Castle Cole in Sutherland). Brochs are often built beside the sea (Carn Liath, Sutherland); sometimes they are on islands in lochs (e.g. Clickimin in Shetland). + +About 20 Orcadian broch sites include small settlements of stone buildings surrounding the main tower. Examples include Howe, near Stromness, Gurness Broch in the north west of Mainland, Orkney, Midhowe on Rousay and Lingro near Kirkwall (destroyed by a farmer in the 1980s). There are "broch village" sites in Caithness, but elsewhere they are unknown. + +Most brochs are unexcavated. The end of the broch building period seems to have come around AD 100–200. Those that have been properly examined show that they continued to be in use for many centuries, with the interiors often modified and changed, and that they underwent many phases of habitation and abandonment. + +Heritage status + +The Crucible of Iron Age Shetland's Mousa, Old Scatness and Jarlshof sites are on the United Kingdom "Tentative List" of possible nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage Programme list of sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind. This list, published in July 2010, includes sites that may be nominated for inscription over the next 5–10 years. + +New broch planned +The Caithness Broch Project was set up in 2013 as a project in experimental archaeology to build a broch using traditional techniques such as drystone walling. Purposes of the project include possible insights into the purpose of brochs, preservation of local skills in techniques such as drystone wall building, and to attract tourists. a site had not been acquired, and the funding required, estimated at £1m–£3m, had not yet been arranged. + +See also + Oldest buildings in Scotland + Irish round tower + Fortified tower + Nuraghe +Ringfort + +References and footnotes + +General references + Armit, I. (1991) The Atlantic Scottish Iron Age: five levels of chronology, Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. v. 121, pp. 181–214; + Armit, I. (1996) The Archaeology of Skye and the Western Isles, Edinburgh University Press; + Armit, I. (2003) Towers in the North: The Brochs of Scotland, Stroud : Tempus; + Ballin Smith, B. and Banks, I. (eds) (2002) In the Shadow of the Brochs, the Iron Age in Scotland, Stroud: Tempus; + Fojut, N. (1982) Towards a Geography of Shetland Brochs, Glasgow Archaeological Journal, v. 9, pp. 38–59; + Harding, D.W. (2000) The Hebridean Iron Age: Twenty Years’ Research, University of Edinburgh Department of Archaeology, Occasional Paper No. 20; + Harding, D.W. (2004) The Iron Age in Northern Britain, London : Routledge; + +Specific references and notes + +Further reading +Armit, Ian (2002), Towers in the North: The Brochs of Scotland. The History Press. + MacKie, E W 1992 The Iron Age semibrochs of Atlantic Scotland: a case study in the problems of deductive reasoning. Archaeol Journ 149 (1991), 149–81. + MacKie, E W 1995a Gurness and Midhowe brochs in Orkney: some problems of misinterpretation. Archaeol Journ 151 (1994), 98–157. + MacKie, E W 1995b The early Celts in Scotland. Miranda Green (ed) The Celtic World. Routledge, London: 654–70. + MacKie, E W 1997 Dun Mor Vaul re-visited, J.N.G. Ritchie (ed) The Archaeology of Argyll. Edinburgh: 141–80. + MacKie, E W 1998 Continuity over three thousand years of northern prehistory: the ‘tel’ at Howe, Orkney. Antiq Journ 78, 1–42. + MacKie, E W 2000 The Scottish Atlantic Iron Age: indigenous and isolated or part of a wider European world? 99–116 in Jon C Henderson (ed) The Prehistory and Early History of Atlantic Europe. BAR International Series 861: Oxford. + MacKie, E W 2002a Excavations at Dun Ardtreck, Skye, in 1964 and 1965. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 131 (2000), 301–411. + MacKie, E W 2002b The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c. 700 BC – AD 500: architecture and material culture. Part 1 The Orkney and Shetland Isles. British Archaeological Reports British Series 342. Oxford. + MacKie, E. W. 2005 119. Scottish brochs at the start of the new millennium, 11–31 in Turner, Val E, Nicholson, Rebecca A, Dockrill, S J & Bond, Julie M (eds.) Tall stories? Two millennia of brochs. Lerwick. +Ritchie, J N G (1998), Brochs of Scotland. Shire Publications. + Hunter, Mollie, The Stronghold, an historical novel about the building of the first broch. + +External links + + "Towers of stone–the brochs of Scotland", from The Scotsman, 27 February 2006. + Pretanic World – Chart of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Celtic Stone Structures + Glenelg Brochs +New image of Iron Age broch reconstruction plan, from BBC, 25 January 2022. +William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Crystal is known as a standup comedian, and for his film and stage roles. Crystal has received numerous accolades, including six Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award as well as nominations for three Grammy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2007, the Critics' Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2023. + +He gained prominence for television roles as Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap from 1977 to 1981 and as a cast member and frequent host of Saturday Night Live from 1984 to 1985. Crystal then became known for his leading roles in films such as Running Scared (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Memories of Me (1988), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), City Slickers (1991), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Hamlet (1996), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Analyze This (1999), and Parental Guidance (2012). He provided the voice of Mike Wazowski in the Pixar animated Monsters, Inc. franchise. He has hosted the Academy Awards nine times, beginning in 1990 and most recently in 2012. + +He made his Broadway debut in his one man show 700 Sundays in 2004 for which he won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. He returned to the show again in 2014 which was filmed by HBO and received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special nomination. He wrote and starred in the Broadway musical Mr. Saturday Night based on his film in 2022 for which he received two Tony Award nominations for Best Actor in a Musical and Best Book of a Musical. He wrote his memoir Still Foolin' Em in 2013. + +Early life and education + +William Edward Crystal was born at Doctors Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and initially raised in the Bronx. As a toddler, he moved with his family to 549 East Park Avenue in Long Beach, New York, on Long Island. He and his older brothers Joel, who later became an art teacher, and Richard, nicknamed Rip, were the sons of Helen (née Gabler), a housewife, and Jack Crystal, who owned and operated the Commodore Music Store, founded by Crystal's grandfather, Julius Gabler. Crystal's father was also a jazz promoter, a producer, and an executive for an affiliated jazz record label, Commodore Records, founded by Crystal's uncle, musician and songwriter Milt Gabler. Crystal is Jewish (his family emigrated from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania), and he grew up attending Temple Emanu-El (Long Beach, New York) where he had his bar mitzvah. The three young brothers would entertain by reprising comedy routines from the likes of Bob Newhart, Rich Little and Sid Caesar records their father would bring home. Jazz artists such as Arvell Shaw, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Condon, and Billie Holiday were often guests in the home. With the decline of Dixieland jazz and the rise of discount record stores, in 1963, Crystal's father lost his business and died later that year at the age of 54 after having a heart attack. His mother died in 2001. + +After graduating from Long Beach High School in 1965, Crystal attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, on a baseball scholarship, having learned the game from his father, who pitched for St. John's University. Crystal never played baseball at Marshall because the program was suspended during his first year. He did not return to Marshall as a sophomore, instead deciding to stay in New York to be close to his future wife. He studied acting at HB Studio. He attended Nassau Community College with her and later transferred to New York University, where he was a film and television directing major. He graduated from NYU in 1970 with a BFA from its then School of Fine Arts. One of his instructors was Martin Scorsese, while Oliver Stone and Christopher Guest were among his classmates. + +Career + +Television + +Crystal returned to New York City. For four years, he was part of a comedy trio with two friends. They played colleges and coffee houses and Crystal worked as a substitute teacher on Long Island. He later became a solo act and performed regularly at The Improv and Catch a Rising Star. In 1976, Crystal appeared on an episode of All in the Family. He was on the dais for the Dean Martin celebrity roast of Muhammad Ali on February 19, 1976, where he did impressions of both Ali and sportscaster Howard Cosell. He was scheduled to appear on the first episode of NBC Saturday Night on October 11, 1975 (The show was later renamed Saturday Night Live on March 26, 1977), but his sketch was cut. He did perform on episode 17 of that first season, doing a monologue of an old jazz man capped by the line "Can you dig it? I knew that you could." Host Ron Nessen introduced him as "Bill Crystal". He made a guest appearance on "The Love Boat" Season 2 Episode 5, which aired on 10/20/1978. Crystal also made game show appearances such as The Hollywood Squares, All Star Secrets and The $20,000 Pyramid. To this day, he holds the Pyramid franchise's record for getting his contestant partner to the top of the pyramid in the winner's circle in the fastest time: 26 seconds. + +Crystal's earliest prominent role was as Jodie Dallas on Soap, one of the first unambiguously gay characters in the cast of an American television series. He continued in the role during the series's entire 1977–1981 run. + +In 1982, Billy Crystal hosted his own variety show, The Billy Crystal Comedy Hour on NBC. When Crystal arrived to shoot the fifth episode, he learned it had been canceled after only the first two aired. After hosting Saturday Night Live twice, on March 17, 1984, and the show's ninth season finale on May 5, he joined the regular cast for the 1984–85 season. His most famous recurring sketch was his parody of Fernando Lamas, a smarmy talk-show host whose catchphrase, "You look... mahvelous!", became a media sensation. Also in the 1980s, Crystal starred in an episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre as the smartest of the three little pigs. + +In 1991, Crystal created and produced the HBO six-part comedy miniseries Sessions starring Michael McKean and Elliott Gould. The Los Angeles Times praised the project describing it as "swankily written, elegantly staged and perfectly cast". In 1996, Crystal was the guest star of the third episode of Muppets Tonight and hosted three Grammy Awards Telecasts: the 29th Grammys; the 30th Grammys; and the 31st Grammys. Crystal was a guest on the first and the last episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which concluded February 6, 2014, after 22 seasons on the air. + +He directed the made-for-television movie 61* (2001) based on Roger Maris's and Mickey Mantle's race to break Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1961. This earned Crystal an Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special. + +In 2015, Crystal co-starred alongside Josh Gad on the FX comedy series The Comedians, which ran for just one season before being canceled. His series received mixed reviews with many critics noting the chemistry developed further as the series went on. The series was compared to backstage shows such as The Larry Sanders Show and 30 Rock. Kate Kulzick of The A.V. Club wrote "The odd-couple pairing of Crystal and Gad works well, with their generational divide providing many of the show's early highlights...The friendly rapport that develops between the fictionalized Billy and Josh allows them to relax a bit and get to know each other better". + +Film career + +Crystal's first film role was in Joan Rivers' 1978 film Rabbit Test, the story of the "world's first pregnant man." Crystal appeared briefly in the Rob Reiner "rockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap (1984) as Morty The Mime, a waiter dressed as a mime at one of Spinal Tap's parties. He shared the scene with a then-unknown, non-speaking Dana Carvey, stating famously that "Mime is money." He later starred in the action comedy Running Scared (1986) opposite Gregory Hines. + +He reunited with director Rob Reiner in The Princess Bride (1987), in a comedic supporting role as "Miracle Max". Reiner got Crystal to accept the part by saying, "How would you like to play Mel Brooks?" Reiner also allowed Crystal to ad-lib, and his parting shot, "Have fun storming the castle!" is a frequently quoted line. Critic Roger Ebert described Crystal as a highlight of the film writing "the funniest sequences in the film stars Billy Crystal and Carol Kane, both unrecogizable behind makeup, as an ancient wizard and crone who specialize in bringing the dead back to life". + +Reiner directed Crystal for a third time in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... (1989). Crystal starred alongside Meg Ryan, Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher in a script written by Nora Ephron. The Hollywood Reporter praised the film and Crystal's performance writing, "Crystal's lustrous, deeply-shaded performance is certain to win him legions of new fans; indeed, his prowess as a comic reaches its deepest human dimension here." Crystal was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy losing to Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy (1989). The film has since become an iconic classic for the genre and is Crystal's most celebrated film. In 2019 the BBC named the film the greatest romantic comedy of all time. + +Crystal then starred in the award-winning buddy comedy City Slickers (1991), which proved very successful both commercially and critically and for which Crystal was nominated for his second Golden Globe. The film was followed by a sequel, which was less successful. The name of his company is Face Productions. Entertainment Weekly praised Crystal's performance writing, "It's also the first movie ever to do the talented Billy Crystal justice...he's far more pleasureful to watch in this sort of dramatic-comedy role than, say, Robin Williams, because his comfy, urban-shlemiel personality helps ground the jokes". Following the significant success of these films, Crystal wrote, directed, and starred in Mr. Saturday Night (1992) and Forget Paris (1995). In the former, Crystal played a serious role in aging makeup, as an egotistical comedian who reflects back on his career. + +Crystal later films include a supporting roles in Kenneth Branagh's William Shakespeare epic Hamlet (1996), and Woody Allen's critically acclaimed comedy ensemble film Deconstructing Harry (1997). Crystal had starred opposite Robin Williams in Father's Day (1997) and had success alongside Robert De Niro in Harold Ramis' mobster comedy Analyze This (1999). More recent performances include roles in America's Sweethearts (2001), the sequel Analyze That (2002), and Parental Guidance (2012). + +In 1992, he narrated Dr. Seuss Video Classics: Horton Hatches the Egg. Crystal was originally asked to voice Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story (1995) but turned it down, a decision he later regretted due to the popularity of the series. Crystal later went on to provide the voice of Mike Wazowski in the blockbuster Pixar film Monsters, Inc. (2001), Cars (2006), during the epilogue in the end credits, and to reprise his voice role in the prequel, Monsters University (2013). Crystal also provided the voice of Calcifer in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle (2004). + +Albums and music career + +Due to the success of Crystal's standup and SNL career, in 1985, he released an album of his stand-up material titled Mahvelous!. The title track You Look Marvelous, written by Crystal and Paul Shaffer, had an accompanying music video that debuted on MTV. Both the song and video features Crystal in character as his SNL persona of talk show host Fernando Lamas. The video features Lamas cruising around in what was at the time the world's longest stretch limousine, built by custom-coach designer and builder Vini Bergeman, surrounded by models in bikinis. The single peaked at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and No. 17 in Canada. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording at the 1986 Grammy Awards. + +In 2013, Crystal released his autobiographical memoir Still Foolin' Em. The audiobook version was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards. + +Academy Awards host +Crystal hosted the Academy Awards broadcast a total of 9 times, from 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2012. His hosting was critically praised, resulting in two Primetime Emmy Award wins for hosting and writing the 63rd Academy Awards and an Emmy win for writing the 64th Academy Awards. He returned as the host for the 2012 Oscar ceremony, after Eddie Murphy resigned from hosting. His nine times is second only to Bob Hope's 19 in most ceremonies hosted. At the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony in 2011, he appeared as a presenter for a digitally inserted Bob Hope and before doing so was given a standing ovation. Film critic Roger Ebert said when Crystal came onstage about two hours into the show, he got the first laughs of the broadcast. Crystal's hosting gigs have regularly included an introductory video segment in which he comedically inserts himself into scenes of that year's nominees in addition to a song following his opening monologue. + +Broadway +Crystal won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for 700 Sundays, a two-act, one-man play, which he conceived and wrote about his parents and his childhood growing up on Long Island. He toured throughout the US with the show in 2006 and then Australia in 2007. + +Following the initial success of the play, Crystal wrote the book 700 Sundays for Warner Books, which was published on October 31, 2005. In conjunction with the book and the play that also paid tribute to his uncle, Milt Gabler, Crystal produced two CD compilations: Billy Crystal Presents: The Milt Gabler Story, which featured his uncle's most influential recordings from Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" to "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets; and Billy Remembers Billie featuring Crystal's favorite Holiday recordings. + +In the fall of 2013, he brought the show back to Broadway for a two-month run at the Imperial Theatre. HBO filmed the January 3–4, 2014 performances for a special, which debuted on their network on April 19, 2014 entitled Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays. The televised special received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations including Outstanding Variety Special, and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. + +In 2022, Crystal adapted his 1992 movie Mr. Saturday Night into a Broadway musical with the same name. Crystal stars in the musical reprising his role from the film alongside David Paymer. The production began previews on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre on March 29, 2022, prior to officially opening on April 27. Crystal earned the Drama League Award for Contribution to the Theater Award for "his extraordinary work on stages across the country and commitment to mentorship in the field". Crystal performed a number with the ensemble from his musical at the 75th Tony Awards. He also performed what he described as Yiddish scat singing. He went into the crowd teaching Lin-Manuel Miranda and Samuel L. Jackson as well as the rest of the audience. The New York Times praised Crystal on his bit, describing it as a highlight of the telecast writing, "one of the few moments that broke through...is when [Crystal] brought it out into the audience, and threw it up to the balcony, he showed how precision delivery and command of a room can make even the oldest, silliest material impossibly compelling." + +Other appearances +In 2014, Crystal paid tribute to his close friend Robin Williams at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards. In his tribute he talked about their friendship, saying, "As genius as he was on stage, he was the greatest friend you could ever imagine. Supportive. Protective. Loving. It's very hard to talk about him in the past because he was so present in all of our lives. For almost 40 years, he was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy…[His] beautiful light will continue to shine on us forever. And the glow will be so bright, it'll warm your heart. It'll make your eyes glisten. And you'll think to yourselves: Robin Williams. What a concept." Crystal stated that paying tribute to Williams so publicly and so soon after Williams had died was one of "the hardest things I've had to do" and that "I was really worried that I wasn't going to get through it." Crystal soon after appeared on The View where he and Whoopi Goldberg shared stories about Williams, reminiscing about their friendship, and their collaborations together on Comic Relief. + +In 2016, Crystal gave one of the eulogies for Muhammad Ali at his funeral. In his remembrance of Ali, Crystal talked about his admiration for Ali as a boxer, and humanitarian. He also shared stories of their unlikely friendship after Crystal did a series of impersonations of him. Crystal stated of Ali's legacy, "Only once in a thousand years or so, do we get to hear a Mozart, or see a Picasso, or read a Shakespeare. Ali was one of them. And yet, at his heart, he was still a kid from Louisville who ran with the gods and walked with the crippled and smiled at the foolishness of it all." + +In the fall of 2021, Crystal reprised the role of Buddy Young Jr., in a theatrical musical staging of Mr. Saturday Night at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA. + +Discography + +Albums +Mahvelous!, (A&M Records, 1985) [#65 US] + +Singles +"You Look Marvelous", (A&M Records, 1985) [#58 US] +"I Hate When That Happens", (A&M Records, 1985) +"The Christmas Song", (A&M Records, 1985) + +Bibliography + +Awards and nominations + +Crystal has received numerous accolades including six Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program as the host of the 31st Annual Grammy Awards (1989), 63rd Academy Awards (1991), and 70th Academy Awards (1998) and the Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for writing his comedy special Midnight Train to Moscow (1990), and the 63rd Academy Awards and 64th Academy Awards (1992). For his Broadway debut, his one man show 700 Sundays (2005), he won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event, and the Drama Desk Award. He received further Tony nominations for Best Actor in a Musical and Best Book of a Musical for Mr. Saturday Night (2022). + +He received nominations for three Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album for You Look Marvelous (1986), Best Spoken Word Album for Still Foolin' Em (2014), and Best Musical Theatre Album for Mr. Saturday Night (2023). He also received three Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performances in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... (1989), the western comedy City Slickers (1991), and Crystal's directorial debut Mr. Saturday Night (1992). + +He has also received numerous honors including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991, and was awarded with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2007 where he was honored by Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert De Niro, Martin Short, and Rob Reiner at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He was made one of the Disney Legends in 2013 and also received the Critics' Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2023. + +Personal life +On June 4, 1970, Crystal married his high school sweetheart, Janice Goldfinger. Crystal has long credited his parents, "who always looked like they loved being together," with setting an example for his own marriage. They have two daughters: actress Jennifer and Lindsay, a producer, and are grandparents. They live in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. + +Crystal received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University in 2016 and spoke at the commencement at Yankee Stadium. + +Philanthropy + +In 1986, Crystal started hosting Comic Relief on HBO with Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg. Founded by Bob Zmuda, Comic Relief raises money for homeless people in the United States. + +On September 6, 2005, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Crystal and Jay Leno were the first celebrities to sign a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to be auctioned off for Gulf Coast relief. + +Crystal has participated in the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Crystal's personal history is featured in the "Finding Our Families, Finding Ourselves" exhibit in the genealogy wing of the museum. + +Sports +On March 12, 2008, Crystal signed a one-day minor league contract to play with the New York Yankees, and was invited to the team's major league spring training. He wore uniform number 60 in honor of his upcoming 60th birthday. On March 13, in a spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Crystal led off as the designated hitter. He managed to make contact, fouling a fastball up the first base line, but was eventually struck out by Pirates pitcher Paul Maholm on six pitches and was later replaced in the batting order by Johnny Damon. He was released on March 14, his 60th birthday. + +Crystal's boyhood idol was Yankee Hall of Fame legend Mickey Mantle, who had signed a program for him when Crystal attended a game where Mantle had hit a home run. Years later on The Dinah Shore Show, in one of his first television appearances, Crystal met Mantle in person and had Mantle re-sign the same program. Crystal would be good friends with Mantle until Mantle's death in 1995. He and Bob Costas together wrote the eulogy Costas read at Mantle's funeral, and George Steinbrenner then invited Crystal to emcee the unveiling of Mantle's monument at Yankee Stadium. In his 2013 memoir Still Foolin' 'Em, Crystal claimed that after the ceremony, near the Yankees clubhouse, he was punched in the stomach by Joe DiMaggio, who was angry at Crystal for not having introduced him to the crowd as the "Greatest living player". + +Crystal also was well known for his impressions of Yankees Hall of Famer turned broadcaster Phil Rizzuto. Rizzuto, known for his quirks calling games, did not travel to Anaheim, California in 1996 to call the game for WPIX. Instead, Crystal joined the broadcasters in the booth and pretended to be Rizzuto for a few minutes during the August 31 game. + +Although a lifelong Yankees fan, he is a part-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, even earning a World Series ring in 2001 when the Diamondbacks beat his beloved Yankees. + +In City Slickers, Crystal wore a New York Mets baseball cap. In the 1986 film Running Scared, his character is an avid Chicago Cubs fan, wearing a Cubs' jersey in several scenes. In the 2012 film Parental Guidance, his character is the announcer for the Fresno Grizzlies, a Minor League Baseball team, who aspires to announce for their Major League affiliate, the San Francisco Giants. + +Crystal appeared in Ken Burns's 1994 documentary Baseball, telling personal stories about his life-long love of baseball, including meeting Casey Stengel as a child and Ted Williams as an adult. + +Crystal is also a longtime Los Angeles Clippers fan and season ticket holder. + +References + +External links + + +Website for Billy Crystal's book Still Foolin' 'Em + + + +1948 births +Living people +20th-century American comedians +20th-century American Jews +20th-century American male actors +20th-century American male writers +20th-century American screenwriters +21st-century American comedians +21st-century American Jews +21st-century American male actors +21st-century American male writers +21st-century American screenwriters +American comedy musicians +American film directors +American film producers +American impressionists (entertainers) +American male comedians +American male film actors +American male musical theatre actors +American male screenwriters +American male singers +American male stage actors +American male television actors +American male television writers +American male voice actors +American people of Austrian-Jewish descent +American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent +American people of Russian-Jewish descent +American sketch comedians +American stand-up comedians +American television directors +American television producers +American television writers +Arizona Diamondbacks owners +Audiobook narrators +Comedians from New York (state) +Comedy film directors +Film directors from New York City +Film producers from New York (state) +Jewish American comedians +Jewish American film directors +Jewish American film producers +Jewish American male actors +Jewish American male comedians +Jewish American screenwriters +Jewish American writers +Jewish male actors +Jewish male comedians +Long Beach High School (New York) alumni +Mark Twain Prize recipients +Marshall Thundering Herd baseball players +Marshall University alumni +Nassau Community College alumni +People from Long Beach, New York +People from Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles +Primetime Emmy Award winners +Screenwriters from New York (state) +Television producers from New York (state) +Tisch School of the Arts alumni +Tony Award winners +A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light and other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of no escape is called the event horizon. Although it has a great effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, it has no locally detectable features according to general relativity. In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light. Moreover, quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is of the order of billionths of a kelvin for stellar black holes, making it essentially impossible to observe directly. + +Objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. In 1916, Karl Schwarzschild found the first modern solution of general relativity that would characterize a black hole. David Finkelstein, in 1958, first published the interpretation of "black hole" as a region of space from which nothing can escape. Black holes were long considered a mathematical curiosity; it was not until the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity. The discovery of neutron stars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967 sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality. The first black hole known was Cygnus X-1, identified by several researchers independently in 1971. + +Black holes of stellar mass form when massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings. Supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses () may form by absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes. There is consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centres of most galaxies. + +The presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. Any matter that falls onto a black hole can form an external accretion disk heated by friction, forming quasars, some of the brightest objects in the universe. Stars passing too close to a supermassive black hole can be shredded into streamers that shine very brightly before being "swallowed." If other stars are orbiting a black hole, their orbits can be used to determine the black hole's mass and location. Such observations can be used to exclude possible alternatives such as neutron stars. In this way, astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates in binary systems and established that the radio source known as Sagittarius A*, at the core of the Milky Way galaxy, contains a supermassive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses. + +History +The idea of a body so big that even light could not escape was briefly proposed by English astronomical pioneer and clergyman John Michell in a letter published in November 1784. Michell's simplistic calculations assumed such a body might have the same density as the Sun, and concluded that one would form when a star's diameter exceeds the Sun's by a factor of 500, and its surface escape velocity exceeds the usual speed of light. Michell referred to these bodies as dark stars. He correctly noted that such supermassive but non-radiating bodies might be detectable through their gravitational effects on nearby visible bodies. Scholars of the time were initially excited by the proposal that giant but invisible 'dark stars' might be hiding in plain view, but enthusiasm dampened when the wavelike nature of light became apparent in the early nineteenth century, as if light were a wave rather than a particle, it was unclear what, if any, influence gravity would have on escaping light waves. + +Modern physics discredits Michell's notion of a light ray shooting directly from the surface of a supermassive star, being slowed down by the star's gravity, stopping, and then free-falling back to the star's surface. + +General relativity + +In 1915, Albert Einstein developed his theory of general relativity, having earlier shown that gravity does influence light's motion. Only a few months later, Karl Schwarzschild found a solution to the Einstein field equations that describes the gravitational field of a point mass and a spherical mass. A few months after Schwarzschild, Johannes Droste, a student of Hendrik Lorentz, independently gave the same solution for the point mass and wrote more extensively about its properties. This solution had a peculiar behaviour at what is now called the Schwarzschild radius, where it became singular, meaning that some of the terms in the Einstein equations became infinite. The nature of this surface was not quite understood at the time. + +In 1924, Arthur Eddington showed that the singularity disappeared after a change of coordinates, although it took until 1933 for Georges Lemaître to realize that this meant the singularity at the Schwarzschild radius was a non-physical coordinate singularity. Arthur Eddington did however comment on the possibility of a star with mass compressed to the Schwarzschild radius in a 1926 book, noting that Einstein's theory allows us to rule out overly large densities for visible stars like Betelgeuse because "a star of 250 million km radius could not possibly have so high a density as the Sun. Firstly, the force of gravitation would be so great that light would be unable to escape from it, the rays falling back to the star like a stone to the earth. Secondly, the red shift of the spectral lines would be so great that the spectrum would be shifted out of existence. Thirdly, the mass would produce so much curvature of the spacetime metric that space would close up around the star, leaving us outside (i.e., nowhere)." + +In 1931, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar calculated, using special relativity, that a non-rotating body of electron-degenerate matter above a certain limiting mass (now called the Chandrasekhar limit at ) has no stable solutions. His arguments were opposed by many of his contemporaries like Eddington and Lev Landau, who argued that some yet unknown mechanism would stop the collapse. They were partly correct: a white dwarf slightly more massive than the Chandrasekhar limit will collapse into a neutron star, which is itself stable. But in 1939, Robert Oppenheimer and others predicted that neutron stars above another limit (the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit) would collapse further for the reasons presented by Chandrasekhar, and concluded that no law of physics was likely to intervene and stop at least some stars from collapsing to black holes. Their original calculations, based on the Pauli exclusion principle, gave it as ; subsequent consideration of neutron-neutron repulsion mediated by the strong force raised the estimate to approximately to . Observations of the neutron star merger GW170817, which is thought to have generated a black hole shortly afterward, have refined the TOV limit estimate to ~. Oppenheimer and his co-authors interpreted the singularity at the boundary of the Schwarzschild radius as indicating that this was the boundary of a bubble in which time stopped. This is a valid point of view for external observers, but not for infalling observers. Because of this property, the collapsed stars were called "frozen stars", because an outside observer would see the surface of the star frozen in time at the instant where its collapse takes it to the Schwarzschild radius. + +Also in 1939, Einstein would attempt to prove that black holes were impossible in his publication "On a Stationary System with Spherical Symmetry Consisting of Many Gravitating Masses", using his theory of general relativity to defend his argument. Months later, Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder would provide the Oppenheimer–Snyder model in their paper "On Continued Gravitational Contraction", which predicted the existence of black holes. In the paper, which made no reference to Einstein's recent publication, Oppenheimer and Snyder used Einstein's own theory of general relativity to show the conditions on how a black hole could develop for the first time in contemporary physics . + +Golden age +In 1958, David Finkelstein identified the Schwarzschild surface as an event horizon, "a perfect unidirectional membrane: causal influences can cross it in only one direction". This did not strictly contradict Oppenheimer's results, but extended them to include the point of view of infalling observers. Finkelstein's solution extended the Schwarzschild solution for the future of observers falling into a black hole. A complete extension had already been found by Martin Kruskal, who was urged to publish it. + +These results came at the beginning of the golden age of general relativity, which was marked by general relativity and black holes becoming mainstream subjects of research. This process was helped by the discovery of pulsars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967, which, by 1969, were shown to be rapidly rotating neutron stars. Until that time, neutron stars, like black holes, were regarded as just theoretical curiosities; but the discovery of pulsars showed their physical relevance and spurred a further interest in all types of compact objects that might be formed by gravitational collapse. + +In this period more general black hole solutions were found. In 1963, Roy Kerr found the exact solution for a rotating black hole. Two years later, Ezra Newman found the axisymmetric solution for a black hole that is both rotating and electrically charged. Through the work of Werner Israel, Brandon Carter, and David Robinson the no-hair theorem emerged, stating that a stationary black hole solution is completely described by the three parameters of the Kerr–Newman metric: mass, angular momentum, and electric charge. + +At first, it was suspected that the strange features of the black hole solutions were pathological artifacts from the symmetry conditions imposed, and that the singularities would not appear in generic situations. This view was held in particular by Vladimir Belinsky, Isaak Khalatnikov, and Evgeny Lifshitz, who tried to prove that no singularities appear in generic solutions. However, in the late 1960s Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking used global techniques to prove that singularities appear generically. For this work, Penrose received half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, Hawking having died in 2018. Based on observations in Greenwich and Toronto in the early 1970s, Cygnus X-1, a galactic X-ray source discovered in 1964, became the first astronomical object commonly accepted to be a black hole. + +Work by James Bardeen, Jacob Bekenstein, Carter, and Hawking in the early 1970s led to the formulation of black hole thermodynamics. These laws describe the behaviour of a black hole in close analogy to the laws of thermodynamics by relating mass to energy, area to entropy, and surface gravity to temperature. The analogy was completed when Hawking, in 1974, showed that quantum field theory implies that black holes should radiate like a black body with a temperature proportional to the surface gravity of the black hole, predicting the effect now known as Hawking radiation. + +Observation +On 11 February 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo collaboration announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, representing the first observation of a black hole merger. On 10 April 2019, the first direct image of a black hole and its vicinity was published, following observations made by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017 of the supermassive black hole in Messier 87's galactic centre. , the nearest known body thought to be a black hole, Gaia BH1, is around away. Though only a couple dozen black holes have been found so far in the Milky Way, there are thought to be hundreds of millions, most of which are solitary and do not cause emission of radiation. Therefore, they would only be detectable by gravitational lensing. + +Etymology +John Michell used the term "dark star" in a November 1783 letter to Henry Cavendish, and in the early 20th century, physicists used the term "gravitationally collapsed object". Science writer Marcia Bartusiak traces the term "black hole" to physicist Robert H. Dicke, who in the early 1960s reportedly compared the phenomenon to the Black Hole of Calcutta, notorious as a prison where people entered but never left alive. + +The term "black hole" was used in print by Life and Science News magazines in 1963, and by science journalist Ann Ewing in her article Black Holes' in Space", dated 18 January 1964, which was a report on a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Cleveland, Ohio. + +In December 1967, a student reportedly suggested the phrase "black hole" at a lecture by John Wheeler; Wheeler adopted the term for its brevity and "advertising value", and it quickly caught on, leading some to credit Wheeler with coining the phrase. + +Properties and structure +The no-hair theorem postulates that, once it achieves a stable condition after formation, a black hole has only three independent physical properties: mass, electric charge, and angular momentum; the black hole is otherwise featureless. If the conjecture is true, any two black holes that share the same values for these properties, or parameters, are indistinguishable from one another. The degree to which the conjecture is true for real black holes under the laws of modern physics is currently an unsolved problem. + +These properties are special because they are visible from outside a black hole. For example, a charged black hole repels other like charges just like any other charged object. Similarly, the total mass inside a sphere containing a black hole can be found by using the gravitational analog of Gauss's law (through the ADM mass), far away from the black hole. Likewise, the angular momentum (or spin) can be measured from far away using frame dragging by the gravitomagnetic field, through for example the Lense–Thirring effect. + +When an object falls into a black hole, any information about the shape of the object or distribution of charge on it is evenly distributed along the horizon of the black hole, and is lost to outside observers. The behavior of the horizon in this situation is a dissipative system that is closely analogous to that of a conductive stretchy membrane with friction and electrical resistance—the membrane paradigm. This is different from other field theories such as electromagnetism, which do not have any friction or resistivity at the microscopic level, because they are time-reversible. Because a black hole eventually achieves a stable state with only three parameters, there is no way to avoid losing information about the initial conditions: the gravitational and electric fields of a black hole give very little information about what went in. The information that is lost includes every quantity that cannot be measured far away from the black hole horizon, including approximately conserved quantum numbers such as the total baryon number and lepton number. This behavior is so puzzling that it has been called the black hole information loss paradox. + +Physical properties + +The simplest static black holes have mass but neither electric charge nor angular momentum. These black holes are often referred to as Schwarzschild black holes after Karl Schwarzschild who discovered this solution in 1916. According to Birkhoff's theorem, it is the only vacuum solution that is spherically symmetric. This means there is no observable difference at a distance between the gravitational field of such a black hole and that of any other spherical object of the same mass. The popular notion of a black hole "sucking in everything" in its surroundings is therefore correct only near a black hole's horizon; far away, the external gravitational field is identical to that of any other body of the same mass. + +Solutions describing more general black holes also exist. Non-rotating charged black holes are described by the Reissner–Nordström metric, while the Kerr metric describes a non-charged rotating black hole. The most general stationary black hole solution known is the Kerr–Newman metric, which describes a black hole with both charge and angular momentum. + +While the mass of a black hole can take any positive value, the charge and angular momentum are constrained by the mass. The total electric charge Q and the total angular momentum J are expected to satisfy the inequality + +for a black hole of mass M. Black holes with the minimum possible mass satisfying this inequality are called extremal. Solutions of Einstein's equations that violate this inequality exist, but they do not possess an event horizon. These solutions have so-called naked singularities that can be observed from the outside, and hence are deemed unphysical. The cosmic censorship hypothesis rules out the formation of such singularities, when they are created through the gravitational collapse of realistic matter. This is supported by numerical simulations. + +Due to the relatively large strength of the electromagnetic force, black holes forming from the collapse of stars are expected to retain the nearly neutral charge of the star. Rotation, however, is expected to be a universal feature of compact astrophysical objects. The black-hole candidate binary X-ray source GRS 1915+105 appears to have an angular momentum near the maximum allowed value. That uncharged limit is + +allowing definition of a dimensionless spin parameter such that + +Black holes are commonly classified according to their mass, independent of angular momentum, J. The size of a black hole, as determined by the radius of the event horizon, or Schwarzschild radius, is proportional to the mass, M, through + +where r is the Schwarzschild radius and is the mass of the Sun. For a black hole with nonzero spin and/or electric charge, the radius is smaller, until an extremal black hole could have an event horizon close to + +Event horizon + +The defining feature of a black hole is the appearance of an event horizon—a boundary in spacetime through which matter and light can pass only inward towards the mass of the black hole. Nothing, not even light, can escape from inside the event horizon. The event horizon is referred to as such because if an event occurs within the boundary, information from that event cannot reach an outside observer, making it impossible to determine whether such an event occurred. + +As predicted by general relativity, the presence of a mass deforms spacetime in such a way that the paths taken by particles bend towards the mass. At the event horizon of a black hole, this deformation becomes so strong that there are no paths that lead away from the black hole. + +To a distant observer, clocks near a black hole would appear to tick more slowly than those farther away from the black hole. Due to this effect, known as gravitational time dilation, an object falling into a black hole appears to slow as it approaches the event horizon, taking an infinite time to reach it. At the same time, all processes on this object slow down, from the viewpoint of a fixed outside observer, causing any light emitted by the object to appear redder and dimmer, an effect known as gravitational redshift. Eventually, the falling object fades away until it can no longer be seen. Typically this process happens very rapidly with an object disappearing from view within less than a second. + +On the other hand, indestructible observers falling into a black hole do not notice any of these effects as they cross the event horizon. According to their own clocks, which appear to them to tick normally, they cross the event horizon after a finite time without noting any singular behaviour; in classical general relativity, it is impossible to determine the location of the event horizon from local observations, due to Einstein's equivalence principle. + +The topology of the event horizon of a black hole at equilibrium is always spherical. For non-rotating (static) black holes the geometry of the event horizon is precisely spherical, while for rotating black holes the event horizon is oblate. + +Singularity + +At the centre of a black hole, as described by general relativity, may lie a gravitational singularity, a region where the spacetime curvature becomes infinite. For a non-rotating black hole, this region takes the shape of a single point; for a rotating black hole it is smeared out to form a ring singularity that lies in the plane of rotation. In both cases, the singular region has zero volume. It can also be shown that the singular region contains all the mass of the black hole solution. The singular region can thus be thought of as having infinite density. + +Observers falling into a Schwarzschild black hole (i.e., non-rotating and not charged) cannot avoid being carried into the singularity once they cross the event horizon. They can prolong the experience by accelerating away to slow their descent, but only up to a limit. When they reach the singularity, they are crushed to infinite density and their mass is added to the total of the black hole. Before that happens, they will have been torn apart by the growing tidal forces in a process sometimes referred to as spaghettification or the "noodle effect". + +In the case of a charged (Reissner–Nordström) or rotating (Kerr) black hole, it is possible to avoid the singularity. Extending these solutions as far as possible reveals the hypothetical possibility of exiting the black hole into a different spacetime with the black hole acting as a wormhole. The possibility of traveling to another universe is, however, only theoretical since any perturbation would destroy this possibility. It also appears to be possible to follow closed timelike curves (returning to one's own past) around the Kerr singularity, which leads to problems with causality like the grandfather paradox. It is expected that none of these peculiar effects would survive in a proper quantum treatment of rotating and charged black holes. + +The appearance of singularities in general relativity is commonly perceived as signaling the breakdown of the theory. This breakdown, however, is expected; it occurs in a situation where quantum effects should describe these actions, due to the extremely high density and therefore particle interactions. To date, it has not been possible to combine quantum and gravitational effects into a single theory, although there exist attempts to formulate such a theory of quantum gravity. It is generally expected that such a theory will not feature any singularities. + +Photon sphere + +The photon sphere is a spherical boundary of zero thickness in which photons that move on tangents to that sphere would be trapped in a circular orbit about the black hole. For non-rotating black holes, the photon sphere has a radius 1.5 times the Schwarzschild radius. Their orbits would be dynamically unstable, hence any small perturbation, such as a particle of infalling matter, would cause an instability that would grow over time, either setting the photon on an outward trajectory causing it to escape the black hole, or on an inward spiral where it would eventually cross the event horizon. + +While light can still escape from the photon sphere, any light that crosses the photon sphere on an inbound trajectory will be captured by the black hole. Hence any light that reaches an outside observer from the photon sphere must have been emitted by objects between the photon sphere and the event horizon. For a Kerr black hole the radius of the photon sphere depends on the spin parameter and on the details of the photon orbit, which can be prograde (the photon rotates in the same sense of the black hole spin) or retrograde. + +Ergosphere + +Rotating black holes are surrounded by a region of spacetime in which it is impossible to stand still, called the ergosphere. This is the result of a process known as frame-dragging; general relativity predicts that any rotating mass will tend to slightly "drag" along the spacetime immediately surrounding it. Any object near the rotating mass will tend to start moving in the direction of rotation. For a rotating black hole, this effect is so strong near the event horizon that an object would have to move faster than the speed of light in the opposite direction to just stand still. + +The ergosphere of a black hole is a volume bounded by the black hole's event horizon and the ergosurface, which coincides with the event horizon at the poles but is at a much greater distance around the equator. + +Objects and radiation can escape normally from the ergosphere. Through the Penrose process, objects can emerge from the ergosphere with more energy than they entered with. The extra energy is taken from the rotational energy of the black hole. Thereby the rotation of the black hole slows down. A variation of the Penrose process in the presence of strong magnetic fields, the Blandford–Znajek process is considered a likely mechanism for the enormous luminosity and relativistic jets of quasars and other active galactic nuclei. + +Innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) + +In Newtonian gravity, test particles can stably orbit at arbitrary distances from a central object. In general relativity, however, there exists an innermost stable circular orbit (often called the ISCO), for which any infinitesimal inward perturbations to a circular orbit will lead to spiraling into the black hole, and any outward perturbations will, depending on the energy, result in spiraling in, stably orbiting between apastron and periastron, or escaping to infinity. The location of the ISCO depends on the spin of the black hole, in the case of a Schwarzschild black hole (spin zero) is: + +and decreases with increasing black hole spin for particles orbiting in the same direction as the spin. + +Formation and evolution +Given the bizarre character of black holes, it was long questioned whether such objects could actually exist in nature or whether they were merely pathological solutions to Einstein's equations. Einstein himself wrongly thought black holes would not form, because he held that the angular momentum of collapsing particles would stabilize their motion at some radius. This led the general relativity community to dismiss all results to the contrary for many years. However, a minority of relativists continued to contend that black holes were physical objects, and by the end of the 1960s, they had persuaded the majority of researchers in the field that there is no obstacle to the formation of an event horizon. + +Penrose demonstrated that once an event horizon forms, general relativity without quantum mechanics requires that a singularity will form within. Shortly afterwards, Hawking showed that many cosmological solutions that describe the Big Bang have singularities without scalar fields or other exotic matter. The Kerr solution, the no-hair theorem, and the laws of black hole thermodynamics showed that the physical properties of black holes were simple and comprehensible, making them respectable subjects for research. Conventional black holes are formed by gravitational collapse of heavy objects such as stars, but they can also in theory be formed by other processes. + +Gravitational collapse + +Gravitational collapse occurs when an object's internal pressure is insufficient to resist the object's own gravity. For stars this usually occurs either because a star has too little "fuel" left to maintain its temperature through stellar nucleosynthesis, or because a star that would have been stable receives extra matter in a way that does not raise its core temperature. In either case the star's temperature is no longer high enough to prevent it from collapsing under its own weight. +The collapse may be stopped by the degeneracy pressure of the star's constituents, allowing the condensation of matter into an exotic denser state. The result is one of the various types of compact star. Which type forms depends on the mass of the remnant of the original star left if the outer layers have been blown away (for example, in a Type II supernova). The mass of the remnant, the collapsed object that survives the explosion, can be substantially less than that of the original star. Remnants exceeding are produced by stars that were over before the collapse. + +If the mass of the remnant exceeds about (the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit), either because the original star was very heavy or because the remnant collected additional mass through accretion of matter, even the degeneracy pressure of neutrons is insufficient to stop the collapse. No known mechanism (except possibly quark degeneracy pressure) is powerful enough to stop the implosion and the object will inevitably collapse to form a black hole. + +The gravitational collapse of heavy stars is assumed to be responsible for the formation of stellar mass black holes. Star formation in the early universe may have resulted in very massive stars, which upon their collapse would have produced black holes of up to . These black holes could be the seeds of the supermassive black holes found in the centres of most galaxies. It has further been suggested that massive black holes with typical masses of ~ could have formed from the direct collapse of gas clouds in the young universe. These massive objects have been proposed as the seeds that eventually formed the earliest quasars observed already at redshift . Some candidates for such objects have been found in observations of the young universe. + +While most of the energy released during gravitational collapse is emitted very quickly, an outside observer does not actually see the end of this process. Even though the collapse takes a finite amount of time from the reference frame of infalling matter, a distant observer would see the infalling material slow and halt just above the event horizon, due to gravitational time dilation. Light from the collapsing material takes longer and longer to reach the observer, with the light emitted just before the event horizon forms delayed an infinite amount of time. Thus the external observer never sees the formation of the event horizon; instead, the collapsing material seems to become dimmer and increasingly red-shifted, eventually fading away. + +Primordial black holes and the Big Bang +Gravitational collapse requires great density. In the current epoch of the universe these high densities are found only in stars, but in the early universe shortly after the Big Bang densities were much greater, possibly allowing for the creation of black holes. High density alone is not enough to allow black hole formation since a uniform mass distribution will not allow the mass to bunch up. In order for primordial black holes to have formed in such a dense medium, there must have been initial density perturbations that could then grow under their own gravity. Different models for the early universe vary widely in their predictions of the scale of these fluctuations. Various models predict the creation of primordial black holes ranging in size from a Planck mass ( ≈ ≈ ) to hundreds of thousands of solar masses. + +Despite the early universe being extremely dense, it did not re-collapse into a black hole during the Big Bang, since the expansion rate was greater than the attraction. Following inflation theory there was a net repulsive gravitation in the beginning until the end of inflation. Since then the Hubble flow was slowed by the energy density of the universe. + +Models for the gravitational collapse of objects of relatively constant size, such as stars, do not necessarily apply in the same way to rapidly expanding space such as the Big Bang. + +High-energy collisions +Gravitational collapse is not the only process that could create black holes. In principle, black holes could be formed in high-energy collisions that achieve sufficient density. As of 2002, no such events have been detected, either directly or indirectly as a deficiency of the mass balance in particle accelerator experiments. This suggests that there must be a lower limit for the mass of black holes. Theoretically, this boundary is expected to lie around the Planck mass, where quantum effects are expected to invalidate the predictions of general relativity. This would put the creation of black holes firmly out of reach of any high-energy process occurring on or near the Earth. However, certain developments in quantum gravity suggest that the minimum black hole mass could be much lower: some braneworld scenarios for example put the boundary as low as . This would make it conceivable for micro black holes to be created in the high-energy collisions that occur when cosmic rays hit the Earth's atmosphere, or possibly in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. These theories are very speculative, and the creation of black holes in these processes is deemed unlikely by many specialists. Even if micro black holes could be formed, it is expected that they would evaporate in about 10 seconds, posing no threat to the Earth. + +Growth +Once a black hole has formed, it can continue to grow by absorbing additional matter. Any black hole will continually absorb gas and interstellar dust from its surroundings. This growth process is one possible way through which some supermassive black holes may have been formed, although the formation of supermassive black holes is still an open field of research. A similar process has been suggested for the formation of intermediate-mass black holes found in globular clusters. Black holes can also merge with other objects such as stars or even other black holes. This is thought to have been important, especially in the early growth of supermassive black holes, which could have formed from the aggregation of many smaller objects. The process has also been proposed as the origin of some intermediate-mass black holes. + +Evaporation + +In 1974, Hawking predicted that black holes are not entirely black but emit small amounts of thermal radiation at a temperature ℏc/(8πGMk); this effect has become known as Hawking radiation. By applying quantum field theory to a static black hole background, he determined that a black hole should emit particles that display a perfect black body spectrum. Since Hawking's publication, many others have verified the result through various approaches. If Hawking's theory of black hole radiation is correct, then black holes are expected to shrink and evaporate over time as they lose mass by the emission of photons and other particles. The temperature of this thermal spectrum (Hawking temperature) is proportional to the surface gravity of the black hole, which, for a Schwarzschild black hole, is inversely proportional to the mass. Hence, large black holes emit less radiation than small black holes. + +A stellar black hole of has a Hawking temperature of 62 nanokelvins. This is far less than the 2.7 K temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Stellar-mass or larger black holes receive more mass from the cosmic microwave background than they emit through Hawking radiation and thus will grow instead of shrinking. To have a Hawking temperature larger than 2.7 K (and be able to evaporate), a black hole would need a mass less than the Moon. Such a black hole would have a diameter of less than a tenth of a millimeter. + +If a black hole is very small, the radiation effects are expected to become very strong. A black hole with the mass of a car would have a diameter of about 10 m and take a nanosecond to evaporate, during which time it would briefly have a luminosity of more than 200 times that of the Sun. Lower-mass black holes are expected to evaporate even faster; for example, a black hole of mass 1 TeV/c would take less than 10 seconds to evaporate completely. For such a small black hole, quantum gravity effects are expected to play an important role and could hypothetically make such a small black hole stable, although current developments in quantum gravity do not indicate this is the case. + +The Hawking radiation for an astrophysical black hole is predicted to be very weak and would thus be exceedingly difficult to detect from Earth. A possible exception, however, is the burst of gamma rays emitted in the last stage of the evaporation of primordial black holes. Searches for such flashes have proven unsuccessful and provide stringent limits on the possibility of existence of low mass primordial black holes. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope launched in 2008 will continue the search for these flashes. + +If black holes evaporate via Hawking radiation, a solar mass black hole will evaporate (beginning once the temperature of the cosmic microwave background drops below that of the black hole) over a period of 10 years. A supermassive black hole with a mass of will evaporate in around 2×10 years. Some monster black holes in the universe are predicted to continue to grow up to perhaps during the collapse of superclusters of galaxies. Even these would evaporate over a timescale of up to 10 years. + +Some models of quantum gravity predict modifications of the Hawking description of black holes. In particular, the evolution equations describing the mass loss rate and charge loss rate get modified. + +Observational evidence +By nature, black holes do not themselves emit any electromagnetic radiation other than the hypothetical Hawking radiation, so astrophysicists searching for black holes must generally rely on indirect observations. For example, a black hole's existence can sometimes be inferred by observing its gravitational influence on its surroundings. + +Direct interferometry + +The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an active program that directly observes the immediate environment of black holes' event horizons, such as the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. In April 2017, EHT began observing the black hole at the centre of Messier 87. "In all, eight radio observatories on six mountains and four continents observed the galaxy in Virgo on and off for 10 days in April 2017" to provide the data yielding the image in April 2019. After two years of data processing, EHT released the first direct image of a black hole; specifically, the supermassive black hole that lies in the centre of the aforementioned galaxy. What is visible is not the black hole—which shows as black because of the loss of all light within this dark region. Instead, it is the gases at the edge of the event horizon (displayed as orange or red) that define the black hole. + +On 12 May 2022, the EHT released the first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. The published image displayed the same ring-like structure and circular shadow as seen in the M87* black hole, and the image was created using the same techniques as for the M87 black hole. However, the imaging process for Sagittarius A*, which is more than a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87*, was significantly more complex because of the instability of its surroundings. The image of Sagittarius A* was also partially blurred by turbulent plasma on the way to the galactic centre, an effect which prevents resolution of the image at longer wavelengths. + +The brightening of this material in the 'bottom' half of the processed EHT image is thought to be caused by Doppler beaming, whereby material approaching the viewer at relativistic speeds is perceived as brighter than material moving away. In the case of a black hole, this phenomenon implies that the visible material is rotating at relativistic speeds (>), the only speeds at which it is possible to centrifugally balance the immense gravitational attraction of the singularity, and thereby remain in orbit above the event horizon. This configuration of bright material implies that the EHT observed M87* from a perspective catching the black hole's accretion disc nearly edge-on, as the whole system rotated clockwise. However, the extreme gravitational lensing associated with black holes produces the illusion of a perspective that sees the accretion disc from above. In reality, most of the ring in the EHT image was created when the light emitted by the far side of the accretion disc bent around the black hole's gravity well and escaped, meaning that most of the possible perspectives on M87* can see the entire disc, even that directly behind the "shadow". + +In 2015, the EHT detected magnetic fields just outside the event horizon of Sagittarius A* and even discerned some of their properties. The field lines that pass through the accretion disc were a complex mixture of ordered and tangled. Theoretical studies of black holes had predicted the existence of magnetic fields. + +In April 2023, an image of the shadow of the Messier 87 black hole and the related high-energy jet, viewed together for the first time, was presented. + +Detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes + +On 14 September 2015, the LIGO gravitational wave observatory made the first-ever successful direct observation of gravitational waves. The signal was consistent with theoretical predictions for the gravitational waves produced by the merger of two black holes: one with about 36 solar masses, and the other around 29 solar masses. This observation provides the most concrete evidence for the existence of black holes to date. For instance, the gravitational wave signal suggests that the separation of the two objects before the merger was just 350 km (or roughly four times the Schwarzschild radius corresponding to the inferred masses). The objects must therefore have been extremely compact, leaving black holes as the most plausible interpretation. + +More importantly, the signal observed by LIGO also included the start of the post-merger ringdown, the signal produced as the newly formed compact object settles down to a stationary state. Arguably, the ringdown is the most direct way of observing a black hole. From the LIGO signal, it is possible to extract the frequency and damping time of the dominant mode of the ringdown. From these, it is possible to infer the mass and angular momentum of the final object, which match independent predictions from numerical simulations of the merger. The frequency and decay time of the dominant mode are determined by the geometry of the photon sphere. Hence, observation of this mode confirms the presence of a photon sphere; however, it cannot exclude possible exotic alternatives to black holes that are compact enough to have a photon sphere. + +The observation also provides the first observational evidence for the existence of stellar-mass black hole binaries. Furthermore, it is the first observational evidence of stellar-mass black holes weighing 25 solar masses or more. + +Since then, many more gravitational wave events have been observed. + +Stars orbiting Sagittarius A* + +The proper motions of stars near the centre of our own Milky Way provide strong observational evidence that these stars are orbiting a supermassive black hole. Since 1995, astronomers have tracked the motions of 90 stars orbiting an invisible object coincident with the radio source Sagittarius A*. By fitting their motions to Keplerian orbits, the astronomers were able to infer, in 1998, that a object must be contained in a volume with a radius of 0.02 light-years to cause the motions of those stars. Since then, one of the stars—called S2—has completed a full orbit. From the orbital data, astronomers were able to refine the calculations of the mass to and a radius of less than 0.002 light-years for the object causing the orbital motion of those stars. The upper limit on the object's size is still too large to test whether it is smaller than its Schwarzschild radius; nevertheless, these observations strongly suggest that the central object is a supermassive black hole as there are no other plausible scenarios for confining so much invisible mass into such a small volume. Additionally, there is some observational evidence that this object might possess an event horizon, a feature unique to black holes. + +Accretion of matter + +Due to conservation of angular momentum, gas falling into the gravitational well created by a massive object will typically form a disk-like structure around the object. Artists' impressions such as the accompanying representation of a black hole with corona commonly depict the black hole as if it were a flat-space body hiding the part of the disk just behind it, but in reality gravitational lensing would greatly distort the image of the accretion disk. + +Within such a disk, friction would cause angular momentum to be transported outward, allowing matter to fall farther inward, thus releasing potential energy and increasing the temperature of the gas. + +When the accreting object is a neutron star or a black hole, the gas in the inner accretion disk orbits at very high speeds because of its proximity to the compact object. The resulting friction is so significant that it heats the inner disk to temperatures at which it emits vast amounts of electromagnetic radiation (mainly X-rays). These bright X-ray sources may be detected by telescopes. This process of accretion is one of the most efficient energy-producing processes known; up to 40% of the rest mass of the accreted material can be emitted as radiation. (In nuclear fusion only about 0.7% of the rest mass will be emitted as energy.) In many cases, accretion disks are accompanied by relativistic jets that are emitted along the poles, which carry away much of the energy. The mechanism for the creation of these jets is currently not well understood, in part due to insufficient data. + +As such, many of the universe's more energetic phenomena have been attributed to the accretion of matter on black holes. In particular, active galactic nuclei and quasars are believed to be the accretion disks of supermassive black holes. Similarly, X-ray binaries are generally accepted to be binary star systems in which one of the two stars is a compact object accreting matter from its companion. It has also been suggested that some ultraluminous X-ray sources may be the accretion disks of intermediate-mass black holes. + +In November 2011 the first direct observation of a quasar accretion disk around a supermassive black hole was reported. + +X-ray binaries + +X-ray binaries are binary star systems that emit a majority of their radiation in the X-ray part of the spectrum. These X-ray emissions are generally thought to result when one of the stars (compact object) accretes matter from another (regular) star. The presence of an ordinary star in such a system provides an opportunity for studying the central object and to determine if it might be a black hole. + +If such a system emits signals that can be directly traced back to the compact object, it cannot be a black hole. The absence of such a signal does, however, not exclude the possibility that the compact object is a neutron star. By studying the companion star it is often possible to obtain the orbital parameters of the system and to obtain an estimate for the mass of the compact object. If this is much larger than the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit (the maximum mass a star can have without collapsing) then the object cannot be a neutron star and is generally expected to be a black hole. + +The first strong candidate for a black hole, Cygnus X-1, was discovered in this way by Charles Thomas Bolton, Louise Webster, and Paul Murdin in 1972. Some doubt, however, remained due to the uncertainties that result from the companion star being much heavier than the candidate black hole. Currently, better candidates for black holes are found in a class of X-ray binaries called soft X-ray transients. In this class of system, the companion star is of relatively low mass allowing for more accurate estimates of the black hole mass. Moreover, these systems actively emit X-rays for only several months once every 10–50 years. During the period of low X-ray emission (called quiescence), the accretion disk is extremely faint allowing detailed observation of the companion star during this period. One of the best such candidates is V404 Cygni. + +Quasi-periodic oscillations + +The X-ray emissions from accretion disks sometimes flicker at certain frequencies. These signals are called quasi-periodic oscillations and are thought to be caused by material moving along the inner edge of the accretion disk (the innermost stable circular orbit). As such their frequency is linked to the mass of the compact object. They can thus be used as an alternative way to determine the mass of candidate black holes. + +Galactic nuclei + +Astronomers use the term "active galaxy" to describe galaxies with unusual characteristics, such as unusual spectral line emission and very strong radio emission. Theoretical and observational studies have shown that the activity in these active galactic nuclei (AGN) may be explained by the presence of supermassive black holes, which can be millions of times more massive than stellar ones. The models of these AGN consist of a central black hole that may be millions or billions of times more massive than the Sun; a disk of interstellar gas and dust called an accretion disk; and two jets perpendicular to the accretion disk. + +Although supermassive black holes are expected to be found in most AGN, only some galaxies' nuclei have been more carefully studied in attempts to both identify and measure the actual masses of the central supermassive black hole candidates. Some of the most notable galaxies with supermassive black hole candidates include the Andromeda Galaxy, M32, M87, NGC 3115, NGC 3377, NGC 4258, NGC 4889, NGC 1277, OJ 287, APM 08279+5255 and the Sombrero Galaxy. + +It is now widely accepted that the centre of nearly every galaxy, not just active ones, contains a supermassive black hole. The close observational correlation between the mass of this hole and the velocity dispersion of the host galaxy's bulge, known as the M–sigma relation, strongly suggests a connection between the formation of the black hole and that of the galaxy itself. + +Microlensing +Another way the black hole nature of an object may be tested is through observation of effects caused by a strong gravitational field in their vicinity. One such effect is gravitational lensing: The deformation of spacetime around a massive object causes light rays to be deflected, such as light passing through an optic lens. Observations have been made of weak gravitational lensing, in which light rays are deflected by only a few arcseconds. Microlensing occurs when the sources are unresolved and the observer sees a small brightening. In January 2022, astronomers reported the first possible detection of a microlensing event from an isolated black hole. + +Another possibility for observing gravitational lensing by a black hole would be to observe stars orbiting the black hole. There are several candidates for such an observation in orbit around Sagittarius A*. + +Alternatives + +The evidence for stellar black holes strongly relies on the existence of an upper limit for the mass of a neutron star. The size of this limit heavily depends on the assumptions made about the properties of dense matter. New exotic phases of matter could push up this bound. A phase of free quarks at high density might allow the existence of dense quark stars, and some supersymmetric models predict the existence of Q stars. Some extensions of the standard model posit the existence of preons as fundamental building blocks of quarks and leptons, which could hypothetically form preon stars. These hypothetical models could potentially explain a number of observations of stellar black hole candidates. However, it can be shown from arguments in general relativity that any such object will have a maximum mass. + +Since the average density of a black hole inside its Schwarzschild radius is inversely proportional to the square of its mass, supermassive black holes are much less dense than stellar black holes (the average density of a black hole is comparable to that of water). Consequently, the physics of matter forming a supermassive black hole is much better understood and the possible alternative explanations for supermassive black hole observations are much more mundane. For example, a supermassive black hole could be modelled by a large cluster of very dark objects. However, such alternatives are typically not stable enough to explain the supermassive black hole candidates. + +The evidence for the existence of stellar and supermassive black holes implies that in order for black holes to not form, general relativity must fail as a theory of gravity, perhaps due to the onset of quantum mechanical corrections. A much anticipated feature of a theory of quantum gravity is that it will not feature singularities or event horizons and thus black holes would not be real artifacts. For example, in the fuzzball model based on string theory, the individual states of a black hole solution do not generally have an event horizon or singularity, but for a classical/semi-classical observer the statistical average of such states appears just as an ordinary black hole as deduced from general relativity. + +A few theoretical objects have been conjectured to match observations of astronomical black hole candidates identically or near-identically, but which function via a different mechanism. These include the gravastar, the black star, and the dark-energy star. + +Open questions + +Entropy and thermodynamics + +In 1971, Hawking showed under general conditions that the total area of the event horizons of any collection of classical black holes can never decrease, even if they collide and merge. This result, now known as the second law of black hole mechanics, is remarkably similar to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease. As with classical objects at absolute zero temperature, it was assumed that black holes had zero entropy. If this were the case, the second law of thermodynamics would be violated by entropy-laden matter entering a black hole, resulting in a decrease in the total entropy of the universe. Therefore, Bekenstein proposed that a black hole should have an entropy, and that it should be proportional to its horizon area. + +The link with the laws of thermodynamics was further strengthened by Hawking's discovery in 1974 that quantum field theory predicts that a black hole radiates blackbody radiation at a constant temperature. This seemingly causes a violation of the second law of black hole mechanics, since the radiation will carry away energy from the black hole causing it to shrink. The radiation, however also carries away entropy, and it can be proven under general assumptions that the sum of the entropy of the matter surrounding a black hole and one quarter of the area of the horizon as measured in Planck units is in fact always increasing. This allows the formulation of the first law of black hole mechanics as an analogue of the first law of thermodynamics, with the mass acting as energy, the surface gravity as temperature and the area as entropy. + +One puzzling feature is that the entropy of a black hole scales with its area rather than with its volume, since entropy is normally an extensive quantity that scales linearly with the volume of the system. This odd property led Gerard 't Hooft and Leonard Susskind to propose the holographic principle, which suggests that anything that happens in a volume of spacetime can be described by data on the boundary of that volume. + +Although general relativity can be used to perform a semi-classical calculation of black hole entropy, this situation is theoretically unsatisfying. In statistical mechanics, entropy is understood as counting the number of microscopic configurations of a system that have the same macroscopic qualities (such as mass, charge, pressure, etc.). Without a satisfactory theory of quantum gravity, one cannot perform such a computation for black holes. Some progress has been made in various approaches to quantum gravity. In 1995, Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa showed that counting the microstates of a specific supersymmetric black hole in string theory reproduced the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy. Since then, similar results have been reported for different black holes both in string theory and in other approaches to quantum gravity like loop quantum gravity. + +Another promising approach is constituted by treating gravity as an effective field theory. One first computes the quantum gravitational corrections to the radius of the event horizon of the black hole, then integrates over it to find the quantum gravitational corrections to the entropy as given by the Wald formula. The method was applied for Schwarzschild black holes by Calmet and Kuipers, then successfully generalised for charged black holes by Campos Delgado. + +Information loss paradox + +Because a black hole has only a few internal parameters, most of the information about the matter that went into forming the black hole is lost. Regardless of the type of matter which goes into a black hole, it appears that only information concerning the total mass, charge, and angular momentum are conserved. As long as black holes were thought to persist forever this information loss is not that problematic, as the information can be thought of as existing inside the black hole, inaccessible from the outside, but represented on the event horizon in accordance with the holographic principle. However, black holes slowly evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation. This radiation does not appear to carry any additional information about the matter that formed the black hole, meaning that this information appears to be gone forever. + +The question whether information is truly lost in black holes (the black hole information paradox) has divided the theoretical physics community. In quantum mechanics, loss of information corresponds to the violation of a property called unitarity, and it has been argued that loss of unitarity would also imply violation of conservation of energy, though this has also been disputed. Over recent years evidence has been building that indeed information and unitarity are preserved in a full quantum gravitational treatment of the problem. + +One attempt to resolve the black hole information paradox is known as black hole complementarity. In 2012, the "firewall paradox" was introduced with the goal of demonstrating that black hole complementarity fails to solve the information paradox. According to quantum field theory in curved spacetime, a single emission of Hawking radiation involves two mutually entangled particles. The outgoing particle escapes and is emitted as a quantum of Hawking radiation; the infalling particle is swallowed by the black hole. Assume a black hole formed a finite time in the past and will fully evaporate away in some finite time in the future. Then, it will emit only a finite amount of information encoded within its Hawking radiation. According to research by physicists like Don Page and Leonard Susskind, there will eventually be a time by which an outgoing particle must be entangled with all the Hawking radiation the black hole has previously emitted. This seemingly creates a paradox: a principle called "monogamy of entanglement" requires that, like any quantum system, the outgoing particle cannot be fully entangled with two other systems at the same time; yet here the outgoing particle appears to be entangled both with the infalling particle and, independently, with past Hawking radiation. In order to resolve this contradiction, physicists may eventually be forced to give up one of three time-tested principles: Einstein's equivalence principle, unitarity, or local quantum field theory. One possible solution, which violates the equivalence principle, is that a "firewall" destroys incoming particles at the event horizon. In general, which—if any—of these assumptions should be abandoned remains a topic of debate. + +See also + + Binary black hole + Black brane or Black string + Black Hole Initiative + Black hole starship + Black holes in fiction + Blanet + BTZ black hole + Charged black hole + Direct collapse black hole + Hypothetical black hole (disambiguation) + Kugelblitz (astrophysics) + List of black holes + List of nearest black holes + Outline of black holes + Sonic black hole + Virtual black hole + Susskind-Hawking battle + Timeline of black hole physics + White hole + Planck star + Dark star (dark matter) + Schwarzschild radius + +Notes + +References + +Further reading + +Popular reading + +University textbooks and monographs + + , the lecture notes on which the book was based are available for free from Sean Carroll's website . + +Review papers + + + Lecture notes from 2005 SLAC Summer Institute. + +External links + + + Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Singularities and Black Holes" by Erik Curiel and Peter Bokulich. + Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull – Interactive multimedia Web site about the physics and astronomy of black holes from the Space Telescope Science Institute (HubbleSite) + ESA's Black Hole Visualization + Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Black Holes + Schwarzschild Geometry + Black holes - basic (NYT; April 2021) + +Videos + 16-year-long study tracks stars orbiting Sagittarius A* + Movie of Black Hole Candidate from Max Planck Institute + + Computer visualisation of the signal detected by LIGO + Two Black Holes Merge into One (based upon the signal GW150914) + + +Galaxies +Theory of relativity +Concepts in astronomy +Articles containing video clips +In nuclear physics, beta decay (β-decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits a beta particle (fast energetic electron or positron), transforming into an isobar of that nuclide. For example, beta decay of a neutron transforms it into a proton by the emission of an electron accompanied by an antineutrino; or, conversely a proton is converted into a neutron by the emission of a positron with a neutrino in so-called positron emission. Neither the beta particle nor its associated (anti-)neutrino exist within the nucleus prior to beta decay, but are created in the decay process. By this process, unstable atoms obtain a more stable ratio of protons to neutrons. The probability of a nuclide decaying due to beta and other forms of decay is determined by its nuclear binding energy. The binding energies of all existing nuclides form what is called the nuclear band or valley of stability. For either electron or positron emission to be energetically possible, the energy release (see below) or Q value must be positive. + +Beta decay is a consequence of the weak force, which is characterized by relatively lengthy decay times. Nucleons are composed of up quarks and down quarks, and the weak force allows a quark to change its flavour by emission of a W boson leading to creation of an electron/antineutrino or positron/neutrino pair. For example, a neutron, composed of two down quarks and an up quark, decays to a proton composed of a down quark and two up quarks. + +Electron capture is sometimes included as a type of beta decay, because the basic nuclear process, mediated by the weak force, is the same. In electron capture, an inner atomic electron is captured by a proton in the nucleus, transforming it into a neutron, and an electron neutrino is released. + +Description +The two types of beta decay are known as beta minus and beta plus. In beta minus (β−) decay, a neutron is converted to a proton, and the process creates an electron and an electron antineutrino; while in beta plus (β+) decay, a proton is converted to a neutron and the process creates a positron and an electron neutrino. β+ decay is also known as positron emission. + +Beta decay conserves a quantum number known as the lepton number, or the number of electrons and their associated neutrinos (other leptons are the muon and tau particles). These particles have lepton number +1, while their antiparticles have lepton number −1. Since a proton or neutron has lepton number zero, β+ decay (a positron, or antielectron) must be accompanied with an electron neutrino, while β− decay (an electron) must be accompanied by an electron antineutrino. + +An example of electron emission (β− decay) is the decay of carbon-14 into nitrogen-14 with a half-life of about 5,730 years: + → + + + +In this form of decay, the original element becomes a new chemical element in a process known as nuclear transmutation. This new element has an unchanged mass number , but an atomic number that is increased by one. As in all nuclear decays, the decaying element (in this case ) is known as the parent nuclide while the resulting element (in this case ) is known as the daughter nuclide. + +Another example is the decay of hydrogen-3 (tritium) into helium-3 with a half-life of about 12.3 years: + → + + + +An example of positron emission (β+ decay) is the decay of magnesium-23 into sodium-23 with a half-life of about 11.3 s: + + → + + +β+ decay also results in nuclear transmutation, with the resulting element having an atomic number that is decreased by one. + +The beta spectrum, or distribution of energy values for the beta particles, is continuous. The total energy of the decay process is divided between the electron, the antineutrino, and the recoiling nuclide. In the figure to the right, an example of an electron with 0.40 MeV energy from the beta decay of 210Bi is shown. In this example, the total decay energy is 1.16 MeV, so the antineutrino has the remaining energy: . An electron at the far right of the curve would have the maximum possible kinetic energy, leaving the energy of the neutrino to be only its small rest mass. + +History + +Discovery and initial characterization +Radioactivity was discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel in uranium, and subsequently observed by Marie and Pierre Curie in thorium and in the new elements polonium and radium. In 1899, Ernest Rutherford separated radioactive emissions into two types: alpha and beta (now beta minus), based on penetration of objects and ability to cause ionization. Alpha rays could be stopped by thin sheets of paper or aluminium, whereas beta rays could penetrate several millimetres of aluminium. In 1900, Paul Villard identified a still more penetrating type of radiation, which Rutherford identified as a fundamentally new type in 1903 and termed gamma rays. Alpha, beta, and gamma are the first three letters of the Greek alphabet. + +In 1900, Becquerel measured the mass-to-charge ratio () for beta particles by the method of J.J. Thomson used to study cathode rays and identify the electron. He found that for a beta particle is the same as for Thomson's electron, and therefore suggested that the beta particle is in fact an electron. + +In 1901, Rutherford and Frederick Soddy showed that alpha and beta radioactivity involves the transmutation of atoms into atoms of other chemical elements. In 1913, after the products of more radioactive decays were known, Soddy and Kazimierz Fajans independently proposed their radioactive displacement law, which states that beta (i.e., ) emission from one element produces another element one place to the right in the periodic table, while alpha emission produces an element two places to the left. + +Neutrinos + +The study of beta decay provided the first physical evidence for the existence of the neutrino. In both alpha and gamma decay, the resulting alpha or gamma particle has a narrow energy distribution, since the particle carries the energy from the difference between the initial and final nuclear states. However, the kinetic energy distribution, or spectrum, of beta particles measured by Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in 1911 and by Jean Danysz in 1913 showed multiple lines on a diffuse background. These measurements offered the first hint that beta particles have a continuous spectrum. In 1914, James Chadwick used a magnetic spectrometer with one of Hans Geiger's new counters to make more accurate measurements which showed that the spectrum was continuous. The distribution of beta particle energies was in apparent contradiction to the law of conservation of energy. If beta decay were simply electron emission as assumed at the time, then the energy of the emitted electron should have a particular, well-defined value. For beta decay, however, the observed broad distribution of energies suggested that energy is lost in the beta decay process. This spectrum was puzzling for many years. + +A second problem is related to the conservation of angular momentum. Molecular band spectra showed that the nuclear spin of nitrogen-14 is 1 (i.e., equal to the reduced Planck constant) and more generally that the spin is integral for nuclei of even mass number and half-integral for nuclei of odd mass number. This was later explained by the proton-neutron model of the nucleus. Beta decay leaves the mass number unchanged, so the change of nuclear spin must be an integer. However, the electron spin is 1/2, hence angular momentum would not be conserved if beta decay were simply electron emission. + +From 1920 to 1927, Charles Drummond Ellis (along with Chadwick and colleagues) further established that the beta decay spectrum is continuous. In 1933, Ellis and Nevill Mott obtained strong evidence that the beta spectrum has an effective upper bound in energy. Niels Bohr had suggested that the beta spectrum could be explained if conservation of energy was true only in a statistical sense, thus this principle might be violated in any given decay. However, the upper bound in beta energies determined by Ellis and Mott ruled out that notion. Now, the problem of how to account for the variability of energy in known beta decay products, as well as for conservation of momentum and angular momentum in the process, became acute. + +In a famous letter written in 1930, Wolfgang Pauli attempted to resolve the beta-particle energy conundrum by suggesting that, in addition to electrons and protons, atomic nuclei also contained an extremely light neutral particle, which he called the neutron. He suggested that this "neutron" was also emitted during beta decay (thus accounting for the known missing energy, momentum, and angular momentum), but it had simply not yet been observed. In 1931, Enrico Fermi renamed Pauli's "neutron" the "neutrino" ('little neutral one' in Italian). In 1933, Fermi published his landmark theory for beta decay, where he applied the principles of quantum mechanics to matter particles, supposing that they can be created and annihilated, just as the light quanta in atomic transitions. Thus, according to Fermi, neutrinos are created in the beta-decay process, rather than contained in the nucleus; the same happens to electrons. The neutrino interaction with matter was so weak that detecting it proved a severe experimental challenge. Further indirect evidence of the existence of the neutrino was obtained by observing the recoil of nuclei that emitted such a particle after absorbing an electron. Neutrinos were finally detected directly in 1956 by the American physicists Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines in the Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment. The properties of neutrinos were (with a few minor modifications) as predicted by Pauli and Fermi. + +decay and electron capture +In 1934, Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie bombarded aluminium with alpha particles to effect the nuclear reaction  +  →  + , and observed that the product isotope emits a positron identical to those found in cosmic rays (discovered by Carl David Anderson in 1932). This was the first example of  decay (positron emission), which they termed artificial radioactivity since is a short-lived nuclide which does not exist in nature. In recognition of their discovery the couple were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. + +The theory of electron capture was first discussed by Gian-Carlo Wick in a 1934 paper, and then developed by Hideki Yukawa and others. K-electron capture was first observed in 1937 by Luis Alvarez, in the nuclide 48V. Alvarez went on to study electron capture in 67Ga and other nuclides. + +Non-conservation of parity +In 1956, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang noticed that there was no evidence that parity was conserved in weak interactions, and so they postulated that this symmetry may not be preserved by the weak force. They sketched the design for an experiment for testing conservation of parity in the laboratory. Later that year, Chien-Shiung Wu and coworkers conducted the Wu experiment showing an asymmetrical beta decay of at cold temperatures that proved that parity is not conserved in beta decay. This surprising result overturned long-held assumptions about parity and the weak force. In recognition of their theoretical work, Lee and Yang were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1957. However Wu, who was female, was not awarded the Nobel prize. + +β− decay + +In  decay, the weak interaction converts an atomic nucleus into a nucleus with atomic number increased by one, while emitting an electron () and an electron antineutrino ().  decay generally occurs in neutron-rich nuclei. The generic equation is: + + → + + +where and are the mass number and atomic number of the decaying nucleus, and X and X′ are the initial and final elements, respectively. + +Another example is when the free neutron () decays by  decay into a proton (): + → + + . + +At the fundamental level (as depicted in the Feynman diagram on the right), this is caused by the conversion of the negatively charged () down quark to the positively charged () up quark by emission of a boson; the boson subsequently decays into an electron and an electron antineutrino: + → + + . + +β+ decay + +In  decay, or positron emission, the weak interaction converts an atomic nucleus into a nucleus with atomic number decreased by one, while emitting a positron () and an electron neutrino ().  decay generally occurs in proton-rich nuclei. The generic equation is: + + → + + +This may be considered as the decay of a proton inside the nucleus to a neutron: +p → n + + + +However,  decay cannot occur in an isolated proton because it requires energy, due to the mass of the neutron being greater than the mass of the proton.  decay can only happen inside nuclei when the daughter nucleus has a greater binding energy (and therefore a lower total energy) than the mother nucleus. The difference between these energies goes into the reaction of converting a proton into a neutron, a positron, and a neutrino and into the kinetic energy of these particles. This process is opposite to negative beta decay, in that the weak interaction converts a proton into a neutron by converting an up quark into a down quark resulting in the emission of a or the absorption of a . When a boson is emitted, it decays into a positron and an electron neutrino: + → + + . + +Electron capture (K-capture) + +In all cases where  decay (positron emission) of a nucleus is allowed energetically, so too is electron capture allowed. This is a process during which a nucleus captures one of its atomic electrons, resulting in the emission of a neutrino: + + + → + + +An example of electron capture is one of the decay modes of krypton-81 into bromine-81: + + → + + +All emitted neutrinos are of the same energy. In proton-rich nuclei where the energy difference between the initial and final states is less than ,  decay is not energetically possible, and electron capture is the sole decay mode. + +If the captured electron comes from the innermost shell of the atom, the K-shell, which has the highest probability to interact with the nucleus, the process is called K-capture. If it comes from the L-shell, the process is called L-capture, etc. + +Electron capture is a competing (simultaneous) decay process for all nuclei that can undergo β+ decay. The converse, however, is not true: electron capture is the only type of decay that is allowed in proton-rich nuclides that do not have sufficient energy to emit a positron and neutrino. + +Nuclear transmutation + +If the proton and neutron are part of an atomic nucleus, the above described decay processes transmute one chemical element into another. For example: + +:{|border="0" +|- style="height:2em;" +| || || ||→ || ||+ || ||+ || ||(beta minus decay) +|- style="height:2em;" +| || || ||→ || ||+ || ||+ || ||(beta plus decay) +|- style="height:2em;" +| ||+ || ||→ || ||+ || || || ||(electron capture) +|} + +Beta decay does not change the number () of nucleons in the nucleus, but changes only its charge . Thus the set of all nuclides with the same  can be introduced; these isobaric nuclides may turn into each other via beta decay. For a given there is one that is most stable. It is said to be beta stable, because it presents a local minimum of the mass excess: if such a nucleus has numbers, the neighbour nuclei and have higher mass excess and can beta decay into , but not vice versa. For all odd mass numbers , there is only one known beta-stable isobar. For even , there are up to three different beta-stable isobars experimentally known; for example, , , and are all beta-stable. There are about 350 known beta-decay stable nuclides. + +Competition of beta decay types +Usually unstable nuclides are clearly either "neutron rich" or "proton rich", with the former undergoing beta decay and the latter undergoing electron capture (or more rarely, due to the higher energy requirements, positron decay). However, in a few cases of odd-proton, odd-neutron radionuclides, it may be energetically favorable for the radionuclide to decay to an even-proton, even-neutron isobar either by undergoing beta-positive or beta-negative decay. An often-cited example is the single isotope (29 protons, 35 neutrons), which illustrates three types of beta decay in competition. Copper-64 has a half-life of about 12.7 hours. This isotope has one unpaired proton and one unpaired neutron, so either the proton or the neutron can decay. This particular nuclide (though not all nuclides in this situation) is almost equally likely to decay through proton decay by positron emission () or electron capture () to , as it is through neutron decay by electron emission () to . + +Stability of naturally occurring nuclides +Most naturally occurring nuclides on earth are beta stable. Nuclides that are not beta stable have half-lives ranging from under a second to periods of time significantly greater than the age of the universe. One common example of a long-lived isotope is the odd-proton odd-neutron nuclide , which undergoes all three types of beta decay (, and electron capture) with a half-life of . + +Conservation rules for beta decay + +Baryon number is conserved + +where + is the number of constituent quarks, and + is the number of constituent antiquarks. + +Beta decay just changes neutron to proton or, in the case of positive beta decay (electron capture) proton to neutron so the number of individual quarks doesn't change. It is only the baryon flavor that changes, here labelled as the isospin. + +Up and down quarks have total isospin and isospin projections + +All other quarks have . + +In general + +Lepton number is conserved + +so all leptons have assigned a value of +1, antileptons −1, and non-leptonic particles 0. + +Angular momentum +For allowed decays, the net orbital angular momentum is zero, hence only spin quantum numbers are considered. + +The electron and antineutrino are fermions, spin-1/2 objects, therefore they may couple to total (parallel) or (anti-parallel). + +For forbidden decays, orbital angular momentum must also be taken into consideration. + +Energy release +The value is defined as the total energy released in a given nuclear decay. In beta decay, is therefore also the sum of the kinetic energies of the emitted beta particle, neutrino, and recoiling nucleus. (Because of the large mass of the nucleus compared to that of the beta particle and neutrino, the kinetic energy of the recoiling nucleus can generally be neglected.) Beta particles can therefore be emitted with any kinetic energy ranging from 0 to . A typical is around 1 MeV, but can range from a few keV to a few tens of MeV. + +Since the rest mass of the electron is 511 keV, the most energetic beta particles are ultrarelativistic, with speeds very close to the speed of light. +In the case of Re, the maximum speed of the beta particle is only 9.8% of the speed of light. + +The following table gives some examples: + +β− decay +Consider the generic equation for beta decay + → + + . +The value for this decay is +, +where is the mass of the nucleus of the atom, is the mass of the electron, and is the mass of the electron antineutrino. In other words, the total energy released is the mass energy of the initial nucleus, minus the mass energy of the final nucleus, electron, and antineutrino. The mass of the nucleus is related to the standard atomic mass by + +That is, the total atomic mass is the mass of the nucleus, plus the mass of the electrons, minus the sum of all electron binding energies for the atom. This equation is rearranged to find , and is found similarly. Substituting these nuclear masses into the -value equation, while neglecting the nearly-zero antineutrino mass and the difference in electron binding energies, which is very small for high- atoms, we have + +This energy is carried away as kinetic energy by the electron and antineutrino. + +Because the reaction will proceed only when the  value is positive, β− decay can occur when the mass of atom is greater than the mass of atom . + +β+ decay +The equations for β+ decay are similar, with the generic equation + → + + +giving + +However, in this equation, the electron masses do not cancel, and we are left with + +Because the reaction will proceed only when the  value is positive, β+ decay can occur when the mass of atom exceeds that of by at least twice the mass of the electron. + +Electron capture +The analogous calculation for electron capture must take into account the binding energy of the electrons. This is because the atom will be left in an excited state after capturing the electron, and the binding energy of the captured innermost electron is significant. Using the generic equation for electron capture + + → + +we have + +which simplifies to + +where is the binding energy of the captured electron. + +Because the binding energy of the electron is much less than the mass of the electron, nuclei that can undergo β+ decay can always also undergo electron capture, but the reverse is not true. + +Beta emission spectrum + +Beta decay can be considered as a perturbation as described in quantum mechanics, and thus Fermi's Golden Rule can be applied. This leads to an expression for the kinetic energy spectrum of emitted betas as follows: + +where is the kinetic energy, is a shape function that depends on the forbiddenness of the decay (it is constant for allowed decays), is the Fermi Function (see below) with Z the charge of the final-state nucleus, is the total energy, is the momentum, and is the Q value of the decay. The kinetic energy of the emitted neutrino is given approximately by minus the kinetic energy of the beta. + +As an example, the beta decay spectrum of 210Bi (originally called RaE) is shown to the right. + +Fermi function + +The Fermi function that appears in the beta spectrum formula accounts for the Coulomb attraction / repulsion between the emitted beta and the final state nucleus. Approximating the associated wavefunctions to be spherically symmetric, the Fermi function can be analytically calculated to be: + +where is the final momentum, Γ the Gamma function, and (if is the fine-structure constant and the radius of the final state nucleus) , (+ for electrons, − for positrons), and . + +For non-relativistic betas (), this expression can be approximated by: + +Other approximations can be found in the literature. + +Kurie plot + +A Kurie plot (also known as a Fermi–Kurie plot) is a graph used in studying beta decay developed by Franz N. D. Kurie, in which the square root of the number of beta particles whose momenta (or energy) lie within a certain narrow range, divided by the Fermi function, is plotted against beta-particle energy. It is a straight line for allowed transitions and some forbidden transitions, in accord with the Fermi beta-decay theory. The energy-axis (x-axis) intercept of a Kurie plot corresponds to the maximum energy imparted to the electron/positron (the decay's  value). With a Kurie plot one can find the limit on the effective mass of a neutrino. + +Helicity (polarization) of neutrinos, electrons and positrons emitted in beta decay +After the discovery of parity non-conservation (see History), it was found that, in beta decay, electrons are emitted mostly with negative helicity, i.e., they move, naively speaking, like left-handed screws driven into a material (they have negative longitudinal polarization). Conversely, positrons have mostly positive helicity, i.e., they move like right-handed screws. Neutrinos (emitted in positron decay) have negative helicity, while antineutrinos (emitted in electron decay) have positive helicity. + +The higher the energy of the particles, the higher their polarization. + +Types of beta decay transitions + +Beta decays can be classified according to the angular momentum ( value) and total spin ( value) of the emitted radiation. Since total angular momentum must be conserved, including orbital and spin angular momentum, beta decay occurs by a variety of quantum state transitions to various nuclear angular momentum or spin states, known as "Fermi" or "Gamow–Teller" transitions. When beta decay particles carry no angular momentum (), the decay is referred to as "allowed", otherwise it is "forbidden". + +Other decay modes, which are rare, are known as bound state decay and double beta decay. + +Fermi transitions +A Fermi transition is a beta decay in which the spins of the emitted electron (positron) and anti-neutrino (neutrino) couple to total spin , leading to an angular momentum change between the initial and final states of the nucleus (assuming an allowed transition). In the non-relativistic limit, the nuclear part of the operator for a Fermi transition is given by + +with the weak vector coupling constant, the isospin raising and lowering operators, and running over all protons and neutrons in the nucleus. + +Gamow–Teller transitions +A Gamow–Teller transition is a beta decay in which the spins of the emitted electron (positron) and anti-neutrino (neutrino) couple to total spin , leading to an angular momentum change between the initial and final states of the nucleus (assuming an allowed transition). +In this case, the nuclear part of the operator is given by + +with the weak axial-vector coupling constant, and the spin Pauli matrices, which can produce a spin-flip in the decaying nucleon. + +Forbidden transitions +When , the decay is referred to as "forbidden". Nuclear selection rules require high  values to be accompanied by changes in nuclear spin () and parity (). The selection rules for the th forbidden transitions are: + +where corresponds to no parity change or parity change, respectively. The special case of a transition between isobaric analogue states, where the structure of the final state is very similar to the structure of the initial state, is referred to as "superallowed" for beta decay, and proceeds very quickly. The following table lists the Δ and Δ values for the first few values of : + +Rare decay modes + +Bound-state β− decay +A very small minority of free neutron decays (about four per million) are so-called "two-body decays", in which the proton, electron and antineutrino are produced, but the electron fails to gain the 13.6 eV energy necessary to escape the proton, and therefore simply remains bound to it, as a neutral hydrogen atom. In this type of beta decay, in essence all of the neutron decay energy is carried off by the antineutrino. + +For fully ionized atoms (bare nuclei), it is possible in likewise manner for electrons to fail to escape the atom, and to be emitted from the nucleus into low-lying atomic bound states (orbitals). This cannot occur for neutral atoms with low-lying bound states which are already filled by electrons. + +Bound-state β decays were predicted by Daudel, Jean, and Lecoin in 1947, and the phenomenon in fully ionized atoms was first observed for 163Dy66+ in 1992 by Jung et al. of the Darmstadt Heavy-Ion Research Center. Although neutral is a stable isotope, the fully ionized 163Dy66+ undergoes β decay into the K and L shells with a half-life of 47 days. The resulting nucleus - - is stable only in the fully ionized state and will decay via electron capture into in the neutral state. The half life for neutral is 4750 years. + +Another possibility is that a fully ionized atom undergoes greatly accelerated β decay, as observed for 187Re by Bosch et al., also at Darmstadt. Neutral 187Re does undergo β decay with a half-life of  years, but for fully ionized 187Re75+ this is shortened to only 32.9 years. For comparison the variation of decay rates of other nuclear processes due to chemical environment is less than 1%. Due to the difference in the price of rhenium and osmium and the high share of in rhenium samples found on earth, this could some day be of commercial interest in the synthesis of precious metals. + +Double beta decay + +Some nuclei can undergo double beta decay (ββ decay) where the charge of the nucleus changes by two units. Double beta decay is difficult to study, as the process has an extremely long half-life. In nuclei for which both β decay and ββ decay are possible, the rarer ββ decay process is effectively impossible to observe. However, in nuclei where β decay is forbidden but ββ decay is allowed, the process can be seen and a half-life measured. Thus, ββ decay is usually studied only for beta stable nuclei. Like single beta decay, double beta decay does not change ; thus, at least one of the nuclides with some given has to be stable with regard to both single and double beta decay. + +"Ordinary" double beta decay results in the emission of two electrons and two antineutrinos. If neutrinos are Majorana particles (i.e., they are their own antiparticles), then a decay known as neutrinoless double beta decay will occur. Most neutrino physicists believe that neutrinoless double beta decay has never been observed. + +See also + Common beta emitters +Neutrino +Betavoltaics +Particle radiation +Radionuclide +Tritium illumination, a form of fluorescent lighting powered by beta decay +Pandemonium effect +Total absorption spectroscopy + +References + +Bibliography + +External links + The Live Chart of Nuclides - IAEA with filter on decay type +Beta decay simulation + +Nuclear physics +Radioactivity +Blitzkrieg ( , ; from 'lightning' + 'war') or Bewegungskrieg is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with artillery, air assault and close air support, with intent to break through the opponent's lines of defense, dislocate the defenders, unbalance the enemies by making it difficult to respond to the continuously-changing front, and defeat them in a decisive : a battle of annihilation. + +During the interwar period, aircraft and tank technologies matured and were combined with systematic application of the traditional German tactic of (maneuver warfare), deep penetrations and the bypassing of enemy strong points to encircle and destroy enemy forces in a (cauldron battle/battle of encirclement). During the invasion of Poland, Western journalists adopted the term blitzkrieg to describe that form of armored warfare. The term had appeared in 1935, in a German military periodical ("German Defence"), in connection to quick or lightning warfare. + +German maneuver operations were successful in the campaigns of 1939–1941, and by 1940, the term blitzkrieg was extensively used in Western media. Blitzkrieg operations capitalised on surprise penetrations such as that of the Ardennes forest region, the general Allies' unreadiness and their inability to match the pace of the German attack. During the Battle of France, the French made attempts to reform defensive lines along rivers but were frustrated when German forces arrived first and pressed on. + +Despite being common in German and English-language journalism during World War II, the word was never used by the Wehrmacht as an official military term except for propaganda. According to David Reynolds, "Hitler himself called the term Blitzkrieg 'A completely idiotic word' ()". Some senior officers, including Kurt Student, Franz Halder and Johann Adolf von Kielmansegg, even disputed the idea that it was a military concept. Kielmansegg asserted that what many regarded as blitzkrieg was nothing more than "ad hoc solutions that simply popped out of the prevailing situation". Student described it as ideas that "naturally emerged from the existing circumstances" as a response to operational challenges. The Wehrmacht never officially adopted it as a concept or doctrine. + +In 2005, the historian Karl-Heinz Frieser summarized blitzkrieg as the result of German commanders using the latest technology in the most advantageous way according to traditional military principles and employing "the right units in the right place at the right time". Modern historians now understand blitzkrieg as the combination of the traditional German military principles, methods and doctrines of the 19th century with the military technology of the interwar period. Modern historians use the term casually as a generic description for the style of maneuver warfare practiced by Germany during the early part of World War II, rather than as an explanation. According to Frieser, in the context of the thinking of Heinz Guderian on mobile combined arms formations, blitzkrieg can be used as a synonym for modern maneuver warfare on the operational level. + +In 2021, research demonstrated that the blitzkrieg strategy could be an effective military strategy in modern war given the right mix of terrain, enemy combat capabilities, level of air superiority and tactical nuclear capabilities. + +Definition + +Common interpretation + +The traditional meaning of "blitzkrieg" is that of German tactical and operational methodology during the first half of the Second World War that is often hailed as a new method of warfare. The word, meaning "lightning war" or "lightning attack" in its strategic sense describes a series of quick and decisive short battles to deliver a knockout blow to an enemy state before it can fully mobilize. Tactically, blitzkrieg is a coordinated military effort by tanks, motorized infantry, artillery and aircraft, to create an overwhelming local superiority in combat power, to defeat the opponent and break through its defences. Blitzkrieg as used by Germany had considerable psychological or "terror" elements, such as the Jericho Trompete, a noise-making siren on the Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber, to affect the morale of enemy forces. The devices were largely removed when the enemy became used to the noise after the Battle of France in 1940, and instead, bombs sometimes had whistles attached. It is also common for historians and writers to include psychological warfare by using fifth columnists to spread rumours and lies among the civilian population in the theatre of operations. + +Origin of term +The origin of the term blitzkrieg is obscure. It was never used in the title of a military doctrine or handbook of the German Army or Air Force, and no "coherent doctrine" or "unifying concept of blitzkrieg" existed, however German High Command mostly referred to the group of tactics as "Bewegungskrieg" (Manuever Warfare). The term seems to have been rarely used in the German military press before 1939, and recent research at the German Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, at Potsdam, found it in only two military articles from the 1930s. Both used the term to mean a swift strategic knockout, rather than a radically new military doctrine or approach to war. + +The first article (1935) dealt primarily with supplies of food and materiel in wartime. The term blitzkrieg was used in reference to German efforts to win a quick victory in the First World War but was not associated with the use of armored, mechanized or air forces. It argued that Germany must develop self-sufficiency in food because it might again prove impossible to deal a swift knockout to its enemies, which would lead to a long war. + +In the second article (1938), launching a swift strategic knockout was described as an attractive idea for Germany but difficult to achieve on land under modern conditions (especially against systems of fortification like the Maginot Line) unless an exceptionally high degree of surprise could be achieved. The author vaguely suggested that a massive strategic air attack might hold out better prospects, but the topic was not explored in detail. + +A third relatively early use of the term in German occurred in Die Deutsche Kriegsstärke (German War Strength) by Fritz Sternberg, a Jewish Marxist political economist and refugee from Nazi Germany, published in 1938 in Paris and in London as Germany and a Lightning War. Sternberg wrote that Germany was not prepared economically for a long war but might win a quick war ("Blitzkrieg"). He did not go into detail about tactics or suggest that the German armed forces had evolved a radically new operational method. His book offered scant clues as to how German lightning victories might be won. + +In English and other languages, the term had been used since the 1920s. The term was first used in the publications of Ferdinand Otto Miksche, first in the magazine "Army Quarterly", and in his 1941 book Blitzkrieg, in which he defined the concept. In September 1939, Time magazine termed the German military action as a "war of quick penetration and obliteration – Blitzkrieg, lightning war". After the invasion of Poland, the British press commonly used the term to describe German successes in that campaign. J. P. Harris called the term "a piece of journalistic sensationalism – a buzz-word with which to label the spectacular early successes of the Germans in the Second World War". The word was later applied to the bombing of Britain, particularly London, hence "The Blitz". + +The German popular press followed suit nine months later, after the Fall of France in 1940; thus, although the word had first been used in Germany, it was popularized by British journalism. Heinz Guderian referred to it as a word coined by the Allies: "as a result of the successes of our rapid campaigns our enemies ... coined the word Blitzkrieg". After the German failure in the Soviet Union in 1941, the use of the term began to be frowned upon in Nazi Germany, and Hitler then denied ever using the term and said in a speech in November 1941, "I have never used the word Blitzkrieg, because it is a very silly word". In early January 1942, Hitler dismissed it as "Italian phraseology". + +Military evolution, 1919–1939 + +Germany + +In 1914, German strategic thinking derived from the writings of Carl von Clausewitz (1 June 1780 – 16 November 1831), Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (26 October 1800 – 24 April 1891) and Alfred von Schlieffen (28 February 1833 – 4 January 1913), who advocated maneuver, mass and envelopment to create the conditions for a decisive battle (). During the war, officers such as Willy Rohr developed tactics to restore maneuver on the battlefield. Specialist light infantry (Stosstruppen, "storm troops") were to exploit weak spots to make gaps for larger infantry units to advance with heavier weapons, exploit the success and leave isolated strong points to the troops that were following up. Infiltration tactics were combined with short hurricane artillery bombardments, which used massed artillery. Devised by Colonel Georg Bruchmüller, the attacks relied on speed and surprise, rather than on weight of numbers. The tactics met with great success in Operation Michael, the German spring offensive of 1918 and restored temporarily the war of movement once the Allied trench system had been overrun. The German armies pushed on towards Amiens and then Paris and came within before supply deficiencies and Allied reinforcements halted the advance. + +The historian James Corum criticised the German leadership for failing to understand the technical advances of the First World War, conducting no studies of the machine gun prior to the war and giving tank production the lowest priority during the war. After Germany's defeat, the Treaty of Versailles limited the Reichswehr to a maximum of 100,000 men, which prevented the deployment of mass armies. The German General Staff was abolished by the treaty but continued covertly as the Truppenamt (Troop Office) and was disguised as an administrative body. Committees of veteran staff officers were formed within the Truppenamt to evaluate 57 issues of the war to revise German operational theories. By the time of the Second World War, their reports had led to doctrinal and training publications, including H. Dv. 487, Führung und Gefecht der verbundenen Waffen ("Command and Battle of the Combined Arms)", known as Das Fug (1921–1923) and Truppenführung (1933–1934), containing standard procedures for combined-arms warfare. The Reichswehr was influenced by its analysis of pre-war German military thought, particularly infiltration tactics since at the end of the war, they had seen some breakthroughs on the Western Front and the maneuver warfare which dominated the Eastern Front. + +On the Eastern Front, the war did not bog down into trench warfare since the German and the Russian Armies fought a war of maneuver over thousands of miles, which gave the German leadership unique experience that was unavailable to the trench-bound Western Allies. Studies of operations in the East led to the conclusion that small and coordinated forces possessed more combat power than large uncoordinated forces. + +After the war, the Reichswehr expanded and improved infiltration tactics. The commander in chief, Hans von Seeckt, argued that there had been an excessive focus on encirclement and emphasised speed instead. Seeckt inspired a revision of Bewegungskrieg (maneuver warfare) thinking and its associated Auftragstaktik in which the commander expressed his goals to subordinates and gave them discretion in how to achieve them. The governing principle was "the higher the authority, the more general the orders were"; it was the responsibility of the lower echelons to fill in the details. Implementation of higher orders remained within limits that were determined by the training doctrine of an elite officer corps. + +Delegation of authority to local commanders increased the tempo of operations, which had great influence on the success of German armies in the early war period. Seeckt, who believed in the Prussian tradition of mobility, developed the German army into a mobile force and advocated technical advances that would lead to a qualitative improvement of its forces and better coordination between motorized infantry, tanks, and planes. + +Britain + +The British Army took lessons from the successful infantry and artillery offensives on the Western Front in late 1918. To obtain the best co-operation between all arms, emphasis was placed on detailed planning, rigid control and adherence to orders. Mechanization of the army, as part of a combined-arms theory of war, was considered a means to avoid mass casualties and the indecisive nature of offensives. The four editions of Field Service Regulations that were published after 1918 held that only combined-arms operations could create enough fire power to enable mobility on a battlefield. That theory of war also emphasised consolidation and recommended caution against overconfidence and ruthless exploitation. + +During the Sinai and Palestine campaign, operations involved some aspects of what would later be called blitzkrieg. The decisive Battle of Megiddo included concentration, surprise and speed. Success depended on attacking only in terrain favouring the movement of large formations around the battlefield and tactical improvements in the British artillery and infantry attack. General Edmund Allenby used infantry to attack the strong Ottoman front line in co-operation with supporting artillery, augmented by the guns of two destroyers. Through constant pressure by infantry and cavalry, two Ottoman armies in the Judean Hills were kept off-balance and virtually encircled during the Battles of Sharon and Nablus (Battle of Megiddo). + +The British methods induced "strategic paralysis" among the Ottomans and led to their rapid and complete collapse. In an advance of , captures were estimated to be "at least prisoners and 260 guns". Liddell Hart considered that important aspects of the operation had been the extent to which Ottoman commanders were denied intelligence on the British preparations for the attack through British air superiority and air attacks on their headquarters and telephone exchanges, which paralyzed attempts to react to the rapidly-deteriorating situation. + +France +Norman Stone detects early blitzkrieg operations in offensives by French Generals Charles Mangin and Marie-Eugène Debeney in 1918. However, French doctrine in the interwar years became defence-oriented. Colonel Charles de Gaulle advocated concentration of armor and airplanes. His opinions appeared in his 1934 book Vers l'Armée de métier ("Towards the Professional Army"). Like von Seeckt, de Gaulle concluded that France could no longer maintain the huge armies of conscripts and reservists that had fought the First World War, and he sought to use tanks, mechanized forces and aircraft to allow a smaller number of highly-trained soldiers to have greater impact in battle. His views endeared him little to the French high command but are claimed by some to have influenced Heinz Guderian. + +Russia and Soviet Union +In 1916, General Alexei Brusilov had used surprise and infiltration tactics during the Brusilov Offensive. Later, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky (1893-1937), (1898-1976) and other members of the Red Army developed a concept of deep battle from the experience of the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1920. Those concepts would guide the Red Army doctrine throughout the Second World War. Realising the limitations of infantry and cavalry, Tukhachevsky advocated mechanized formations and the large-scale industrialisation that they required. Robert Watt (2008) wrote that blitzkrieg has little in common with Soviet deep battle. In 2002, H. P. Willmott had noted that deep battle contained two important differences from blitzkrieg by being a doctrine of total war, not of limited operations, and rejecting decisive battle in favour of several large simultaneous offensives. + +The Reichswehr and the Red Army began a secret collaboration in the Soviet Union to evade the Treaty of Versailles occupational agent, the Inter-Allied Commission. In 1926 war games and tests began at Kazan and Lipetsk, in the Soviet Russia. The centers served to field-test aircraft and armored vehicles up to the battalion level and housed aerial- and armoured-warfare schools through which officers rotated. + +Nazi Germany +After becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Adolf Hitler ignored the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles Treaty. Within the Wehrmacht, which was established in 1935, the command for motorized armored forces was named the Panzerwaffe in 1936. The Luftwaffe, the German air force, was officially established in February 1935, and development began on ground-attack aircraft and doctrines. Hitler strongly supported the new strategy. He read Guderian's 1937 book Achtung – Panzer! and upon observing armored field exercises at Kummersdorf, he remarked, "That is what I want – and that is what I will have". + +Guderian + +Guderian summarized combined-arms tactics as the way to get the mobile and motorized armored divisions to work together and support each other to achieve decisive success. In his 1950 book, Panzer Leader, he wrote: + +Guderian believed that developments in technology were required to support the theory, especially by equipping armored divisions, tanks foremost, with wireless communications. Guderian insisted in 1933 to the high command that every tank in the German armored force must be equipped with a radio. At the start of World War II, only the German Army was thus prepared with all tanks being "radio-equipped". That proved critical in early tank battles in which German tank commanders exploited the organizational advantage over the Allies that radio communication gave them. + +All Allied armies would later copy that innovation. During the Polish campaign, the performance of armored troops, under the influence of Guderian's ideas, won over a number of skeptics who had initially expressed doubt about armored warfare, such as von Rundstedt and Rommel. + +Rommel +According to David A. Grossman, by the Twelfth Battle of Isonzo (October–November 1917), while he was conducting a light-infantry operation, Rommel had perfected his maneuver-warfare principles, which were the very same ones that were applied during the blitzkrieg against France in 1940 and were repeated in the Coalition ground offensive against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. During the Battle of France and against his staff advisor's advice, Hitler ordered that everything should be completed in a few weeks. Fortunately for the Germans, Rommel and Guderian disobeyed the General Staff's orders (particularly those of General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist) and forged ahead making quicker progress than anyone had expected, on the way "inventing the idea of Blitzkrieg". + +It was Rommel who created the new archetype of Blitzkrieg by leading his division far ahead of flanking divisions. MacGregor and Williamson remark that Rommel's version of blitzkrieg displayed a significantly better understanding of combined-arms warfare than that of Guderian. General Hermann Hoth submitted an official report in July 1940 which declared that Rommel had "explored new paths in the command of Panzer divisions". + +Methods of operations + +Schwerpunkt +Schwerpunktprinzip was a heuristic device (conceptual tool or thinking formula) that was used in the German Army since the nineteenth century to make decisions from tactics to strategy about priority. Schwerpunkt has been translated as center of gravity, crucial, focal point and point of main effort. None of those forms is sufficient to describe the universal importance of the term and the concept of Schwerpunktprinzip. Every unit in the army, from the company to the supreme command, decided on a Schwerpunkt by schwerpunktbildung, as did the support services, which meant that commanders always knew what was the most important and why. The German army was trained to support the Schwerpunkt even when risks had to be taken elsewhere to support the point of main effort and to attack with overwhelming firepower. Schwerpunktbildung allowed the German Army to achieve superiority at the Schwerpunkt, whether attacking or defending, to turn local success at the Schwerpunkt into the progressive disorganisation of the opposing force and to create more opportunities to exploit that advantage even if the Germans were numerically and strategically inferior in general. In the 1930s, Guderian summarized that as Klotzen, nicht kleckern! ("Kick, don't spatter them!") + +Pursuit +Having achieved a breakthrough of the enemy's line, units comprising the Schwerpunkt were not supposed to become decisively engaged with enemy front line units to the right and the left of the breakthrough area. Units pouring through the hole were to drive upon set objectives behind the enemy front line. During the Second World War, German Panzer forces used their motorized mobility to paralyze the opponent's ability to react. Fast-moving mobile forces seized the initiative, exploited weaknesses and acted before the opposing forces could respond. Central to that was the decision cycle (tempo). Through superior mobility and faster decision-making cycles, mobile forces could act faster than the forces opposing them. + +Directive control was a fast and flexible method of command. Rather than receiving an explicit order, a commander would be told of his superior's intent and the role that his unit was to fill in that concept. The method of execution was then a matter for the discretion of the subordinate commander. The staff burden was reduced at the top and spread among tiers of command with knowledge about their situation. Delegation and the encouragement of initiative aided implementation, and important decisions could be taken quickly and communicated verbally or with only brief written orders. + +Mopping-up +The last part of an offensive operation was the destruction of unsubdued pockets of resistance, which had been enveloped earlier and bypassed by the fast-moving armored and motorized spearheads. The Kesselschlacht ("cauldron battle") was a concentric attack on such pockets. It was there that most losses were inflicted upon the enemy, primarily through the mass capture of prisoners and weapons. During Operation Barbarossa, huge encirclements in 1941 produced nearly 3.5 million Soviet prisoners, along with masses of equipment. + +Air power + +Close air support was provided in the form of the dive bomber and medium bomber, which would support the focal point of attack from the air. German successes are closely related to the extent to which the German Luftwaffe could control the air war in early campaigns in Western and Central Europe and in the Soviet Union. However, the Luftwaffe was a broadly based force with no constricting central doctrine other than its resources should be used generally to support national strategy. It was flexible and could carry out both operational-tactical, and strategic bombing. + +Flexibility was the strength of the Luftwaffe in 1939 to 1941. Paradoxically, that later became its weakness. While Allied Air Forces were tied to the support of the Army, the Luftwaffe deployed its resources in a more general operational way. It switched from air superiority missions to medium-range interdiction, to strategic strikes to close support duties, depending on the need of the ground forces. In fact, far from it being a specialist panzer spearhead arm, less than 15 percent of the Luftwaffe was intended for close support of the army in 1939. + +Stimulants +Methamphetamine, known as "pervitin," use is believed to have played a role in the speed of Germany's initial Blitzkrieg since military success with combined arms demanded long hours of continuous operations with minimal rest. + +Limitations and countermeasures + +Environment +The concepts associated with the term blitzkrieg (deep penetrations by armor, large encirclements, and combined arms attacks) were largely dependent upon terrain and weather conditions. Wherever the ability for rapid movement across "tank country" was not possible, armored penetrations often were avoided or resulted in failure. The terrain would ideally be flat, firm, unobstructed by natural barriers or fortifications, and interspersed with roads and railways. If it were instead hilly, wooded, marshy, or urban, armor would be vulnerable to infantry in close-quarters combat and unable to break out at full speed. Additionally, units could be halted by mud (thawing along the Eastern Front regularly slowed both sides) or extreme snow. Operation Barbarossa helped confirm that armor effectiveness and the requisite aerial support depended on weather and terrain. It should, however, be noted that the disadvantages of terrain could be nullified if surprise was achieved over the enemy by an attack in areas that had been considered natural obstacles, as occurred during the Battle of France in which the German blitzkrieg-style attack went through the Ardennes. Since the French thought that the Ardennes unsuitable for massive troop movement, particularly for tanks, the area was left with only light defences, which were quickly overrun by the Wehrmacht. The Germans quickly advanced through the forest and knocked down the trees that the French had thought would impede that tactic. + +Air superiority + +The influence of air forces over forces on the ground changed significantly over the course of the Second World War. Early German successes were conducted when Allied aircraft could not make a significant impact on the battlefield. In May 1940, there was near parity in numbers of aircraft between the Luftwaffe and the Allies, but the Luftwaffe had been developed to support Germany's ground forces, had liaison officers with the mobile formations and operated a higher number of sorties per aircraft. In addition, the Germans' air parity or superiority allowed the unencumbered movement of ground forces, their unhindered assembly into concentrated attack formations, aerial reconnaissance, aerial resupply of fast moving formations and close air support at the point of attack. The Allied air forces had no close air support aircraft, training or doctrine. The Allies flew 434 French and 160 British sorties a day but methods of attacking ground targets had yet to be developed and so Allied aircraft caused negligible damage. Against the Allies' 600 sorties, the Luftwaffe on average flew 1,500 sorties a day. + +On 13 May, Fliegerkorps VIII flew 1,000 sorties in support of the crossing of the Meuse. The following day the Allies made repeated attempts to destroy the German pontoon bridges, but German fighter aircraft, ground fire and Luftwaffe flak batteries with the panzer forces destroyed 56 percent of the attacking Allied aircraft, and the bridges remained intact. + +Allied air superiority became a significant hindrance to German operations during the later years of the war. By June 1944, the Western Allies had the complete control of the air over the battlefield, and their fighter-bomber aircraft were very effective at attacking ground forces. On D-Day, the Allies flew 14,500 sorties over the battlefield area alone, not including sorties flown over Northwestern Europe. Against them the Luftwaffe flew some 300 sorties on 6 June. Though German fighter presence over Normandy increased over the next days and weeks, it never approached the numbers that the Allies commanded. Fighter-bomber attacks on German formations made movement during daylight almost impossible. + +Subsequently, shortages soon developed in food, fuel and ammunition and severely hampered the German defenders. German vehicle crews and even flak units experienced great difficulty moving during daylight. Indeed, the final German offensive operation in the west, Operation Wacht am Rhein, was planned to take place during poor weather to minimise interference by Allied aircraft. Under those conditions, it was difficult for German commanders to employ the "armored idea", if at all. + +Counter-tactics + +Blitzkrieg is vulnerable to an enemy that is robust enough to weather the shock of the attack and does not panic at the idea of enemy formations in its rear area. That is especially true if the attacking formation lacks the reserve to keep funnelling forces into the spearhead or the mobility to provide infantry, artillery and supplies into the attack. If the defender can hold the shoulders of the breach, it has the opportunity to counter-attack into the flank of the attacker and potentially to cut it off the van, as what happened to Kampfgruppe Peiper in the Ardennes. + +During the Battle of France in 1940, the 4th Armoured Division (Major-General Charles de Gaulle) and elements of the 1st Army Tank Brigade (British Expeditionary Force) made probing attacks on the German flank and pushed into the rear of the advancing armored columns at times. That may have been a reason for Hitler to call a halt to the German advance. Those attacks combined with Maxime Weygand's hedgehog tactic would become the major basis for responding to blitzkrieg attacks in the future. Deployment in depth, or permitting enemy or "shoulders" of a penetration, was essential to channelling the enemy attack; artillery, properly employed at the shoulders, could take a heavy toll of attackers. Allied forces in 1940 lacked the experience to develop those strategies successfully, which resulted in the French armistice with heavy losses, those strategies characterized later Allied operations. + +At the Battle of Kursk, the Red Army used a combination of defence in great depth, extensive minefields and tenacious defense of breakthrough shoulders. In that way, they depleted German combat power even as German forces advanced. The reverse can be seen in the Russian summer offensive of 1944, Operation Bagration, which resulted in the destruction of Army Group Center. German attempts to weather the storm and fight out of encirclements failed because of the Soviets' ability to continue to feed armored units into the attack, maintain the mobility and strength of the offensive and arrive in force deep in the rear areas faster than the Germans could regroup. + +Logistics +Although effective in quick campaigns against Poland and France, mobile operations could not be sustained by Germany in later years. Strategies based on maneuver have the inherent danger of the attacking force overextending its supply lines and can be defeated by a determined foe who is willing and able to sacrifice territory for time in which to regroup and rearm, as the Soviets did on the Eastern Front, as opposed to, for example, the Dutch, who had no territory to sacrifice. Tank and vehicle production was a constant problem for Germany. Indeed, late in the war, many panzer "divisions" had no more than a few dozen tanks. + +As the end of the war approached, Germany also experienced critical shortages in fuel and ammunition stocks as a result of Anglo-American strategic bombing and blockade. Although the production of Luftwaffe fighter aircraft continued, they could not fly because of lack of fuel. What fuel there was went to panzer divisions, and even then, they could not operate normally. Of the Tiger tanks lost against the US Army, nearly half of them were abandoned for lack of fuel. + +Military operations + +Spanish Civil War +German volunteers first used armor in live field-conditions during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Armor commitment consisted of Panzer Battalion 88, a force built around three companies of Panzer I tanks that functioned as a training cadre for Spain's Nationalists. The Luftwaffe deployed squadrons of fighters, dive-bombers and transport aircraft as the Condor Legion. Guderian said that the tank deployment was "on too small a scale to allow accurate assessments to be made". (The true test of his "armored idea" would have to wait for the Second World War.) However, the Luftwaffe also provided volunteers to Spain to test both tactics and aircraft in combat, including the first combat use of the Stuka. + +During the war, the Condor Legion undertook the 1937 bombing of Guernica, which had a tremendous psychological effect on the populations of Europe. The results were exaggerated, and the Western Allies concluded that the "city-busting" techniques were now part of the German way in war. The targets of the German aircraft were actually the rail lines and bridges, but lacking the ability to hit them with accuracy (only three or four Ju 87s saw action in Spain), the Luftwaffe chose a method of carpet bombing, resulting in heavy civilian casualties. + +Poland, 1939 + +Although journalists popularized the term Blitzkrieg during the September 1939 invasion of Poland, the historians Matthew Cooper and J. P. Harris have written that German operations during the campaign were consistent with traditional methods. The Wehrmacht strategy was more in line with Vernichtungsgedanke, a focus on envelopment to create pockets in broad-front annihilation. The German generals dispersed Panzer forces among the three German concentrations with little emphasis on independent use. They deployed tanks to create or destroy close pockets of Polish forces and to seize operational-depth terrain in support of the largely-unmotorized infantry, which followed. + +The Wehrmacht used available models of tanks, Stuka dive-bombers and concentrated forces in the Polish campaign, but the majority of the fighting involved conventional infantry and artillery warfare, and most Luftwaffe action was independent of the ground campaign. Matthew Cooper wrote: + +John Ellis wrote that "there is considerable justice in Matthew Cooper's assertion that the panzer divisions were not given the kind of strategic mission that was to characterize authentic armored blitzkrieg, and were almost always closely subordinated to the various mass infantry armies". Steven Zaloga wrote, "Whilst Western accounts of the September campaign have stressed the shock value of the panzer and Stuka attacks, they have tended to underestimate the punishing effect of German artillery on Polish units. Mobile and available in significant quantity, artillery shattered as many units as any other branch of the Wehrmacht." + +Low Countries and France, 1940 + +The German invasion of France, with subsidiary attacks on Belgium and the Netherlands, consisted of two phases, Operation Yellow (Fall Gelb) and Operation Red (Fall Rot). Yellow opened with a feint conducted against the Netherlands and Belgium by two armored corps and paratroopers. Most of the German armored forces were placed in Panzer Group Kleist, which attacked through the Ardennes, a lightly-defended sector that the French planned to reinforce if necessary before the Germans could bring up heavy and siege artillery. There was no time for the French to send such reinforcement, as the Germans did not wait for siege artillery but reached the Meuse and achieved a breakthrough at the Battle of Sedan in three days. + +Panzer Group Kleist raced to the English Channel, reached the coast at Abbeville and cut off the BEF, the Belgian Army and some of the best-equipped divisions of the French Army in northern France. Armored and motorized units under Guderian, Rommel and others advanced far beyond the marching and horse-drawn infantry divisions and far in excess of what Hitler and the German high command had expected or wished. When the Allies counter-attacked at Arras by using the heavily-armored British Matilda I and Matilda II tanks, a brief panic ensued in the German High Command. + +Hitler halted his armored and motorized forces outside the port of Dunkirk, which the Royal Navy had started using to evacuate the Allied forces. Hermann Göring promised that the Luftwaffe would complete the destruction of the encircled armies, but aerial operations failed to prevent the evacuation of the majority of the Allied troops. In Operation Dynamo, some French and British troops escaped. + +Case Yellow surprised everyone by overcoming the Allies' 4,000 armored vehicles, many of which were better than their German equivalents in armor and gunpower. The French and British frequently used their tanks in the dispersed role of infantry support, rather than by concentrating force at the point of attack, to create overwhelming firepower. + +The French armies were much reduced in strength and the confidence of their commanders shaken. With much of their own armor and heavy equipment lost in Northern France, they lacked the means to fight a mobile war. The Germans followed their initial success with Operation Red, a triple-pronged offensive. The XV Panzer Corps attacked towards Brest, XIV Panzer Corps attacked east of Paris, towards Lyon and the XIX Panzer Corps encircled the Maginot Line. The French, hard pressed to organise any sort of counter-attack, were continually ordered to form new defensive lines and found that German forces had already bypassed them and moved on. An armored counter-attack, organized by Colonel Charles de Gaulle, could not be sustained, and he had to retreat. + +Prior to the German offensive in May, Winston Churchill had said, "Thank God for the French Army". The same French Army collapsed after barely two months of fighting. That was in shocking contrast to the four years of trench warfare on which French forces had engaged during the First World War. French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, analyzed the collapse in a speech on 21 May 1940: + +The Germans had not used paratroopry attacks in France and made only one large drop in the Netherlands to capture three bridges; some small glider-landings were conducted in Belgium to take bottlenecks on routes of advance before the arrival of the main force (the most renowned being the landing on Fort Eben-Emael in Belgium). + +Eastern Front, 1941–44 + +Use of armored forces was crucial for both sides on the Eastern Front. Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, involved a number of breakthroughs and encirclements by motorized forces. Its goal, according to Führer Directive 21 (18 December 1940), was "to destroy the Russian forces deployed in the West and to prevent their escape into the wide-open spaces of Russia". The Red Army was to be destroyed west of the Dvina and Dnieper rivers, which were about east of the Soviet border, to be followed by a mopping-up operation. The surprise attack resulted in the near annihilation of the Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily (VVS, Soviet Air Force) by simultaneous attacks on airfields, allowing the Luftwaffe to achieve total air supremacy over all the battlefields within the first week. On the ground, four German panzer groups outflanked and encircled disorganized Red Army units, and the marching infantry completed the encirclements and defeated the trapped forces. In late July, after 2nd Panzer Group (commanded by Guderian) captured the watersheds of the Dvina and Dnieper rivers near Smolensk, the panzers had to defend the encirclement, because the marching infantry divisions remained hundreds of kilometers to the west. + +The Germans conquered large areas of the Soviet Union, but their failure to destroy the Red Army before the winter of 1941-1942 was a strategic failure and made German tactical superiority and territorial gains irrelevant. The Red Army had survived enormous losses and regrouped with new formations far to the rear of the front line. During the Battle of Moscow (October 1941 to January 1942), the Red Army defeated the German Army Group Center and for the first time in the war seized the strategic initiative. + +In the summer of 1942, Germany launched another offensive and this time focusing on Stalingrad and the Caucasus in the southern Soviet Union. The Soviets again lost tremendous amounts of territory, only to counter-attack once more during winter. The German gains were ultimately limited because Hitler diverted forces from the attack on Stalingrad and drove towards the Caucasus oilfields simultaneously. The Wehrmacht became overstretched. Although it won operationally, it could not inflict a decisive defeat as the durability of the Soviet Union's manpower, resources, industrial base and aid from the Western Allies began to take effect. + +In July 1943, the Wehrmacht conducted Operation Zitadelle (Citadel) against a salient at Kursk, which Soviet troop heavily defended. Soviet defensive tactics had by now hugely improved, particularly in the use of artillery and air support. By April 1943, the Stavka had learned of German intentions through intelligence supplied by front-line reconnaissance and Ultra intercepts. In the following months, the Red Army constructed deep defensive belts along the paths of the planned German attack. The Soviets made a concerted effort to disguise their knowledge of German plans and the extent of their own defensive preparations, and the German commanders still hoped to achieve operational surprise when the attack commenced. + +The Germans did not achieve surprise and could not outflank or break through into enemy rear areas during the operation. Several historians assert that Operation Citadel was planned and intended to be a blitzkrieg operation. Many of the German participants who wrote about the operation after the war, including Erich von Manstein, make no mention of blitzkrieg in their accounts. In 2000, Niklas Zetterling and Anders Frankson characterised only the southern pincer of the German offensive as a "classical blitzkrieg attack". Pier Battistelli wrote that the operational planning marked a change in German offensive thinking away from blitzkrieg and that more priority was given to brute force and fire power than to speed and maneuver. + +In 1995, David Glantz stated that blitzkrieg was at Kursk for the first time defeated in summer, and the opposing Soviet forces mounted a successful counter-offensive. The Battle of Kursk ended with two Soviet counter-offensives and the revival of deep operations. In the summer of 1944, the Red Army destroyed Army Group Centre in Operation Bagration by using combined-arms tactics for armor, infantry and air power in a coordinated strategic assault, known as deep operations, which led to an advance of in six weeks. + +Western Front, 1944–1945 +Allied armies began using combined-arms formations and deep-penetration strategies that Germany had used in the opening years of the war. Many Allied operations in the Western Desert and on the Eastern Front, relied on firepower to establish breakthroughs by fast-moving armored units. The artillery-based tactics were also decisive in Western Front operations after 1944's Operation Overlord, and the British Commonwealth and American armies developed flexible and powerful systems for using artillery support. What the Soviets lacked in flexibility, they made up for in number of rocket launchers, guns and mortars. The Germans never achieved the kind of fire concentrations that their enemies were achieving 1944. + +After the Allied landings in Normandy (June 1944), the Germans began a counter-offensive to overwhelm the landing force with armored attacks, but they failed because of a lack of co-ordination and to Allied superiority in anti-tank defense and in the air. The most notable attempt to use deep-penetration operations in Normandy was Operation Luttich at Mortain, which only hastened the Falaise Pocket and the destruction of German forces in Normandy. The Mortain counter-attack was defeated by the American 12th Army Group with little effect on its own offensive operations. + +The last German offensive on the Western front, the Battle of the Bulge (Operation Wacht am Rhein), was an offensive launched towards the port of Antwerp in December 1944. Launched in poor weather against a thinly-held Allied sector, it achieved surprise and initial success as Allied air-power was grounded due to cloud cover. Determined defense by American troops in places throughout the Ardennes, the lack of good roads and German supply shortages caused delays. Allied forces deployed to the flanks of the German penetration, and as soon as the skies cleared, Allied aircraft returned to the battlefield. Allied counter-attacks soon forced back the Germans, who abandoned much equipment for lack of fuel. + +Post-war controversy +Blitzkrieg had been called a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), but many writers and historians have concluded that the Germans did not invent a new form of warfare but applied new technologies to traditional ideas of Bewegungskrieg (maneuver warfare) to achieve decisive victory. + +Strategy +In 1965, Captain Robert O'Neill, Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford produced an example of the popular view. In Doctrine and Training in the German Army 1919–1939, O'Neill wrote: + +Other historians wrote that blitzkrieg was an operational doctrine of the German armed forces and a strategic concept on which the leadership of Nazi Germany based its strategic and economic planning. Military planners and bureaucrats in the war economy appear rarely, if ever, to have employed the term blitzkrieg in official documents. That the German army had a "blitzkrieg doctrine" was rejected in the late 1970s by Matthew Cooper. The concept of a blitzkrieg Luftwaffe was challenged by Richard Overy in the late 1970s and by Williamson Murray in the mid-1980s. That Nazi Germany went to war on the basis of "blitzkrieg economics" was criticized by Richard Overy in the 1980s, and George Raudzens described the contradictory senses in which historians have used the word. The notion of a German blitzkrieg concept or doctrine survives in popular history and many historians still support the thesis. + +Frieser wrote that after the failure of the Schlieffen Plan in 1914, the German army concluded that decisive battles were no longer possible in the changed conditions of the twentieth century. Frieser wrote that the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), which was created in 1938 had intended to avoid the decisive battle concepts of its predecessors and planned for a long war of exhaustion (Ermattungskrieg). It was only after the improvised plan for the Battle of France in 1940 was unexpectedly successful that the German General Staff came to believe that Vernichtungskrieg was still feasible. German thinking reverted to the possibility of a quick and decisive war for the Balkan campaign and Operation Barbarossa. + +Doctrine +Most academic historians regard the notion of blitzkrieg as military doctrine to be a myth. Shimon Naveh wrote, "The striking feature of the blitzkrieg concept is the complete absence of a coherent theory which should have served as the general cognitive basis for the actual conduct of operations". Naveh described it as an "ad hoc solution" to operational dangers, thrown together at the last moment. Overy disagreed with the idea that Hitler and the Nazi regime ever intended a blitzkrieg war because the once-popular belief that the Nazi state organized its economy to carry out its grand strategy in short campaigns was false. Hitler had intended for a rapid unlimited war to occur much later than 1939, but Germany's aggressive foreign policy forced the state into war before it was ready. The planning of Hitler and the Wehrmacht in the 1930s did not reflect a blitzkrieg method but the opposite. J. P. Harris wrote that the Wehrmacht never used the word, and it did not appear in German army or air force field manuals. The word was coined in September 1939 by a Times newspaper reporter. Harris also found no evidence that German military thinking developed a blitzkrieg mentality. Karl-Heinz Frieser and Adam Tooze reached similar conclusions to Overy and Naveh that the notions of blitzkrieg economy and strategy are myths. Frieser wrote that surviving German economists and General Staff officers denied that Germany went to war with a blitzkrieg strategy. Robert M. Citino argues: + +The historian Victor Davis Hanson states that Blitzkrieg "played on the myth of German technological superiority and industrial dominance" and adds that German successes, particularly that of its Panzer divisions were "instead predicated on the poor preparation and morale of Germany's enemies". Hanson also reports that at a Munich public address in November 1941, Hitler had "disowned" the concept of Blitzkrieg by calling it an "idiotic word". Further, successful Blitzkrieg operations were predicated on superior numbers, air support and were possible for only short periods of time without sufficient supply lines. For all intents and purposes, Blitzkrieg ended at the Eastern Front once the German forces had given up Stalingrad, after they faced hundreds of new T-34 tanks, when the Luftwaffe became unable to assure air dominance, and after the stalemate at Kursk. To that end, Hanson concludes that German military success was not accompanied by the adequate provisioning of its troops with food and materiel far from the source of supply, which contributed to its ultimate failures. Despite its later disappointments as German troops extended their lines at too great a distance, the very specter of armored Blitzkrieg forces initially proved victorious against the Polish, Dutch, Belgian and French Armies early in the war. + +Economics +In the 1960s, Alan Milward developed a theory of blitzkrieg economics: Germany could not fight a long war and chose to avoid comprehensive rearmament and armed in breadth to win quick victories. Milward described an economy positioned between a full war economy and a peacetime economy. The purpose of the blitzkrieg economy was to allow the German people to enjoy high living standards in the event of hostilities and avoid the economic hardships of the First World War. + +Overy wrote that blitzkrieg as a "coherent military and economic concept has proven a difficult strategy to defend in light of the evidence". Milward's theory was contrary to Hitler's and German planners' intentions. The Germans, aware of the errors of the First World War, rejected the concept of organizing its economy to fight only a short war. Therefore, focus was given to the development of armament in depth for a long war, instead of armament in breadth for a short war. Hitler claimed that relying on surprise alone was "criminal" and that "we have to prepare for a long war along with surprise attack". During the winter of 1939–1940, Hitler demobilized many troops from the army to return as skilled workers to factories because the war would be decided by production, not a quick "Panzer operation". + +In the 1930s, Hitler had ordered rearmament programs that cannot be considered limited. In November 1937, he had indicated that most of the armament projects would be completed by 1943–1945. The rearmament of the Kriegsmarine was to have been completed in 1949 and the Luftwaffe rearmament program was to have matured in 1942, with a force capable of strategic bombing with heavy bombers. The construction and the training of motorized forces and a full mobilization of the rail networks would not begin until 1943 and 1944, respectively. Hitler needed to avoid war until these projects were complete but his misjudgements in 1939 forced Germany into war before rearmament was complete. + +After the war, Albert Speer claimed that the German economy achieved greater armaments output not because of diversions of capacity from civilian to military industry but by streamlining of the economy. Overy pointed out some 23 percent of German output was military by 1939. Between 1937 and 1939, 70 percent of investment capital went into the rubber, synthetic fuel, aircraft and shipbuilding industries. Hermann Göring had consistently stated that the task of the Four Year Plan was to rearm Germany for total war. Hitler's correspondence with his economists also reveals that his intent was to wage war in 1943–1945, when the resources of central Europe had been absorbed into Nazi Germany. + +Living standards were not high in the late 1930s. Consumption of consumer goods had fallen from 71 percent in 1928 to 59 percent in 1938. The demands of the war economy reduced the amount of spending in non-military sectors to satisfy the demand for the armed forces. On 9 September, Göring, as Head of the Reich Defense Council, called for complete "employment" of living and fighting power of the national economy for the duration of the war. Overy presents that as evidence that a "blitzkrieg economy" did not exist. + +Adam Tooze wrote that the German economy was being prepared for a long war. The expenditure for the war was extensive and put the economy under severe strain. The German leadership were concerned less with how to balance the civilian economy and the needs of civilian consumption but to figure out how to best prepare the economy for total war. Once war had begun, Hitler urged his economic experts to abandon caution and expend all available resources on the war effort, but the expansion plans only gradually gained momentum in 1941. Tooze wrote that the huge armament plans in the pre-war period did not indicate any clear-sighted blitzkrieg economy or strategy. + +Heer +Frieser wrote that the () was not ready for blitzkrieg at the start of the war. A blitzkrieg method called for a young, highly skilled mechanized army. In 1939–1940, 45 percent of the army was 40 years old and 50 percent of the soldiers had only a few weeks' training. The German Army, contrary to the blitzkrieg legend, was not fully motorized and had only 120,000 vehicles, compared to the 300,000 of the French Army. The British also had an "enviable" contingent of motorized forces. Thus, "the image of the German 'Blitzkrieg' army is a figment of propaganda imagination". During the First World War, the German army used 1.4 million horses for transport and in the Second World War 2.7 million horses. Only ten percent of the army was motorized in 1940. + +Half of the German divisions available in 1940 were combat ready, but they were less well-equipped than the British and French or the Imperial German Army of 1914. In the spring of 1940, the German army was semi-modern in which a small number of well-equipped and "elite" divisions were offset by many second and third rate divisions". In 2003, John Mosier wrote that while the French soldiers in 1940 were better trained than German soldiers, as were the Americans later and that the German Army was the least mechanized of the major armies, its leadership cadres were larger and better and that the high standard of leadership was the main reason for the successes of the German army in World War II, as it had been in World War I. + +Luftwaffe +James Corum wrote that it was a myth that the Luftwaffe had a doctrine of terror bombing in which civilians were attacked to break the will or aid the collapse of an enemy by the Luftwaffe in blitzkrieg operations. After the bombing of Guernica in 1937 and the Rotterdam Blitz in 1940, it was commonly assumed that terror bombing was a part of Luftwaffe doctrine. During the interwar period, the Luftwaffe leadership rejected the concept of terror bombing in favour of battlefield support and interdiction operations: + +Corum continued: General Walther Wever compiled a doctrine known as The Conduct of the Aerial War. This document, which the Luftwaffe adopted, rejected Giulio Douhet's theory of terror bombing. Terror bombing was deemed to be "counter-productive", increasing rather than destroying the enemy's will to resist. Such bombing campaigns were regarded as diversion from the Luftwaffe's main operations; destruction of the enemy armed forces. The bombings of Guernica, Rotterdam and Warsaw were tactical missions in support of military operations and were not intended as strategic terror attacks. + +J. P. Harris wrote that most Luftwaffe leaders from Goering through the general staff believed, as did their counterparts in Britain and the United States, that strategic bombing was the chief mission of the air force and that given such a role, the Luftwaffe would win the next war and that + +The Luftwaffe ended up with an air force consisting mainly of relatively short-range aircraft, but that does not prove that the German air force was solely interested in "tactical" bombing. It happened because the German aircraft industry lacked the experience to build a long-range bomber fleet quickly and because Hitler was insistent on the very rapid creation of a numerically-large force. It is also significant that Germany's position in the centre of Europe to a large extent obviated the need to make a clear distinction between bombers suitable only for "tactical" purposes and those necessary for strategic purposes in the early stages of a likely future war. + +Fuller and Liddell Hart +The British theorists John Frederick Charles Fuller and Captain Basil Henry Liddell Hart have often been associated with the development of blitzkrieg, but that is a matter of controversy. In recent years historians have uncovered that Liddell Hart distorted and falsified facts to make it appear as if his ideas has been adopted. After the war Liddell Hart imposed his own perceptions after the event by claiming that the mobile tank warfare has been practiced by the Wehrmacht was a result of his influence. By manipulation and contrivance, Liddell Hart distorted the actual circumstances of the blitzkrieg formation, and he obscured its origins. By his indoctrinated idealization of an ostentatious concept, he reinforced the myth of blitzkrieg. Imposing retrospectively his own perceptions of mobile warfare upon the shallow concept of blitzkrieg, he "created a theoretical imbroglio that has taken 40 years to unravel". Blitzkrieg was not an official doctrine, and historians in recent times have come to the conclusion that it did not exist as such: + +The early 1950s literature transformed blitzkrieg into a historical military doctrine, which carried the signature of Liddell Hart and Guderian. The main evidence of Liddell Hart's deceit and "tendentious" report of history can be found in his letters to Erich von Manstein, Heinz Guderian, and the relatives and associates of Erwin Rommel. Liddell Hart, in letters to Guderian, "imposed his own fabricated version of blitzkrieg on the latter and compelled him to proclaim it as original formula". Kenneth Macksey found Liddell Hart's original letters to Guderian in the latter's papers. Liddell Hart requested Guderian to give him credit for "impressing him" with his ideas of armored warfare. When Liddell Hart was questioned about this in 1968 and the discrepancy between the English and German editions of Guderian's memoirs, "he gave a conveniently unhelpful though strictly truthful reply. ('There is nothing about the matter in my file of correspondence with Guderian himself except... that I thanked him... for what he said in that additional paragraph'.)". + +During the First World War, Fuller had been a staff officer attached to the new tank corps. He developed Plan 1919 for massive independent tank operations, which he claimed were subsequently studied by the German military. It is variously argued that Fuller's wartime plans and post-war writings were inspirations or that his readership was low and German experiences during the war received more attention. The German view of themselves as the losers of the war may be linked to the senior and experienced officers' undertaking a thorough review in studying and rewriting of all of their Army doctrine and training manuals. + +Fuller and Liddell Hart were "outsiders". Liddell Hart was unable to serve as a soldier after 1916 after being gassed on the Somme, and Fuller's abrasive personality resulted in his premature retirement in 1933. Their views had limited impact in the British army; the War Office permitted the formation of an Experimental Mechanized Force on 1 May 1927, composed of tanks, motorized infantry, self-propelled artillery and motorized engineers but the force was disbanded in 1928 on the grounds that it had served its purpose. A new experimental brigade was intended for the next year and became a permanent formation in 1933, during the cuts of the financial years. + +Continuity +It has been argued that blitzkrieg was not and thae that the Germans did not invent something called blitzkrieg in the 1920s and 1930s. Rather, the German concept of wars of movement and concentrated force were seen in wars of Prussia and the German Wars of Unification. The first European general to introduce rapid movement, concentrated power and integrated military effort was Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War. The appearance of the aircraft and tank in the First World War, called an RMA, offered the German military a chance to get back to the traditional war of movement as practiced by Moltke the Elder. The so-called "blitzkrieg campaigns" of 1939 to around 1942 were well within that operational context. + +At the outbreak of war, the German army had no radically new theory of war. The operational thinking of the German army had not changed significantly since the First World War or since the late 19th century. J. P. Harris and Robert M. Citino point out that the Germans had always had a marked preference for short decisive campaigns but were unable to achieve short-order victories in First World War conditions. The transformation from the stalemate of the First World War into tremendous initial operational and strategic success in the Second World War was partly the employment of a relatively-small number of mechanized divisions, most importantly the Panzer divisions, and the support of an exceptionally powerful air force. + +Guderian +Heinz Guderian is widely regarded as being highly influential in developing the military methods of warfare used by Germany's tank men at the start of the Second World War. That style of warfare brought the maneuver back to the fore and placed an emphasis on the offensive. Along with the shockingly-rapid collapse in the armies that opposed it, that came to be branded as blitzkrieg warfare. + +Aftee Germany's military reforms of the Guderian emerged as a strong proponent of mechanized forces. Within the Inspectorate of Transport Troops, Guderian and colleagues performed theoretical and field exercise work. Guderian met with opposition from some in the General Staff, who were distrustful of the new weapons and who continued to view the infantry as the primary weapon of the army. Among them, Guderian claimed, was Chief of the General Staff Ludwig Beck (1935–1938), who he alleged was skeptical that armored forces could be decisive. That claim has been disputed by later historians. James Corum wrote: + +By Guderian's account, he single-handedly created the German tactical and operational methodology. Between 1922 and 1928 Guderian wrote a number of articles concerning military movement. As the ideas of making use of the combustible engine in a protected encasement to bring mobility back to warfare developed in the German army, Guderian was a leading proponent of the formations that would be used for this purpose. He was later asked to write an explanatory book, which was titled Achtung Panzer! (1937) in which he explained the theories of the tank men and defended them. + +Guderian argued that the tank would be the decisive weapon of the next war. "If the tanks succeed, then victory follows", he wrote. In an article addressed to critics of tank warfare, he wrote that "until our critics can produce some new and better method of making a successful land attack other than self-massacre, we shall continue to maintain our beliefs that tanks—properly employed, needless to say—are today the best means available for land attack". + +Addressing the faster rate at which defenders could reinforce an area than attackers could penetrate it during the First World War, Guderian wrote that "since reserve forces will now be motorized, the building up of new defensive fronts is easier than it used to be; the chances of an offensive based on the timetable of artillery and infantry co-operation are, as a result, even slighter today than they were in the last war." He continued, "We believe that by attacking with tanks we can achieve a higher rate of movement than has been hitherto obtainable, and—what is perhaps even more important—that we can keep moving once a breakthrough has been made". Guderian additionally required for tactical radios to be widely used to facilitate coordination and command by having one installed in all tanks. + +Guderian's leadership was supported, fostered and institutionalized by his supporters in the Reichswehr General Staff system, which worked the Army to greater and greater levels of capability through massive and systematic Movement Warfare war games in the 1930s. Guderian's book incorporated the work of theorists such as , whose book, The Tank War (Der Kampfwagenkrieg) (1934) gained a wide audience in the German Army. Another German theorist, Ernst Volckheim, wrote a huge amount on tank and combined arms tactics and was influential to German thinking on the use of armored formations, but his work was not acknowledged in Guderian's writings. + +See also + AirLand Battle, blitzkrieg-like doctrine of US Army in 1980s + Armoured warfare + Maneuver warfare + Shock and awe, the 21st century US military doctrine. + Vernichtungsgedanke, or "annihilation concept". + Mission-type tactics + Deep Battle, Soviet Red Army Military Doctrine from the 1930s often confused with blitzkrieg. + Battleplan (documentary TV series) + Vernichtungsschlacht, Battle of annihilation + +Notes + +References + +Bibliography + +Books + +Conferences + +Journals + +Websites + +Further reading + + + + + + + Raudzens, George. "Blitzkrieg Ambiguities: Doubtful Usage of a Famous Word." War & Society 7.2 (1989): 77–94. https://doi.org/10.1179/106980489790305551 + +External links + Armstrong, G. P. The Controversy over Tanks in the British Army 1919 to 1933 (PhD 1976) + Sinesi, Michael. Patrick. Modern Bewegungskrieg: German Battle Doctrine, 1920–1940 (2001) + Vardi, Gil-Li. The Enigma of German Operational Theory: the Evolution of Military Thought in Germany, 1919–1938 (PhD 2008) + Spiegel Online: The Nazi Death Machine, Hitler's Drugged Soldiers + +Words and phrases with no direct English translation +Military strategy +Military terminology +Armoured warfare +Military theory +German words and phrases +Warfare by type +The Beano (formerly The Beano Comic, also known as Beano) is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and well-known comic strips and characters include Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, Ivy the Terrible, General Jumbo, Jonah, and Biffo the Bear. + +The Beano was planned as a pioneering children's magazine that contained mostly comic strips, in the style of American newspaper gag-a-days, as opposed to the more text story based Story papers that were immensely popular before the Second World War. In the present, its legacy is its misbehaving characters, escapist tales and anarchic humour with an audience of all ages. Beano is a multimedia franchise with spin-off books and Christmas annuals, a website, theme park rides, games, cartoon adaptations, and a production company. + +History + +Creation (1920s–1939) +Throughout the 1920s, DC Thomson dominated the British comics industry. Dubbed "the big five", the publisher's most successful comics were Adventure (1921), The Rover and The Wizard (1922), The Skipper (1930) and The Hotspur (1933). These were weekly issued boys' magazines for preteen males, containing anthologies by DC Thomson's creator staff designed in various formats and genres. They became popular throughout the United Kingdom, notably in English industrial cities, helped through the company's ability to view sales and promotions in the areas much easier than the rival publishers in London. Although many were about "super men" the young readers could idolise, the rest of the stories would be comic strips inspired by the gag-a-day strips in American newspapers full of stylised characters, slapstick and puns. + +Overseeing the magazines was the Managing Editor of Children's Publications, R. D. Low, who first joined the company in 1913. Almost a decade into the big five's success, the stories shifted to comedic and included more comic strips, which gave Low an idea of creating a new "big five" which focused on the funnies more than drama. The suggestion was approved; editors Bill Blain and (sub-editor) Albert Barnes of The Wizard and The Hotspur, respectively, joined Low's project. The new team placed a newspaper advertisement into The Daily Telegraph asking for artists and/or comic ideas. With the help of the advertisement responses and employed artists at DC Thomson, The Dandy was published in 1937, the New Big Five's first member. For The Beano (initially called "The Beano Comic" until issue 412), Low received comic strip suggestions by Reg Carter, an English illustrator in Sussex who had created funnies for several British comics and designed humorous postcards. After an in-person interview, Low and Carter planned the front cover for The Beano first issue, eventually creating the character Big Eggo (originally named Oswald the Ostrich). It would be in colour whilst the inside of the magazine would be black and white, a tactic used for The Dandy first issue (black and white stories inside, colourful Korky the Cat strip on the front). Joining the Big Eggo strip would be many funnies, such as Hugh McNeill's Ping the Elastic Man, James Jewell's Wee Peem, Allan Morley's Big Fat Joe, Eric Roberts' Rip Van Wink, Dudley D. Watkins' Lord Snooty and His Pals, and Roland Davies' Contrary Mary. Despite the aim to make a new comic series full of American-inspired comic strips, The Beano also contained short stories, serial fiction and adventure stories similar to the Big Five's magazines; Morgyn the Mighty was previously in The Rover. Tin-Can Tommy and Brave Captain Kipper were reprints, co-produced by the Italian art agency Torelli Bros. + +Worth 2d with a free prize of a "whoopee mask", issue 1 of The Beano was released on 26 July 1938 for the 30th, selling roughly 443,000 copies. Like The Dandy, its name is from a Low-led DC Thomson office party called The DB Club (The Dandy Beano Club). DC Thomson had several office party clubs that hosted different types of staff gatherings to choose from (e.g. The Prancers would hike hills), but Low's DB Club preferred playing golf and dining throughout Dundee. The two magazines also followed the one-word titles of other comics by rival companies, such as Amalgamated Press' Crackers, Sparkler, Puck and some books from its Union Jack series (The Marvel, The Magnet and The Gem); and Target Publications' Chuckler, Rattler and Dazzler. Beano editor-in-chief was George Moonie, former sub-editor of The Wizard, who would be editor until the summer of 1959. He later explained DC Thomson was a competitive company that wanted to make the best children's literature in the United Kingdom, but there was also competition within itself as Beano offices was determined to beat The Dandy popularity. + +World War Two, reaching million sales (1939–1945) +Drastic changes occurred behind the scenes of The Beano during the Second World War: George Moonie and editing partner Ron Fraser left to join the Royal Marines and Air Force, respectively, both not returning until c. 1946. Stuart Gilchrist became sole editor-in-chief after Moonie's other sub-editor Freddie Simpson became ill and resigned. Contact was also lost with Torelli Bros. so in-house creations of Tin-Can Tommy began from issue 69 by Sam Fair. Paper rationing caused the rest of Low's New Big Five to be cancelled (it stopped at three published, the third member being The Magic Comic (1939), which ended with 80 issues in 1941), and The Beano to fluctuate its page count instead of its usual 28. Eventually, The Beano became a fortnightly magazine (alternating with The Dandy comic) until 23 July 1949. + +Comic strips would encourage readers to help their parents and other adults with the war effort, and to be optimistic about the war's outcome. New comic strips mocked Mussolini and propagandist William Joyce, Lord Snooty and His Pals stories would be about the protagonists outsmarting the Axis leaders, and other stories would be about characters recycling paper. Big Eggo front covers were often about Eggo pranking servicemen during the Blitz, and Pansy Potter received a medal for single-handedly capturing a Nazi U-boat. Issue 192 would debut a 16-part prose story about a boy and his mother being evacuated to the United States and becoming the enemy of a Chicago gangster's widow. + +Issues published weekly every Tuesday in 1938, and when the magazine changed distribution to every two weeks, the day remained unchanged. From issue 366, the day changed to Friday until issue 375 which began the Thursday publication day schedule. + +Post-war changes (1945–1988) +December 1945 marked a milestone: issue 272 became the first Beano issue to sell over a million copies. The end of the war also ushered in a new era for the comic, debuting superhero Jack Flash, the debut of Biffo the Bear as new cover star and a new generation of trouble-making kids: Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, and Roger the Dodger. DC Thomson also introduced new comic magazines like The Beezer and The Topper that a few Beano artists also created characters and stories for. + +After the war saw a drift away from text stories and adventure comics, with the last text story published in 1955; adventure comics lasted longer with 1975 being the last year to feature them as General Jumbo eighth series drew to a close in issue 1734. + +George Moonie resigned as editor-in-chief in 1959 to develop comics for girls. Sub-editor of The Beezer Harry Cramond succeeded Moonie until retiring in 1984, described as the most influential editor in The Beano history. He oversaw new merchandising, high sales, and the thousandth and two thousandth issues. Behind the scenes of the magazine became humanised throughout the years as DC Thomson's Beano offices featured on documentary television and Cramond's successor Euan Kerr guest-starred on television for the magazine's 50th anniversary. + +Move to full colour (1988–present) + +The Beano began to advertise outside of DC Thomson's products in 1988 in order to keep both it and The Dandy "pocket money" cheap, beginning with issue 2407. Issue 2674 in 1993 was the first issue to feature every page in colour. + +A notable revamp was the 50th birthday issue, which had an abnormally larger page count with more coloured sections and printed on wider sheets. A decade later, issues gained eight extra pages with computer-based art. In the 21st century, there were seven changes within a five-year span: logo updates, fonts assigned for certain design roles, and the magazine started using glossy paper. + +From issue 3442 in 2008 (and as of 2020), the day the comic was released was changed to Wednesday. + +Outside of the magazine, Beanos brand expanded into a multimedia franchise. Theme park tie-ins, a website, spin-off magazines, and animated television programmes starring the popular comic characters (several for Dennis the Menace) became common, keeping The Beano in popular culture. The turn of the millennium began a sales decline and led to friendly rival The Dandy to discontinue in 2012. Eventually, The Beano recovered after the creation of its magazine subscription service, which also shipped internationally. + +Stories + +Plots and dialogue are written into a script by an (often) uncredited DC Thomson writer, a formerly common practice for DC Thomson magazines. Uncredited artists assigned to a strip(s) will design all its stories into a "series" that the chief editor will arrange into an order to publish for each issue. Strips are sometimes ghostwritten by other artists who imitate the original designer's style, which is helpful if artists retire or die unexpectedly, otherwise the strip is discontinued. "When I started I was drawing two pages a week and thinking 'Phew, that's quite a lot'. Now I do 10 or 12 pages a week. You have to do more all the time to stay where you are," explained Nigel Parkinson. From March 2016, authors and illustrators are now credited in issues. + +There have been over a thousand stories throughout the magazine's history told through various ways. Since November 1975, the magazine has contained only comic strips in the style of American newspaper "funnies", but it began with other genres. The last genre to leave Beano was adventure stories: short tales eleven-pictures long in text comics format. The stories were either dramatic or dramedies, but heavily featured hobbies and interests young boys had (war and the military, hunting, sailing, jungle men). They also stood out because the illustrations of backgrounds, animals and human characters were photorealistic. Although artists like Dudley D. Watkins drew for a few series, the most prolific illustrator was Irish artist Paddy Brennan, who notably drew for The Daring Deeds of Sinbad the Sailor, Red Rory of the Eagles and General Jumbo in the 1950s. Comic adventure stories were a hybrid: adventure stories presented as a comic strip. + +Prose stories were a page of text with an illustration at the top. Some stories were about animals with artwork by former Big Five illustrator Richard "Toby" Baines, but the longest-running prose character in the magazine's history was Prince Ivor, who first starred in Follow the Secret Hand. The last prose story to appear was Ace From Space in 1955. + +Although comic strips have featured in The Beano since issue 1, their contents has changed throughout. Anthropomorphic animals were common stars that would partake in human activities, and the punchlines occurred from the failures to do so. Misbehaving children showed most popular with Lord Snooty and His Pals becoming the first longest-running strip when it concluded in 1991, but the most well known that continue to appear in issues are Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, and Roger the Dodger. Some adult-starring characters also misbehaved but they were usually portrayed as incompetent, notably Jonah. In the late 20th century, merging comic strip characters in the same vicinity became common in the franchise, such as the video game Beanotown Racing, but characters living together in "Beanotown" became a prominent feature of comic strips into the present. + +Due to the initial target audience of The Beano being schoolboys, masculine interests, hobbies, and values dominated issues constantly. Aside from aforementioned adventure stories and comedic characters, there were cowboys, aliens, kings, the supernatural, fantasy creatures (and talking animals), and men whose lifestyle or jobs require physical strength (despite the story making their careers incidental). The Beano alternated between mocking or idolising these characters through story formats; wealthy characters causing mischief, caring about their families or being shown underprivileged lives made the working-class audience relate and sympathise with them. Female characters were usually supporting a male character, joint protagonist with a male character, or the antagonist. Prose stories starring girls and women were about the protagonist searching out the truth to a secret, usually over a friend's/family disappearance, or they were witches cursing or tormenting the male protagonists. Female comic characters were also in supporting roles with or join-protagonist with a male character, but the starring characters notably had binary stereotypical traits: drawn as tall and flowy, Swanky, Lanky Liz is obsessed with fashion and makeup and acts vain and snobbish, whereas Pansy Potter, Minnie the Minx and Toots from The Bash Street Kids share the round-faced and snub-nosed art style of the boys in their stories and are unruly tomboys (in Pansy Potter's case, showcases the strength she inherited from her father). Non-White characters starred in their stories either set in Africa, Asia, or South America, or were about the character adapting to a new life in the United Kingdom. + +Stories used to vary in length and layout, but in 2012, The Beano debuted a chapter called Funsize Funnies where shorter comic strips shared some pages. In some instances, these extremely short strips were brand new (Stunt Gran, BamBeanos, BSK CCTV, Gnash Gnews, Winston), but others were tiny reboots of older comic strips that the new audience could not recall reading before. Quiet reboots included Simply Smiffy (cancelled 1987), Rasher (cancelled 1995), Little Plum (cancelled 2007), Les Pretend (cancelled 2007), Baby Face Finlayson (cancelled 2005), Biffo the Bear (cancelled 1999), Pansy Potter (cancelled 1993), and Lord Snooty (cancelled 1991). + +Crossovers + +The Beano allows its characters from different strips to interact with each other. Reprinting old stories or redistributing characters into other magazines is common throughout DC Thomson's history, as if the stories are set in the same universe. The Lord Snooty series discontinued old characters and replaced them with Beano strip characters of the past; Dennis the Menace featured in DC Thomson's Champ magazine in the mid-1980s and The Weekly News tabloid-magazine for four years in the 1950s. Morgyn the Mighty, Tricky Dicky, Bananaman and Corporal Clott were stories previously from The Rover, The Topper, Nutty and The Dandy, respectively, whereas one of Gnasher's puppies had her own strip in The Beezer and Topper and Jackie magazine. + +Anniversary issues +Along with guest editors, anniversary issues are frequently contained with crossovers. The 2000th issue had the "Hall of Fame" strip which showed framed portraits of characters from the past, and issue 3443's Fred's Bed featured Fred crawling under his bed and time travelling through the magazine's comic strips. For the 80th anniversary, issue 3945 was guest edited by actor-turned children's author David Walliams and had a large crossover story about Bash Street School opening the Beanotown's 1938 time capsule and discovering a map, which leads to robots and a giant tentacle monster breaking out to attack the residents. There was also a flashback panel of the time capsule being sealed which featured a handful of comic strip characters from the first issue, later helping the present day characters discover how to defeat the tentacle monster, named Simon. Issue 4000's crossover was a time travel story where the Beanotown characters of the present helped their future selves save the world. + +Creators + +Chief Editor history +As of 2020, there have been seven official chief editors: +George Moonie (1938–1939, c. 1946–1959) +Harold Cramond (1959–1984) +Euan Kerr (1984–2006) +Alan Digby (2006–2011) +Michael Stirling (2011–2012) +Craig Graham (2012–2016) +John Anderson (2016–present) + +Temporary chief editors: +Stuart Gilchrist (1939–c. 1946) stood in as editor when George Moonie joined the Navy for World War Two. +Dick and Dom (2006) edited issue 3311 and chose their favourite strips from the available 2005 waiting list. +Nick Park (2008) edited issue 3443 to celebrate Beano 70th anniversary. +Harry Hill (published 6 March 2013) edited the 2013 Red Nose Day special. +Andy Murray (28 June 2014) edited the Wimbledon special. +David Walliams (2018) edited issue 3945 to celebrate the 80th anniversary. +Joe Sugg (2021) edited issue 4077 for Dennis the Menace 70th anniversary. +Marcus Rashford (2022) edited issue 4146 following the release of his book, You Can Do It: How to Find Your Voice and Make a Difference. + +Notable artists + +Merchandise + +From the first issue, readers have received free gifts from The Beano: toy masks, sweets, posters, and toys. Originally, free gifts would be attached inside the cover or strategically on the front so that it could distract the buyer from other comics next to The Beano on the shelves, hopefully excited for the next issue after reading it and eating/playing with the toys. Gifts were intentionally sporadic, especially during the Christmas period when families' money would be saved for food and presents. Issue 90 would be the last issue with a gift (licorice "black eye") due to rationing, the next free gift being the Flying Snorter Balloon in issue 953. The most popular free gift was issue 2201's Gnasher Snapper, a prank toy that would make a bang sound when unfolded, and was re-gifted occasionally in later issues, as well as the 60th anniversary. + +During the 25th anniversary of Dennis the Menace, The Dennis the Menace Fan Club was formed. The fan club was instantly popular, recalls Euan Kerr in 1984; "The club enrolled over 2000 new members every week, well into the 90s[.]" Membership was 30p, and new members received a membership card full of classified communication tactics and two badges: a red one with Dennis' face on the front and a furry one of a googly-eyed Gnasher face—the latter was the most sought-after badge in the club's history. For two years, there was a tie-in agony aunt page called Dear Dennis (issue 1679–1767) where fan club members sent Dennis their problems that Dennis would reply to in the following issue; thousands of letters would arrive at DC Thomson per week and the authors of the messages would receive prizes. The club would be renamed The Beano Club, which ended in 2010, but had over 1.5 million members. A spin-off was introduced called Gnasher's Fang Club, and Gnasher would ask readers to send him stories about their pets' adventures which could be printed into the next issue. "The mailbag of little drawings of pets was several thousand per week," remembers sub-editor Morris Heggie. "And the popularity lasted and lasted." + +The 21st century celebrated anniversaries with more memorabilia. For The Beano 70th birthday, DC Thomson published The Beano Special Collectors Edition: 70 Years of Fun (2008), and The History of The Beano (2008) was published by Waverly Books, both documenting the magazine's history; two exhibitions at the University of Dundee (Happy Birthday, Beano!) and The Cartoon Museum (Beano and Dandy Birthday Bash!) showed the public private DC Thomson artwork and the history of the magazine. For 2018, readers could buy a box for the 80th anniversary containing posters, reprints of selected older issues, and two books updating the previous documentation of the magazine's history, as well as Minnie the Minx origins. Both anniversaries had tie-in museum exhibitions that also told their audiences the magazine's history. Limited-edition figurines from Robert Harrop were available to buy from their official website in late 2008. The 21st century also began Beano branching into different mediums: their first website, Beanotown.com, formed in 2000, and Chessington World of Adventures opened Beanoland in the same year. Both would later discontinue but Beanotown.com would be revamped as beano.com, a website full of games, Beano secrets and other activities for children. Gulliver's Travels opened the Beano 6 Super Ride in May 2021. The Beano was also the face of the United Kingdom's 2018 Summer Reading Challenge, called Mischief Makers, which included a special Dennis the Menace novel tie-in called Dennis the Menace and the Chamber of Mischief by Beano artist Nigel Auchterlounie. The Dennis the Menace Fan Club was re-launched as a phone app, rebranded as The Dennis and Gnasher Fan Club, and allowed readers free membership, printable badges, and pranks. On television, the Sky Kids show SO Beano! aired; a TV show with special guests, children presenters, and fun and games, in a similar style to Friday Download and Scrambled! + +Annuals +The first Beano annual hardcover book was published as far back as 1939, a year after the first weekly comic was published. In 2018, it was estimated that an original first issue Beano annual in relatively good condition could fetch between £1,200 to £1,500. + +Spin-off comics + +Comic libraries + +Since 1982 the comic, along with The Dandy, has also run "Comic Library" titles. Released monthly, these titles are a feature-length (usually about 64-page) adventure, featuring a character from the comic itself. They are available in A5 size only. In 1998, these were replaced by the Fun Size Beano. Fun Size Comics were discontinued in late 2010. + +Beano Specials +The comic also ran A4-sized Beano Specials in 1987 with full coloured pages, which later were replaced by Beano Superstars which ran for 121 issues from 1992 to 2002. These were similar to the Comic Library series. Some of the last issues were printed versions of episodes from the 1996–1998 Dennis and Gnasher animated TV series. A Beano Poster Comic series was also printed in the early 1990s. + +The Beano Specials returned in 2003, and are now published seasonally. The issues were numbered, and the first one was a Dennis and Friends special, the last a Christmas reprint special. These were replaced by BeanoMAX in early 2007. + +BeanoMAX + +On 15 February 2007, the first issue of a monthly comic entitled BeanoMAX was published. The sister comic features many of the same characters; however, the stories in BeanoMAX are written in a longer format meant for 10- to 13-year-olds. The first issue was a Comic Relief special featuring assorted celebrity guests. The magazine has been rebranded several times since 2013, and is currently known as EPIC Magazine. + +Plug + +Plug was a comic based on the eponymous character from The Bash Street Kids that began with issue dated 24 September 1977, and is notable for being the first comic to make use of rotogravure printing. The magazine similar in style to I.P.C's Krazy which had started the previous year. It contained uncharacteristically outlandish material for D C. Thomson, as well as later including celebrity appearances in the comic. + +The comic revealed Plug's full name to be Percival Proudfoot Plugsley and also gave him a pet monkey by the name of Chumkee. Plug's strip was mostly drawn by Vic Neill but other artists, including Dave Gudgeon drew some later strips. Other strips included Antchester United, Violent Elizabeth, Eebagoom, Hugh's Zoo and D'ye Ken John Squeal and his Hopeless Hounds. + +The venture was unsuccessful, in part because the comic cost 9p, with the Beano at the time only costing 4p and most of its rivals priced similarly. It merged with The Beezer on 24 February 1979. + +Dennis and Gnasher +The brand new Dennis and Gnasher was launched separately from The Beano in September 2009. It coincided with their new cartoon on CBBC of the same name. + +BeanOLD +44-page special issue 4062, with cover date 21 November 2020, during a lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic had an eight-page adult pullout named BeanOLD, with cartoons poking fun at British politicians such as Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, and with appearances by Greta Thunberg, Captain Tom, and footballer Marcus Rashford. The slogan was "2020 has been tough. So tough that even grown-ups need Beano". + +Beano Studios + +In June 2016, DC Thomson launched Beano Studios, a spin-off media studio (based in both London and Dundee) with the intention of creating media appropriate for children and expanding The Beano franchise. Its introduction to the readers came in The Beano issue 3854 with a revamp of the cover's layout and the logo, removing "The" to make it coincide with the studio, and unveiling the website beano.com. Former chief-editor Michael Stirling (who stepped down in 2012) became head of the Dundee studio and the franchise's spokesman. Jodie Morris became Head of Digital Content, James Neal stood as Director of Content, Nigel Pickard joined as non-executive director and Emma Scott stood as CEO until 2020, succeeded by David Guppy. + +As well as expanding Beano franchise through games and merchandise, Beano.com also contains other activities and interests for children to enjoy, such as news about popular celebrities, and miscellaneous videos and articles. Neal described it as "a fun but trusted babysitter who lets the kids stay up a bit late". For parents who formerly read The Beano during childhood, Beano Studios invites them to also participate on their nostalgia, once sending a cease and desist letter to politician Jacob Rees-Mogg for copyright infringement against Walter the Softy. The website became a continuing success worldwide with over two million visitors per year, and is credited for increasing comic sales by 10% in 2018. A similar approach had been planned for years through the first website Beanotown.com, which DC Thomson hoped would attract an international audience to The Beano, especially the United States. The Guardian noted The Beano success in North America was plausible because of Chicken Run, Monty Python, and Benny Hill's American popularity. + +Soon after the launch announcement, Beano Studios revealed it had a new Dennis the Menace adaptation in production: a 52-episode 3D-animated cartoon for CBBC co-produced by Jellyfish Pictures and distributed by Jetpack. The new programme, Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed!, aired on the CBBC Channel in November 2017 and became one of the most popular children's series on the channel. Jetpack sold the cartoon to over 90 territories worldwide in 2018 through television deals and streaming services, and it received an Emmy nomination for Best International Animated Program at the 2019 International Emmy Kids Awards. Chief Creative Officer Mark Talbot explained his plans to look to Hollywood for Beano branching, noting: "what's been interesting with the Americans, they don't have The Beano but what they see is the archive with over 2,000 characters and storylines sat in a warehouse in Dundee waiting to be reimagined by new writers and established writers[.]" In November 2020, Deadline reported Talbot was in the midst of pitching another adaptation of Dennis the Menace, rumoured to be about a reckless teenaged Dennis with a pilot script written by former Chilling Adventures of Sabrina writer Matthew Barry. Beano Studios and Lime Pictures announced a live-action Minnie the Minx children's programme in 2018 called The Magnificent Misadventures of Minnie, and Fox Entertainment announced a Bananaman cartoon, the second cartoon adapting the comic strip after the BBC adaptation from 1983. + +Reception and legacy + +The Beano was an instant success upon release, and became the longest-running, weekly-issued comic of all time in 2018. Although interest in comic magazines dwindled, it survived surrounding setbacks. In the 1950s, it (and The Dandy) were unaffected by DC Thomson's magazine cancellations (selling over 100 million per year) that were caused by both paper rationing and public lack of interest. Alan Digby's attempt to boost sales with the 8-week "Missing Gnasher" plot in Dennis the Menace failed, but the story featured in newspapers and on radio broadcasts, causing people of all ages to contact Beano offices to voice their concerns. Roughly 31,000–41,000 copies are sold per week in the present day, but an estimated 2 billion Beano comic magazines have been sold in its lifetime. A 1997 television poll by the National Comics Awards selected it for the Best British Comic Ever award. Dennis the Menace would represent the comic when Royal Mail launched a special stamp collection in 2012, celebrating Britain's rich comic book history. The Dandy, Eagle, The Topper, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, Buster, Valiant, Twinkle and 2000 AD were also featured. + +Like The Dandy, The Beano is a definitive part of British pop culture. "It's refreshing to see how the [zany] principles that made it such a hit all those years ago have remained to this day." writes Coventry Evening Telegraph. Beano annuals are the most popular Christmas annual sold, and old issues sell for thousands at auctions. Lord Snooty is often used as a pejorative in British politics. DC Thomson considers the 1950s Beano golden age possibly because of many commemorations based on the strips that first appeared from that decade: Dennis became the literal and metaphorical mascot of the magazine, his increasing popularity making him the last consistent cover star and his strips spawning three BBC animated adaptations; Minnie and the Bash Street Kids have a statue and a street named after the strip, respectively. The "anarchic" humour is credited as the key to the magazine's longevity, as well as its refusal to be condescending to its readers: "The Beano may have changed since the '30s but has always maintained its anti-authoritarian stance and steadfast refusal to treat children like idiots," theorised Morris Heggie. + +The magazine is cited as an inspiration to many readers. Beano artists Emily McGorman-Bruce, Zoom Rockman, Jess Bradley, and Barrie Appleby were avid readers of the magazine and/or its annuals before they became creators of its new strips. Meanwhile, The Beano inspired comic artists Jay Stephens, Carolyn Edwards (Titan Comics) and webcomic creator Sarah Millman (NPC Tea, The Heart of Time) to either work in the creative industry or create their own stories. Alan Moore theorised the magazine influenced numerous British comic artists into reimagining American comics in the 1980s by pioneering the Dark Age. Guest chief-editors Nick Park, David Walliams, Joe Sugg, and Harry Hill are also fans of The Beano, with Park admitting "My dream job was always to work on The Beano and it's such an honour for me to be Guest Editor[.]" + +Notable famous members of the old Dennis the Menace/Beano Club include Auberon Waugh, Mike Read, and Mark Hamill, as well as honorary members Paul Gascoigne, and Princes William and Harry. Chris Tarrant cited Dennis as his role model when he was a child, and Paul Rudd revealed Roger the Dodger was his favourite strip. Stella McCartney created tribute fashion to both The Beano and The Dandy, explaining they were "a huge part of my childhood" and wanted to celebrate "the next generation of Beano fans with a sustainable and practical range for kids who still share that ‘Beano’ spirit of these iconic characters". In music pop culture, the album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton is nicknamed "The Beano Album" because Eric Clapton is holding issue 1242 on its cover. + +Audience participation +Interaction with the audience is a historic practice in The Beano history. Excluding fan clubs and merchandise, Comic Idol is a sporadic election in which readers vote for their favourite strips to keep in the magazine. Cancelled strips with the least votes include Little Plum, Baby Face Finlayson, Les Pretend, Calamity James, Crazy for Daisy, and Lord Snooty. Super School and Meebo and Zuky were nominees who won polls and became official strips in the following issues. Readers would find a voting slip covered with the candidates printed in an issue that they would fill out and mail to DC Thomson, but the creation of Beano websites would allow real-time opinions from readers. Pets' Picture Gallery invited readers to send drawings of their pets to feature in the following issue. + +Readers participated in the magazine's record-breaking stunts. In 1988, 100 children helped Euan Kerr and Beano scriptwriter Al Bernard recreate the front cover of issue 2396 on Scarborough Beach with Hann-Made Productions. It was awarded the Largest Comic Strip at 39950 square feet. Beano 2018 comic competition to celebrate the opening of V&A Dundee was awarded the biggest competition to finish a comic strip with 650 participants. + +Along with Nick Park's guest editor issue, the 70th anniversary coincided with Gnashional Menace Day, a CLIC Sargent-partnered event where readers could be sponsored "behaving like Dennis" for charity. + +Controversy +The Beano has had a few controversies throughout its lifetime, but aspects have either been discontinued, phased out or changed to not cause offence. Its infamous changes are the removal of corporal punishment (e.g. Dennis the Menace often depicted receiving bottom spanks with a slipper by his furious father) and misbehaving characters abandoning slingshots—the latter irritating former readers for being a "politically correct" notion, usually highlighted with claim "Dennis has lost his menace". + +Racist depictions and terminology have been removed through the years as well. Little Plum sub-title "Your redskin chum" was not included in its 2002 revival. The first masthead character was a caricatured design of a black boy named Peanut, mascot of the Little Peanut's Page of Fun joke page (appeared from issues 1 to 112), usually eating watermelon. His last masthead feature was in December 1947, but subsequent reprints of the first issues have removed him. Hard-Nut the Nigger and Musso the Wop have not had reprints since their last appearances, the latter being printed during “World War II”, when Britain was at war with Fascist Italy. + +Some changes were to not convince readers bullying was acceptable. Dennis and Gnasher's constant targeting of passive, diligent Walter "the Softy" (who was also a knitting and flower-picking hobbyist) was accused of encouraging playground homophobia, so it was toned down. Walter was also rewritten to be a bit less soft, becoming more antagonistic and stood up to Dennis sometimes, eventually having his first girlfriend. Fatty from the Bash Street Kids was renamed Freddy (his real name) in 2021, causing backlash from former readers, including then government minister Jacob Rees-Mogg who accused the change of being "publicity-seeking". Former chief-editor Mike Stirling explained it was due to fan letters from young readers asking why he was nicknamed so: "although it's always been used affectionately, and never pejoratively, we agreed it's time it changed." A News of the World report contained accusations of Uh Oh, Si Co! encouraging readers to mock children with anger issues or mental illness, which caused the strip to be cancelled. + +See also + + The Beano Summer Special + The Beano Annual + List of magazines published in Scotland +MAD magazine + British comics + List of Beano comic strips + List of Beano comic strips by annual + The Beano timeline + +Notes + +References + +Bibliography + +External links + Official website + Official Beano shop + + + + + +1938 comics debuts +1938 establishments in the United Kingdom +British humour comics +Children's magazines published in the United Kingdom +Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom +DC Thomson Comics titles +Magazines established in 1938 +Scottish brands +Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom +Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are currently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some speciesincluding honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless beeslive socially in colonies while most species (>90%)including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat beesare solitary. + +Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. The most common bees in the Northern Hemisphere are the Halictidae, or sweat bees, but they are small and often mistaken for wasps or flies. Bees range in size from tiny stingless bee species, whose workers are less than long, to Megachile pluto, the largest species of leafcutter bee, whose females can attain a length of . + +Bees feed on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used as food for their larvae. Vertebrate predators of bees include primates and birds such as bee-eaters; insect predators include beewolves and dragonflies. + +Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially, and the decline in wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species across Britain from 1980 to 2013 found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they inhabited in 1980. + +Human beekeeping or apiculture (meliponiculture for stingless bees) has been practised for millennia, since at least the times of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Bees have appeared in mythology and folklore, through all phases of art and literature from ancient times to the present day, although primarily focused in the Northern Hemisphere where beekeeping is far more common. In Mesoamerica, the Mayans have practiced large-scale intensive meliponiculture since pre-Columbian times. + +Evolution +The immediate ancestors of bees were stinging wasps in the family Crabronidae, which were predators of other insects. The switch from insect prey to pollen may have resulted from the consumption of prey insects which were flower visitors and were partially covered with pollen when they were fed to the wasp larvae. This same evolutionary scenario may have occurred within the vespoid wasps, where the pollen wasps evolved from predatory ancestors. + +Based on phylogenetic analysis, bees are thought to have originated during the Early Cretaceous (about 124 million years ago) on the supercontinent of West Gondwana, just prior to its breakup into South America and Africa. The supercontinent is thought to have been a largely xeric environment at this time; modern bee diversity hotspots are also in xeric and seasonal temperate environments, suggesting strong niche conservatism among bees ever since their origins. + +Genomic analysis indicates that despite only appearing much later in the fossil record, all modern bee families had already diverged from one another by the end of the Cretaceous. The Melittidae, Apidae, and Megachilidae had already evolved on the supercontinent prior to its fragmentation. Further divergences were facilitated by West Gondwana's breakup around 100 million years ago, leading to a deep Africa-South America split within both the Apidae and Megachilidae, the isolation of the Melittidae in Africa, and the origins of the Colletidae, Andrenidae and Halictidae in South America. The rapid radiation of the South American bee families is thought to have followed the concurrent radiation of flowering plants in the same region. Later in the Cretaceous (80 million years ago), colletid bees colonized Australia from South America (with an offshoot lineage evolving into the Stenotritidae), and by the end of the Cretaceous, South American bees had also colonized North America. The North American fossil taxon Cretotrigona belongs to a group that is no longer found in North America, suggesting that many bee lineages went extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. + +Following the K-Pg extinction, surviving bee lineages continued to spread into the Northern Hemisphere, colonizing Europe from Africa by the Paleocene, and then spreading east to Asia. This was facilitated by the warming climate around the same time, allowing bees to move to higher latitudes following the spread of tropical and subtropical habitats. By the Eocene (~45 mya) there was already considerable diversity among eusocial bee lineages. A second extinction event among bees is thought to have occurred due to rapid climatic cooling around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, leading to the extinction of some bee lineages such as the tribe Melikertini. Over the Paleogene and Neogene, different bee lineages continued to spread all over the world, and the shifting habitats and connectedness of continents led to the isolation and evolution of many new bee tribes. + +Fossils +The oldest non-compression bee fossil is Cretotrigona prisca, a corbiculate bee of Late Cretaceous age (~70 mya) found in New Jersey amber. A fossil from the early Cretaceous (~100 mya), Melittosphex burmensis, was initially considered "an extinct lineage of pollen-collecting Apoidea sister to the modern bees", but subsequent research has rejected the claim that Melittosphex is a bee, or even a member of the superfamily Apoidea to which bees belong, instead treating the lineage as incertae sedis within the Aculeata. + +The Allodapini (within the Apidae) appeared around 53 Mya. +The Colletidae appear as fossils only from the late Oligocene (~25 Mya) to early Miocene. +The Melittidae are known from Palaeomacropis eocenicus in the Early Eocene. +The Megachilidae are known from trace fossils (characteristic leaf cuttings) from the Middle Eocene. +The Andrenidae are known from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, around 34 Mya, of the Florissant shale. +The Halictidae first appear in the Early Eocene with species found in amber. The Stenotritidae are known from fossil brood cells of Pleistocene age. + +Coevolution + +The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were shallow, cup-shaped blooms pollinated by insects such as beetles, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before the first appearance of bees. The novelty is that bees are specialized as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance pollination, and are the most efficient pollinating insects. In a process of coevolution, flowers developed floral rewards such as nectar and longer tubes, and bees developed longer tongues to extract the nectar. Bees also developed structures known as scopal hairs and pollen baskets to collect and carry pollen. The location and type differ among and between groups of bees. Most species have scopal hairs on their hind legs or on the underside of their abdomens. Some species in the family Apidae have pollen baskets on their hind legs, while very few lack these and instead collect pollen in their crops. The appearance of these structures drove the adaptive radiation of the angiosperms, and, in turn, bees themselves. Bees coevolved not only with flowers but it is believed that some species coevolved with mites. Some provide tufts of hairs called acarinaria that appear to provide lodgings for mites; in return, it is believed that mites eat fungi that attack pollen, so the relationship in this case may be mutualistic. + +Phylogeny + +External +This phylogenetic tree is based on Debevic et al, 2012, which used molecular phylogeny to demonstrate that the bees (Anthophila) arose from deep within the Crabronidae, which is therefore paraphyletic. The placement of the Heterogynaidae is uncertain. The small subfamily Mellininae was not included in this analysis. + +Internal +This cladogram of the bee families is based on Hedtke et al., 2013, which places the former families Dasypodaidae and Meganomiidae as subfamilies inside the Melittidae. English names, where available, are given in parentheses. + +Characteristics + +Bees differ from closely related groups such as wasps by having branched or plume-like setae (hairs), combs on the forelimbs for cleaning their antennae, small anatomical differences in limb structure, and the venation of the hind wings; and in females, by having the seventh dorsal abdominal plate divided into two half-plates. + +Bees have the following characteristics: + + A pair of large compound eyes which cover much of the surface of the head. Between and above these are three small simple eyes (ocelli) which provide information on light intensity. + The antennae usually have 13 segments in males and 12 in females, and are geniculate, having an elbow joint part way along. They house large numbers of sense organs that can detect touch (mechanoreceptors), smell and taste; and small, hairlike mechanoreceptors that can detect air movement so as to "hear" sounds. + The mouthparts are adapted for both chewing and sucking by having both a pair of mandibles and a long proboscis for sucking up nectar. + The thorax has three segments, each with a pair of robust legs, and a pair of membranous wings on the hind two segments. The front legs of corbiculate bees bear combs for cleaning the antennae, and in many species the hind legs bear pollen baskets, flattened sections with incurving hairs to secure the collected pollen. The wings are synchronised in flight, and the somewhat smaller hind wings connect to the forewings by a row of hooks along their margin which connect to a groove in the forewing. + The abdomen has nine segments, the hindermost three being modified into the sting. + +The largest species of bee is thought to be Wallace's giant bee Megachile pluto, whose females can attain a length of . The smallest species may be dwarf stingless bees in the tribe Meliponini whose workers are less than in length. + +Sociality + +Haplodiploid breeding system + +According to inclusive fitness theory, organisms can gain fitness not just through increasing their own reproductive output, but also that of close relatives. In evolutionary terms, individuals should help relatives when Cost < Relatedness * Benefit. The requirements for eusociality are more easily fulfilled by haplodiploid species such as bees because of their unusual relatedness structure. + +In haplodiploid species, females develop from fertilized eggs and males from unfertilized eggs. Because a male is haploid (has only one copy of each gene), his daughters (which are diploid, with two copies of each gene) share 100% of his genes and 50% of their mother's. Therefore, they share 75% of their genes with each other. This mechanism of sex determination gives rise to what W. D. Hamilton termed "supersisters", more closely related to their sisters than they would be to their own offspring. Workers often do not reproduce, but they can pass on more of their genes by helping to raise their sisters (as queens) than they would by having their own offspring (each of which would only have 50% of their genes), assuming they would produce similar numbers. This unusual situation has been proposed as an explanation of the multiple (at least nine) evolutions of eusociality within Hymenoptera. + +Haplodiploidy is neither necessary nor sufficient for eusociality. Some eusocial species such as termites are not haplodiploid. Conversely, all bees are haplodiploid but not all are eusocial, and among eusocial species many queens mate with multiple males, creating half-sisters that share only 25% of each other's genes. But, monogamy (queens mating singly) is the ancestral state for all eusocial species so far investigated, so it is likely that haplodiploidy contributed to the evolution of eusociality in bees. + +Eusociality + +Bees may be solitary or may live in various types of communities. Eusociality appears to have originated from at least three independent origins in halictid bees. The most advanced of these are species with eusocial colonies; these are characterised by cooperative brood care and a division of labour into reproductive and non-reproductive adults, plus overlapping generations. This division of labour creates specialized groups within eusocial societies which are called castes. In some species, groups of cohabiting females may be sisters, and if there is a division of labour within the group, they are considered semisocial. The group is called eusocial if, in addition, the group consists of a mother (the queen) and her daughters (workers). When the castes are purely behavioural alternatives, with no morphological differentiation other than size, the system is considered primitively eusocial, as in many paper wasps; when the castes are morphologically discrete, the system is considered highly eusocial. + +True honey bees (genus Apis, of which eight species are currently recognized) are highly eusocial, and are among the best known insects. Their colonies are established by swarms, consisting of a queen and several thousand workers. There are 29 subspecies of one of these species, Apis mellifera, native to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Africanized bees are a hybrid strain of A. mellifera that escaped from experiments involving crossing European and African subspecies; they are extremely defensive. + +Stingless bees are also highly eusocial. They practise mass provisioning, with complex nest architecture and perennial colonies also established via swarming. + +Many bumblebees are eusocial, similar to the eusocial Vespidae such as hornets in that the queen initiates a nest on her own rather than by swarming. Bumblebee colonies typically have from 50 to 200 bees at peak population, which occurs in mid to late summer. Nest architecture is simple, limited by the size of the pre-existing nest cavity, and colonies rarely last more than a year. In 2011, the International Union for Conservation of Nature set up the Bumblebee Specialist Group to review the threat status of all bumblebee species worldwide using the IUCN Red List criteria. + +There are many more species of primitively eusocial than highly eusocial bees, but they have been studied less often. Most are in the family Halictidae, or "sweat bees". Colonies are typically small, with a dozen or fewer workers, on average. Queens and workers differ only in size, if at all. Most species have a single season colony cycle, even in the tropics, and only mated females hibernate. A few species have long active seasons and attain colony sizes in the hundreds, such as Halictus hesperus. Some species are eusocial in parts of their range and solitary in others, or have a mix of eusocial and solitary nests in the same population. The orchid bees (Apidae) include some primitively eusocial species with similar biology. Some allodapine bees (Apidae) form primitively eusocial colonies, with progressive provisioning: a larva's food is supplied gradually as it develops, as is the case in honey bees and some bumblebees. + +Solitary and communal bees + +Most other bees, including familiar insects such as carpenter bees, leafcutter bees and mason bees are solitary in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There is no division of labor so these nests lack queens and worker bees for these species. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax. +Bees collect pollen to feed their young, and have the necessary adaptations to do this. However, certain wasp species such as pollen wasps have similar behaviours, and a few species of bee scavenge from carcases to feed their offspring. Solitary bees are important pollinators; they gather pollen to provision their nests with food for their brood. Often it is mixed with nectar to form a paste-like consistency. Some solitary bees have advanced types of pollen-carrying structures on their bodies. Very few species of solitary bee are being cultured for commercial pollination. Most of these species belong to a distinct set of genera which are commonly known by their nesting behavior or preferences, namely: carpenter bees, sweat bees, mason bees, plasterer bees, squash bees, dwarf carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, alkali bees and digger bees. + +Most solitary bees are fossorial, digging nests in the ground in a variety of soil textures and conditions, while others create nests in hollow reeds or twigs, or holes in wood. The female typically creates a compartment (a "cell") with an egg and some provisions for the resulting larva, then seals it off. A nest may consist of numerous cells. When the nest is in wood, usually the last (those closer to the entrance) contain eggs that will become males. The adult does not provide care for the brood once the egg is laid, and usually dies after making one or more nests. The males typically emerge first and are ready for mating when the females emerge. Solitary bees are very unlikely to sting (only in self-defense, if ever), and some (esp. in the family Andrenidae) are stingless. + +While solitary, females each make individual nests. Some species, such as the European mason bee Hoplitis anthocopoides, and the Dawson's Burrowing bee, Amegilla dawsoni, are gregarious, preferring to make nests near others of the same species, and giving the appearance of being social. Large groups of solitary bee nests are called aggregations, to distinguish them from colonies. In some species, multiple females share a common nest, but each makes and provisions her own cells independently. This type of group is called "communal" and is not uncommon. The primary advantage appears to be that a nest entrance is easier to defend from predators and parasites when multiple females use that same entrance regularly. + +Biology + +Life cycle + +The life cycle of a bee, be it a solitary or social species, involves the laying of an egg, the development through several moults of a legless larva, a pupation stage during which the insect undergoes complete metamorphosis, followed by the emergence of a winged adult. The number of eggs laid by a female during her lifetime can vary from eight or less in some solitary bees, to more than a million in highly social species. Most solitary bees and bumble bees in temperate climates overwinter as adults or pupae and emerge in spring when increasing numbers of flowering plants come into bloom. The males usually emerge first and search for females with which to mate. Like the other members of Hymenoptera bees are haplodiploid; the sex of a bee is determined by whether or not the egg is fertilised. After mating, a female stores the sperm, and determines which sex is required at the time each individual egg is laid, fertilised eggs producing female offspring and unfertilised eggs, males. Tropical bees may have several generations in a year and no diapause stage. + +The egg is generally oblong, slightly curved and tapering at one end. Solitary bees, lay each egg in a separate cell with a supply of mixed pollen and nectar next to it. This may be rolled into a pellet or placed in a pile and is known as mass provisioning. Social bee species provision progressively, that is, they feed the larva regularly while it grows. The nest varies from a hole in the ground or in wood, in solitary bees, to a substantial structure with wax combs in bumblebees and honey bees. + +In most species, larvae are whitish grubs, roughly oval and bluntly-pointed at both ends. They have 15 segments and spiracles in each segment for breathing. They have no legs but move within the cell, helped by tubercles on their sides. They have short horns on the head, jaws for chewing food and an appendage on either side of the mouth tipped with a bristle. There is a gland under the mouth that secretes a viscous liquid which solidifies into the silk they use to produce a cocoon. The cocoon is semi-transparent and the pupa can be seen through it. Over the course of a few days, the larva undergoes metamorphosis into a winged adult. When ready to emerge, the adult splits its skin dorsally and climbs out of the exuviae and breaks out of the cell. + +Flight + +Antoine Magnan's 1934 book says that he and André Sainte-Laguë had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight could not be explained by fixed-wing calculations, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality". This has led to a common misconception that bees "violate aerodynamic theory". In fact it merely confirms that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight, and that their flight is explained by other mechanics, such as those used by helicopters. In 1996 it was shown that vortices created by many insects' wings helped to provide lift. High-speed cinematography and robotic mock-up of a bee wing showed that lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency". Wing-beat frequency normally increases as size decreases, but as the bee's wing beat covers such a small arc, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller. + +Navigation, communication, and finding food + +The ethologist Karl von Frisch studied navigation in the honey bee. He showed that honey bees communicate by the waggle dance, in which a worker indicates the location of a food source to other workers in the hive. He demonstrated that bees can recognize a desired compass direction in three different ways: by the sun, by the polarization pattern of the blue sky, and by the earth's magnetic field. He showed that the sun is the preferred or main compass; the other mechanisms are used under cloudy skies or inside a dark beehive. Bees navigate using spatial memory with a "rich, map-like organization". + +Digestion +The gut of bees is relatively simple, but multiple metabolic strategies exist in the gut microbiota. Pollinating bees consume nectar and pollen, which require different digestion strategies by somewhat specialized bacteria. While nectar is a liquid of mostly monosaccharide sugars and so easily absorbed, pollen contains complex polysaccharides: branching pectin and hemicellulose. Approximately five groups of bacteria are involved in digestion. Three groups specialize in simple sugars (Snodgrassella and two groups of Lactobacillus), and two other groups in complex sugars (Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium). Digestion of pectin and hemicellulose is dominated by bacterial clades Gilliamella and Bifidobacterium respectively. Bacteria that cannot digest polysaccharides obtain enzymes from their neighbors, and bacteria that lack certain amino acids do the same, creating multiple ecological niches. + +Although most bee species are nectarivorous and palynivorous, some are not. Particularly unusual are vulture bees in the genus Trigona, which consume carrion and wasp brood, turning meat into a honey-like substance. + +Ecology + +Floral relationships + +Most bees are polylectic (generalist) meaning they collect pollen from a range of flowering plants, but some are oligoleges (specialists), in that they only gather pollen from one or a few species or genera of closely related plants. In Melittidae and Apidae we also find a few genera that are highly specialized for collecting plant oils both in addition to, and instead of, nectar, which is mixed with pollen as larval food. Male orchid bees in some species gather aromatic compounds from orchids, which is one of the few cases where male bees are effective pollinators. Bees are able to sense the presence of desirable flowers through ultraviolet patterning on flowers, floral odors, and even electromagnetic fields. Once landed, a bee then uses nectar quality and pollen taste to determine whether to continue visiting similar flowers. + +In rare cases, a plant species may only be effectively pollinated by a single bee species, and some plants are endangered at least in part because their pollinator is also threatened. But, there is a pronounced tendency for oligolectic bees to be associated with common, widespread plants visited by multiple pollinator species. For example, the creosote bush in the arid parts of the United States southwest is associated with some 40 oligoleges. + +As mimics and models + +Many bees are aposematically coloured, typically orange and black, warning of their ability to defend themselves with a powerful sting. As such they are models for Batesian mimicry by non-stinging insects such as bee-flies, robber flies and hoverflies, all of which gain a measure of protection by superficially looking and behaving like bees. + +Bees are themselves Müllerian mimics of other aposematic insects with the same colour scheme, including wasps, lycid and other beetles, and many butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) which are themselves distasteful, often through acquiring bitter and poisonous chemicals from their plant food. All the Müllerian mimics, including bees, benefit from the reduced risk of predation that results from their easily recognised warning coloration. + +Bees are also mimicked by plants such as the bee orchid which imitates both the appearance and the scent of a female bee; male bees attempt to mate (pseudocopulation) with the furry lip of the flower, thus pollinating it. + +As brood parasites + +Brood parasites occur in several bee families including the apid subfamily Nomadinae. Females of these species lack pollen collecting structures (the scopa) and do not construct their own nests. They typically enter the nests of pollen collecting species, and lay their eggs in cells provisioned by the host bee. When the "cuckoo" bee larva hatches, it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and often the host egg also. In particular, the Arctic bee species, Bombus hyperboreus is an aggressive species that attacks and enslaves other bees of the same subgenus. However, unlike many other bee brood parasites, they have pollen baskets and often collect pollen. + +In Southern Africa, hives of African honeybees (A. mellifera scutellata) are being destroyed by parasitic workers of the Cape honeybee, A. m. capensis. These lay diploid eggs ("thelytoky"), escaping normal worker policing, leading to the colony's destruction; the parasites can then move to other hives. + +The cuckoo bees in the Bombus subgenus Psithyrus are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size. This common pattern gave rise to the ecological principle "Emery's rule". Others parasitize bees in different families, like Townsendiella, a nomadine apid, two species of which are cleptoparasites of the dasypodaid genus Hesperapis, while the other species in the same genus attacks halictid bees. + +Nocturnal bees +Four bee families (Andrenidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, and Apidae) contain some species that are crepuscular. Most are tropical or subtropical, but some live in arid regions at higher latitudes. These bees have greatly enlarged ocelli, which are extremely sensitive to light and dark, though incapable of forming images. Some have refracting superposition compound eyes: these combine the output of many elements of their compound eyes to provide enough light for each retinal photoreceptor. Their ability to fly by night enables them to avoid many predators, and to exploit flowers that produce nectar only or also at night. + +Predators, parasites and pathogens + +Vertebrate predators of bees include bee-eaters, shrikes and flycatchers, which make short sallies to catch insects in flight. Swifts and swallows fly almost continually, catching insects as they go. The honey buzzard attacks bees' nests and eats the larvae. The greater honeyguide interacts with humans by guiding them to the nests of wild bees. The humans break open the nests and take the honey and the bird feeds on the larvae and the wax. Among mammals, predators such as the badger dig up bumblebee nests and eat both the larvae and any stored food. + +Specialist ambush predators of visitors to flowers include crab spiders, which wait on flowering plants for pollinating insects; predatory bugs, and praying mantises, some of which (the flower mantises of the tropics) wait motionless, aggressive mimics camouflaged as flowers. Beewolves are large wasps that habitually attack bees; the ethologist Niko Tinbergen estimated that a single colony of the beewolf Philanthus triangulum might kill several thousand honeybees in a day: all the prey he observed were honeybees. Other predatory insects that sometimes catch bees include robber flies and dragonflies. Honey bees are affected by parasites including tracheal and Varroa mites. However, some bees are believed to have a mutualistic relationship with mites. + +Some mites of genus Tarsonemus are associated with bees. They live in bee nests and ride on adult bees for dispersal. They are presumed to feed on fungi, nest materials or pollen. However, the impact they have on bees remains uncertain. + +Symbiosis of Mycelium and Bess + +Fungus properties +Recent studies have shown that mycelium provides honey bees and stingless bees with vital nutrients. Specific fungi, such as Zygosaccharomyces sp, Candida sp., and Monascus ruber, produce chemicals that fight against bacteria, fungal infections from different species, and viruses. Recently these types of bees have been observed eating mycelium, suggesting that honey bees have been “foraging mushrooms to collect antimicrobial medicine to boost their collective immunity” (White, K., 2022). Without these vital nutrients, honey bee morbidity rates rise, and the possibility of fungal infections can spike, leading to unhealthy bee hives and honey shortage. Fungal infections can also lead to colony collapse disorder, so the ingestion of mycelium lowers the morbidity rate of honey bees by preventing those fungal infections from happening. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is when worker bees abandon the queen bee and leave behind the brood and a few nurse bees. This however is not enough to sustain a hive as workers are required to construct and maintain the hive structure as well as produce honey. Colony collapse disorder can also happen when varroa mites infiltrate a hive. These mites will attack and eat bees inside a hive, making it impossible for them to continue to reproduce and make honey. The presence of varroa mites results in a decrease in bee population, deformed bees, an inability to reproduce on the bees part, and overall weakening of the colony. Varroa mites are only capable of reproducing inside of a honey bee colony, posing an even greater threat if they are able to infiltrate because it will destroy their home. Mycelium has been shown to germinate inside of varroa mites and grow from the inside out, killing the mites and protecting the bees. The extermination of mites by mycelium is a better alternative to pesticides that have shown to be toxic towards the bee colony. Mycelium also plays a role in boosting anti-inflammatory and antibacterial resistance in bees due to the ecdysteroids and Zygosaccharomyces found in mycelium, which are then fed to larvae, boosting the next generations immunity and improving overall hive health. Zygosaccharomyces are “spoilage yeasts that have an extreme resistance to acids and preservatives” and can “tolerate high concentrations of sugars and salts” (Deak, T., 2004). Honey bees depend on this source of steroids to allow them to develop properly during insect pupation. + +Bee broods +The symbiotic relationship between bees and mycelium is found primarily in Brazilian stingless bees and Malaysian stingless bees - or more commonly honey bees. Bee broods are the larvae of honeybees. They can typically be found inside of a bee hive, and in man made hives especially, the honeybees can be found developing at different stages (eggs, larvae, and pupae) inside a hexagonal shape. Bee larvae are incapable of producing steroids at birth, so they ingest mycelium to receive vital nutrients they cannot create on their own such as ecdysteroids and Zygosaccharomyces sp (Paludo, C.R. et al. ). Once the honey bee eggs hatch, a white microbial film starts to grow on the boundary between the brood cell and the larval food supply, and is then ingested by the larvae to complete their development (Paludo, C.R. et al.). + +Gut microbiota play an immense role in the health of the entire bee colony. Three studies were recently conducted and each introduced a new organism to the bees gut microbiota. The bees were fed aged pollen, the assembly of the gut microbiota was disturbed, and antibiotic tetracycline entered their diet. All three studies showed that the honey bees' ability to survive decreased drastically and they became more likely to contract parasites and fungal infections (Bonilla-Rosso, G. and Engel, P. (2018). The introduction of certain mycelium to the honey bees gut microbiota has the opposite effect to what took place in these three studies, highlighting the importance of what bees ingest and the impacts it has on their survivability during both the development and adult stages. + +Bee-fungus symbiosis +As mentioned above, honey bees cannot produce steroids themselves, they must be ingested through their diet, specifically in the early development process. Larvae eat the fungus and the ecdysteroids and Zygosaccharomyces produced by the mycelium benefit the larvae. Ecdysteroids are naturally occurring steroids found in mycelium and they help enhance performance and reproduction, boosting honey production and keeping the hive population running at a stable rate. “Zygosaccharomyces sp. is essential for S. depilis larvae” ( Paludo, C.R. et al.). These sterols thus have a high impact on the survival rate of honey bees. Their ingestion determines whether the honey bees will be able to protect themselves against fungal infections, viruses, and whether or not they will have sufficient strength to increase honey production and the ability to pollinate a larger area and more frequently. With the research provided on the positive impact of mycelium on bees, the relationship between mycelium and honey bees is symbiotic in that the survival of bees and the mycelium’s ability to help boost bee pollination, boosts the ability of the fungi to grow because bee pollination improves air and soil quality, thus boosting plant life. Allowing for a higher survivability rate for both bees and mycelium if they are able to perform their environmental roles properly without the interruption of harmful government approved pesticides. The recent studies done on the symbiotic relationship between mycelium and honey bees will prove to be vital in the argument towards lessening the types of chemicals legally allowed to be sprayed on produce. The use of pesticides on lawns and for other agricultural uses destroy the livelihood of mycelium by killing the soil it grows in, inhibiting bees from ingesting the necessary nutrients mycelium provides to survive. + +Potential environmental impact +Pesticides have been diminishing the bee population recently due to a lack of regulations regarding what can and cannot be sprayed on produce to protect it from being damaged while it's being grown. When honey bees collect pollen and nectar for nutrition and to make honey, they are also ingesting harmful chemicals. These chemicals take a toll on the honey bees' already sensitive gut microbiome and lead to a higher morbidity rate in honey bees. "These microbes can suffer with toxic pesticides applied in agriculture, causing dangerous changes in the colony fitness and perturbing bee’s health.” (Yordanova, M. et al., 2022). Knowledge of how mycelium boosts honey bees immunity could be pivotal to the increase of a honey bee's lifespan and boost reproduction by helping implement new policies to prevent the use of harmful pesticides (Paludo, C.R. et al. ). + +Relationship with humans + +In mythology and folklore + +Homer's Hymn to Hermes describes three bee-maidens with the power of divination and thus speaking truth, and identifies the food of the gods as honey. Sources associated the bee maidens with Apollo and, until the 1980s, scholars followed Gottfried Hermann (1806) in incorrectly identifying the bee-maidens with the Thriae. Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods from Mycenean times. Bees were also associated with the Delphic oracle and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee. + +The image of a community of honey bees has been used from ancient to modern times, in Aristotle and Plato; in Virgil and Seneca; in Erasmus and Shakespeare; Tolstoy, and by political and social theorists such as Bernard Mandeville and Karl Marx as a model for human society. In English folklore, bees would be told of important events in the household, in a custom known as "Telling the bees". + +In art and literature + +Some of the oldest examples of bees in art are rock paintings in Spain which have been dated to 15,000 BC. + +W. B. Yeats's poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree (1888) contains the couplet "Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, / And live alone in the bee loud glade." At the time he was living in Bedford Park in the West of London. Beatrix Potter's illustrated book The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse (1910) features Babbity Bumble and her brood (pictured). Kit Williams' treasure hunt book The Bee on the Comb (1984) uses bees and beekeeping as part of its story and puzzle. Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees (2004), and the 2009 film starring Dakota Fanning, tells the story of a girl who escapes her abusive home and finds her way to live with a family of beekeepers, the Boatwrights. + +The 2007 animated comedy film Bee Movie used Jerry Seinfeld's first script and was his first work for children; he starred as a bee named Barry B. Benson, alongside Renée Zellweger. Critics found its premise awkward and its delivery tame. Dave Goulson's A Sting in the Tale (2014) describes his efforts to save bumblebees in Britain, as well as much about their biology. The playwright Laline Paull's fantasy The Bees (2015) tells the tale of a hive bee named Flora 717 from hatching onwards. + +Beekeeping + +Humans have kept honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, for millennia. Beekeepers collect honey, beeswax, propolis, pollen, and royal jelly from hives; bees are also kept to pollinate crops and to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. + +Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago; efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago. Simple hives and smoke were used; jars of honey were found in the tombs of pharaohs such as Tutankhamun. From the 18th century, European understanding of the colonies and biology of bees allowed the construction of the moveable comb hive so that honey could be harvested without destroying the colony. Among Classical Era authors, beekeeping with the use of smoke is described in Aristotle's History of Animals Book 9. The account mentions that bees die after stinging; that workers remove corpses from the hive, and guard it; castes including workers and non-working drones, but "kings" rather than queens; predators including toads and bee-eaters; and the waggle dance, with the "irresistible suggestion" of ("", it waggles) and ("", they watch). + +Beekeeping is described in detail by Virgil in his Georgics; it is also mentioned in his Aeneid, and in Pliny's Natural History. + +As commercial pollinators + +Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are the major type of pollinator in many ecosystems that contain flowering plants. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on pollination by insects, birds and bats, most of which is accomplished by bees, whether wild or domesticated. Over the last half century, there has been a general decline in the species richness of wild bees and other pollinators, probably attributable to stress from increased parasites and disease, the use of pesticides, and a general decrease in the number of wild flowers. Climate change probably exacerbates the problem. + +Contract pollination has overtaken the role of honey production for beekeepers in many countries. After the introduction of Varroa mites, feral honey bees declined dramatically in the US, though their numbers have since recovered. The number of colonies kept by beekeepers declined slightly, through urbanization, systematic pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and the closure of beekeeping businesses. In 2006 and 2007 the rate of attrition increased, and was described as colony collapse disorder. In 2010 invertebrate iridescent virus and the fungus Nosema ceranae were shown to be in every killed colony, and deadly in combination. Winter losses increased to about 1/3. Varroa mites were thought to be responsible for about half the losses. + +Apart from colony collapse disorder, losses outside the US have been attributed to causes including pesticide seed dressings, using neonicotinoids such as clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. From 2013 the European Union restricted some pesticides to stop bee populations from declining further. In 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned that bees faced increased risk of extinction because of global warming. In 2018 the European Union decided to ban field use of all three major neonicotinoids; they remain permitted in veterinary, greenhouse, and vehicle transport usage. + +Farmers have focused on alternative solutions to mitigate these problems. By raising native plants, they provide food for native bee pollinators like Lasioglossum vierecki and L. leucozonium, leading to less reliance on honey bee populations. + +As food producers +Honey is a natural product produced by bees and stored for their own use, but its sweetness has always appealed to humans. Before domestication of bees was even attempted, humans were raiding their nests for their honey. Smoke was often used to subdue the bees and such activities are depicted in rock paintings in Spain dated to 15,000 BC. + +Honey bees are used commercially to produce honey. They also produce some substances used as dietary supplements with possible health benefits, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly, though all of these can also cause allergic reactions. + +As food +Bees are considered edible insects. People in some countries eat insects, including the larvae and pupae of bees, mostly stingless species. They also gather larvae, pupae and surrounding cells, known as bee brood, for consumption. In the Indonesian dish botok tawon from Central and East Java, bee larvae are eaten as a companion to rice, after being mixed with shredded coconut, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed. + +Bee brood (pupae and larvae) although low in calcium, has been found to be high in protein and carbohydrate, and a useful source of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and trace minerals iron, zinc, copper, and selenium. In addition, while bee brood was high in fat, it contained no fat soluble vitamins (such as A, D, and E) but it was a good source of most of the water-soluble B vitamins including choline as well as vitamin C. The fat was composed mostly of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids with 2.0% being polyunsaturated fatty acids. + +As alternative medicine +Apitherapy is a branch of alternative medicine that uses honey bee products, including raw honey, royal jelly, pollen, propolis, beeswax and apitoxin (Bee venom). The claim that apitherapy treats cancer, which some proponents of apitherapy make, remains unsupported by evidence-based medicine. + +Stings +The painful stings of bees are mostly associated with the poison gland and the Dufour's gland which are abdominal exocrine glands containing various chemicals. In Lasioglossum leucozonium, the Dufour's Gland mostly contains octadecanolide as well as some eicosanolide. There is also evidence of n-triscosane, n-heptacosane, and 22-docosanolide. However, the secretions of these glands could also be used for nest construction. + +See also + Australian native bees + Fear of bees (apiphobia) + Superorganism + World Bee Day + +Explanatory notes + +References + +External links + + + "Apoidea" at All Living Thingsimages, identification guides, and maps of bees + Bee Genera of the World + Anthophila (Apoidea) – BeesNorth American species of bees at BugGuide + Native Bees of North America at BugGuide + "Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers"Science + + + +Extant Early Cretaceous first appearances +The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, an area traditionally known as the Basque Country ()—a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France. + +Etymology + +The English word Basque may be pronounced or and derives from the French Basque (), itself derived from Gascon Basco (pronounced ), cognate with Spanish Vasco (pronounced ). Those, in turn, come from Latin Vascō (pronounced ; plural Vascōnēs—see history section below). The Latin generally evolved into the bilabials and in Gascon and Spanish, probably under the influence of Basque and the related Aquitanian (the Latin /w/ instead evolved into in French, Italian and other Romance languages). + +Several coins from the 2nd and the 1st centuries BC found in the Basque Country bear the inscription barscunes. The place in which they were minted is not certain but is thought to be somewhere near Pamplona, in the heartland of the area that historians believe was inhabited by the Vascones. Some scholars have suggested a Celtic etymology based on bhar-s-, meaning "summit", "point" or "leaves", according to which barscunes may have meant "the mountain people", "the tall ones" or "the proud ones", and others have posited a relationship to a Proto-Indo-European root *bar- meaning "border", "frontier", "march". + +In Basque, people call themselves the euskaldunak, singular euskaldun, formed from euskal- (i.e. "Basque (language)") and -dun (i.e. "one who has"); euskaldun literally means a Basque-speaker. Not all Basques are Basque-speakers. Therefore, the neologism euskotar, plural euskotarrak, was coined in the 19th century to mean a Basque person, whether Basque-speaking or not. Alfonso Irigoyen posits that the word euskara is derived from an ancient Basque verb enautsi "to say" (compare modern Basque esan) and the suffix -(k)ara ("way (of doing something)"). Thus, euskara would mean literally "way of saying" or "way of speaking". One item of evidence in favour of that hypothesis is found in the Spanish book Compendio Historial, written in 1571 by the Basque writer Esteban de Garibay. He records the name of the Basque language as enusquera. That may, however, be a writing mistake. + +In the 19th century, the Basque nationalist activist Sabino Arana posited an original root euzko, which he thought came from eguzkiko ("of the sun", related to the assumption of an original solar religion). On the basis of that putative root, Arana proposed the name Euzkadi for an independent Basque nation, composed of seven Basque historical territories. Arana's neologism Euzkadi (in the regularized spelling Euskadi) is still widely used in both Basque and Spanish since it is now the official name of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. + +Origin + +Early anthropological and genetic studies from the beginning and end of the 20th century theorized that the Basques are the descendants of the original Cro-Magnons. Although they are genetically distinctive in some ways due to isolation, the Basques are still very typically European in terms of their Y-DNA and mtDNA sequences, and in terms of some other genetic loci. These same sequences are widespread throughout the Western half of Europe, especially along the Western fringe of the continent. The distinctiveness noted by studies of 'classical' genetic markers (such as blood groups) and the apparently "pre-Indo-European" nature of the Basque language has resulted in a popular and long-held misleading view that Basques are "living fossils" of the earliest modern humans who colonised Europe. + +However, studies of the Y-DNA haplogroups found that on their direct male lineages, the vast majority of modern Basques have a common ancestry with other Western Europeans, namely a marked predominance of Haplogroup R1b-DF27 (70%). Although also initially theorised to be that a Palaeolithic marker, this theory encountered inconsistencies even prior to most recent chronological re-evaluations, as more recent studies instead conclude that R1b spread up to Western Europe from southwestern Eurasia in the Neolithic period or later, between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago. The age of the subclade which Basque carry, R1b-DF27, "is estimated at ~4,200 years ago, at the transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, when the Y chromosome landscape of Western Europe was thoroughly remodeled. In spite of its high frequency in Basques, Y-STR internal diversity of R1b-DF27 is lower there, and results in more recent age estimates", implying it was brought to the region from elsewhere. + +Next to the main lineage R1b, high frequencies of E-V65 were found among Basque autochthonous inhabitants of Álava province (17.3%), Biscay province (10.9%), and Gipuzkoa province (3.3%). Several ancient DNA samples have been recovered and amplified from the Iberian and Basque region. The collection of mtDNA and Y-DNA haplogroups sampled there differed significantly compared to their modern frequencies. The authors concluded that there is "discontinuity" between ancient locals and modern Basques. Thus, while Basques harbour some very archaic mtDNA lineages, they are not of "undiluted Palaeolithic ancestry" but of significantly early Neolithic origin with a connection to the isolate Sardinian people. Rather, some 4500 years ago almost all Y-DNA heritage from Iberian admixture of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers was replaced by the R1b lineage of herders from the steppe, and the Basque genetic distinctiveness is a result of centuries of low population size, genetic drift, and endogamy. + +Autosomal genetic studies have confirmed that Basques share close genetic ties to other Europeans, especially with Spaniards, who have a common genetic identity of over 70% with Basques, a homogeneity amongst both their Spanish and French populations, according to high-density SNP genotyping study done in May 2010, and a genomic distinctiveness, relative to other European populations. + +In 2015, a new scientific study of Basque DNA was published which seems to indicate that Basques are descendants of Neolithic farmers who mixed with local Mesolithic hunters before becoming genetically isolated from the rest of Europe for millennia. Mattias Jakobsson from Uppsala University in Sweden analysed genetic material from eight Stone Age human skeletons found in El Portalón Cavern in Atapuerca, northern Spain. These individuals lived between 3,500 and 5,500 years ago, after the transition to farming in southwest Europe. The results show that these early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to present-day Basques. The findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. According to the study, the "results show that the Basques trace their ancestry to early farming groups from Iberia, which contradicts previous views of them being a remnant population that trace their ancestry to Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups." These early Neolithic farmer ancestors of the Basques, however, additionally mixed with local southwestern hunter-gatherers, and "the proportion of hunter gatherer-related admixture into early farmers also increased over the course of two millennia." This admixed group was also found to be ancestral to other modern-day Iberian peoples, but while the Basques remained relatively isolated for millennia after this time, later migrations into Iberia led to distinct and additional admixture in all other Iberian groups. + +In 2019, a study was published in Science in which a more fine-tuned and deep time-transect of Iberian ancient populations including the Basque were analyzed. From their abstract, it says: "and we reveal that present-day Basques are best described as a typical Iron Age population without the admixture events that later affected the rest of Iberia." This indicates Basques were isolated from admixture with outside groups since at least 1000 BC, or 3,000 years before the present. In Iberia, these later admixture (interbreeding) events were with central European (Celtic), eastern Mediterranean (Phoenician, Greek and Roman), northern African (Carthaginian and Mauritanian) and northern European (Gothic and Frankish) populations, and genomic ancestry from them are found in varying degrees in all or most present-day Iberian populations, except – albeit to a limited extent even there – for the Basque. + +History + +Basque tribes were mentioned in Roman times by Strabo and Pliny, including the Vascones, Aquitani, and others. There is enough evidence to support the hypothesis that at that time and later they spoke old varieties of the Basque language (see: Aquitanian language). + +In the Early Middle Ages, the territory between the Ebro and Garonne rivers was known as Vasconia, a vaguely defined ethnic area and political entity struggling to fend off pressure from the Iberian Visigothic kingdom and Arab rule to the south, as well as the Frankish push from the north. By the turn of the first millennium, the territory of Vasconia had fragmented into different feudal regions, such as Soule and Labourd, while south of the Pyrenees the Castile, Pamplona and the Pyrenean counties of Aragon, Sobrarbe, Ribagorça (later Kingdom of Aragon), and Pallars emerged as the main regional entities with Basque population in the 9th and 10th centuries. + +The Kingdom of Pamplona, a central Basque realm, later known as Navarre, underwent a process of feudalization and was subject to the influence of its much larger Aragonese, Castilian and French neighbours. Castile deprived Navarre of its coastline by conquering key western territories (1199–1201), leaving the kingdom landlocked. The Basques were ravaged by the War of the Bands, bitter partisan wars between local ruling families. Weakened by the Navarrese civil war, the bulk of the realm eventually fell before the onslaught of the Spanish armies (1512–1524). However, the Navarrese territory north of the Pyrenees remained beyond the reach of an increasingly powerful Spain. Lower Navarre became a province of France in 1620. + +Nevertheless, the Basques enjoyed a great deal of self-government until the French Revolution (1790) and the Carlist Wars (1839, 1876), when the Basques supported heir apparent Carlos V and his descendants. On either side of the Pyrenees, the Basques lost their native institutions and laws held during the Ancien régime. Since then, despite the current limited self-governing status of the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre as settled by the Spanish Constitution, many Basques have attempted higher degrees of self-empowerment (see Basque nationalism), sometimes by acts of violence. Labourd, Lower Navarre, and Soule were integrated into the French department system (starting 1790), with Basque efforts to establish a region-specific political-administrative entity failing to take off to date. However, in January 2017, a single agglomeration community was established for the Basque Country in France. + +Geography + +Political and administrative divisions + +The Basque region is divided into at least three administrative units, namely the Basque Autonomous Community and Navarre in Spain, and the arrondissement of Bayonne and the cantons of Mauléon-Licharre and Tardets-Sorholus in the département of Pyrénées Atlantiques, France. + +The autonomous community (a concept established in the Spanish Constitution of 1978) known as Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa or EAE in Basque and as Comunidad Autónoma Vasca or CAV in Spanish (in English: Basque Autonomous Community or BAC), is made up of the three Spanish provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. The corresponding Basque names of these territories are Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and their Spanish names are Álava, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa. + +The BAC only includes three of the seven provinces of the currently called historical territories. It is sometimes referred to simply as "the Basque Country" (or Euskadi) by writers and public agencies only considering those three western provinces, but also on occasions merely as a convenient abbreviation when this does not lead to confusion in the context. Others reject this usage as inaccurate and are careful to specify the BAC (or an equivalent expression such as "the three provinces", up to 1978 referred to as "Provincias Vascongadas" in Spanish) when referring to this entity or region. Likewise, terms such as "the Basque Government" for "the government of the BAC" are commonly though not universally employed. In particular in common usage the French term Pays Basque ("Basque Country"), in the absence of further qualification, refers either to the whole Basque Country ("Euskal Herria" in Basque), or not infrequently to the northern (or "French") Basque Country specifically. + +Under Spain's present constitution, Navarre (Nafarroa in present-day Basque, Navarra historically in Spanish) constitutes a separate entity, called in present-day Basque Nafarroako Foru Erkidegoa, in Spanish Comunidad Foral de Navarra (the autonomous community of Navarre). The government of this autonomous community is the Government of Navarre. In historical contexts Navarre may refer to a wider area, and that the present-day northern Basque province of Lower Navarre may also be referred to as (part of) Nafarroa, while the term "High Navarre" (Nafarroa Garaia in Basque, Alta Navarra in Spanish) is also encountered as a way of referring to the territory of the present-day autonomous community. + +There are three other historic provinces parts of the Basque Country: Labourd, Lower Navarre and Soule (Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa in Basque; Labourd, Basse-Navarre and Soule in French), devoid of official status within France's present-day political and administrative territorial organization, and only minor political support to the Basque nationalists. A large number of regional and local nationalist and non-nationalist representatives have waged a campaign for years advocating for the creation of a separate Basque département, while these demands have gone unheard by the French administration. + +Population, main cities, and languages + +There are 2,123,000 people living in the Basque Autonomous Community (279,000 in Alava, 1,160,000 in Biscay and 684,000 in Gipuzkoa). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centers, are Bilbao (in Biscay), San Sebastián (in Gipuzkoa), and Vitoria-Gasteiz (in Álava). The official languages are Basque and Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish is compulsory under the Spanish constitution (article no. 3), and knowledge and usage of Basque is a right under the Statute of Autonomy (article no. 6), so only knowledge of Spanish is virtually universal. Knowledge of Basque, after declining for many years during Franco's dictatorship owing to official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 33 percent of the population in the Basque Autonomous Community speaks Basque. + +Navarre has a population of 601,000; its administrative capital and main city, also regarded by many nationalist Basques as the Basques' historical capital, is Pamplona (Iruñea in modern Basque). Only Spanish is an official language of Navarre, and the Basque language is only co-official in the province's northern region, where most Basque-speaking Navarrese are concentrated. + +About a quarter of a million people live in the French Basque Country. Nowadays Basque-speakers refer to this region as Iparralde (Basque for North), and to the Spanish provinces as Hegoalde (South). Much of this population lives in or near the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz (BAB) urban belt on the coast (in Basque these are Baiona, Angelu and Miarritze). The Basque language, which was traditionally spoken by most of the region's population outside the BAB urban zone, is today rapidly losing ground to French. The French Basque Country's lack of self-government within the French state is coupled with the absence of official status for the Basque language in the region. Attempts to introduce bilingualism in local administration have so far met direct refusal from French officials. + +Basque diaspora + +Large numbers of Basques have left the Basque Country to settle in the rest of Spain, France or other parts of the world in different historical periods, often for economic or political reasons. Historically the Basques abroad were often employed in shepherding and ranching and by maritime fisheries and merchants. Millions of Basque descendants (see Basque American and Basque Canadian) live in North America (the United States; Canada, mainly in the provinces of Newfoundland and Quebec), all over Latin America, South Africa, and Australia. + +Latin America +Miguel de Unamuno said: "There are at least two things that clearly can be attributed to Basques: the Society of Jesus and the Republic of Chile." Chilean historian Luis Thayer Ojeda estimated that 48 percent of immigrants to Chile in the 17th and 18th centuries were Basque. Estimates range between 2.5 and 5 million Basque descendants live in Chile; the Basque have been a major if not the strongest influence in the country's cultural and economic development. + +Basque place names are to be found, such as Nueva Vizcaya (now Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico), New Navarre (now Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico), Biscayne Bay (United States), and Aguereberry Point (United States). Nueva Vizcaya was the first province in the north of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico) to be explored and settled by the Spanish. It consisted mostly of the area which is today the states of Chihuahua and Durango (the original Durango is a known city in Biscay). + +In Mexico most descendants of Basque emigrees are concentrated in the cities of Monterrey, Saltillo, Reynosa, Camargo, and the states of Jalisco, Durango, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Sonora. The Basques were important in the mining industry; many were ranchers and vaqueros (cowboys), and the rest opened small shops in major cities such as Mexico City, Guadalajara and Puebla. In Guatemala, most Basques have been concentrated in Sacatepequez Department, Antigua Guatemala, Jalapa for six generations now, while some have migrated to Guatemala City. + +In Colombia, a large number of Basques settled mainly in Antioquia and the Coffee Axis. In 1955, Joaquín Ospina said: "Is there something more similar to the Basque people than the "antioqueños". Also, writer Arturo Escobar Uribe said in his book "Mitos de Antioquia" (Myths of Antioquia) (1950): "Antioquia, which in its clean ascendance predominates the peninsular farmer of the Basque provinces, inherited the virtues of its ancestors. ... Despite the predominance of the white race, its extension in the mountains ... has projected over Colombia's map the prototype of its race; in Medellín with the industrial paisa, entrepreneur, strong and steady ... in its towns, the adventurer, arrogant, world-explorer. ... Its myths, which are an evidence of their deep credulity and an indubitable proof of their Iberian ancestor, are the sequel of the conqueror's blood which runs through their veins". Bambuco, a Colombian folk music, has Basque roots. + +United States + +The largest of several important Basque communities in the United States is in the area around Boise, Idaho, home to the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, host to an annual Basque festival, as well as a festival for the Basque diaspora every five years. Reno, Nevada, where the Center for Basque Studies and the Basque Studies Library are located at the University of Nevada, is another significant nucleus of Basque population. Elko, Nevada, sponsors an annual Basque festival that celebrates the dance, cuisine and cultures of the Basque peoples of Spanish, French and Mexican nationalities who have arrived in Nevada since the late 19th century. + +Texas has a large percentage of Hispanics descended from Basques who participated in the conquest of New Spain. Many of the original Tejanos had Basque blood, including those who fought in the Battle of the Alamo alongside many of the other Texans. Along the Mexican/Texan border, many Basque surnames can be found. The largest concentration of Basques who settled on Mexico's north-eastern "frontera", including the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas, also settled along Texas' Rio Grande from South Texas to West Texas. Many of the historic hidalgos, or noble families from this area, had gained their titles and land grants from Spain and Mexico; they still value their land. Some of North America's largest ranches, which were founded under these colonial land grants, can be found in this region. + +California has a major concentration of Basques, most notably in the San Joaquin Valley between Stockton, Fresno and Bakersfield. The city of Bakersfield has a large Basque community and the city has several Basque restaurants, including Noriega's which won the 2011 James Beard Foundation America's Classic Award. There is a history of Basque culture in Chino, California. In Chino, two annual Basque festivals celebrate the dance, cuisine, and culture of the peoples. The surrounding area of San Bernardino County has many Basque descendants as residents. They are mostly descendants of settlers from Spain and Mexico. These Basques in California are grouped in the group known as Californios. + +Basques of European Spanish-French and Latin American nationalities also settled throughout the western U.S. in states like Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. + +Culture + +Language + +The identifying language of the Basques is called Basque or Euskara, spoken today by 25%-30% of the region's population. An idea of the central place the language has in cultural terms is given by the fact that Basques identify themselves by the term euskaldun and their country as Euskal Herria, literally "Basque speaker" and "Country of the Basque Language" respectively. The language has been made a political issue by official Spanish and French policies restricting its use either historically or currently; however, this has not stopped the teaching, speaking, writing, and cultivating of this increasingly vibrant minority language. This sense of Basque identity tied to the local language does not only exist in isolation. For many Basques, it is juxtaposed with a sense of either Spanish or French identity tied with the use of the Spanish and French languages among other Basques, especially in the French Basque Country. Regarding the Spanish Basque Country, Basques that don't have a sense of Spanish identity make up an important part of the population. As with many European states, a regional identity, be it linguistically derived or otherwise, is not mutually exclusive with the broader national one. For example, Basque rugby union player for France, Imanol Harinordoquy, has said about his national identity:"I am French and Basque. There is no conflict, I am proud of both. ... I have friends who are involved in the political side of things but that is not for me. My only interest is the culture, the Euskera language, the people, our history and ways." + +As a result of state language promotion, school policies, the effects of mass media and migration, today virtually all Basques (except for some children below school age) speak the official language of their state (Spanish or French). There are extremely few Basque monolingual speakers: essentially all Basque speakers are bilingual on both sides of the border. Spanish or French is typically the first language of citizens from other regions (who often feel no need to learn Basque), and Spanish or French is also the first language of many Basques, all of which maintains the dominance of the state tongues of both France and Spain. Recent Basque Government policies aim to change this pattern, as they are viewed as potential threats against mainstream usage of the minority tongue. + +The Basque language is thought to be a genetic language isolate in contrast with other European languages, vast majority of which belong to the broad Indo-European language family. Another peculiarity of Basque is that it has probably been spoken continuously in situ, in and around its present territorial location, for longer than most other modern European languages, which are typically thought to have been introduced in historic or prehistoric times through population migrations or other processes of cultural transmission. + +However, popular stereotypes characterizing Basque as "the oldest language in Europe" and "unique among the world's languages" may be misunderstood and lead to erroneous assumptions. Over the centuries, Basque has remained in continuous contact with neighboring western European languages with which it has come to share numerous lexical properties and typological features; it is therefore misleading to exaggerate the "outlandish" character of Basque. Basque is also a modern language, and is established as a written and printed one used in present-day forms of publication and communication, as well as a language spoken and used in a very wide range of social and cultural contexts, styles, and registers. + +Land and inheritance + +Basques have a close attachment to their home (etxe(a) 'house, home'), especially when this consists of the traditional self-sufficient, family-run farm or baserri(a). Home in this context is synonymous with family roots. Some Basque surnames were adapted from old baserri or habitation names. They typically related to a geographical orientation or other locally meaningful identifying features. Such surnames provide even those Basques whose families may have left the land generations ago with an important link to their rural family origins: Bengoetxea "the house of further down", Goikoetxea "the house above", Landaburu "top of the field", Errekondo "next to the stream", Elizalde "by the church", Mendizabal "wide hill", Usetxe "house of birds" Ibarretxe "house in the valley", Etxeberria "the new house", and so on. + +In contrast to surrounding regions, ancient Basque inheritance patterns, recognised in the fueros, favoured survival of the unity of inherited land holdings. In a kind of primogeniture, these usually were inherited by the eldest male or female child. As in other cultures, the fate of other family members depended on the assets of a family: wealthy Basque families tended to provide for all children in some way, while less-affluent families may have had only one asset to provide to one child. However, this heir often provided for the rest of the family (unlike in England, with strict primogeniture, where the eldest son inherited everything and often did not provide for others). Even though they were provided for in some way, younger siblings had to make much of their living by other means. Mostly after the advent of industrialisation, this system resulted in the emigration of many rural Basques to Spain, France or the Americas. Harsh by modern standards, this custom resulted in a great many enterprising figures of Basque origin who went into the world to earn their way, from Spanish conquistadors such as Lope de Aguirre and Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, to explorers, missionaries and saints of the Catholic Church, such as Francis Xavier. + +A widespread belief that Basque society was originally matriarchal is at odds with the current, clearly patrilineal kinship system and inheritance structures. Some scholars and commentators have attempted to reconcile these points by assuming that patrilineal kinship represents an innovation. In any case, the social position of women in both traditional and modern Basque society is somewhat better than in neighbouring cultures, and women have a substantial influence in decisions about the domestic economy. In the past, some women participated in collective magical ceremonies. They were key participants in a rich folklore, today largely forgotten. + +Cuisine + +Basque cuisine is at the heart of Basque culture, influenced by the neighboring communities and produce from the sea and the land. A 20th-century feature of Basque culture is the phenomenon of gastronomical societies (called txoko in Basque), food clubs where men gather to cook and enjoy their own food. Until recently, women were allowed entry only one day in the year. Cider houses (Sagardotegiak) are popular restaurants in Gipuzkoa open for a few months while the cider is in season. + +Cultural production + +At the end of the 20th century, despite ETA violence (ended in 2010) and the crisis of heavy industries, the Basque economic condition recovered remarkably. They emerged from the Franco regime with a revitalized language and culture. The Basque language expanded geographically led by large increases in the major urban centers of Pamplona, Bilbao, and Bayonne, where only a few decades ago the Basque language had all but disappeared. Nowadays, the number of Basque speakers is maintaining its level or increasing slightly. + +Music + +Religion +Traditionally Basques have been mostly Catholics. In the 19th century and well into the 20th, Basques as a group remained notably devout and churchgoing. In recent years church attendance has fallen off, as in most of Western Europe. The region has been a source of missionaries like Francis Xavier and Michel Garicoïts. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, was a Basque. California Franciscan Fermín Lasuén was born in Vitoria. Lasuén was the successor to Franciscan Padre Junípero Serra and founded 9 of the 21 extant California Missions along the coast. + +A sprout of Protestantism in the continental Basque Country produced the first translation of the new Testament into Basque by Joanes Leizarraga. Queen Jeanne III of Navarre, a devout Huguenot, commissioned the translation of the New Testament into Basque and Béarnese for the benefit of her subjects. By the time Henry III of Navarre converted to Catholicism in order to become king of France, Protestantism virtually disappeared from the Basque community. + +Bayonne held a Jewish community composed mainly of Sephardi Jews fleeing from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. There were also important Jewish and Muslim communities in Navarre before the Castilian invasion of 1512–21. + +Nowadays, according to one single opinion poll, only slightly more than 50% of Basques profess some kind of belief in God, while the rest are either agnostic or atheist. The number of religious skeptics increases noticeably for the younger generations, while the older ones are more religious. Catholicism is, by far, the largest religion in Basque Country. In 2019, the proportion of Basques that identify themselves as Roman Catholic was 60%, while it is one of the most secularized communities of Spain: 24.6% were non-religious and 12.3% of Basques were atheist. + +Pre-Christian religion and mythology + +Christianisation of the Basque Country has been the topic of some discussion. There are, broadly speaking, two views. According to one, Christianity arrived in the Basque Country during the 4th and 5th centuries but according to the other, it did not take place until the 12th and 13th centuries. The main issue lies in the different interpretations of what is considered Christianisation. Early traces of Christianity can be found in the major urban areas from the 4th century onwards, a bishopric from 589 in Pamplona and three hermit cave concentrations (two in Álava, one in Navarre) that were in use from the 6th century onwards. In this sense, Christianity arrived "early". + +Pre-Christian belief seems to have focused on a goddess called Mari. A number of place-names contain her name, which would suggest these places were related to worship of her such as Anbotoko Mari who appears to have been related to the weather. According to one tradition, she travelled every seven years between a cave on Mount Anboto and one on another mountain (the stories vary); the weather would be wet when she was in Anboto, dry when she was in Aloña, or Supelegor, or Gorbea. One of her names, Mari Urraca possibly ties her to an historical Navarrese princess of the 11th and 12th century, with other legends giving her a brother or cousin who was a Roman Catholic priest. So far the discussions about whether the name Mari is original and just happened to coincide closely with the Christian name María or if Mari is an early Basque attempt to give a Christian veneer to pagan worship have remained speculative. At any rate, Mari (Andramari) is one of the oldest worshipped Christian icons in Basque territories. + +Mari's consort is Sugaar. This chthonic couple seems to bear the superior ethical power and the power of creation and destruction. It's said that when they gathered in the high caves of the sacred peaks, they engendered the storms. These meetings typically happened on Friday nights, the day of historical akelarre or coven. Mari was said to reside in Mount Anboto; periodically she crossed the skies as a bright light to reach her other home at Mount Txindoki. + +Legends also speak of many and abundant genies, like jentilak (equivalent to giants), lamiak (equivalent to nymphs), mairuak (builders of the cromlechs or stone circles, literally Moors), iratxoak (imps), sorginak (witches, priestess of Mari), and so on. Basajaun is a Basque version of the Woodwose. There is a trickster named San Martin Txiki ("St Martin the Lesser"). + +It is unclear whether Neolithic stone structures called dolmens have a religious significance or were built to house animals or resting shepherds. Some of the dolmens and cromlechs are burial sites serving also as border markers. + The jentilak ('Giants'), on the other hand, are a legendary people which explains the disappearance of a people of Stone Age culture that used to live in the high lands and with no knowledge of iron. Many legends about them tell that they were bigger and taller, with a great force, but were displaced by the ferrons, or workers of ironworks foundries, until their total fade-out. They were pagans, but one of them, Olentzero, accepted Christianity and became a sort of Basque Santa Claus. They gave name to several toponyms, as Jentilbaratza. + +Society + +Historically, Basque society can be described as being somewhat at odds with Roman and later European societal norms. Strabo's account of the north of Spain in his Geographica (written between approximately 20 BC and 20 AD) makes a mention of "a sort of woman-rule—not at all a mark of civilization" (Hadington 1992), a first mention of the—for the period—unusual position of women: "Women could inherit and control property as well as officiate in churches." The evidence for this assertion is rather sparse however. + +This preference for female dominance existed well into the 20th century: +... matrilineal inheritance laws, and agricultural work performed by women continued in Basque country until the early twentieth century. For more than a century, scholars have widely discussed the high status of Basque women in law codes, as well as their positions as judges, inheritors, and arbitrators through ante-Roman, medieval, and modern times. The system of laws governing succession in the French Basque region reflected total equality between the sexes. Up until the eve of the French Revolution, the Basque woman was truly 'the mistress of the house', hereditary guardian, and head of the lineage. + +While women continued to have a higher position in Basque than other western European societies, it is highly unlikely that any point the society was 'matriarchal', as is often falsely claimed about pre-Indo-European peoples in general. The 'Basque matriarchy' argument is typically tied to 20th century nationalism and is at odds with earlier accounts of the society. + +Although the Kingdom of Navarre did adopt feudalism, most Basques also possessed unusual social institutions different from those of the rest of feudal Europe. Some aspects of this include the elizate tradition where local house-owners met in front of the church to elect a representative to send to the juntas and Juntas Generales (such as the Juntas Generales de Vizcaya or Guipúzcoa) which administered much larger areas. Another example was that in the medieval period most land was owned by the farmers, not the Church or a king. + +Sports in the Basque Country + +Pelota + +The great family of ball games has its unique offspring among Basque ball games, known generically as pilota (Spanish: pelota). Some variants have been exported to the United States and Macau under the name of Jai Alai. + +Rural sports + +There are several sports derived by Basques from everyday chores. Heavy workers were challenged and bets placed upon them. Examples are: + estropadak rowing regattas: from fishermen activities. + sokatira: tug-of-war. + harri-jasotzea: stone-lifting, from quarry works. + aizkolaritza and trontzalaritza: wood-chopping and log sawing. + sega jokoa: cutting grass with a scythe. + Giza-abere probak: stone block pulling, from construction works: + idi probak with teams of oxen. + asto probak with donkeys. + zaldi probak with horses. + gizon probak with human teams. + txinga eramatea: carrying of weights, one in each hand, representing milk canisters. + ahari topaketa: ram fights. + harri zulaketa competitions: drilling stone blocks with a metal bar, only in the former mining areas of West Biscay. + Basque sheepdog trials competitions. + +Bull runs and bullock games +The encierro (bull run) in Pamplona's fiestas Sanfermines started as a transport of bulls to the ring. These encierros, as well as other bull and bullock related activities are not exclusive to Pamplona but are traditional in many towns and villages of the Basque country. + +Football + +There are several clubs within the Basque Country, such as Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Deportivo Alavés, SD Eibar and, as Navarre club, the CA Osasuna (the only club in La Liga that has a Basque name—osasuna means "health"). In the 2016–17 season these five clubs played together in La Liga, the first instance where five Basque clubs have reached that level at the same time. Athletic's recruitment policy has meant the club refuses to sign any non-Basque players, with "Basque" currently defined to include either ethnic Basques or players of any ethnicity trained by a Basque club. Real Sociedad also previously employed such a policy. + +Basketball + +The Basque Country also features several professional basketball teams, the most notable of which is Saski Baskonia from Vitoria-Gasteiz, one of the 11 clubs that own stakes in Euroleague Basketball, the company that operates the continent-wide EuroLeague and EuroCup. They are currently joined in the Spanish top flight, Liga ACB, by Bilbao Basket, with the two clubs involved in a longstanding rivalry. Another club from the Basque Country, Gipuzkoa Basket from Donostia, currently plays in the second-level LEB Oro. + +Rugby union +Rugby union is a popular sport among French Basques, with major clubs Biarritz Olympique and Aviron Bayonnais traditional powerhouses in the premier division of French Rugby (the Top 14). Biarritz regularly play Champions Cup matches, especially knockout matches, at Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastian. Games between the Basque clubs and Catalan club USA Perpignan are always hard fought. + +Professional cycling +Cycling is popular and the professional cycling team, partly sponsored by the Basque Government participated in the UCI World Tour division until 2014. Known for their orange tops and hill-climbing ability, their fans were famous for lining the famous Pyrenean climbs in the Tour de France, in support of their compatriots. + +Each April the week-long Tour of the Basque Country showcases the beautiful rolling Basque countryside. Miguel Indurain, born in Villava is one of the most celebrated cyclists in the world having won 5 consecutive Tours de France. + +Politics + +While there is no independent Basque state, Spain's autonomous community of the Basque Country, made up of the provinces of Álava (Araba), Biscay (Bizkaia) and Gipuzkoa, is primarily a historical consequence and an answer to the wide autonomy claim of its population. + +Navarre has a separate statute of autonomy, a contentious arrangement designed during Spanish transition to democracy (the Amejoramiento, an 'upgrade' of its previous status during dictatorship). It refers back to the kingdom status of Navarre (up to 1841) and their traditional institutional and legal framework (charters). Basque, the original and main language of Navarre up to the late 18th century, has kept family transmission especially in the northern part of Navarre and central areas to a lesser extent, designated as Basque speaking or mixed area in Navarrese law. Questions of political, linguistic and cultural allegiance and identity are highly complex in Navarre. Politically some Basque nationalists would like to integrate with the Basque Autonomous Community. + +The French Basque Country today does not exist as a formal political entity and is officially simply part of the French department of Pyrénées Atlantiques, centered in Béarn. In recent years the number of mayors of the region supporting the creation of a separate Basque department has grown to 63.87%. So far, their attempts have been unsuccessful. + +Political conflicts + +Language + +Both the Spanish and French governments have, at times, suppressed Basque linguistic and cultural identity. The French Republics, the epitome of the nation-state, have a long history of attempting the complete cultural absorption of cultural minority groups. Spain has, at most points in its history, granted some degree of linguistic, cultural, and even political autonomy to its Basques, but under the regime of Francisco Franco, the Spanish government reversed the advances of Basque nationalism, as it had fought in the opposite side of the Spanish Civil War: cultural activity in Basque was limited to folkloric issues and the Catholic Church. + +Today, the Southern Basque Country within Spain enjoys an extensive cultural and political autonomy. The majority of schools under the jurisdiction of the Basque education system use Basque as the primary medium of teaching. However, the situation is more delicate in the Northern Basque Country within France, where Basque is not officially recognized, and where lack of autonomy and monolingual public schooling in French exert great pressure on the Basque language. + +In Navarre, Basque has been declared an endangered language, since the anti-Basque and conservative government of Navarrese People's Union opposes the symbols of Basque culture, highlighting a Spanish identity for Navarre. + +Basque is also spoken by immigrants in the major cities of Spain and France, in Australia, in many parts of Latin America, and in the United States, especially in Nevada, Idaho, and California. + +Political status and violence + +Since its articulation by Sabino Arana in the late 19th century, the more radical currents of Basque nationalism have demanded the right of self-determination and even independence. Within the Basque country, this element of Basque politics is often in balance with the conception of the Basque Country as just another part of the Spanish state, a view more commonly espoused on the right of the political spectrum. In contrast, the desire for greater autonomy or independence is particularly common among leftist Basque nationalists. The right of self-determination was asserted by the Basque Parliament in 2002 and 2006. Since self-determination is not recognized in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, a wide majority of Basques abstained (55%) and some even voted against it (23.5%) in the ratification referendum of December 6 of that year. However, it was approved by clear majority overall in Spain (87%). The autonomous regime for the Basque Country was approved in a 1979 referendum but the autonomy of Navarre (Amejoramiento del Fuero: "improvement of the charter") was never subject to a referendum but only approved by the Navarrese Cortes (parliament). + +Political violence + +Classification +As with their language, the Basques are clearly a distinct cultural group in their region. They regard themselves as culturally and especially linguistically distinct from their surrounding neighbours. Some Basques identify themselves as Basques only whereas others identify themselves both as Basque and Spanish. Many Basques regard the designation as a "cultural minority" as incomplete, favouring instead the definition as a nation, the commonly accepted designation for the Basque people up to the rise of the nation-states and the definition imposed by the 1812 Spanish Constitution. + +In modern times, as a European people living in a highly industrialized area, cultural differences from the rest of Europe are inevitably blurred, although a conscious cultural identity as a people or nation remains very strong, as does an identification with their homeland, even among many Basques who have emigrated to other parts of Spain or France, or to other parts of the world. + +The strongest distinction between the Basques and their traditional neighbours is linguistic. Surrounded by Romance-language speakers, the Basques traditionally spoke (and many still speak) a language that was not only non-Romance but non-Indo-European. The prevailing belief amongst Basques, and forming part of their national identity, is that their language has continuity with the people who were in this region since not only pre-Roman and pre-Celtic times, but since the Stone Age. + +Notable Basques + +Among the most notable Basque people are Juan Sebastián Elcano (who led the first successful expedition to circumnavigate the globe after Ferdinand Magellan died mid-journey); Sancho III of Navarre; and Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus. + +Don Diego María de Gardoqui y Arriquibar (1735–1798) was also a Basque who became Spain's first Ambassador to the United States, and Miguel de Unamuno was a noted novelist and philosopher of the late 19th and the 20th century, was also a Basque. + +Another well-known Basque was Father Alberto Hurtado, S.J. (1901–1952), a Jesuit priest who founded the charitable housing system Hogar de Cristo, meaning hearth, or home, of Christ, in Chile. El Hogar provided a home-like milieu for the homeless. Hurtado also founded the Chilean Trade Union Association to promote a union movement based on the social teachings of the Catholic Church. He was a friend and savior to all the poor and homeless, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 16, 1994. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 23, 2005. + +See also + + Aberri Eguna + Aquitani + Basque code talkers + Cro-Magnon + Duchy of Vasconia + French people + Genetic history of Europe + Iberians + Late Basquisation + List of Basques + National and regional identity in Spain + Spanish people + Vascones + +Footnotes + +References + Allières, Jacques. The Basques 1977; online 2016 reprint. + The Basques, the Catalans and Spain, Daniele Conversi, 2000, . + The Basque History of the World, Mark Kurlansky, 1999, . + The Oldest Europeans, J. F. del Giorgio, A. J. Place, 2006, . + Ethnologue report for France for population statistics in France. + Euskal Herria en la Prehistoria, Xabier Peñalver Iribarren, 1996, . + Gimbutas, Marija, The Living Goddesses (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). + +External links + + Basque Autonomous Government + 8 Probintziak. Non profit association working with the basques in the world + Oroitzapenak Voices From Basque America, University of Nevada, Reno, Special Collections. + Basque Digital Collection, University of Nevada, Reno Special Collections + Sheepherders of Northern Nevada, University of Nevada, Reno, Special Collections + Basque Posters, University of Nevada, Reno, Special Collections + Voices from Basque America University of Nevada, Reno Libraries + +Basque people +People +Ethnic groups divided by international borders +Ethnic groups in Argentina +Ethnic groups in Chile +Ethnic groups in France +Ethnic groups in Mexico +Ethnic groups in South America +Ethnic groups in Spain +Ethnic groups in Uruguay +Indigenous peoples of Europe +Ethnic groups in Cuba +Pre-Indo-Europeans +Blot may refer to: + +Surname +Guillaume Blot (born 1985), French racing cyclist +Harold W. Blot (born 1938), served as United States Deputy Chief of Staff for Aviation +Jean-François Joseph Blot (1781–1857), French soldier and politician +Yvan Blot (1948–2018), French conservative political figure, founder and president of the Club de l'Horloge +Jean Blot (1923–2019), French writer, translator, and senior civil servant of Russian origin + (born 1983), French judoka + +Other +Blot (biology), method of transferring proteins, DNA, RNA or a protein onto a carrier +Blót, a sacrifice to the gods or other beings in Germanic paganism and modern Germanic paganism +Blot (album), a 2003 album by Einherjer, referring to the Germanic practice +The Blot, a 1921 silent film +Another name of a trick-taking card game Belot +Blot (Transformers), a character from the Transformers franchise +Ink blots, as used in the Rorschach test + Blot (1994 film), a 1994 film + +See also + "Hefja Blot", a song by Danheim for his album Friðr + "Blotjarl", a song by Danheim and Heldom for his album Skapanir + "Vetrnátta Blot", a song by Danheim and Heldom for his album Skapanir +Phantom Blot, a character made by the Walt Disney Company +Saint-Rémy-de-Blot, commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France +The Blot on the Shield, 1915 short film directed by B. Reeves Eason +Blott (disambiguation) +Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions, and is part of the process of accounting in business and other organizations. It involves preparing source documents for all transactions, operations, and other events of a business. Transactions include purchases, sales, receipts and payments by an individual person or an organization/corporation. There are several standard methods of bookkeeping, including the single-entry and double-entry bookkeeping systems. While these may be viewed as "real" bookkeeping, any process for recording financial transactions is a bookkeeping process. + +The person in an organisation who is employed to perform bookkeeping functions is usually called the bookkeeper (or book-keeper). They usually write the daybooks (which contain records of sales, purchases, receipts, and payments), and document each financial transaction, whether cash or credit, into the correct daybook—that is, petty cash book, suppliers ledger, customer ledger, etc.—and the general ledger. Thereafter, an accountant can create financial reports from the information recorded by the bookkeeper. The bookkeeper brings the books to the trial balance stage, from which an accountant may prepare financial reports for the organisation, such as the income statement and balance sheet. + +History +The origin of book-keeping is lost in obscurity, but recent research indicates that methods of keeping accounts have existed from the remotest times of human life in cities. Babylonian records written with styli on small slabs of clay have been found dating to 2600 BC. Mesopotamian bookkeepers kept records on clay tablets that may date back as far as 7,000 years. Use of the modern double entry bookkeeping system was described by Luca Pacioli in 1494. + +The term "waste book" was used in colonial America, referring to the documenting of daily transactions of receipts and expenditures. Records were made in chronological order, and for temporary use only. Daily records were then transferred to a daybook or account ledger to balance the accounts and to create a permanent journal; then the waste book could be discarded, hence the name. + +Process +The primary purpose of bookkeeping is to record the financial effects of transactions. An important difference between a manual and an electronic accounting system is the former's latency between the recording of a financial transaction and its posting in the relevant account. This delay, which is absent in electronic accounting systems due to nearly instantaneous posting to relevant accounts, is characteristic of manual systems, and gave rise to the primary books of accounts—cash book, purchase book, sales book, etc.—for immediately documenting a financial transaction. + +In the normal course of business, a document is produced each time a transaction occurs. Sales and purchases usually have invoices or receipts. Historically, deposit slips were produced when lodgements (deposits) were made to a bank account; and checks (spelled "cheques" in the UK and several other countries) were written to pay money out of the account. Nowadays such transactions are mostly made electronically. Bookkeeping first involves recording the details of all of these source documents into multi-column journals (also known as books of first entry or daybooks). For example, all credit sales are recorded in the sales journal; all cash payments are recorded in the cash payments journal. Each column in a journal normally corresponds to an account. In the single entry system, each transaction is recorded only once. Most individuals who balance their check-book each month are using such a system, and most personal-finance software follows this approach. + +After a certain period, typically a month, each column in each journal is totalled to give a summary for that period. Using the rules of double-entry, these journal summaries are then transferred to their respective accounts in the ledger, or account book. For example, the entries in the Sales Journal are taken and a debit entry is made in each customer's account (showing that the customer now owes us money), and a credit entry might be made in the account for "Sale of class 2 widgets" (showing that this activity has generated revenue for us). This process of transferring summaries or individual transactions to the ledger is called posting. Once the posting process is complete, accounts kept using the "T" format (debits on the left side of the "T" and credits on the right side) undergo balancing, which is simply a process to arrive at the balance of the account. + +As a partial check that the posting process was done correctly, a working document called an unadjusted trial balance is created. In its simplest form, this is a three-column list. Column One contains the names of those accounts in the ledger which have a non-zero balance. If an account has a debit balance, the balance amount is copied into Column Two (the debit column); if an account has a credit balance, the amount is copied into Column Three (the credit column). The debit column is then totalled, and then the credit column is totalled. The two totals must agree—which is not by chance—because under the double-entry rules, whenever there is a posting, the debits of the posting equal the credits of the posting. If the two totals do not agree, an error has been made, either in the journals or during the posting process. The error must be located and rectified, and the totals of the debit column and the credit column recalculated to check for agreement before any further processing can take place. + +Once the accounts balance, the accountant makes a number of adjustments and changes the balance amounts of some of the accounts. These adjustments must still obey the double-entry rule: for example, the inventory account and asset account might be changed to bring them into line with the actual numbers counted during a stocktake. At the same time, the expense account associated with use of inventory is adjusted by an equal and opposite amount. Other adjustments such as posting depreciation and prepayments are also done at this time. This results in a listing called the adjusted trial balance. It is the accounts in this list, and their corresponding debit or credit balances, that are used to prepare the financial statements. + +Finally financial statements are drawn from the trial balance, which may include: + the income statement, also known as the statement of financial results, profit and loss account, or P&L + the balance sheet, also known as the statement of financial position + the cash flow statement + the statement of changes in equity, also known as the statement of total recognised gains and losses + +Single-entry system + +The primary bookkeeping record in single-entry bookkeeping is the cash book, which is similar to a checking account register (in UK: cheque account, current account), except all entries are allocated among several categories of income and expense accounts. Separate account records are maintained for petty cash, accounts payable and accounts receivable, and other relevant transactions such as inventory and travel expenses. To save time and avoid the errors of manual calculations, single-entry bookkeeping can be done today with do-it-yourself bookkeeping software. + +Double-entry system + +A double-entry bookkeeping system is a set of rules for recording financial information in a financial accounting system in which every transaction or event changes at least two different nominal ledger accounts. + +Daybooks +A daybook is a descriptive and chronological (diary-like) record of day-to-day financial transactions; it is also called a book of original entry. The daybook's details must be transcribed formally into journals to enable posting to ledgers. Daybooks include: + +Sales daybook, for recording sales invoices. +Sales credits daybook, for recording sales credit notes. +Purchases daybook, for recording purchase invoices. +Purchases debits daybook, for recording purchase debit notes. +Cash daybook, usually known as the cash book, for recording all monies received and all monies paid out. It may be split into two daybooks: a receipts daybook documenting every money-amount received, and a payments daybook recording every payment made. +General Journal daybook, for recording journal entries. + +Petty cash book +A petty cash book is a record of small-value purchases before they are later transferred to the ledger and final accounts; it is maintained by a petty or junior cashier. This type of cash book usually uses the imprest system: a certain amount of money is provided to the petty cashier by the senior cashier. This money is to cater for minor expenditures (hospitality, minor stationery, casual postage, and so on) and is reimbursed periodically on satisfactory explanation of how it was spent. +The balance of petty cash book is Asset. + +Journals +Journals are recorded in the general journal daybook. A journal is a formal and chronological record of financial transactions before their values are accounted for in the general ledger as debits and credits. A company can maintain one journal for all transactions, or keep several journals based on similar activity (e.g., sales, cash receipts, revenue, etc.), making transactions easier to summarize and reference later. For every debit journal entry recorded, there must be an equivalent credit journal entry to maintain a balanced accounting equation. + +Ledgers +A ledger is a record of accounts. The ledger is a permanent summary of all amounts entered in supporting Journals which list individual transactions by date. These accounts are recorded separately, showing their beginning/ending balance. A journal lists financial transactions in chronological order, without showing their balance but showing how much is going to be charged in each account. A ledger takes each financial transaction from the journal and records it into the corresponding account for every transaction listed. The ledger also sums up the total of every account, which is transferred into the balance sheet and the income statement. There are three different kinds of ledgers that deal with book-keeping: +Sales ledger, which deals mostly with the accounts receivable account. This ledger consists of the records of the financial transactions made by customers to the business. +Purchase ledger is the record of the company's purchasing transactions; it goes hand in hand with the Accounts Payable account. + +Abbreviations used in bookkeeping + +Chart of accounts +A chart of accounts is a list of the accounts codes that can be identified with numeric, alphabetical, or alphanumeric codes allowing the account to be located in the general ledger. The equity section of the chart of accounts is based on the fact that the legal structure of the entity is of a particular legal type. Possibilities include sole trader, partnership, trust, and company. + +Computerized bookkeeping +Computerized bookkeeping removes many of the paper "books" that are used to record the financial transactions of a business entity; instead, relational databases are used today, but typically, these still enforce the norms of bookkeeping including the single-entry and double-entry bookkeeping systems. Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) supervise the internal controls for computerized bookkeeping systems, which serve to minimize errors in documenting the numerous activities a business entity may initiate or complete over an accounting period. + +See also + Accounting + Comparison of accounting software + POS system: records sales and updates stock levels + Bookkeeping Associations + coordinate bookkeeper + +References + +External links + + + Guide to the Account Book from Italy 1515–1520 + +Accounting systems +Accounting +A Bézier curve ( ) is a parametric curve used in computer graphics and related fields. A set of discrete "control points" defines a smooth, continuous curve by means of a formula. Usually the curve is intended to approximate a real-world shape that otherwise has no mathematical representation or whose representation is unknown or too complicated. The Bézier curve is named after French engineer Pierre Bézier (1910–1999), who used it in the 1960s for designing curves for the bodywork of Renault cars. Other uses include the design of computer fonts and animation. Bézier curves can be combined to form a Bézier spline, or generalized to higher dimensions to form Bézier surfaces. The Bézier triangle is a special case of the latter. + +In vector graphics, Bézier curves are used to model smooth curves that can be scaled indefinitely. "Paths", as they are commonly referred to in image manipulation programs, are combinations of linked Bézier curves. Paths are not bound by the limits of rasterized images and are intuitive to modify. + +Bézier curves are also used in the time domain, particularly in animation, user interface design and smoothing cursor trajectory in eye gaze controlled interfaces. For example, a Bézier curve can be used to specify the velocity over time of an object such as an icon moving from A to B, rather than simply moving at a fixed number of pixels per step. When animators or interface designers talk about the "physics" or "feel" of an operation, they may be referring to the particular Bézier curve used to control the velocity over time of the move in question. + +This also applies to robotics where the motion of a welding arm, for example, should be smooth to avoid unnecessary wear. + +Invention +The mathematical basis for Bézier curves—the Bernstein polynomials—was established in 1912, but the polynomials were not applied to graphics until some 50 years later when mathematician Paul de Casteljau in 1959 developed de Casteljau's algorithm, a numerically stable method for evaluating the curves, and became the first to apply them to computer-aided design at French automaker Citroën. Yet, de Casteljau's method was patented in France but not published until the 1980s while the Bézier polynomials were widely publicised in the 1960s by the French engineer Pierre Bézier, who discovered them independently and used them to design automobile bodies at Renault. + +Specific cases +A Bézier curve is defined by a set of control points P0 through Pn, where n is called the order of the curve (n = 1 for linear, 2 for quadratic, 3 for cubic, etc.). The first and last control points are always the endpoints of the curve; however, the intermediate control points generally do not lie on the curve. The sums in the following sections are to be understood as affine combinations – that is, the coefficients sum to 1. + +Linear Bézier curves +Given distinct points P0 and P1, a linear Bézier curve is simply a line between those two points. The curve is given by + +and is equivalent to linear interpolation. The quantity represents the displacement vector from the start point to the end point. + +Quadratic Bézier curves + +A quadratic Bézier curve is the path traced by the function B(t), given points P0, P1, and P2, + + , + +which can be interpreted as the linear interpolant of corresponding points on the linear Bézier curves from P0 to P1 and from P1 to P2 respectively. Rearranging the preceding equation yields: + + + +This can be written in a way that highlights the symmetry with respect to P1: + + + +Which immediately gives the derivative of the Bézier curve with respect to t: + + + +from which it can be concluded that the tangents to the curve at P0 and P2 intersect at P1. As t increases from 0 to 1, the curve departs from P0 in the direction of P1, then bends to arrive at P2 from the direction of P1. + +The second derivative of the Bézier curve with respect to t is + +Cubic Bézier curves +Four points P0, P1, P2 and P3 in the plane or in higher-dimensional space define a cubic Bézier curve. +The curve starts at P0 going toward P1 and arrives at P3 coming from the direction of P2. Usually, it will not pass through P1 or P2; these points are only there to provide directional information. The distance between P1 and P2 determines "how far" and "how fast" the curve moves towards P1 before turning towards P2. + +Writing BPi,Pj,Pk(t) for the quadratic Bézier curve defined by points Pi, Pj, and Pk, the cubic Bézier curve can be defined as an affine combination of two quadratic Bézier curves: + +The explicit form of the curve is: + +For some choices of P1 and P2 the curve may intersect itself, or contain a cusp. + +Any series of 4 distinct points can be converted to a cubic Bézier curve that goes through all 4 points in order. +Given the starting and ending point of some cubic Bézier curve, and the points along the curve corresponding to t = 1/3 and t = 2/3, the control points for the original Bézier curve can be recovered. + +The derivative of the cubic Bézier curve with respect to t is + + +The second derivative of the Bézier curve with respect to t is + +General definition +Bézier curves can be defined for any degree n. + +Recursive definition +A recursive definition for the Bézier curve of degree n expresses it as a point-to-point linear combination (linear interpolation) of a pair of corresponding points in two Bézier curves of degree n − 1. + +Let denote the Bézier curve determined by any selection of points P0, P1, ..., Pk. Then to start, + +This recursion is elucidated in the animations below. + +Explicit definition +The formula can be expressed explicitly as follows (where t0 and (1-t)0 are extended continuously to be 1 throughout [0,1]): + +where are the binomial coefficients. + +For example, when n = 5: + +Terminology +Some terminology is associated with these parametric curves. We have + +where the polynomials + +are known as Bernstein basis polynomials of degree n. + +t0 = 1, (1 − t)0 = 1, and the binomial coefficient, , is: + +The points Pi are called control points for the Bézier curve. The polygon formed by connecting the Bézier points with lines, starting with P0 and finishing with Pn, is called the Bézier polygon (or control polygon). The convex hull of the Bézier polygon contains the Bézier curve. + +Polynomial form +Sometimes it is desirable to express the Bézier curve as a polynomial instead of a sum of less straightforward Bernstein polynomials. Application of the binomial theorem to the definition of the curve followed by some rearrangement will yield + +where + +This could be practical if can be computed prior to many evaluations of ; however one should use caution as high order curves may lack numeric stability (de Casteljau's algorithm should be used if this occurs). Note that the empty product is 1. + +Properties + + The curve begins at and ends at ; this is the so-called endpoint interpolation property. + The curve is a line if and only if all the control points are collinear. + The start and end of the curve is tangent to the first and last section of the Bézier polygon, respectively. + A curve can be split at any point into two subcurves, or into arbitrarily many subcurves, each of which is also a Bézier curve. + Some curves that seem simple, such as the circle, cannot be described exactly by a Bézier or piecewise Bézier curve; though a four-piece cubic Bézier curve can approximate a circle (see composite Bézier curve), with a maximum radial error of less than one part in a thousand, when each inner control point (or offline point) is the distance horizontally or vertically from an outer control point on a unit circle. More generally, an n-piece cubic Bézier curve can approximate a circle, when each inner control point is the distance from an outer control point on a unit circle, where (i.e. ), and . + Every quadratic Bézier curve is also a cubic Bézier curve, and more generally, every degree n Bézier curve is also a degree m curve for any m > n. In detail, a degree n curve with control points is equivalent (including the parametrization) to the degree n + 1 curve with control points , where , and define , . + Bézier curves have the variation diminishing property. What this means in intuitive terms is that a Bézier curve does not "undulate" more than the polygon of its control points, and may actually "undulate" less than that. + There is no local control in degree n Bézier curves—meaning that any change to a control point requires recalculation of and thus affects the aspect of the entire curve, "although the further that one is from the control point that was changed, the smaller is the change in the curve." + A Bézier curve of order higher than two may intersect itself or have a cusp for certain choices of the control points. + +Second-order curve is a parabolic segment + +A quadratic Bézier curve is also a segment of a parabola. As a parabola is a conic section, some sources refer to quadratic Béziers as "conic arcs". With reference to the figure on the right, the important features of the parabola can be derived as follows: + + Tangents to the parabola at the endpoints of the curve (A and B) intersect at its control point (C). + If D is the midpoint of AB, the tangent to the curve which is perpendicular to CD (dashed cyan line) defines its vertex (V). Its axis of symmetry (dash-dot cyan) passes through V and is perpendicular to the tangent. + E is either point on the curve with a tangent at 45° to CD (dashed green). If G is the intersection of this tangent and the axis, the line passing through G and perpendicular to CD is the directrix (solid green). + The focus (F) is at the intersection of the axis and a line passing through E and perpendicular to CD (dotted yellow). The latus rectum is the line segment within the curve (solid yellow). + +Derivative +The derivative for a curve of order n is + +Constructing Bézier curves + +Linear curves +Let t denote the fraction of progress (from 0 to 1) the point B(t) has made along its traversal from P0 to P1. For example, when t=0.25, B(t) is one quarter of the way from point P0 to P1. As t varies from 0 to 1, B(t) draws a line from P0 to P1. + +Quadratic curves +For quadratic Bézier curves one can construct intermediate points Q0 and Q1 such that as t varies from 0 to 1: + Point Q0(t) varies from P0 to P1 and describes a linear Bézier curve. + Point Q1(t) varies from P1 to P2 and describes a linear Bézier curve. + Point B(t) is interpolated linearly between Q0(t) to Q1(t) and describes a quadratic Bézier curve. + +Higher-order curves +For higher-order curves one needs correspondingly more intermediate points. For cubic curves one can construct intermediate points Q0, Q1, and Q2 that describe linear Bézier curves, and points R0 and R1 that describe quadratic Bézier curves: + +For fourth-order curves one can construct intermediate points Q0, Q1, Q2 and Q3 that describe linear Bézier curves, points R0, R1 and R2 that describe quadratic Bézier curves, and points S0 and S1 that describe cubic Bézier curves: + +For fifth-order curves, one can construct similar intermediate points. + +These representations rest on the process used in De Casteljau's algorithm to calculate Bézier curves. + +Offsets (or stroking) of Bézier curves +The curve at a fixed offset from a given Bézier curve, called an offset or parallel curve in mathematics (lying "parallel" to the original curve, like the offset between rails in a railroad track), cannot be exactly formed by a Bézier curve (except in some trivial cases). In general, the two-sided offset curve of a cubic Bézier is a 10th-order algebraic curve and more generally for a Bézier of degree n the two-sided offset curve is an algebraic curve of degree 4n − 2. However, there are heuristic methods that usually give an adequate approximation for practical purposes. + +In the field of vector graphics, painting two symmetrically distanced offset curves is called stroking (the Bézier curve or in general a path of several Bézier segments). The conversion from offset curves to filled Bézier contours is of practical importance in converting fonts defined in Metafont, which require stroking of Bézier curves, to the more widely used PostScript type 1 fonts, which only require (for efficiency purposes) the mathematically simpler operation of filling a contour defined by (non-self-intersecting) Bézier curves. + +Degree elevation +A Bézier curve of degree n can be converted into a Bézier curve of degree n + 1 with the same shape. This is useful if software supports Bézier curves only of specific degree. For example, systems that can only work with cubic Bézier curves can implicitly work with quadratic curves by using their equivalent cubic representation. + +To do degree elevation, we use the equality Each component is multiplied by (1 − t) and t, thus increasing a degree by one, without changing the value. Here is the example of increasing degree from 2 to 3. + +For arbitrary n we use equalities + +Therefore: + +introducing arbitrary and . + +Therefore, new control points are + +Repeated degree elevation +The concept of degree elevation can be repeated on a control polygon R to get a sequence of control polygons R, R1, R2, and so on. After r degree elevations, the polygon Rr has the vertices P0,r, P1,r, P2,r, ..., Pn+r,r given by + +It can also be shown that for the underlying Bézier curve B, + +Rational Bézier curves + +The rational Bézier curve adds adjustable weights to provide closer approximations to arbitrary shapes. The numerator is a weighted Bernstein-form Bézier curve and the denominator is a weighted sum of Bernstein polynomials. Rational Bézier curves can, among other uses, be used to represent segments of conic sections exactly, including circular arcs. + +Given n + 1 control points P0, ..., Pn, the rational Bézier curve can be described by + +or simply + +The expression can be extended by using number systems besides reals for the weights. In the complex plane the points {1}, {-1}, and {1} with weights {}, {1}, and {} generate a full circle with radius one. For curves with points and weights on a circle, the weights can be scaled without changing the curve's shape. Scaling the central weight of the above curve by 1.35508 gives a more uniform parameterization. + +Applications + +Computer graphics + +Bézier curves are widely used in computer graphics to model smooth curves. As the curve is completely contained in the convex hull of its control points, the points can be graphically displayed and used to manipulate the curve intuitively. Affine transformations such as translation and rotation can be applied on the curve by applying the respective transform on the control points of the curve. + +Quadratic and cubic Bézier curves are most common. Higher degree curves are more computationally expensive to evaluate. When more complex shapes are needed, low order Bézier curves are patched together, producing a composite Bézier curve. A composite Bézier curve is commonly referred to as a "path" in vector graphics languages (like PostScript), vector graphics standards (like SVG) and vector graphics programs (like Artline, Timeworks Publisher, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, Inkscape, and Allegro). In order to join Bézier curves into a composite Bézier curve without kinks, a property called G1 continuous, it suffices to force the control point at which two constituent Bézier curves meet to lie on the line defined by the two control points on either side. + +The simplest method for scan converting (rasterizing) a Bézier curve is to evaluate it at many closely spaced points and scan convert the approximating sequence of line segments. However, this does not guarantee that the rasterized output looks sufficiently smooth, because the points may be spaced too far apart. Conversely it may generate too many points in areas where the curve is close to linear. A common adaptive method is recursive subdivision, in which a curve's control points are checked to see if the curve approximates a line to within a small tolerance. If not, the curve is subdivided parametrically into two segments, 0 ≤ t ≤ 0.5 and 0.5 ≤ t ≤ 1, and the same procedure is applied recursively to each half. There are also forward differencing methods, but great care must be taken to analyse error propagation. + +Analytical methods where a Bézier is intersected with each scan line involve finding roots of cubic polynomials (for cubic Béziers) and dealing with multiple roots, so they are not often used in practice. + +The rasterisation algorithm used in Metafont is based on discretising the curve, so that it is approximated by a sequence of "rook moves" that are purely vertical or purely horizontal, along the pixel boundaries. To that end, the plane is first split into eight 45° sectors (by the coordinate axes and the two lines ), then the curve is decomposed into smaller segments such that the direction of a curve segment stays within one sector; since the curve velocity is a second degree polynomial, finding the values where it is parallel to one of these lines can be done by solving quadratic equations. Within each segment, either horizontal or vertical movement dominates, and the total number of steps in either direction can be read off from the endpoint coordinates; in for example the 0–45° sector horizontal movement to the right dominates, so it only remains to decide between which steps to the right the curve should make a step up. + +There is also a modified curve form of Bresenham's line drawing algorithm by Zingl that performs this rasterization by subdividing the curve into rational pieces and calculating the error at each pixel location such that it either travels at a 45° angle or straight depending on compounding error as it iterates through the curve. This reduces the next step calculation to a series of integer additions and subtractions. + +Animation +In animation applications, such as Adobe Flash and Synfig, Bézier curves are used to outline, for example, movement. Users outline the wanted path in Bézier curves, and the application creates the needed frames for the object to move along the path. + +In 3D animation, Bézier curves are often used to define 3D paths as well as 2D curves for keyframe interpolation. Bézier curves are now very frequently used to control the animation easing in CSS, JavaScript, JavaFx and Flutter SDK. + +Fonts +TrueType fonts use composite Bézier curves composed of quadratic Bézier curves. Other languages and imaging tools (such as PostScript, Asymptote, Metafont, and SVG) use composite Béziers composed of cubic Bézier curves for drawing curved shapes. OpenType fonts can use either kind of curve, depending on which font technology underlies the OpenType wrapper. + +Font engines, like FreeType, draw the font's curves (and lines) on a pixellated surface using a process known as font rasterization. Typically font engines and vector graphics engines render Bézier curves by splitting them recursively up to the point where the curve is flat enough to be drawn as a series of linear or circular segments. The exact splitting algorithm is implementation dependent, only the flatness criteria must be respected to reach the necessary precision and to avoid non-monotonic local changes of curvature. The "smooth curve" feature of charts in Microsoft Excel also uses this algorithm. + +Because arcs of circles and ellipses cannot be exactly represented by Bézier curves, they are first approximated by Bézier curves, which are in turn approximated by arcs of circles. This is inefficient as there exists also approximations of all Bézier curves using arcs of circles or ellipses, which can be rendered incrementally with arbitrary precision. Another approach, used by modern hardware graphics adapters with accelerated geometry, can convert exactly all Bézier and conic curves (or surfaces) into NURBS, that can be rendered incrementally without first splitting the curve recursively to reach the necessary flatness condition. This approach also preserves the curve definition under all linear or perspective 2D and 3D transforms and projections. + +Robotics +Bézier curves can be used in robotics to produce trajectories of an end-effector due to the virtue of the control polygon’s ability to give a clear indication of whether the path is colliding with any nearby obstacle or object. Furthermore, joint space trajectories can be accurately differentiated using Bézier curves. Consequently, the derivatives of joint space trajectories are used in the calculation of the dynamics and control effort (torque profiles) of the robotic manipulator. + +See also + Bézier surface + B-spline + GEM/4 and GEM/5 + Hermite curve + NURBS + String art – Bézier curves are also formed by many common forms of string art, where strings are looped across a frame of nails. + Variation diminishing property of Bézier curves + +Notes + +References + +Citations + +Sources + + + + Excellent discussion of implementation details; available for free as part of the TeX distribution. + +Further reading + A Primer on Bézier Curves an open source online book explaining Bézier curves and associated graphics algorithms, with interactive graphics + Cubic Bezier Curves – Under the Hood (video) video showing how computers render a cubic Bézier curve, by Peter Nowell + From Bézier to Bernstein Feature Column from American Mathematical Society + + + This book is out of print and freely available from the author. + + + (60 pages) + + + + Hovey, Chad (2022). Formulation and Python Implementation of Bézier and B-Spline Geometry. SAND2022-7702C. (153 pages) + +External links + Computer code +TinySpline: Open source C-library for NURBS, B-splines and Bézier curves with bindings for various languages + C++ library to generate Bézier functions at compile time +Simple Bézier curve implementation via recursive method in Python + +Graphic design +Interpolation +Curves +Design +In mathematics, especially functional analysis, a Banach algebra, named after Stefan Banach, is an associative algebra over the real or complex numbers (or over a non-Archimedean complete normed field) that at the same time is also a Banach space, that is, a normed space that is complete in the metric induced by the norm. The norm is required to satisfy + +This ensures that the multiplication operation is continuous. + +A Banach algebra is called unital if it has an identity element for the multiplication whose norm is and commutative if its multiplication is commutative. +Any Banach algebra (whether it has an identity element or not) can be embedded isometrically into a unital Banach algebra so as to form a closed ideal of . Often one assumes a priori that the algebra under consideration is unital: for one can develop much of the theory by considering and then applying the outcome in the original algebra. However, this is not the case all the time. For example, one cannot define all the trigonometric functions in a Banach algebra without identity. + +The theory of real Banach algebras can be very different from the theory of complex Banach algebras. For example, the spectrum of an element of a nontrivial complex Banach algebra can never be empty, whereas in a real Banach algebra it could be empty for some elements. + +Banach algebras can also be defined over fields of -adic numbers. This is part of -adic analysis. + +Examples + +The prototypical example of a Banach algebra is , the space of (complex-valued) continuous functions, defined on a locally compact Hausdorff space , that vanish at infinity. is unital if and only if is compact. The complex conjugation being an involution, is in fact a C*-algebra. More generally, every C*-algebra is a Banach algebra by definition. + + The set of real (or complex) numbers is a Banach algebra with norm given by the absolute value. + The set of all real or complex -by- matrices becomes a unital Banach algebra if we equip it with a sub-multiplicative matrix norm. + Take the Banach space (or ) with norm and define multiplication componentwise: + The quaternions form a 4-dimensional real Banach algebra, with the norm being given by the absolute value of quaternions. + The algebra of all bounded real- or complex-valued functions defined on some set (with pointwise multiplication and the supremum norm) is a unital Banach algebra. + The algebra of all bounded continuous real- or complex-valued functions on some locally compact space (again with pointwise operations and supremum norm) is a Banach algebra. + The algebra of all continuous linear operators on a Banach space (with functional composition as multiplication and the operator norm as norm) is a unital Banach algebra. The set of all compact operators on is a Banach algebra and closed ideal. It is without identity if + If is a locally compact Hausdorff topological group and is its Haar measure, then the Banach space of all -integrable functions on becomes a Banach algebra under the convolution for + Uniform algebra: A Banach algebra that is a subalgebra of the complex algebra with the supremum norm and that contains the constants and separates the points of (which must be a compact Hausdorff space). + Natural Banach function algebra: A uniform algebra all of whose characters are evaluations at points of + C*-algebra: A Banach algebra that is a closed *-subalgebra of the algebra of bounded operators on some Hilbert space. + Measure algebra: A Banach algebra consisting of all Radon measures on some locally compact group, where the product of two measures is given by convolution of measures. + The algebra of the quaternions is a real Banach algebra, but it is not a complex algebra (and hence not a complex Banach algebra) for the simple reason that the center of the quaternions is the real numbers, which cannot contain a copy of the complex numbers. + An affinoid algebra is a certain kind of Banach algebra over a nonarchimedean field. Affinoid algebras are the basic building blocks in rigid analytic geometry. + +Properties + +Several elementary functions that are defined via power series may be defined in any unital Banach algebra; examples include the exponential function and the trigonometric functions, and more generally any entire function. (In particular, the exponential map can be used to define abstract index groups.) The formula for the geometric series remains valid in general unital Banach algebras. The binomial theorem also holds for two commuting elements of a Banach algebra. + +The set of invertible elements in any unital Banach algebra is an open set, and the inversion operation on this set is continuous (and hence is a homeomorphism), so that it forms a topological group under multiplication. + +If a Banach algebra has unit then cannot be a commutator; that is,   for any This is because and have the same spectrum except possibly + +The various algebras of functions given in the examples above have very different properties from standard examples of algebras such as the reals. For example: + + Every real Banach algebra that is a division algebra is isomorphic to the reals, the complexes, or the quaternions. Hence, the only complex Banach algebra that is a division algebra is the complexes. (This is known as the Gelfand–Mazur theorem.) + Every unital real Banach algebra with no zero divisors, and in which every principal ideal is closed, is isomorphic to the reals, the complexes, or the quaternions. + Every commutative real unital Noetherian Banach algebra with no zero divisors is isomorphic to the real or complex numbers. + Every commutative real unital Noetherian Banach algebra (possibly having zero divisors) is finite-dimensional. + Permanently singular elements in Banach algebras are topological divisors of zero, that is, considering extensions of Banach algebras some elements that are singular in the given algebra have a multiplicative inverse element in a Banach algebra extension Topological divisors of zero in are permanently singular in any Banach extension of + +Spectral theory + +Unital Banach algebras over the complex field provide a general setting to develop spectral theory. The spectrum of an element denoted by , consists of all those complex scalars such that is not invertible in The spectrum of any element is a closed subset of the closed disc in with radius and center and thus is compact. Moreover, the spectrum of an element is non-empty and satisfies the spectral radius formula: + +Given the holomorphic functional calculus allows to define for any function holomorphic in a neighborhood of Furthermore, the spectral mapping theorem holds: + +When the Banach algebra is the algebra of bounded linear operators on a complex Banach space (for example, the algebra of square matrices), the notion of the spectrum in coincides with the usual one in operator theory. For (with a compact Hausdorff space ), one sees that: + +The norm of a normal element of a C*-algebra coincides with its spectral radius. This generalizes an analogous fact for normal operators. + +Let be a complex unital Banach algebra in which every non-zero element is invertible (a division algebra). For every there is such that + is not invertible (because the spectrum of is not empty) hence this algebra is naturally isomorphic to (the complex case of the Gelfand–Mazur theorem). + +Ideals and characters + +Let be a unital commutative Banach algebra over Since is then a commutative ring with unit, every non-invertible element of belongs to some maximal ideal of Since a maximal ideal in is closed, is a Banach algebra that is a field, and it follows from the Gelfand–Mazur theorem that there is a bijection between the set of all maximal ideals of and the set of all nonzero homomorphisms from to The set is called the "structure space" or "character space" of and its members "characters". + +A character is a linear functional on that is at the same time multiplicative, and satisfies Every character is automatically continuous from to since the kernel of a character is a maximal ideal, which is closed. Moreover, the norm (that is, operator norm) of a character is one. Equipped with the topology of pointwise convergence on (that is, the topology induced by the weak-* topology of ), the character space, is a Hausdorff compact space. + +For any + +where is the Gelfand representation of defined as follows: is the continuous function from to given by The spectrum of in the formula above, is the spectrum as element of the algebra of complex continuous functions on the compact space Explicitly, + +As an algebra, a unital commutative Banach algebra is semisimple (that is, its Jacobson radical is zero) if and only if its Gelfand representation has trivial kernel. An important example of such an algebra is a commutative C*-algebra. In fact, when is a commutative unital C*-algebra, the Gelfand representation is then an isometric *-isomorphism between and + +Banach *-algebras + +A Banach *-algebra is a Banach algebra over the field of complex numbers, together with a map that has the following properties: + for all (so the map is an involution). + for all + for every and every here, denotes the complex conjugate of + for all + +In other words, a Banach *-algebra is a Banach algebra over that is also a *-algebra. + +In most natural examples, one also has that the involution is isometric, that is, + +Some authors include this isometric property in the definition of a Banach *-algebra. + +A Banach *-algebra satisfying is a C*-algebra. + +See also + +Notes + +References + + + + + + + + + +Fourier analysis +Science and technology in Poland +Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; ; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, My Sister, Life, was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an important collection in the Russian language. Pasternak's translations of stage plays by Goethe, Schiller, Calderón de la Barca and Shakespeare remain very popular with Russian audiences. + +Pasternak was the author of Doctor Zhivago (1957), a novel that takes place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Second World War. Doctor Zhivago was rejected for publication in the USSR, but the manuscript was smuggled to Italy and was first published there in 1957. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, an event that enraged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which forced him to decline the prize. In 1989, Pasternak's son Yevgeny finally accepted the award on his father's behalf. Doctor Zhivago has been part of the main Russian school curriculum since 2003. + +Early life + +Pasternak was born in Moscow on 10 February (Gregorian), 1890 (29 January, Julian) into a wealthy, assimilated Jewish family. His father was the post-Impressionist painter Leonid Pasternak, who taught as a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. His mother was Rosa Kaufman, a concert pianist and the daughter of Odessa industrialist Isadore Kaufman and his wife. Pasternak had a younger brother, Alex, and two sisters, Lydia and Josephine. The family claimed descent on the paternal line from Isaac Abarbanel, the famous 15th-century Sephardic Jewish philosopher, Bible commentator, and treasurer of Portugal. + +Early education +From 1904 to 1907, Boris Pasternak was the cloister-mate of Peter Minchakievich (1890–1963) in Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra, in today's Western Ukraine. Minchakievich came from an Orthodox Ukrainian family and Pasternak came from a Jewish family. Some confusion has arisen as to Pasternak attending a military academy in his boyhood years. The uniforms of their monastery Cadet Corp were only similar to those of The Czar Alexander the Third Military Academy, as Pasternak and Minchakievich never attended any military academy. Most schools used a distinctive military-looking uniform particular to them as was the custom of the time in Eastern Europe and Russia. Boyhood friends, they parted in 1908, friendly but with different politics, never to see each other again. Pasternak went to the Moscow Conservatory to study music (later Germany to study philosophy), and Minchakievich went to Lviv University to study history and philosophy. The good dimension of the character Strelnikov in Dr. Zhivago is based upon Peter Minchakievich. Several of Pasternak's characters are composites. After World War One and the Revolution, fighting for the Provisional or Republican government under Kerensky, and then escaping a Communist jail and execution, Minchakievich trekked across Siberia in 1917 and became an American citizen. Pasternak stayed in Russia. + +In a 1959 letter to Jacqueline de Proyart, Pasternak recalled: + +Shortly after his birth, Pasternak's parents had joined the Tolstoyan Movement. Novelist Leo Tolstoy was a close family friend, as Pasternak recalled, "my father illustrated his books, went to see him, revered him, and ...the whole house was imbued with his spirit." + +In a 1956 essay, Pasternak recalled his father's feverish work creating illustrations for Tolstoy's novel Resurrection. The novel was serialized in the journal Niva by the publisher Fyodor Marx, based in St Petersburg. The sketches were drawn from observations in such places as courtrooms, prisons and on trains, in a spirit of realism. To ensure that the sketches met the journal deadline, train conductors were enlisted to personally collect the illustrations. Pasternak wrote, + +According to Max Hayward, "In November 1910, when Tolstoy fled from his home and died in the stationmaster's house at Astapovo, Leonid Pasternak was informed by telegram and he went there immediately, taking his son Boris with him, and made a drawing of Tolstoy on his deathbed." + +Regular visitors to the Pasternaks' home also included Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin, Lev Shestov, Rainer Maria Rilke. Pasternak aspired first to be a musician. Inspired by Scriabin, Pasternak briefly was a student at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1910 he abruptly left for the University of Marburg in Germany, where he studied under neo-Kantian philosophers Hermann Cohen, Nicolai Hartmann and Paul Natorp. + +Life and career + +Olga Freidenberg +In 1910 Pasternak was reunited with his cousin Olga Freidenberg (1890–1955). They had shared the same nursery but been separated when the Freidenberg family moved to Saint Petersburg. They fell in love immediately but were never lovers. The romance, however, is made clear from their letters, Pasternak writing:You do not know how my tormenting feeling grew and grew until it became obvious to me and to others. As you walked beside me with complete detachment, I could not express it to you. It was a rare sort of closeness, as if we two, you and I, were in love with something that was utterly indifferent to both of us, something that remained aloof from us by virtue of its extraordinary inability to adapt to the other side of life.The cousins' initial passion developed into a lifelong close friendship. From 1910 Pasternak and Freidenberg exchanged frequent letters, and their correspondence lasted over 40 years until 1954. The cousins last met in 1936. + +Ida Wissotzkaya + +Pasternak fell in love with Ida Wissotzkaya, a girl from a notable Moscow Jewish family of tea merchants, whose company Wissotzky Tea was the largest tea company in the world. Pasternak had tutored her in the final class of high school. He helped her prepare for finals. They met in Marburg during the summer of 1912 when Boris' father, Leonid Pasternak, painted her portrait. + +Although Professor Cohen encouraged him to remain in Germany and to pursue a Philosophy doctorate, Pasternak decided against it. He returned to Moscow around the time of the outbreak of the First World War. In the aftermath of events, Pasternak proposed marriage to Ida. However, the Wissotzky family was disturbed by Pasternak's poor prospects and persuaded Ida to refuse him. She turned him down and he told of his love and rejection in the poem "Marburg" (1917): + +I quivered. I flared up, and then was extinguished. +I shook. I had made a proposal—but late, +Too late. I was scared, and she had refused me. +I pity her tears, am more blessed than a saint. + +Around this time, when he was back in Russia, he joined the Russian Futurist group Centrifuge (Tsentrifuga) as a pianist: poetry was just a hobby for him then. It was in their group journal, Lirika, where some of his earliest poems were published. His involvement with the Futurist movement as a whole reached its peak when, in 1914, he published a satirical article in Rukonog, which attacked the jealous leader of the "Mezzanine of Poetry", Vadim Shershenevich, who was criticizing Lirika and the Ego-Futurists because Shershenevich himself was barred from collaborating with Centrifuge, the reason being that he was such a talentless poet. The action eventually caused a verbal battle amongst several members of the groups, fighting for recognition as the first, truest Russian Futurists; these included the Cubo-Futurists, who were by that time already notorious for their scandalous behaviour. Pasternak's first and second books of poetry were published shortly after these events. + +Another failed love affair in 1917 inspired the poems in his third and first major book, My Sister, Life. His early verse cleverly dissimulates his preoccupation with Immanuel Kant's philosophy. Its fabric includes striking alliterations, wild rhythmic combinations, day-to-day vocabulary, and hidden allusions to his favourite poets such as Rilke, Lermontov, Pushkin and German-language Romantic poets. + +During World War I, Pasternak taught and worked at a chemical factory in Vsevolodo-Vilva near Perm, which undoubtedly provided him with material for Dr. Zhivago many years later. Unlike the rest of his family and many of his closest friends, Pasternak chose not to leave Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. According to Max Hayward, + +When it finally was published in 1922, Pasternak's My Sister, Life revolutionised Russian poetry. It made Pasternak the model for younger poets, and decisively changed the poetry of Osip Mandelshtam, Marina Tsvetayeva and others. + +Following My Sister, Life, Pasternak produced some hermetic pieces of uneven quality, including his masterpiece, the lyric cycle Rupture (1921). Both Pro-Soviet writers and their White émigré equivalents applauded Pasternak's poetry as pure, unbridled inspiration. + +In the late 1920s, he also participated in the much celebrated tripartite correspondence with Rilke and Tsvetayeva. As the 1920s wore on, however, Pasternak increasingly felt that his colourful style was at odds with a less educated readership. He attempted to make his poetry more comprehensible by reworking his earlier pieces and starting two lengthy poems on the Russian Revolution of 1905. He also turned to prose and wrote several autobiographical stories, notably "The Childhood of Luvers" and "Safe Conduct". (The collection Zhenia's Childhood and Other Stories would be published in 1982.) + +In 1922 Pasternak married Evgeniya Lurye (Евгения Лурье), a student at the Art Institute. The following year their son Yevgenii was born. + +Evidence of Pasternak's support of still-revolutionary members of the leadership of the Communist Party as late as 1926 is indicated by his poem "In Memory of Reissner" presumably written upon the premature death from typhus of Bolshevik leader Larisa Reisner aged 30 in February of that year. + +By 1927, Pasternak's close friends Vladimir Mayakovsky and Nikolai Aseyev were advocating the complete subordination of the arts to the needs of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In a letter to his sister Josephine, Pasternak wrote of his intentions to "break off relations" with both of them. Although he expressed that it would be deeply painful, Pasternak explained that it could not be prevented. He explained: + +By 1932, Pasternak had strikingly reshaped his style to make it more understandable to the general public and printed the new collection of poems, aptly titled The Second Birth. Although its Caucasian pieces were as brilliant as the earlier efforts, the book alienated the core of Pasternak's refined audience abroad, which was largely composed of anti-communist émigrés. + +In 1932 Pasternak fell in love with Zinaida Neuhaus, the wife of the Russian pianist Heinrich Neuhaus. They both got divorces and married two years later. + +He continued to change his poetry, simplifying his style and language through the years, as expressed in his next book, Early Trains (1943). + +Stalin Epigram +In April 1934 Osip Mandelstam recited his "Stalin Epigram" to Pasternak. After listening, Pasternak told Mandelstam: "I didn't hear this, you didn't recite it to me, because, you know, very strange and terrible things are happening now: they've begun to pick people up. I'm afraid the walls have ears and perhaps even these benches on the boulevard here may be able to listen and tell tales. So let's make out that I heard nothing." + +On the night of 14 May 1934, Mandelstam was arrested at his home based on a warrant signed by NKVD boss Genrikh Yagoda. Devastated, Pasternak went immediately to the offices of Izvestia and begged Nikolai Bukharin to intercede on Mandelstam's behalf. + +Soon after his meeting with Bukharin, the telephone rang in Pasternak's Moscow apartment. A voice from the Kremlin said, "Comrade Stalin wishes to speak with you." According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak was struck dumb. "He was totally unprepared for such a conversation. But then he heard his voice, the voice of Stalin, coming over the line. The Leader addressed him in a rather bluff uncouth fashion, using the familiar thou form: 'Tell me, what are they saying in your literary circles about the arrest of Mandelstam? Flustered, Pasternak denied that there was any discussion or that there were any literary circles left in Soviet Russia. Stalin went on to ask him for his own opinion of Mandelstam. In an "eager fumbling manner" Pasternak explained that he and Mandelstam each had a completely different philosophy about poetry. Stalin finally said, in a mocking tone of voice: "I see, you just aren't able to stick up for a comrade", and put down the receiver. + +Great Purge + +According to Pasternak, during the 1937 show trial of General Iona Yakir and Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the Union of Soviet Writers requested all members to add their names to a statement supporting the death penalty for the defendants. Pasternak refused to sign, even after leadership of the Union visited and threatened him. +Soon after, Pasternak appealed directly to Stalin, describing his family's strong Tolstoyan convictions and putting his own life at Stalin's disposal; he said that he could not stand as a self-appointed judge of life and death. Pasternak was certain that he would be arrested, but instead Stalin is said to have crossed Pasternak's name off an execution list, reportedly declaring, "Do not touch this cloud dweller" (or, in another version, "Leave that holy fool alone!"). + +Pasternak's close friend Titsian Tabidze did fall victim to the Great Purge. In an autobiographical essay published in the 1950s, Pasternak described the execution of Tabidze and the suicides of Marina Tsvetaeva and Paolo Iashvili as the greatest heartbreaks of his life. + +Ivinskaya wrote, "I believe that between Stalin and Pasternak there was an incredible, silent duel." + +World War II +When the Luftwaffe began bombing Moscow, Pasternak immediately began to serve as a fire warden on the roof of the writer's building on Lavrushinski Street. According to Ivinskaya, he repeatedly helped to dispose of German bombs which fell on it. + +In 1943, Pasternak was finally granted permission to visit the soldiers at the front. He bore it well, considering the hardships of the journey (he had a weak leg from an old injury), and he wanted to go to the most dangerous places. He read his poetry and talked extensively with the active and injured troops. + +Pasternak later said, "If, in a bad dream, we had seen all the horrors in store for us after the war, we should not have been sorry to see Stalin fall, together with Hitler. Then, an end to the war in favour of our allies, civilized countries with democratic traditions, would have meant a hundred times less suffering for our people than that which Stalin again inflicted on it after his victory." + +Olga Ivinskaya +In October 1946, the twice-married Pasternak met Olga Ivinskaya, a 34 year old single mother employed by Novy Mir. Deeply moved by her resemblance to his first love Ida Vysotskaya, Pasternak gave Ivinskaya several volumes of his poetry and literary translations. Although Pasternak never left his wife Zinaida, he started an extramarital relationship with Ivinskaya that would last for the remainder of Pasternak's life. Ivinskaya later recalled, "He phoned almost every day and, instinctively fearing to meet or talk with him, yet dying of happiness, I would stammer out that I was 'busy today.' But almost every afternoon, toward the end of working hours, he came in person to the office and often walked with me through the streets, boulevards, and squares all the way home to Potapov Street. 'Shall I make you a present of this square?' he would ask." + +She gave him the phone number of her neighbour Olga Volkova who resided below. In the evenings, Pasternak would phone and Volkova would signal by Olga banging on the water pipe which connected their apartments. + +When they first met, Pasternak was translating the verse of the Hungarian national poet, Sándor Petőfi. Pasternak gave his lover a book of Petőfi with the inscription, "Petőfi served as a code in May and June 1947, and my close translations of his lyrics are an expression, adapted to the requirements of the text, of my feelings and thoughts for you and about you. In memory of it all, B.P., 13 May 1948." + +Pasternak later noted on a photograph of himself: "Petőfi is magnificent with his descriptive lyrics and picture of nature, but you are better still. I worked on him a good deal in 1947 and 1948, when I first came to know you. Thank you for your help. I was translating both of you." Ivinskaya would later describe the Petőfi translations as "a first declaration of love". + +According to Ivinskaya, Zinaida Pasternak was infuriated by her husband's infidelity. Once, when his younger son Leonid fell seriously ill, Zinaida extracted a promise from her husband, as they stood by the boy's sickbed, that he would end his affair with Ivinskaya. Pasternak asked Luisa Popova, a mutual friend, to tell Ivinskaya about his promise. Popova told him that he must do it himself. Soon after, Ivinskaya happened to be ill at Popova's apartment, when suddenly Zinaida Pasternak arrived and confronted her. + +Ivinskaya later recalled, + +In 1948, Pasternak advised Ivinskaya to resign her job at Novy Mir, which was becoming extremely difficult due to their relationship. In the aftermath, Pasternak began to instruct her in translating poetry. In time, they began to refer to her apartment on Potapov Street as, "Our Shop". + +On the evening of 6 October 1949, Ivinskaya was arrested at her apartment by the KGB. Ivinskaya relates in her memoirs that, when the agents burst into her apartment, she was at her typewriter working on translations of the Korean poet Won Tu-Son. Her apartment was ransacked and all items connected with Pasternak were piled up in her presence. Ivinskaya was taken to the Lubyanka Prison and repeatedly interrogated, where she refused to say anything incriminating about Pasternak. At the time, she was pregnant with Pasternak's child and had a miscarriage early in her ten-year sentence in the GULAG. + +Upon learning of his mistress' arrest, Pasternak telephoned Liuisa Popova and asked her to come at once to Gogol Boulevard. She found him sitting on a bench near the Palace of Soviets Metro Station. Weeping, Pasternak told her, "Everything is finished now. They've taken her away from me and I'll never see her again. It's like death, even worse." + +According to Ivinskaya, "After this, in conversation with people he scarcely knew, he always referred to Stalin as a 'murderer.' Talking with people in the offices of literary periodicals, he often asked: 'When will there be an end to this freedom for lackeys who happily walk over corpses to further their own interests?' He spent a good deal of time with Akhmatova—who in those years was given a very wide berth by most of the people who knew her. He worked intensively on the second part of Doctor Zhivago." + +In a 1958 letter to a friend in West Germany, Pasternak wrote, "She was put in jail on my account, as the person considered by the secret police to be closest to me, and they hoped that by means of a gruelling interrogation and threats they could extract enough evidence from her to put me on trial. I owe my life, and the fact that they did not touch me in those years, to her heroism and endurance." + +Translating Goethe +Pasternak's translation of the first part of Faust led him to be attacked in the August 1950 edition of Novy Mir. The critic accused Pasternak of distorting Goethe's "progressive" meanings to support "the reactionary theory of 'pure art, as well as introducing aesthetic and individualist values. In a subsequent letter to the daughter of Marina Tsvetaeva, Pasternak explained that the attack was motivated by the fact that the supernatural elements of the play, which Novy Mir considered, "irrational", had been translated as Goethe had written them. Pasternak further declared that, despite the attacks on his translation, his contract for the second part had not been revoked. + +Khrushchev thaw +When Stalin died of a stroke on 5 March 1953, Ivinskaya was still imprisoned in the Gulag, and Pasternak was in Moscow. Across the nation, there were waves of panic, confusion, and public displays of grief. Pasternak wrote, "Men who are not free... always idealize their bondage." + +After her release, Pasternak's relationship with Ivinskaya picked up where it had left off. Soon after he confided in her, "For so long we were ruled over by a madman and a murderer, and now by a fool and a pig. The madman had his occasional flights of fancy, he had an intuitive feeling for certain things, despite his wild obscurantism. Now we are ruled over by mediocrities." During this period, Pasternak delighted in reading a clandestine copy of George Orwell's Animal Farm in English. In conversation with Ivinskaya, Pasternak explained that the pig dictator Napoleon, in the novel, "vividly reminded" him of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. + +Doctor Zhivago + +Although it contains passages written in the 1910s and 1920s, Doctor Zhivago was not completed until 1955. Pasternak submitted the novel to Novy Mir in 1956, which refused publication due to its rejection of socialist realism. The author, like his protagonist Yuri Zhivago, showed more concern for the welfare of individual characters than for the "progress" of society. Censors also regarded some passages as anti-Soviet, especially the novel's criticisms of Stalinism, Collectivisation, the Great Purge, and the Gulag. + +Pasternak's fortunes were soon to change, however. In March 1956, the Italian Communist Party sent a journalist, Sergio D'Angelo, to work in the Soviet Union, and his status as a journalist as well as his membership in the Italian Communist Party allowed him to have access to various aspects of the cultural life in Moscow at the time. A Milan publisher, the communist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, had also given him a commission to find new works of Soviet literature that would be appealing to Western audiences, and upon learning of Doctor Zhivagos existence, D'Angelo travelled immediately to Peredelkino and offered to submit Pasternak's novel to Feltrinelli's company for publication. At first Pasternak was stunned. Then he brought the manuscript from his study and told D'Angelo with a laugh, "You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad." + +According to Lazar Fleishman, Pasternak was aware that he was taking a huge risk. No Soviet author had attempted to deal with Western publishers since the 1920s, when such behavior led the Soviet State to declare war on Boris Pilnyak and Evgeny Zamyatin. Pasternak, however, believed that Feltrinelli's Communist affiliation would not only guarantee publication, but might even force the Soviet State to publish the novel in Russia. + +In a rare moment of agreement, both Olga Ivinskaya and Zinaida Pasternak were horrified by the submission of Doctor Zhivago to a Western publishing house. Pasternak, however, refused to change his mind and informed an emissary from Feltrinelli that he was prepared to undergo any sacrifice in order to see Doctor Zhivago published. + +In 1957, Feltrinelli announced that the novel would be published by his company. Despite repeated demands from visiting Soviet emissaries, Feltrinelli refused to cancel or delay publication. According to Ivinskaya, "He did not believe that we would ever publish the manuscript here and felt he had no right to withhold a masterpiece from the world – this would be an even greater crime." The Soviet government forced Pasternak to cable the publisher to withdraw the manuscript, but he sent separate, secret letters advising Feltrinelli to ignore the telegrams. + +Helped considerably by the Soviet campaign against the novel (as well as by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's secret purchase of hundreds of copies of the book as it came off the presses around the world – see "Nobel Prize" section below), Doctor Zhivago became an instant sensation throughout the non-Communist world upon its release in November 1957. In the State of Israel, however, Pasternak's novel was sharply criticized for its assimilationist views towards the Jewish people. When informed of this, Pasternak responded, "No matter. I am above race..." According to Lazar Fleishman, Pasternak had written the disputed passages prior to Israeli independence. At the time, Pasternak had also been regularly attending Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Therefore, he believed that Soviet Jews converting to Christianity was preferable to assimilating into atheism and Stalinism. + +The first English translation of Doctor Zhivago was hastily produced by Max Hayward and Manya Harari in order to coincide with overwhelming public demand. It was released in August 1958, and remained the only edition available for more than fifty years. Between 1958 and 1959, the English language edition spent 26 weeks at the top of The New York Times''' bestseller list. + +Ivinskaya's daughter Irina circulated typed copies of the novel in Samizdat. Although no Soviet critics had read the banned novel, Doctor Zhivago was pilloried in the State-owned press. Similar attacks led to a humorous Russian saying, "I haven't read Pasternak, but I condemn him". + +During the aftermath of the Second World War, Pasternak had composed a series of poems on Gospel themes. According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak had regarded Stalin as a "giant of the pre-Christian era." Therefore, Pasternak's decision to write Christian poetry was "a form of protest". + +On 9 September 1958, the Literary Gazette critic Viktor Pertsov retaliated by denouncing "the decadent religious poetry of Pasternak, which reeks of mothballs from the Symbolist suitcase of 1908–10 manufacture." Furthermore, the author received much hate mail from Communists both at home and abroad. According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak continued to receive such letters for the remainder of his life. + +In a letter written to his sister Josephine, however, Pasternak recalled the words of his friend Ekaterina Krashennikova upon reading Doctor Zhivago. She had said, "Don't forget yourself to the point of believing that it was you who wrote this work. It was the Russian people and their sufferings who created it. Thank God for having expressed it through your pen." + +Nobel Prize + +According to Yevgeni Borisovich Pasternak, "Rumors that Pasternak was to receive the Nobel Prize started right after the end of World War II. According to the former Nobel Committee head Lars Gyllensten, his nomination was discussed every year from 1946 to 1950, then again in 1957 (it was finally awarded in 1958). Pasternak guessed at this from the growing waves of criticism in USSR. Sometimes he had to justify his European fame: 'According to the Union of Soviet Writers, some literature circles of the West see unusual importance in my work, not matching its modesty and low productivity…' + +Meanwhile, Pasternak wrote to Renate Schweitzer and his sister, Lydia Pasternak Slater. In both letters, the author expressed hope that he would be passed over by the Nobel Committee in favour of Alberto Moravia. Pasternak wrote that he was wracked with torments and anxieties at the thought of placing his loved ones in danger. + +On 23 October 1958, Boris Pasternak was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize. The citation credited Pasternak's contribution to Russian lyric poetry and for his role in "continuing the great Russian epic tradition." On 25 October, Pasternak sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy: "Infinitely grateful, touched, proud, surprised, overwhelmed." That same day, the Literary Institute in Moscow demanded that all its students sign a petition denouncing Pasternak and his novel. They were further ordered to join a "spontaneous" demonstration demanding Pasternak's exile from the Soviet Union. Also on that day, the Literary Gazette published a letter which was sent to B. Pasternak in September 1956 by the editors of the Soviet literary journal Novy Mir to justify their rejection of Doctor Zhivago. In publishing this letter the Soviet authorities wished to justify the measures they had taken against the author and his work. On 26 October, the Literary Gazette ran an article by David Zaslavski entitled, Reactionary Propaganda Uproar over a Literary Weed. + +According to Solomon Volkov: + +Furthermore, Pasternak was informed that, if he traveled to Stockholm to collect his Nobel Medal, he would be refused re-entry to the Soviet Union. As a result, on 29 October Pasternak sent a second telegram to the Nobel Committee: "In view of the meaning given the award by the society in which I live, I must renounce this undeserved distinction which has been conferred on me. Please do not take my voluntary renunciation amiss." The Swedish Academy announced: "This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place." +According to Yevgenii Pasternak, "I couldn't recognize my father when I saw him that evening. Pale, lifeless face, tired painful eyes, and only speaking about the same thing: 'Now it all doesn't matter, I declined the Prize. + +Deportation plans +Despite his decision to decline the award, the Union of Soviet Writers continued to demonise Pasternak in the State-owned press. Furthermore, he was threatened at the very least with formal exile to the West. In response, Pasternak wrote directly to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, + +In The Oak and the Calf, Alexander Solzhenitsyn sharply criticized Pasternak, both for declining the Nobel Prize and for sending such a letter to Khrushchev. In her own memoirs, Olga Ivinskaya blames herself for pressuring her lover into making both decisions. + +According to Yevgenii Pasternak, "She accused herself bitterly for persuading Pasternak to decline the Prize. After all that had happened, open shadowing, friends turning away, Pasternak's suicidal condition at the time, one can... understand her: the memory of Stalin's camps was too fresh, [and] she tried to protect him." + +On 31 October 1958, the Union of Soviet Writers held a trial behind closed doors. According to the meeting minutes, Pasternak was denounced as an internal émigré and a Fascist fifth columnist. Afterwards, the attendees announced that Pasternak had been expelled from the Union. They further signed a petition to the Politburo, demanding that Pasternak be stripped of his Soviet citizenship and exiled to "his Capitalist paradise." According to Yevgenii Pasternak, however, author Konstantin Paustovsky refused to attend the meeting. Yevgeny Yevtushenko did attend, but walked out in disgust. + +According to Yevgenii Pasternak, his father would have been exiled had it not been for Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who telephoned Khrushchev and threatened to organize a Committee for Pasternak's protection. + +It is possible that the 1958 Nobel Prize prevented Pasternak's imprisonment due to the Soviet State's fear of international protests. Yevgenii Pasternak believes, however, that the resulting persecution fatally weakened his father's health. + +Meanwhile, Bill Mauldin produced a cartoon about Pasternak that won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. The cartoon depicts Pasternak as a GULAG inmate splitting trees in the snow, saying to another inmate: "I won the Nobel Prize for Literature. What was your crime?" + +Last years + +Pasternak's post-Zhivago poetry probes the universal questions of love, immortality, and reconciliation with God.Conference set on Doctor Zhivago writer (Stanford Report, 28 April 2004). Boris Pasternak wrote his last complete book, When the Weather Clears, in 1959. + +According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak continued to stick to his daily writing schedule even during the controversy over Doctor Zhivago. He also continued translating the writings of Juliusz Słowacki and Pedro Calderón de la Barca. In his work on Calderon, Pasternak received the discreet support of Nikolai Mikhailovich Liubimov, a senior figure in the Party's literary apparatus. Ivinskaya describes Liubimov as, "a shrewd and enlightened person who understood very well that all the mudslinging and commotion over the novel would be forgotten, but that there would always be a Pasternak." In a letter to his sisters in Oxford, England, Pasternak claimed to have finished translating one of Calderon's plays in less than a week. + +During the summer of 1959, Pasternak began writing The Blind Beauty, a trilogy of stage plays set before and after Alexander II's abolition of serfdom in Russia. In an interview with Olga Carlisle from The Paris Review, Pasternak enthusiastically described the play's plot and characters. He informed Olga Carlisle that, at the end of The Blind Beauty, he wished to depict "the birth of an enlightened and affluent middle class, open to occidental influences, progressive, intelligent, artistic". However, Pasternak fell ill with terminal lung cancer before he could complete the first play of the trilogy. + +"Unique Days" +"Unique Days" was the last poem Pasternak wrote. + +Death + +Boris Pasternak died of lung cancer in his dacha in Peredelkino on the evening of 30 May 1960. He first summoned his sons, and in their presence said, "Who will suffer most because of my death? Who will suffer most? Only Oliusha will, and I haven't had time to do anything for her. The worst thing is that she will suffer." Pasternak's last words were, "I can't hear very well. And there's a mist in front of my eyes. But it will go away, won't it? Don't forget to open the window tomorrow." + +Funeral demonstration +Despite only a small notice appearing in the Literary Gazette, handwritten notices carrying the date and time of the funeral were posted throughout the Moscow subway system. As a result, thousands of admirers braved Militia and KGB surveillance to attend Pasternak's funeral in Peredelkino. + +Before Pasternak's civil funeral, Ivinskaya had a conversation with Konstantin Paustovsky. According to her, + +Then, in the presence of a large number of foreign journalists, the body of Pasternak was removed to the cemetery. According to Ivinskaya, + +To the horror of the assembled Party officials, however, someone with "a young and deeply anguished voice" began reciting Pasternak's banned poem Hamlet. + +According to Ivinskaya, + +The final speaker at the graveside service said, + +As the spectators cheered, the bells of Peredelkino's Church of the Transfiguration began to toll. Written prayers for the dead were then placed upon Pasternak's forehead and the coffin was closed and buried. Pasternak's gravesite would go on to become a major shrine for members of the Soviet dissident movement. + +Modern research about the CIA role in the 1958 Nobel Prize + +Writer and Radio Liberty journalist Ivan Tolstoy wrote the book The Laundered Novel: Doctor Zhivago between the KGB and the CIA, published in Russia in December 2008. + +Ivan Tolstoy said in his book that the British MI6 and the American CIA allegedly lent a hand to ensure Doctor Zhivago was submitted to the Nobel Committee in the original Russian. According to Tolstoy, this was allegedly done so that Pasternak could win the Nobel Prize and harm the international credibility of the Soviet Union. He repeats and elaborates upon Feltrinelli's claims that the CIA operatives had photographed a manuscript of the novel and secretly printed a small number of books in the Russian language. + +Ivan Tolstoy explained on a Russian radio program Echo of Moscow, aired on 7 December 2008, his research about whether the Central Intelligence Agency helped Pasternak win the Nobel Prize. He said "...possibly, because of the publication of this CIA's Russian edition, Pasternak received the Nobel Prize. I emphasize — it is possible! These documents do not exist. I suppose he got it, after all, because of the CIA edition. But I stipulate this very carefully." + +Anna Sergeyeva-Klyatis, a Russian philologist, published her research in 2012, where she suggested that the first Russian edition of Doctor Zhivago, which was a pirated version with numerous typographical errors and omissions, was actually initiated by the Central Association of Postwar Émigrés, in response to a growing demand among Russian émigrés. + +On 14 April 2014, The Central Intelligence Agency declassified more than 130 documents of files about 1,000 Russian copies published by the Mouton Publishers of the Hague early September 1958. In one of the files, dated 12 December 1957, the CIA agents recommend: "Dr. Zhivago should be published in a maximum number of foreign editions, for maximum free world discussion and acclaim and consideration for such honor as the Nobel prize". [sic] + +In its announcement of the declassification of the Zhivago documents the CIA states: "After working secretly to publish the Russian-language edition in the Netherlands, the CIA moved quickly to ensure that copies of Doctor Zhivago were available for distribution to Soviet visitors at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. By the end of the Fair, 355 copies of Doctor Zhivago had been surreptitiously handed out..." + +The Washington Post's journalist Peter Finn and writer Petra Couvée, who collaborated on a book titled The Zhivago Affair, after studying the disclosed files, said: "While the CIA hoped Pasternak's novel would draw global attention, including from the Swedish Academy, there was no indication that the agency's motive for printing a Russian-language edition was to help Pasternak win the prize, something that has been a matter of speculation for some decades." + +Legacy + +After Pasternak's death, Ivinskaya was arrested for the second time, with her daughter, Irina Emelyanova. Both were accused of being Pasternak's link with Western publishers and of dealing in hard currency for Doctor Zhivago. All of Pasternak's letters to Ivinskaya, as well as many other manuscripts and documents, were seized by the KGB. The KGB quietly released them, Irina after one year, in 1962, and Olga in 1964. By this time, Ivinskaya had served four years of an eight-year sentence, in retaliation for her role in Doctor Zhivago's publication. In 1978, her memoirs were smuggled abroad and published in Paris. An English translation by Max Hayward was published the same year under the title A Captive of Time: My Years with Pasternak. + +Ivinskaya was rehabilitated only in 1988. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ivinskaya sued for the return of the letters and documents seized by the KGB in 1961. The Russian Supreme Court ultimately ruled against her, stating that "there was no proof of ownership" and that the "papers should remain in the state archive". Ivinskaya died of cancer on 8 September 1995. A reporter on NTV compared her role to that of other famous muses for Russian poets: "As Pushkin would not be complete without Anna Kern, and Yesenin would be nothing without Isadora, so Pasternak would not be Pasternak without Olga Ivinskaya, who was his inspiration for Doctor Zhivago.". + +Meanwhile, Boris Pasternak continued to be pilloried by the Soviet State until Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed Perestroika during the 1980s. + +In 1980, an asteroid was named 3508 Pasternak after Boris Pasternak. + +In 1988, after decades of circulating in Samizdat, Doctor Zhivago was serialized in the literary journal Novy Mir. + +In December 1989, Yevgenii Borisovich Pasternak was permitted to travel to Stockholm in order to collect his father's Nobel Medal. At the ceremony, acclaimed cellist and Soviet dissident Mstislav Rostropovich performed a Bach serenade in honor of his deceased countryman. + +A 2009 book by Ivan Tolstoi reasserts claims that British and American intelligence officers were involved in ensuring Pasternak's Nobel victory; another Russian researcher, however, disagreed. When Yevgeny Borisovich Pasternak was questioned about this, he responded that his father was completely unaware of the actions of Western intelligence services. Yevgeny further declared that the Nobel Prize caused his father nothing but severe grief and harassment at the hands of the Soviet State. + +The Pasternak family papers are stored at the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University. They contain correspondence, drafts of Doctor Zhivago and other writings, photographs, and other material, of Boris Pasternak and other family members. + +Since 2003, during the first presidency of Vladimir Putin, the novel Doctor Zhivago has entered the Russian school curriculum, where it is read in the 11th grade of secondary school. + +Commemoration + +In October 1984 by decision of a court, Pasternak's dacha in Peredelkino was taken from the writer's relatives and transferred to state ownership. Two years later, in 1986, the House-Museum of Boris Pasternak was founded (the first house-museum in the USSR). + +In 1990, the year of the poet's 100th anniversary, the Pasternak Museum opened its doors in Chistopol, in the house where the poet evacuated to during the Great Patriotic War (1941–1943), and in Peredelkino, where he lived for many years until his death. The head of the poet's house-museum is Natalia Pasternak, his daughter-in-law (widow of the youngest son Leonid). + +In 2008 a museum was opened in Vsevolodo-Vilva in the house where the budding poet lived from January to June 1916. + +In 2009 on the City Day in Perm the first Russian monument to Pasternak was erected in the square near the Opera Theater (sculptor: Elena Munc). + +A memorial plaque was installed on the house where Pasternak was born. + +In memory of the poet's three-time stay in Tula, on 27 May 2005 a marble memorial plaque to Pasternak was installed on the Wörmann hotel's wall, as Pasternak was a Nobel laureate and dedicated several of his works to Tula. + +On 20 February 2008, in Kyiv, a memorial plaque was put up on the house №9 on Lipinsky Street, but seven years later it was stolen by vandals. + +In 2012 a monument to Boris Pasternak was erected in the district center of Muchkapsky by Z. Tsereteli. + +In 1990, as part of the series "Nobel Prize Winners", the USSR and Sweden ("Nobel Prize Winners – Literature") issued stamps depicting Boris Pasternak. + +In 2015, as part of the series "125th Annive. of the Birth of Boris Pasternak, 1890–1960", Mozambique issued a miniature sheet depicting Boris Pasternak. Although this issue was acknowledged by the postal administration of Mozambique, the issue was not placed on sale in Mozambique, and was only distributed to the new issue trade by Mozambique's philatelic agent. + +In 2015, as part of the series "125th Birth Anniversary of Boris Pasternak", Maldives issued a miniature sheet depicting Boris Pasternak. The issue was acknowledged by the Maldive postal authorities, but only distributed by the Maldive philatelic agent for collecting purposes. + +On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of B. Pasternak's Nobel Prize, the Principality of Monaco issued a postage stamp in his memory. + +On 27 January 2015, in honor of the poet's 125th birthday, the Russian Post issued an envelope with the original stamp. + +On 1 October 2015, a monument to Pasternak was erected in Chistopol. + +On 10 February 2020, a celebration of the 130th birthday anniversary was held at Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy in Moscow. + +On 10 February 2021, Google celebrated his 131st birthday with a Google Doodle. The Doodle was displayed in Russia, Sweden, some Middle Eastern countries and some Mediterranean countries. + +Cultural influence + +A minor planet (3508 Pasternak) discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina in 1980 is named after him. +Russian-American singer and songwriter Regina Spektor recites a verse from "Black Spring", a 1912 poem by Pasternak in her song "Apres Moi" from her album Begin to Hope. +Russian-Dutch composer Fred Momotenko (Alfred Momotenko) wrote a companion composition to Sergej Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil Op 37. based on the eponymous poem from the diptych Doktor Zhivago Na Strastnoy + +Adaptations +The first screen adaptation of Doctor Zhivago, adapted by Robert Bolt and directed by David Lean, appeared in 1965. The film, which toured in the roadshow tradition, starred Omar Sharif, Geraldine Chaplin, and Julie Christie. Concentrating on the love triangle aspects of the novel, the film became a worldwide blockbuster, but was unavailable in Russia until perestroika. + +In 2002, the novel was adapted as a television miniseries. Directed by Giacomo Campiotti, the serial starred Hans Matheson, Alexandra Maria Lara, Keira Knightley, and Sam Neill. + +The Russian TV version of 2006, directed by Aleksandr Proshkin and starring Oleg Menshikov as Zhivago, is considered more faithful to Pasternak's novel than David Lean's 1965 film. + +Work + +Poetry + +Thoughts on poetry +According to Olga Ivinskaya: + +For this reason, Pasternak regularly avoided literary cafes where young poets regularly invited them to read their verse. According to Ivinskaya, "It was this sort of thing that moved him to say: 'Who started the idea that I love poetry? I can't stand poetry. + +Also according to Ivinskaya, " 'The way they could write!' he once exclaimed – by 'they' he meant the Russian classics. And immediately afterward, reading or, rather, glancing through some verse in the Literary Gazette: 'Just look how tremendously well they've learned to rhyme! But there's actually nothing there – it would be better to say it in a news bulletin. What has poetry got to do with this?' By 'they' in this case, he meant the poets writing today." + +Translation +Reluctant to conform to socialist realism, Pasternak turned to translation in order to provide for his family. He soon produced acclaimed translations of Sándor Petőfi, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Verlaine, Taras Shevchenko, and Nikoloz Baratashvili. Osip Mandelstam, however, privately warned him, "Your collected works will consist of twelve volumes of translations, and only one of your own work." + +In a 1942 letter, Pasternak declared, "I am completely opposed to contemporary ideas about translation. The work of Lozinski, Radlova, Marshak, and Chukovski is alien to me, and seems artificial, soulless, and lacking in depth. I share the nineteenth-century view of translation as a literary exercise demanding insight of a higher kind than that provided by a merely philological approach." + +According to Ivinskaya, Pasternak believed in not being too literal in his translations, which he felt could confuse the meaning of the text. He instead advocated observing each poem from afar to plumb its true depths. + +Pasternak's translations of William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, King Henry IV (Part I) and (Part II), Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear) remain deeply popular with Russian audiences because of their colloquial, modernised dialogues. Pasternak's critics, however, accused him of "pasternakizing" Shakespeare. In a 1956 essay, Pasternak wrote: "Translating Shakespeare is a task which takes time and effort. Once it is undertaken, it is best to divide it into sections long enough for the work to not get stale and to complete one section each day. In thus daily progressing through the text, the translator finds himself reliving the circumstances of the author. Day by day, he reproduces his actions and he is drawn into some of his secrets, not in theory, but practically, by experience." + +According to Ivinskaya: + +While they were both collaborating on translating Rabindranath Tagore from Bengali into Russian, Pasternak advised Ivinskaya: "1) Bring out the theme of the poem, its subject matter, as clearly as possible; 2) tighten up the fluid, non-European form by rhyming internally, not at the end of the lines; 3) use loose, irregular meters, mostly ternary ones. You may allow yourself to use assonances." + +Later, while she was collaborating with him on a translation of Vítězslav Nezval, Pasternak told Ivinskaya: + +According to Ivinskaya, however, translation was not a genuine vocation for Pasternak. She later recalled: + +Music +Boris Pasternak was also a composer, and had a promising musical career as a musician ahead of him, had he chosen to pursue it. He came from a musical family: his mother was a concert pianist and a student of Anton Rubinstein and Theodor Leschetizky, and Pasternak's early impressions were of hearing piano trios in the home. The family had a dacha (country house) close to one occupied by Alexander Scriabin. Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rainer Maria Rilke and Leo Tolstoy were all visitors to the family home. His father Leonid was a painter who produced one of the most important portraits of Scriabin, and Pasternak wrote many years later of witnessing with great excitement the creation of Scriabin's Symphony No. 3 (The Divine Poem), in 1903. + +Pasternak began to compose at the age of 13. The high achievements of his mother discouraged him from becoming a pianist, but – inspired by Scriabin – he entered the Moscow Conservatory, but left abruptly in 1910 at the age of twenty, to study philosophy in Marburg University. Four years later he returned to Moscow, having finally decided on a career in literature, publishing his first book of poems, influenced by Aleksandr Blok and the Russian Futurists, the same year. + +Pasternak's early compositions show the clear influence of Scriabin. His single-movement Piano Sonata of 1909 shows a more mature and individual voice. Nominally in B minor, it moves freely from key to key with frequent changes of key-signature and a chromatic dissonant style that defies easy analysis. Although composed during his time at the Conservatory, the Sonata was composed at Rayki, some 40 km north-east of Moscow, where Leonid Pasternak had his painting studio and taught his students. + +Selected books by Pasternak + +Poetry collectionsTwin in the Clouds (1914)Over the Barriers (1916)Themes and Variations (1917)My Sister, Life (1922)Second Birth (1932)On Early Trains (1944)Selected Poems (1946)Poems (1954)When the Weather Clears (1959)In The Interlude: Poems 1945–1960 (1962) + +Books of proseSafe Conduct (1931)The Last Summer (1934)Childhood (1941)Selected Writings (1949)Collected Works (1945)Goethe's Faust (1952)Essay in Autobiography (1956)Doctor Zhivago (1957) + +See also +List of Jewish Nobel laureates + +References + +Sources + + + . + +Further reading + Conquest, Robert. (1979). The Pasternak Affair: Courage of Genius :A Documentary Report. New York, NY: Octagon Books. + + +Paolo Mancosu, Inside the Zhivago Storm: The Editorial Adventures of Pasternak's Masterpiece, Milan: Feltrinelli, 2013 + + Mossman, Elliott (ed.) (1982) The Correspondence of Boris Pasternak and Olga Freidenberg 1910 – 1954, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, +Peter Finn and Petra Couvee, The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book, New York: Pantheon Books, 2014 +Paolo Mancosu, Zhivago's Secret Journey: From Typescript to Book, Stanford: Hoover Press, 2016 +Anna Pasternak, Lara: The Untold Love Story and the Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago, Ecco, 2017; . +Paolo Mancosu, Moscow has Ears Everywhere: New Investigations on Pasternak and Ivinskaya,'' Stanford: Hoover Press, 2019 + +External links + + + + Read Pasternak's interview with The Paris Review Summer-Fall 1960 No. 24 + + Pasternak profile at Poets.org + PBS biography of Pasternak + Register of the Pasternak Family Papers at the Hoover Institution Archives + profile and images at the Pasternak Trust + pp. 36–39: Pasternak as a student at Marburg University, Germany + Boris Pasternak poetry + The Poems by Boris Pasternak (English) + + +1890 births +1960 deaths +20th-century Russian male writers +20th-century Russian translators +Anti–death penalty activists +Christian poets +Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Judaism +Deaths from lung cancer in the Soviet Union +English–Russian translators +French–Russian translators +Jewish classical pianists +Jewish poets +Jewish writers +Jews from the Russian Empire +Modernist writers +Nobel laureates in Literature +Novelists from the Russian Empire +Pasternak family +People from Moskovsky Uyezd +Male poets from the Russian Empire +Russian Jews +Russian World War I poets +Soviet dissidents +Soviet male writers +Soviet Nobel laureates +Soviet novelists +Soviet short story writers +Tolstoyans +Translators from Armenian +Translators from Czech +Translators from French +Translators from Georgian +Translators from German +Translators from Hungarian +Translators from Polish +Translators from Spanish +Translators from the Russian Empire +Translators from Ukrainian +Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe +Translators of William Shakespeare +Translators to Russian +Ukrainian–Russian translators +World War II poets +Writers from Moscow +Writers from the Russian Empire +Moscow Conservatory alumni +In mathematics, the binomial coefficients are the positive integers that occur as coefficients in the binomial theorem. Commonly, a binomial coefficient is indexed by a pair of integers and is written It is the coefficient of the term in the polynomial expansion of the binomial power ; this coefficient can be computed by the multiplicative formula + +which using factorial notation can be compactly expressed as + +For example, the fourth power of is + +and the binomial coefficient is the coefficient of the term. + +Arranging the numbers in successive rows for gives a triangular array called Pascal's triangle, satisfying the recurrence relation + +The binomial coefficients occur in many areas of mathematics, and especially in combinatorics. The symbol is usually read as " choose " because there are ways to choose an (unordered) subset of elements from a fixed set of elements. For example, there are ways to choose 2 elements from namely and + +The binomial coefficients can be generalized to for any complex number and integer , and many of their properties continue to hold in this more general form. + +History and notation +Andreas von Ettingshausen introduced the notation in 1826, although the numbers were known centuries earlier (see Pascal's triangle). In about 1150, the Indian mathematician Bhaskaracharya gave an exposition of binomial coefficients in his book Līlāvatī. + +Alternative notations include , , , , , and in all of which the stands for combinations or choices. Many calculators use variants of the because they can represent it on a single-line display. In this form the binomial coefficients are easily compared to -permutations of , written as , etc. + +Definition and interpretations + +For natural numbers (taken to include 0) n and k, the binomial coefficient can be defined as the coefficient of the monomial Xk in the expansion of . The same coefficient also occurs (if ) in the binomial formula + +(valid for any elements x, y of a commutative ring), +which explains the name "binomial coefficient". + +Another occurrence of this number is in combinatorics, where it gives the number of ways, disregarding order, that k objects can be chosen from among n objects; more formally, the number of k-element subsets (or k-combinations) of an n-element set. This number can be seen as equal to the one of the first definition, independently of any of the formulas below to compute it: if in each of the n factors of the power one temporarily labels the term X with an index i (running from 1 to n), then each subset of k indices gives after expansion a contribution Xk, and the coefficient of that monomial in the result will be the number of such subsets. This shows in particular that is a natural number for any natural numbers n and k. There are many other combinatorial interpretations of binomial coefficients (counting problems for which the answer is given by a binomial coefficient expression), for instance the number of words formed of n bits (digits 0 or 1) whose sum is k is given by , while the number of ways to write where every ai is a nonnegative integer is given by . Most of these interpretations can be shown to be equivalent to counting k-combinations. + +Computing the value of binomial coefficients + +Several methods exist to compute the value of without actually expanding a binomial power or counting k-combinations. + +Recursive formula +One method uses the recursive, purely additive formula + for all integers such that + +with boundary values + for all integers + +The formula follows from considering the set and counting separately (a) the k-element groupings that include a particular set element, say "i", in every group (since "i" is already chosen to fill one spot in every group, we need only choose from the remaining ) and (b) all the k-groupings that don't include "i"; this enumerates all the possible k-combinations of n elements. It also follows from tracing the contributions to Xk in . As there is zero or in , one might extend the definition beyond the above boundaries to include when either or . This recursive formula then allows the construction of Pascal's triangle, surrounded by white spaces where the zeros, or the trivial coefficients, would be. + +Multiplicative formula +A more efficient method to compute individual binomial coefficients is given by the formula + +where the numerator of the first fraction is expressed as a falling factorial power. +This formula is easiest to understand for the combinatorial interpretation of binomial coefficients. +The numerator gives the number of ways to select a sequence of k distinct objects, retaining the order of selection, from a set of n objects. The denominator counts the number of distinct sequences that define the same k-combination when order is disregarded. + +Due to the symmetry of the binomial coefficient with regard to k and , calculation may be optimised by setting the upper limit of the product above to the smaller of k and . + +Factorial formula +Finally, though computationally unsuitable, there is the compact form, often used in proofs and derivations, which makes repeated use of the familiar factorial function: + +where n! denotes the factorial of n. This formula follows from the multiplicative formula above by multiplying numerator and denominator by ; as a consequence it involves many factors common to numerator and denominator. It is less practical for explicit computation (in the case that k is small and n is large) unless common factors are first cancelled (in particular since factorial values grow very rapidly). The formula does exhibit a symmetry that is less evident from the multiplicative formula (though it is from the definitions) + +which leads to a more efficient multiplicative computational routine. Using the falling factorial notation, + +Generalization and connection to the binomial series + +The multiplicative formula allows the definition of binomial coefficients to be extended by replacing n by an arbitrary number α (negative, real, complex) or even an element of any commutative ring in which all positive integers are invertible: + +With this definition one has a generalization of the binomial formula (with one of the variables set to 1), which justifies still calling the binomial coefficients: + +This formula is valid for all complex numbers α and X with |X| < 1. It can also be interpreted as an identity of formal power series in X, where it actually can serve as definition of arbitrary powers of power series with constant coefficient equal to 1; the point is that with this definition all identities hold that one expects for exponentiation, notably + +If α is a nonnegative integer n, then all terms with are zero, and the infinite series becomes a finite sum, thereby recovering the binomial formula. However, for other values of α, including negative integers and rational numbers, the series is really infinite. + +Pascal's triangle + +Pascal's rule is the important recurrence relation + +which can be used to prove by mathematical induction that is a natural number for all integer n ≥ 0 and all integer k, a fact that is not immediately obvious from formula (1). To the left and right of Pascal's triangle, the entries (shown as blanks) are all zero. + +Pascal's rule also gives rise to Pascal's triangle: + + +Row number contains the numbers for . It is constructed by first placing 1s in the outermost positions, and then filling each inner position with the sum of the two numbers directly above. This method allows the quick calculation of binomial coefficients without the need for fractions or multiplications. For instance, by looking at row number 5 of the triangle, one can quickly read off that + +Combinatorics and statistics +Binomial coefficients are of importance in combinatorics, because they provide ready formulas for certain frequent counting problems: + There are ways to choose k elements from a set of n elements. See Combination. + There are ways to choose k elements from a set of n elements if repetitions are allowed. See Multiset. + There are strings containing k ones and n zeros. + There are strings consisting of k ones and n zeros such that no two ones are adjacent. + The Catalan numbers are + The binomial distribution in statistics is + +Binomial coefficients as polynomials +For any nonnegative integer k, the expression can be simplified and defined as a polynomial divided by : + +this presents a polynomial in t with rational coefficients. + +As such, it can be evaluated at any real or complex number t to define binomial coefficients with such first arguments. These "generalized binomial coefficients" appear in Newton's generalized binomial theorem. + +For each k, the polynomial can be characterized as the unique degree k polynomial satisfying and . + +Its coefficients are expressible in terms of Stirling numbers of the first kind: + +The derivative of can be calculated by logarithmic differentiation: + +This can cause a problem when evaluated at integers from to , but using identities below we can compute the derivative as: + +Binomial coefficients as a basis for the space of polynomials +Over any field of characteristic 0 (that is, any field that contains the rational numbers), each polynomial p(t) of degree at most d is uniquely expressible as a linear combination of binomial coefficients. The coefficient ak is the kth difference of the sequence p(0), p(1), ..., p(k). Explicitly, + +Integer-valued polynomials + +Each polynomial is integer-valued: it has an integer value at all integer inputs . (One way to prove this is by induction on k, using Pascal's identity.) Therefore, any integer linear combination of binomial coefficient polynomials is integer-valued too. Conversely, () shows that any integer-valued polynomial is an integer linear combination of these binomial coefficient polynomials. More generally, for any subring R of a characteristic 0 field K, a polynomial in K[t] takes values in R at all integers if and only if it is an R-linear combination of binomial coefficient polynomials. + +Example +The integer-valued polynomial can be rewritten as + +Identities involving binomial coefficients +The factorial formula facilitates relating nearby binomial coefficients. For instance, if k is a positive integer and n is arbitrary, then + +and, with a little more work, + +We can also get + +Moreover, the following may be useful: + +For constant n, we have the following recurrence: + +To sum up, we have + +Sums of the binomial coefficients +The formula + +says the elements in the th row of Pascal's triangle always add up to 2 raised to the th power. This is obtained from the binomial theorem () by setting x = 1 and y = 1. The formula also has a natural combinatorial interpretation: the left side sums the number of subsets of {1, ..., n} of sizes k = 0, 1, ..., n, giving the total number of subsets. (That is, the left side counts the power set of {1, ..., n}.) However, these subsets can also be generated by successively choosing or excluding each element 1, ..., n; the n independent binary choices (bit-strings) allow a total of choices. The left and right sides are two ways to count the same collection of subsets, so they are equal. + +The formulas + +and + +follow from the binomial theorem after differentiating with respect to (twice for the latter) and then substituting . + +The Chu–Vandermonde identity, which holds for any complex values m and n and any non-negative integer k, is + +and can be found by examination of the coefficient of in the expansion of using equation (). When , equation () reduces to equation (). In the special case , using (), the expansion () becomes (as seen in Pascal's triangle at right) + +where the term on the right side is a central binomial coefficient. + +Another form of the Chu–Vandermonde identity, which applies for any integers j, k, and n satisfying , is + +The proof is similar, but uses the binomial series expansion () with negative integer exponents. +When , equation () gives the hockey-stick identity + +and its relative + +Let F(n) denote the n-th Fibonacci number. +Then + +This can be proved by induction using () or by Zeckendorf's representation. A combinatorial proof is given below. + +Multisections of sums +For integers s and t such that series multisection gives the following identity for the sum of binomial coefficients: + + +For small , these series have particularly nice forms; for example, + +Partial sums +Although there is no closed formula for partial sums + +of binomial coefficients, one can again use () and induction to show that for , + +with special case + +for n > 0. This latter result is also a special case of the result from the theory of finite differences that for any polynomial P(x) of degree less than n, + +Differentiating () k times and setting x = −1 yields this for +, +when 0 ≤ k < n, +and the general case follows by taking linear combinations of these. + +When P(x) is of degree less than or equal to n, + +where is the coefficient of degree n in P(x). + +More generally for (), + +where m and d are complex numbers. This follows immediately applying () to the polynomial instead of , and observing that still has degree less than or equal to n, and that its coefficient of degree n is dnan. + +The series is convergent for k ≥ 2. This formula is used in the analysis of the German tank problem. It follows from which is proved by induction on M. + +Identities with combinatorial proofs +Many identities involving binomial coefficients can be proved by combinatorial means. For example, for nonnegative integers , the identity + +(which reduces to () when q = 1) can be given a double counting proof, as follows. The left side counts the number of ways of selecting a subset of [n] = {1, 2, ..., n} with at least q elements, and marking q elements among those selected. The right side counts the same thing, because there are ways of choosing a set of q elements to mark, and to choose which of the remaining elements of [n] also belong to the subset. + +In Pascal's identity + +both sides count the number of k-element subsets of [n]: the two terms on the right side group them into those that contain element n and those that do not. + +The identity () also has a combinatorial proof. The identity reads + +Suppose you have empty squares arranged in a row and you want to mark (select) n of them. There are ways to do this. On the other hand, you may select your n squares by selecting k squares from among the first n and squares from the remaining n squares; any k from 0 to n will work. This gives + +Now apply () to get the result. + +If one denotes by the sequence of Fibonacci numbers, indexed so that , then the identity + +has the following combinatorial proof. One may show by induction that counts the number of ways that a strip of squares may be covered by and tiles. On the other hand, if such a tiling uses exactly of the tiles, then it uses of the tiles, and so uses tiles total. There are ways to order these tiles, and so summing this coefficient over all possible values of gives the identity. + +Sum of coefficients row + +The number of k-combinations for all k, , is the sum of the nth row (counting from 0) of the binomial coefficients. These combinations are enumerated by the 1 digits of the set of base 2 numbers counting from 0 to , where each digit position is an item from the set of n. + +Dixon's identity +Dixon's identity is + +or, more generally, + +where a, b, and c are non-negative integers. + +Continuous identities +Certain trigonometric integrals have values expressible in terms of binomial coefficients: For any + + + + + +These can be proved by using Euler's formula to convert trigonometric functions to complex exponentials, expanding using the binomial theorem, and integrating term by term. + +Congruences +If n is prime, then for every k with +More generally, this remains true if n is any number and k is such that all the numbers between 1 and k are coprime to n. + +Indeed, we have + +Generating functions + +Ordinary generating functions +For a fixed , the ordinary generating function of the sequence is + + +For a fixed , the ordinary generating function of the sequence is + + +The bivariate generating function of the binomial coefficients is + + +A symmetric bivariate generating function of the binomial coefficients is + + +which is the same as the previous generating function after the substitution . + +Exponential generating function +A symmetric exponential bivariate generating function of the binomial coefficients is: + +Divisibility properties + +In 1852, Kummer proved that if m and n are nonnegative integers and p is a prime number, then the largest power of p dividing equals pc, where c is the number of carries when m and n are added in base p. +Equivalently, the exponent of a prime p in +equals the number of nonnegative integers j such that the fractional part of k/pj is greater than the fractional part of n/pj. It can be deduced from this that is divisible by n/gcd(n,k). In particular therefore it follows that p divides for all positive integers r and s such that . However this is not true of higher powers of p: for example 9 does not divide . + +A somewhat surprising result by David Singmaster (1974) is that any integer divides almost all binomial coefficients. More precisely, fix an integer d and let f(N) denote the number of binomial coefficients with n < N such that d divides . Then + +Since the number of binomial coefficients with n < N is N(N + 1) / 2, this implies that the density of binomial coefficients divisible by d goes to 1. + +Binomial coefficients have divisibility properties related to least common multiples of consecutive integers. For example: + + divides . + + is a multiple of . + +Another fact: +An integer is prime if and only if +all the intermediate binomial coefficients + +are divisible by n. + +Proof: +When p is prime, p divides + for all +because is a natural number and p divides the numerator but not the denominator. +When n is composite, let p be the smallest prime factor of n and let . Then and + +otherwise the numerator has to be divisible by , this can only be the case when is divisible by p. But n is divisible by p, so p does not divide and because p is prime, we know that p does not divide and so the numerator cannot be divisible by n. + +Bounds and asymptotic formulas +The following bounds for hold for all values of n and k such that : + +The first inequality follows from the fact that + +and each of these terms in this product is . A similar argument can be made to show the second inequality. The final strict inequality is equivalent to , that is clear since the RHS is a term of the exponential series . + +From the divisibility properties we can infer that + +where both equalities can be achieved. + +The following bounds are useful in information theory: + +where is the binary entropy function. It can be further tightened to + +for all . + +Both and large +Stirling's approximation yields the following approximation, valid when both tend to infinity: + +Because the inequality forms of Stirling's formula also bound the factorials, slight variants on the above asymptotic approximation give exact bounds. +In particular, when is sufficiently large, one has + and +and, more generally, for and , + +If n is large and k is linear in n, various precise asymptotic estimates exist for the binomial coefficient . For example, if then + +where d = n − 2k. + +much larger than +If is large and is (that is, if ), then + +where again is the little o notation. + +Sums of binomial coefficients +A simple and rough upper bound for the sum of binomial coefficients can be obtained using the binomial theorem: + +More precise bounds are given by + +valid for all integers with . + +Generalized binomial coefficients +The infinite product formula for the gamma function also gives an expression for binomial coefficients + +which yields the asymptotic formulas + +as . + +This asymptotic behaviour is contained in the approximation + +as well. (Here is the k-th harmonic number and is the Euler–Mascheroni constant.) + +Further, the asymptotic formula + +hold true, whenever and for some complex number . + +Generalizations + +Generalization to multinomials + +Binomial coefficients can be generalized to multinomial coefficients defined to be the number: + +where + +While the binomial coefficients represent the coefficients of (x+y)n, the multinomial coefficients +represent the coefficients of the polynomial + +The case r = 2 gives binomial coefficients: + +The combinatorial interpretation of multinomial coefficients is distribution of n distinguishable elements over r (distinguishable) containers, each containing exactly ki elements, where i is the index of the container. + +Multinomial coefficients have many properties similar to those of binomial coefficients, for example the recurrence relation: + +and symmetry: + +where is a permutation of (1, 2, ..., r). + +Taylor series +Using Stirling numbers of the first kind the series expansion around any arbitrarily chosen point is + +Binomial coefficient with +The definition of the binomial coefficients can be extended to the case where is real and is integer. + +In particular, the following identity holds for any non-negative integer : + +This shows up when expanding into a power series using the Newton binomial series : + +Products of binomial coefficients +One can express the product of two binomial coefficients as a linear combination of binomial coefficients: + +where the connection coefficients are multinomial coefficients. In terms of labelled combinatorial objects, the connection coefficients represent the number of ways to assign labels to a pair of labelled combinatorial objects—of weight m and n respectively—that have had their first k labels identified, or glued together to get a new labelled combinatorial object of weight . (That is, to separate the labels into three portions to apply to the glued part, the unglued part of the first object, and the unglued part of the second object.) In this regard, binomial coefficients are to exponential generating series what falling factorials are to ordinary generating series. + +The product of all binomial coefficients in the nth row of the Pascal triangle is given by the formula: + +Partial fraction decomposition +The partial fraction decomposition of the reciprocal is given by + +Newton's binomial series + +Newton's binomial series, named after Sir Isaac Newton, is a generalization of the binomial theorem to infinite series: + +The identity can be obtained by showing that both sides satisfy the differential equation {{math|1=(1 + z) f'''(z) = α f(z)}}. + +The radius of convergence of this series is 1. An alternative expression is + +where the identity + +is applied. + + Multiset (rising) binomial coefficient + +Binomial coefficients count subsets of prescribed size from a given set. A related combinatorial problem is to count multisets of prescribed size with elements drawn from a given set, that is, to count the number of ways to select a certain number of elements from a given set with the possibility of selecting the same element repeatedly. The resulting numbers are called multiset coefficients; the number of ways to "multichoose" (i.e., choose with replacement) k items from an n element set is denoted . + +To avoid ambiguity and confusion with n's main denotation in this article, let and . + +Multiset coefficients may be expressed in terms of binomial coefficients by the rule + +One possible alternative characterization of this identity is as follows: +We may define the falling factorial as + +and the corresponding rising factorial as + +so, for example, + +Then the binomial coefficients may be written as + +while the corresponding multiset coefficient is defined by replacing the falling with the rising factorial: + + Generalization to negative integers n + +For any n, + +In particular, binomial coefficients evaluated at negative integers n are given by signed multiset coefficients. In the special case , this reduces to + +For example, if n = −4 and k = 7, then r = 4 and f = 10: + + Two real or complex valued arguments +The binomial coefficient is generalized to two real or complex valued arguments using the gamma function or beta function via + +This definition inherits these following additional properties from : + +moreover, + +The resulting function has been little-studied, apparently first being graphed in . Notably, many binomial identities fail: but for n positive (so negative). The behavior is quite complex, and markedly different in various octants (that is, with respect to the x and y axes and the line ), with the behavior for negative x having singularities at negative integer values and a checkerboard of positive and negative regions: + in the octant it is a smoothly interpolated form of the usual binomial, with a ridge ("Pascal's ridge"). + in the octant and in the quadrant the function is close to zero. + in the quadrant the function is alternatingly very large positive and negative on the parallelograms with vertices + in the octant the behavior is again alternatingly very large positive and negative, but on a square grid. + in the octant it is close to zero, except for near the singularities. + + Generalization to q-series +The binomial coefficient has a q-analog generalization known as the Gaussian binomial coefficient. + + Generalization to infinite cardinals +The definition of the binomial coefficient can be generalized to infinite cardinals by defining: + +where A is some set with cardinality . One can show that the generalized binomial coefficient is well-defined, in the sense that no matter what set we choose to represent the cardinal number , will remain the same. For finite cardinals, this definition coincides with the standard definition of the binomial coefficient. + +Assuming the Axiom of Choice, one can show that for any infinite cardinal . + +In programming languages +The notation is convenient in handwriting but inconvenient for typewriters and computer terminals. Many programming languages do not offer a standard subroutine for computing the binomial coefficient, but for example both the APL programming language and the (related) J programming language use the exclamation mark: k ! n. The binomial coefficient is implemented in SciPy as scipy.special.comb. + +Naive implementations of the factorial formula, such as the following snippet in Python: +from math import factorial +def binomial_coefficient(n: int, k: int) -> int: + return factorial(n) // (factorial(k) * factorial(n - k)) + +are very slow and are useless for calculating factorials of very high numbers (in languages such as C or Java they suffer from overflow errors because of this reason). A direct implementation of the multiplicative formula works well: + +def binomial_coefficient(n: int, k: int) -> int: + if k < 0 or k > n: + return 0 + if k == 0 or k == n: + return 1 + k = min(k, n - k) # Take advantage of symmetry + c = 1 + for i in range(k): # range(k) produces a list from 0 to k−1 + c = c * (n - i) // (i + 1) + return c + +Pascal's rule provides a recursive definition which can also be implemented in Python, although it is less efficient: +def binomial_coefficient(n: int, k: int) -> int: + if k < 0 or k > n: + return 0 + if k > n - k: # Take advantage of symmetry + k = n - k + if k == 0 or n <= 1: + return 1 + return binomial_coefficient(n - 1, k) + binomial_coefficient(n - 1, k - 1) + +The example mentioned above can be also written in functional style. The following Scheme example uses the recursive definition + +Rational arithmetic can be easily avoided using integer division + +The following implementation uses all these ideas +(define (binomial n k) +;; Helper function to compute C(n,k) via forward recursion + (define (binomial-iter n k i prev) + (if (>= i k) + prev + (binomial-iter n k (+ i 1) (/ (* (- n i) prev) (+ i 1))))) +;; Use symmetry property C(n,k)=C(n, n-k) + (if (< k (- n k)) + (binomial-iter n k 0 1) + (binomial-iter n (- n k) 0 1))) + +When computing in a language with fixed-length integers, the multiplication by may overflow even when the result would fit. The overflow can be avoided by dividing first and fixing the result using the remainder: + +Implementation in the C language: + +#include + +unsigned long binomial(unsigned long n, unsigned long k) { + unsigned long c = 1, i; + + if (k > n-k) // take advantage of symmetry + k = n-k; + + for (i = 1; i <= k; i++, n--) { + if (c/i > ULONG_MAX/n) // return 0 on potential overflow + return 0; + + c = c / i * n + c % i * n / i; // split c * n / i into (c / i * i + c % i) * n / i + } + + return c; +} +Another way to compute the binomial coefficient when using large numbers is to recognize that + +where denotes the natural logarithm of the gamma function at . It is a special function that is easily computed and is standard in some programming languages such as using log_gamma in Maxima, LogGamma in Mathematica, gammaln in MATLAB and Python's SciPy module, lngamma in PARI/GP or lgamma'' in C, R, and Julia. Roundoff error may cause the returned value not to be an integer. + +See also + + Binomial transform + Delannoy number + Eulerian number + Hypergeometric function + List of factorial and binomial topics + Macaulay representation of an integer + Motzkin number + Multiplicities of entries in Pascal's triangle + Narayana number + Star of David theorem + Sun's curious identity + Table of Newtonian series + Trinomial expansion + +Notes + +References + +External links + + + +Combinatorics +Factorial and binomial topics +Integer sequences +Triangles of numbers +Operations on numbers +Articles with example Python (programming language) code +Articles with example Scheme (programming language) code +Articles with example C code +Bill Holbrook (born 1958) is an American cartoonist and webcomic writer and artist, best known for his syndicated comic strip On the Fastrack. + +Born in Los Angeles, Holbrook grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, and began drawing at an early age. While majoring in illustration and visual design at Auburn University, Holbrook served as art director of the student newspaper, doing editorial cartoons and a weekly comic strip. At the same time, his work was being published in the Huntsville Times and the Monroe Journal. After graduation in 1980, he joined the Atlanta Constitution as an editorial staff artist. + +During a 1982 visit to relatives on the West Coast, Holbrook met Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. Following his advice and encouragement, Holbrook created a strip in the fall of that year about a college graduate working in a rundown diner. It did not stir syndicate interest, but what he learned on the strip helped him when he created On the Fastrack. + +Eleven days before On the Fastrack made its syndicated debut (March 19, 1984), Holbrook met Teri Peitso on a blind date. They were married on Pearl Harbor Day, 1985. They have two daughters, Chandler and Haviland. Peitso-Holbrook's novels have been nominated for both Edgar Awards and Agatha Awards. She is currently an assistant professor in literacy education at Georgia State University. The family lives in the Atlanta area. + +On October 3, 1988, Holbrook began his second strip, Safe Havens, and his third strip, Kevin and Kell was launched in September 1995. + +Comic strips +Every week Holbrook writes the story line for the next three weeks for one of his strips and draws the next three weeks' worth of strips for another. In 2010, characters from On the Fastrack and Safe Havens began appearing in both strips. + On the Fastrack - About the misadventures at Fastrack, Inc., On the Fastrack has been distributed by King Features Syndicate since 1984. It now appears in 75 newspapers nationwide. + Safe Havens - Initially about a day care center, this strip evolved into the adventures of Samantha Argus and her friends and is now syndicated nationally to over 50 newspapers. + Kevin and Kell - Originally an online-only strip but was also published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for some years, Kevin and Kell centers on the mixed marriage between a rabbit, Kevin and a grey wolf, Kell Dewclaw. The plot revolves around species-related humor, satire, and interpersonal conflict. + Duel In The Somme - Holbrook illustrated a story by Ben Bova and Rob Balder in this strip about a romantic rivalry between a computer-simulation designer and his boss. + +References + +External links + + + +1958 births +American comic strip cartoonists +American webcomic creators +Artists from Los Angeles +Artists from Alabama +Auburn University alumni +Living people +Writers from Huntsville, Alabama +Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor and moviemaker. He is known best for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead horror series, beginning with the short movie Within the Woods (1978). He has also featured in many low-budget cult movies such as Crimewave (1985), Maniac Cop (1988), Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). + +Campbell had the main roles of the television series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993–1994) and Jack of All Trades (2000), and a recurring role as Autolycus, King of Thieves in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995–1999) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–1999). He played Sam Axe on the USA Network series Burn Notice (2007–2013) and reprised his role as Ash for the Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015–2018). He also appeared in The Escort (2015). + +Campbell directed, produced, and featured in the documentaries Fanalysis (2002) and A Community Speaks (2004); co-wrote, directed, produced, and featured in the movie Man with the Screaming Brain (2005); and directed, produced, and featured in a parody of his career My Name Is Bruce (2007). + +Campbell is known for frequent collaborations with the aforementioned Raimi, his brother Ted, Josh Becker, and Scott Spiegel. + +Early life +Bruce Lorne Campbell was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, on June 22, 1958, the son of advertising executive and college professor Charles Newton Campbell and homemaker Joanne Louise (née Pickens). He is of English and Scottish ancestry, and has an older brother named Don and an older half-brother named Michael. His father was also an actor and director for local theater. Campbell began acting and making short Super 8 movies with friends as a teenager. After meeting future moviemaker Sam Raimi while the two attended Wylie E. Groves High School, they became good friends and collaborators. Campbell attended Western Michigan University and continued to pursue an acting career. + +Career + +Film + +Campbell and Raimi collaborated with a 30-minute Super 8 version of the first Evil Dead movie, titled Within the Woods (1978), which was initially used to attract investors. He and Raimi got together with family and friends to begin working on The Evil Dead (1981). While featuring as the protagonist, Campbell also participation with the production of the movie, receiving a co-executive producer credit. Raimi wrote, directed, and edited the movie, while Rob Tapert produced. After an endorsement by horror author Stephen King, the movie slowly began to receive attention and offers for distribution. Four years after its original release, it became the most popular movie in the UK. It was then distributed in the United States, resulting in the sequels Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992). + +Campbell was also drawn in the Marvel Zombie comics as his character, Ash Williams. He is featured in five comics, all in the series Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness. In them, he fights alongside the Marvel heroes against the heroes and people who have become zombies (deadites) while in search of the Necronomicon (Book of the Names of the Dead). Campbell also played as Coach Boomer in the movie “Sky High”. + +He has appeared in several of Raimi's movies other than the Evil Dead series, notably having cameo appearances in the director's Spider-Man film series. Campbell also joined the cast of Raimi's movie Darkman and The Quick and the Dead, though having no actual screen time in the latter movie's theatrical version. In March 2022, Campbell was announced to have a cameo in Raimi's Marvel Cinematic Universe film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. + +Campbell often performs quirky roles, such as Elvis Presley for the movie Bubba Ho-Tep. Along with Bubba Ho-Tep, he played a supporting role in Maniac Cop and Maniac Cop 2, and spoofed his career in the self-directed My Name is Bruce. + +Other mainstream movies for Campbell include supporting or featured roles in the Coen Brothers movie The Hudsucker Proxy, the Michael Crichton adaptation Congo, the movie version of McHale's Navy, Escape From L.A. (the sequel to John Carpenter's Escape From New York), the Jim Carrey drama The Majestic and the 2005 Disney movie Sky High. + +Campbell had a major voice role for the 2009 animated adaptation of the children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and a supporting voice role for Pixar's Cars 2. + +Campbell produced the 2013 remake of The Evil Dead, along with Raimi and Rob Tapert, appearing in the movie's post-credits scene in a cameo role with the expectation he would reprise that role in Army of Darkness 2. The next year, the comedy metal band Psychostick released a song titled "Bruce Campbell" on their album IV: Revenge of the Vengeance that pays a comedic tribute to his past roles. + +Campbell worked as an executive producer for the 2023 movie Evil Dead Rise. + +Television + +Other than cinema, Campbell has appeared in a number of television series. He featured in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. a boisterous science fiction comedy western created by Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse that played for one season. He played a lawyer turned bounty hunter who was trying to hunt down John Bly, the man who killed his father. He featured in the television series Jack of All Trades, set on a fictional island occupied by the French in 1801. Campbell was also credited as co-executive producer, among others. The show was directed by Eric Gruendemann, and was produced by various people, including Sam Raimi. The show was broadcast for two seasons, from 2000 to 2001. He had a recurring role as "Bill Church Jr." based upon the character of Morgan Edge from the Superman comics on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. + +From 1996 to 1997, Campbell was a recurring guest actor of the television series Ellen as Ed Billik, who becomes Ellen's boss when she sells her bookstore in season four. + +He is also known for his supporting role as the recurring character Autolycus ("King of Thieves") on both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, which reunited him with producer Rob Tapert. Campbell played Hercules/Xena series producer Tapert in two episodes of Hercules set in the present. He directed a number of episodes of Hercules and Xena, including the Hercules series finale. + +Campbell also obtained the main role of race car driver Hank Cooper for the Disney made-for-television remake of The Love Bug. + +Campbell had a critically acclaimed dramatic guest role as a grief-stricken detective seeking revenge for his father's murder in a two-part episode of the fourth season of Homicide: Life on the Street. Campbell later played the part of a bigamous demon in The X-Files episode "Terms of Endearment". He also featured as Agent Jackman in the episode "Witch Way Now?" of the WB series Charmed, as well as playing a state police officer in an episode of the short-lived series American Gothic titled "Meet The Beetles". + +Campbell co-featured in the television series Burn Notice, which was broadcast from 2007 to 2013 by USA Network. He portrayed Sam Axe, a beer-chugging, former Navy SEAL now working as an unlicensed private investigator and occasional mercenary with his old friend Michael Westen, the show's main character. When working undercover, his character frequently used the alias Chuck Finley, which Bruce later revealed was the name of one of his father's old co-workers. Campbell was the star of a 2011 Burn Notice made-for-television prequel focusing on Sam's Navy SEAL career, titled Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe. + +In 2014, Campbell played Santa Claus for an episode of The Librarians. Campbell played Ronald Reagan in season 2 of the FX original series Fargo. More recently Campbell reprised his role as Ashley "Ash" Williams in Ash vs Evil Dead, a series based upon the Evil Dead series that began his career. Ash vs Evil Dead began airing on Starz on October 31, 2015, and was renewed by the cable channel for second and third seasons, before being cancelled. + +In January 2019, Travel Channel announced a new version of the Ripley's Believe It or Not! reality series, with Campbell serving as host and executive producer. The 10-episode season debuted on June 9, 2019. + +Voice acting +Campbell is featured as a voice actor for several video games. He provides the voice of Ash in the four games based on the Evil Dead movies series: Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick, Evil Dead: Regeneration and Evil Dead: The Game. He also provided voice talent in other titles such as Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Dead by Daylight. + +He provided the voice of main character Jake Logan for the PC game, Tachyon: The Fringe, the voice of main character Jake Burton for the PlayStation game Broken Helix and the voice of Magnanimous for Megas XLR. Campbell voiced the pulp adventurer Lobster Johnson in Hellboy: The Science of Evil and has done voice-over work for the Codemaster's game Hei$t, a game which was announced on January 28, 2010 to have been "terminated". He also provided the voice of The Mayor for the 2009 movie Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, the voice of Rod "Torque" Redline in Cars 2, the voice of Himcules in the 2003 Nickelodeon TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot, and the voice of Fugax in the 2006 movie The Ant Bully. + +Despite the inclusion of his character "Ash Williams" in Telltale Games' Poker Night 2, Danny Webber voices the character in the game, instead of Bruce Campbell. + +He has a voice in the online MOBA game, Tome: Immortal Arena in 2014. Campbell also provided voice-over and motion capture for Sgt. Lennox in the Exo Zombies mode of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. + +Writing +In addition to acting and occasionally directing, Campbell has become a writer, starting with an autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, published in June 2001. The autobiography was a successful New York Times Best Seller. It describes Campbell's career to date as an actor in low-budget movies and television, providing his insight into "Blue-Collar Hollywood". The paperback version of the book adds details about the reactions of fans during book signings: "Whenever I do mainstream stuff, I think they're pseudo-interested, but they're still interested in seeing weirdo, offbeat stuff, and that's what I'm attracted to". + +Campbell's next book Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way was published on May 26, 2005. The book's plot involves him (depicted in a comical way) as the main character struggling to make it into the world of A-list movies. He later recorded an audio play adaptation of Make Love with fellow Michigan actors, including longtime collaborator Ted Raimi. This radio drama was released by the independent label Rykodisc and spans 6 discs with a 6-hour running time. + +In addition to his books, Campbell also wrote a column for X-Ray Magazine in 2001, an issue of the popular comic series The Hire, and comic book adaptations of his Man with the Screaming Brain. Most recently he wrote the introduction to Josh Becker's The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking. + +In late 2016, Campbell announced that he would be releasing a third book, Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor, which will detail his life from where If Chins Could Kill ended. Hail to the Chin was released in August 2017, and accompanied by a book tour across the United States and Europe. + +Campbell maintained a weblog on his official website, where he posted mainly about politics and the movie industry, though it has since been deleted. + +Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival +Since 2014, the Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival, narrated and organized by Campbell, was held in the Muvico Theater in Rosemont, Illinois. The first festival was originally from August 21 to 25, 2014, presented by Wizard World, as part of the Chicago Comicon. The second festival was from August 20 to 23, 2015, with guests Tom Holland and Eli Roth. The third festival took place over four days in August 2016. Guests of the event were Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Doug Benson. + +Personal life +Campbell married Christine Deveau in 1983, and they had two children before divorcing in 1989. He met costume designer Ida Gearon while working on Mindwarp, and they were married in 1992. They reside in Jacksonville, Oregon. + +Campbell is also ordained and has performed marriage ceremonies. + +Filmography + +Film + +Television + +Video games + +Accolades + +See also + + Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way () + +References + +External links + + + + + "Not My Job" Bruce Campbell appears on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! + +1958 births +Living people +American male film actors +American male television actors +American male video game actors +American male voice actors +American people of English descent +American people of Scottish descent +Male actors from Michigan +People from Jacksonville, Oregon +People from Royal Oak, Michigan +Western Michigan University alumni +20th-century American male actors +21st-century American male actors +Horror film male actors +Baron Aberdare, of Duffryn in the County of Glamorgan, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 23 August 1873 for the Liberal politician Henry Bruce. He served as Home Secretary from 1868 to 1873. His grandson, the third Baron, was a soldier, cricketer and tennis player and a member of the International Olympic Committee. His son, the fourth Baron, held office in the Conservative administration of Edward Heath and was later a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. Lord Aberdare was one of the ninety-two elected hereditary peers that were allowed to remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. the title is held by his son, the fifth Baron, who succeeded in 2005 and was elected to the House of Lords in 2009. + +Coat of arms +The heraldic blazon for the coat of arms of the family is: Or, a saltire gules, on a chief of the last a martlet of the field. + +Baron Aberdare (1873) +Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare (1815–1895) +Henry Campbell Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare (1851–1929) +Clarence Napier Bruce, 3rd Baron Aberdare (1885–1957) +Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare (1919–2005) +Alastair John Lyndhurst Bruce, 5th Baron Aberdare (born 1947) + +The heir apparent is the present holder's son, Hector Morys Napier Bruce (born 1974). + +Male-line family tree + +References + +Bibliography + +Baronies in the Peerage of the United Kingdom +Noble titles created in 1873 +Noble titles created for UK MPs +Barons Aberdare +A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands dance as well as sing, usually giving highly choreographed performances. South Korean boy bands usually also have designated rappers. + +Some such bands are formed on their own, often evolving out of church choral or gospel music groups. In contrast, others are created by talent managers or record producers who hold auditions. Being vocal groups, most boy band members do not play musical instruments, either in recording sessions or on-stage. They are similar in concept to their counterparts known as girl groups. The popularity of boy bands has peaked three times: first in the 1960s to 70s (e.g., with the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds); the second time it peaked during the late 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s, when acts such as New Kids on the Block, Take That, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Boyzone, Five, A1, O-Zone and Westlife dominated +global pop charts; and last time in the 2010s up to the present, with the emergence of groups such as One Direction, The Wanted, Big Time Rush, The Vamps, Ballinciaga and K-pop acts such as BigBang, Exo and BTS. + +History + +Early history +The earliest forerunner of boy band music began in the late 19th century as a cappella barbershop quartets. They were usually a group of males and sang in four-part harmonies. Barbershop quartets were popular into the earlier part of the 20th century. A revival of the male vocal group took place in the late 1940s and 1950s with the use of doo-wop music. Doo-wop bands sang about topics such as love and other themes used in pop music. The earliest traces of boy bands were in the mid-1950s although the term boy band was not used. African American vocal group The Ink Spots was one of the first of what would now be called boy bands. The term boy band was not established until the late 1980s as before that they were called male vocal groups or "hep harmony singing groups". + +Although generally described as a rock band, the highest-selling band in history the Beatles have been described by some journalists as "the first" or "the original" boyband, "before anyone had thought of the term", exclusively due to the enthusiastic response they received from their young female audience. + +Other critics, however, have pointed out that this assessment of the Beatles as a "boy band" could be applied to all other bands of the 1960s, saying, "if they were a (boy band), so was everyone else" and is countered by others, including Ringo Starr, who point out that, from the beginning, the Beatles wrote and exercised creative control over their own music, played their own instruments, were not manufactured by a record label, and did not feature the choreographed dance moves that later came to be associated with boy bands. The Beatles did, however, inspire the production of the 1966 television series The Monkees, which featured a music group of the same name, created for the show, that consisted of the four starring actors. The Monkees had a career as a rock and pop band after their songs from the TV series were released as successful records. + +Late 1960s and 1970s: The Jackson 5 and the Osmonds + +Although the term "boy band" was not commonly used then, the earliest predecessors of this format were groups such as the Jackson 5 and the Osmonds which helped form the template for boy bands. The Jackson 5 were a sibling group that established many musical conventions that boy bands follow. For instance, their music featured close harmonies from soul music and catchy pop hooks influenced as much as they were by Motown and acts like the Supremes. The group also incorporated choreographed dance moves to their performances. All members of the band sang, which is a common convention of a boy band, as opposed to having a front man and the rest on instruments; thus, no one person dominated the stage. Also a sibling group, The Osmonds first started singing barbershop music for local audiences, before being hired to perform at Disneyland early in their career. Their appearance in a televised Disney special earned them additional TV spots, such as The Andy Williams Show and The Jerry Lewis Show. + +Late 1970s and 1980s: Menudo, New Edition, and New Kids on the Block +Other antecedents (apart from those already mentioned) exist throughout the history of pop music. The genre has been copied into languages and cultures other than the Anglo-American. The Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, appealing to young Latina audiences, was founded in 1977. Menudo had a convention unique among boy bands: when a member turned 16, became too tall, or their voice changed, they were replaced. The members of Menudo were generally aged 12–16. + +The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop band who were most popular in the mid-1970s. The British Hit Singles & Albums noted that they were "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and were "the first of many acts heralded as the 'Biggest Group since The Beatles' and one of the most screamed-at teeny-bopper acts of the 1970s". For a fairly brief but fervent period (nicknamed "Rollermania"), they were worldwide teen idols. The group were one of the first bands, like the Monkees before them, to take the formula shown by the Beatles and apply it to a teen market. The group achieved the same amount of success but for a limited period of time. At the peak of their popularity in the UK, comparisons were being made to the Beatles. Also by this time, Bay City Roller fans had a completely distinctive style of dress, the main elements of which were ankle-length tartan trousers and tartan scarves, the group using the benefit of merchandise and promotion. + +The German boy band formed in West Berlin, 1976, and had a couple of hits targeting young females, selling more than 5 million albums worldwide. The band dissolved in 1982. + +In the US, the Cleveland-based power pop group Raspberries was generally interpreted as a "teen act", although all the band members played their own music. Vocalist Eric Carmen later commented, "It was not hip for people to like us, because their little sister liked us." + +Boston group New Edition was formed in 1978 and reached their height of popularity in the 1980s, meaning they are often credited for starting the boy-band trend, even though the term "boy band" did not exist until the 1990s. Maurice Starr was influenced by New Edition and popularized it with his protégé New Kids on the Block (NKOTB), the first commercially successful modern boy band, which formed in 1984 and found international success in 1988. Starr's idea was to take the traditional template from the R&B genre (in this case his teenage band New Edition) and apply it to a pop genre. + +Bros (abbreviation of the word "brothers") were a British boy band active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, consisting of twin brothers Matt and Luke Goss along with Craig Logan. Formed in 1986, they scored multiple top 10 hits between 1987 and 1989 and in 1988 became the first modern era–style boy band to have a multiple platinum-selling album in the UK, with Push, still one of the most successful boy-band albums in the UK. Other big boy bands in Britain during the late 1980s were Big Fun and Brother Beyond. + +1990s: Boyz II Men, Take That, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Westlife, Seo Taiji and Boys and the birth of modern K-pop + +The ongoing international success of New Kids on the Block inspired music managers in Europe to create their own acts, beginning with Nigel Martin-Smith's Take That in the UK (formed in 1990) and followed by Tom Watkins, who had success with Bros in the late 1980s and formed East 17 in 1991. East 17 were marketed and pitted against Take That as "rivals" with a rougher or harsher attitude, style and sound. Take That reformed in 2006 after a decade-long hiatus and became one of the most successful groups in British music chart history, with renewed chart success internationally, especially in Europe. Irish music manager Louis Walsh, who had witnessed the impact of these British boy bands, put out an advert for an "Irish Take That", thereby creating Boyzone in 1993. Let Loose (formed in 1993), MN8 and 911 (formed in 1995), and Damage (formed in 1996) were also successful boy bands in Britain; however, by the late 1990s all these bands had split up. + +All these artists were very successful on both the singles and albums charts domestically and internationally; however, with the emergence of Britpop and the commercial co-option of indie rock, many boy bands were ridiculed by the British music press as having no artistic credibility, although some, such as East 17 and Take That, did write most of their own material. The media attention was then placed on the "Battle of Britpop", and the bands Oasis and Blur replaced the importance and rivalry of Take That and East 17 as the two new biggest bands in Britain. However, boy bands continued to find success in the late 1990s, such as Five, Another Level, Point Break and Westlife. In 1995 successful German music manager Frank Farian, who had been manager of Boney M and Milli Vanilli, put together Latin American band No Mercy who scored a few worldwide hits during the mid-90s. + +Although being American and the sons of Tito Jackson, a member of the Jackson 5, 3T had several hits singles across Europe in the mid-1990s, despite limited success in the US, and finished the second biggest selling act of 1996 in Europe behind the Spice Girls. With the success of North American boy bands like New Kids on the Block in East Asia, Japanese entertainment company Johnny & Associates formed SMAP in 1992. The group enjoyed tremendous success, selling over 35 million records. + +In 1992, after the disbandment of the heavy metal band Sinawe, in which he had a brief stint, Seo Taiji formed the boy band Seo Taiji and Boys (Korean: 서태지와 아이들) together with dancers Lee Juno and Yang Hyun-suk, which went on to become highly successful and created a craze at the time. Seo Taiji and Boys is credited with changing the South Korean music industry by pioneering the incorporation of rap and breakdance as well as the fusion of Korean music and various popular Western music genres in Korean popular music, and in turn creating the prototype for the modern hybrid K-pop genre or "rap-dance", as it was called at the time, and K-pop groups. They also left a lasting impact by explicitly putting social criticism at the forefront of their music, as well as paving the way for artistic freedom in South Korea by challenging censorship laws and the television networks hegemony over the music market. In 1995 the Korean Broadband is not 6 ft to a particular location casting Ethics Committee demanded that Seo Taiji and Boys change the lyrics for "Regret of the Times". As a result, Seo decided to release the song as a purely instrumental track. This incited protests and resulted in the abolishment of music pre-censorship in Korea. Seo Taiji also did not have to rely on television networks due to the fact that he owned his own studio. This autonomy allowed Seo to bring subcultures in Korea, such as heavy metal, to the forefront of popular culture and challenge pervasive social norms. The band's independent success diminished the power of the television networks to dictate which artists appeared on shows, and gave rise to the influence of record labels and talent agencies. In 1996, Seo Taiji and Boys disbanded. In April 1996, Billboard reported that the band's first three albums had each sold over 1.6 million copies, with the fourth nearing two million, making all four some of the best-selling albums of all time in South Korea to this day. Lee Juno became a record producer, and Yang Hyun-suk was successful in founding YG Entertainment, one of the three biggest record companies in the country. Seo Taiji returned to music two years later with a successful solo career as a rock artist; he rose to become one of the most prominent and influential cultural icons in South Korea and was dubbed "the President of culture". In 2017, Seo Taiji released a 25th Anniversary album with his greatest hits and remakes by prominent Korean artists, including the group BTS. He also held a joint celebratory concert with the latter, in which he acknowledged them as his spiritual successors in K-pop due to the socially conscious thematic similarities in their music as well their shared hip hop leanings, and metaphorically passed the torch, saying "This is your generation now". + +In the early 1990s in North America, with New Kids on the Block's continued success and Color Me Badd also having success, boy bands became a continued staple of the Billboard charts. Continuing this success in the mid-1990s, most prominent boy bands were African American and had R&B and gospel elements, such as the groups All-4-One (formed in 1993) and Boyz II Men (formed in 1988). Boyz II Men are also the most successful boy band act on the U.S. Hot 100 as well as the Australian Singles Chart. Although they had success on the Billboard charts, they were not marketed towards youth but more towards adults. It was not until 1997 and the change to pop-oriented groups such as Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, NSYNC, the Moffatts, and Hanson that boy bands exploded commercially and dominated the market in the United States. This late 1990s marked the height of boy band popularity in North America, which has not been seen since. + +Arguably the most successful boy band manager from the U.S. was Lou Pearlman, who founded commercially successful acts such as the Backstreet Boys in 1993, NSYNC and LFO in 1995, O-Town in 2000, and US5 in 2005. Backstreet Boys and NSYNC became the two biggest boy bands in the late 1990s until the early 2000s, and Backstreet Boys went on to become the best-selling boy band in history with over 100 million records sold. + +In the late 1990s in the UK, producer Simon Cowell (noted in the U.S. for the American Idol/The X Factor franchise) is also known for having managed British boyband Five (formed in 1997) and Irish boyband Westlife (formed in 1998). Westlife was created by Irishman Louis Walsh as a replacement for Boyzone and was initially managed by a former member of the band Ronan Keating. Westlife would eventually overtake Take That in number one's tally in the UK although Take That's overall UK sales are still higher. In 2012, the Official Charts Company revealed the biggest selling singles artists in British music chart history with Take That placed 15th overall and the highest selling boyband act (9.3 million), followed by Boyzone at 29 (7.1 million) and Westlife at 34 (6.8 million). Even though Cowell is known to have managed several successful boy bands, he is also infamous for passing on signing two of the biggest boybands to emerge from the 1990s and 2000s, Take That and Busted. + +2000s: Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Westlife, Jonas Brothers and F4 + +With the continued success of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, American and British groups like 98 Degrees, Westlife, O-Town, A1, Blue, and Busted gained quick popularity both domestically and internationally. International boy bands would also occasionally spring up, such as the Moldovan band O-Zone (better known today as an Internet meme), and Overground. American Christian boy band Plus One also enjoyed brief remarkable success during this time. + +At the height of boy band popularity in North America, MTV created their own parody boyband, 2gether. Like the Monkees in the 1960s, they were a manufactured act composed of actors. 2gether played off of the idea that every successful boy band must have five distinct personality types: the bad boy, the shy one, the young one, the older brother type, and a heart throb. + +Since 2001, the dominance of traditional boy bands on pop charts began to fade in the western hemisphere, although Gil Kaufman of MTV has described "new boy bands" that are "more likely to resemble My Chemical Romance, Sum 41, and Simple Plan. + +In 2001, Taiwanese boy band F4 (called JVKV since 2007) blew up big as a result of the success of their TV drama Meteor Garden. According to Forbes, F4 has sold 3.5 million copies of their first two albums all over Asia as of July 2003. + +With their success, many other Taiwanese boy bands emerged around this time, such as 5566 and Fahrenheit. In South Korea, Shinhwa also spread hallyu wave throughout Asia such as Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Also in 2001, a new all-male pop band and dance group boyband hailing from Japan called Exile debuted under Avex Group's label Rhythm Zone with 14 members, putting them on par with Super Junior, a South Korean boy band, who at the time, had had 13 members at its peak. + +Japanese boy band Arashi has sold over 30 million copies of their records since their first release in 1999. They had the yearly best-selling single in Japan in 2008 and 2009. In 2003 SMAP released the single "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" that has become the third best-selling single ever in Japan, with over three million copies sold. + +In North America, the Jonas Brothers rose to fame from promotion on the Disney Channel in 2008. Other boy bands like JLS and Mindless Behavior also emerged and experienced remarkable success around this time. However, apart from them, boy bands have not seen the commercial boom experienced in the genre from the mid to late nineties in North America. + +The mid 2000s, especially the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, saw the continued longevity of nineties boy bands such as Backstreet Boys and Westlife (before they disbanded in 2012), and the successful comeback of Take That in 2005, Boyzone in 2007, and New Kids on the Block in 2008. Some sections of the press have referred to these acts, particularly those who have reformed after a previous split, such as Take That, Boyzone, and 98 Degrees, as 'man bands'. + +2010s and 2020s: Big Time Rush, One Direction and rise of K-pop + +In the early 2010s, there was somewhat of a resurgence of boy band popularity in countries where the trend had not maintained, with the emergence of new boy bands like Big Time Rush, the Wanted, and One Direction and the formation of supergroup NKOTBSB which comprised members of New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. NKOTBSB's success inspired boy bands who were fairly popular during the 1990s and 2000s to make a comeback, such as A1, Blue, 98 Degrees, Five, 911, and O-Town. Like 2gether and the Monkees, Big Time Rush was a manufactured act created for a television show. One Direction were often credited as sparking a resurgence in the popularity and interest boy bands alongside being credited with forming part of a new "British Invasion" in the United States. Their Where We Are Tour was the highest-grossing tour by a vocal group in history and after the release of their fourth album, Four, they became the only group in the 58-year history of the Billboard 200 to have their first four albums debut at number one. + +In Southeast Asia, local boy bands also emerged as a result of the continued success of Korean and Japanese boy bands. After the debut of the Philippines supergroup SB19 in 2018, the group appeared at number six on Billboard Year-End Social 50 chart, making them the first Southeast Asian act to reach the top 10 of the magazine's annual chart. + +In South Korea, boy bands have been commercially successful. On the Circle Chart year-end albums chart of 2022, 7 of the top 10 and 13 of the top 20 albums are by boy bands or by subunits/members of boy bands. BTS' Map of the Soul: 7 is the best-selling album of all time in South Korea, with more than 5 million copies sold, and BTS's Love Yourself: Her became the first album released since 2001 to sell more than 1 million copies. + +In 2013, Billboard started covering music releases in K-pop, though K-pop had been entering the charts as early as 2009. By 2017, BTS crossed into the international music market, furthering the Korean Wave in the United States and becoming the first Korean group to receive a certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with their single "Mic Drop". The band is the first Korean act to top the U.S. Billboard 200 with their studio album Love Yourself: Tear (2018) and have since hit the top of the U.S. charts with their albums Love Yourself: Answer (2018), Map of the Soul: Persona (2019), Map of the Soul: 7 (2020), Be (2020) and Proof. Love Yourself: Answer also broke South Korea's Gaon Album Chart's all-time monthly record previously set by Love Yourself: Tear and became the first Korean album certified Gold in the United States. SuperM later became the first K-pop group to debut at No. 1 in the U.S. Billboard 200. In 2020, BTS "Dynamite" debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, making them the first all-South Korean act in Hot 100 history to debut at number one. It garnered the band their first Grammy nomination, for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, making them the first K-pop act to be nominated for one. + +In Japan, Arashi was the best-selling music artist in Japan from 2013 through 2017 by value of sales and also having the yearly best-selling album in the country in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Other successful Japanese boy bands in this decade include Sandaime J Soul Brothers, the second best-selling music artist of 2016 in the country and Kanjani Eight, the fifth best-selling music artist of that year in Japan. + +In Norway, the boy band Ballinciaga gained commercial success in 2022 with dance and party songs like "Dans På Bordet" and "Beklager (Guttaklubben)". The group is also known for keeping their identities anonymous by wearing pink-colored masks in the public. + +Key factors of the concept + +Seen as important to a "boy band" group's commercial success is the group's image, carefully controlled by managing all aspects of the group's attire, promotional materials (which are frequently supplied to teen magazines), and music videos. The key factor of a boy band is being trendy. This means that the band conforms to the most recent fashion and musical trends in the popular music scene. Typically, each member of the group will have some distinguishing feature and be portrayed as having a particular personality stereotype, such as "the baby", "the bad boy", or "the shy one". While managing the portrayal of popular musicians is as old as popular music, the particular pigeonholing of band members is a defining characteristic of boy and girl bands. In K-pop, officially designated positions within the group are common, such as "leader", "maknae" (Korean: 막내, English: "the youngest"), "visual", "center" "vocalist", "rapper" and "dancer". The latter three are based on the members' specialized skills and are further divided into "main-", "lead-" and "sub-" (vocalist/rapper/dancer) positions, with the members occupying the "main" positions often being considered the most skilled and having the most parts in songs or being highlighted during solo dance parts. The "leader" is the spokesperson who represents the group in public, and is in charge of mediating between group members, as well as between the group and the label. + +In most cases, their music is written, arranged and produced by a producer who works with the band at all times and controls the group's sound – if necessary, to the point of hiring session singers to record guide vocals for each member of the group to sing individually if the members cannot harmonize well together. However, for clarity of each voice, recording each voice individually is most commonly the norm with most modern vocal groups. In recent years, auto-tune has become a popular tool in vocal producing, some boy bands have come under fire for that reason. Some have also come under fire for lip syncing in their performances as well, for example New Kids on the Block. + +A typical boy band performance features elaborately choreographed dancing, with the members taking turns singing and/or rapping. Boy bands generally do not compose or produce their own material, unless the members lobby hard enough for creative control. However, some bands were created around the talent of a songwriter within the group like Gary Barlow of Take That or Tony Mortimer of East 17. It is not uncommon to find extra songs on an album written by one or more of the band members; however, their producers rarely use these as singles. + +Since the 21st century, however, boy bands have been expected to write or at least contribute in some part lyrically to songs. Apart from the groups mentioned above who all had at least one primary songwriter from their beginning, other groups soon caught up. At the close of the nineties, groups like Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC who had previously used writers like Max Martin during their early albums began writing their own songs. Newer groups from late 2000s such as JLS have all made a point from early interviews that they write their own songs and hold their own image as this is an important part of marketing. Some bands like The Wanted have even spent time learning the craft of songwriting. There has also been a rising trend of so-called "songwriter-" or "producer idols" (Korean: Hangul 작곡돌, rev. Rom. jakgok-dol) in K-pop since the early 2000s. Nowadays, it's not uncommon for groups to have at least one member who is heavily involved in the songwriting and producing of the groups' music. In many cases, these members are the rappers in the group, who have often gained songwriting and producing experience while being active as amateur or underground rappers before joining the group. There is also a higher expectation for rappers to write their own lyrics due to self-expression being a core value of the hip-hop genre. There are cases of "producer idols" writing or producing for other artists outside of their solo or respective group work as well, such as BIGBANG's G-Dragon, SHINee's Jonghyun, Block B's Zico, BTS' RM and Suga, or AB6IX' Lee Daehwi. + +Individuals can also go on to achieve greater success as a solo artist coming out of a boy band having used the groups popularity to build on. Usually this signals the end of the group until potential future reunions. Examples of this include Michael Jackson from The Jackson 5, Donny Osmond from The Osmonds, Ricky Martin from Menudo, Justin Timberlake from *NSYNC, and Ronan Keating from Boyzone. Sometimes the most successful solo star from a band is not the most popular member such as Robbie Williams as opposed to lead singer Gary Barlow from Take That. Some boy band members have gone on to successful careers elsewhere in the media. Michael Dolenz of The Monkees went on to become a successful television producer, working for ITV franchises such as LWT and Television South. In K-pop, it is expected and common practice for members to embark on solo endeavors as musical artists or in other entertainment sectors, such as acting, or as variety personalities, alongside their group career after a few years. At the latest, this happens around the time the eldest member reaches the age of 28 (in exceptional cases 30) and is drafted for mandatory military service, forcing the group into a temporary hiatus of at least 18 months. The other members then often go on to pursue solo endeavors and reconvene as a group while no member is serving, or after all members have completed their service, BTS and Exo being recent examples. + +Music genres +Although most boy bands consist of R&B or pop influences, other music genres, most notably country music and folk music, are also represented. South 65 and Marshall Dyllon, for example, were both country music boy bands. Il Divo, created by Simon Cowell in 2004, are a vocal group that performs operatic pop in several (mainly Italian) languages. Since then operatic/classical boy bands have become quite popular and common, especially in the UK. Since 2001, there has been some crossover with power pop and pop punk from bands that play live instruments. Just recently some boy bands decided to go back to their original doo-wop roots, most notably, The Overtones. + +Controversy +Since the 2000s, groups such as Backstreet Boys and LFO have disliked the term "boy band" and have preferred to be known as a "male vocal group". Being categorized among boy bands was also the main reason the Moffatts split up. Boy bands have been accused by the music press of emphasizing the appearance and marketing of the group above the quality of music, deliberately trying to appeal to a preteen audience and for conforming to trends instead of being original. Such criticisms can become extremely scathing. Boy bands are often seen as being short-lived, although some acts such as The Jackson 5, Backstreet Boys, Human Nature, New Edition, SMAP, Shinhwa and Westlife (before they split up in 2012) have sustained lasting careers. + +Best-selling boy bands +The following is a list of the best-selling boy bands based on claimed sales figures of over 40 million records: + +See also + All-female band + Girl group + +References + +Further reading + +External links + + Boybands Radio – Only boy bands 24/7 + Top 10 Boy Bands at About.com + The Best Boy Bands of All Time—Rolling Stone + Best Boy Bands—The Washington Times + 10 Biggest Boy Bands (1987–2012)—Billboard + + +Pop music genres +Types of musical groups +In computer science, a B-tree is a self-balancing tree data structure that maintains sorted data and allows searches, sequential access, insertions, and deletions in logarithmic time. The B-tree generalizes the binary search tree, allowing for nodes with more than two children. Unlike other self-balancing binary search trees, the B-tree is well suited for storage systems that read and write relatively large blocks of data, such as databases and file systems. + +History +B-trees were invented by Rudolf Bayer and Edward M. McCreight while working at Boeing Research Labs, for the purpose of efficiently managing index pages for large random-access files. The basic assumption was that indices would be so voluminous that only small chunks of the tree could fit in main memory. Bayer and McCreight's paper, Organization and maintenance of large ordered indices, was first circulated in July 1970 and later published in Acta Informatica. + +Bayer and McCreight never explained what, if anything, the B stands for: Boeing, balanced, between, broad, bushy, and Bayer have been suggested. McCreight has said that "the more you think about what the B in B-trees means, the better you understand B-trees." + +In 2011 Google developed the C++ B-Tree, reporting a 50-80% reduction in memory use for small data types and improved performance for large data sets when compared to a Red-Black tree. + +Definition +According to Knuth's definition, a B-tree of order m is a tree which satisfies the following properties: + + Every node has at most m children. + Every internal node has at least ⌈m/2⌉ children. + The root node has at least two children unless it is a leaf. + All leaves appear on the same level. + A non-leaf node with k children contains k−1 keys. + +Each internal node's keys act as separation values which divide its subtrees. For example, if an internal node has 3 child nodes (or subtrees) then it must have 2 keys: a1 and a2. All values in the leftmost subtree will be less than a1, all values in the middle subtree will be between a1 and a2, and all values in the rightmost subtree will be greater than a2. + +Internal nodes + Internal nodes (also known as inner nodes) are all nodes except for leaf nodes and the root node. They are usually represented as an ordered set of elements and child pointers. Every internal node contains a maximum of U children and a minimum of L children. Thus, the number of elements is always 1 less than the number of child pointers (the number of elements is between L−1 and U−1). U must be either 2L or 2L−1; therefore each internal node is at least half full. The relationship between U and L implies that two half-full nodes can be joined to make a legal node, and one full node can be split into two legal nodes (if there's room to push one element up into the parent). These properties make it possible to delete and insert new values into a B-tree and adjust the tree to preserve the B-tree properties. +The root node + The root node's number of children has the same upper limit as internal nodes, but has no lower limit. For example, when there are fewer than L−1 elements in the entire tree, the root will be the only node in the tree with no children at all. + +Leaf nodes + In Knuth's terminology, the "leaf" nodes are the actual data objects / chunks. The internal nodes that are one level above these leaves are what would be called the "leaves" by other authors: these nodes only store keys (at most m-1, and at least m/2-1 if they are not the root) and pointers (one for each key) to nodes carrying the data objects / chunks. + +A B-tree of depth n+1 can hold about U times as many items as a B-tree of depth n, but the cost of search, insert, and delete operations grows with the depth of the tree. As with any balanced tree, the cost grows much more slowly than the number of elements. + +Some balanced trees store values only at leaf nodes, and use different kinds of nodes for leaf nodes and internal nodes. B-trees keep values in every node in the tree except leaf nodes. + +Differences in terminology +The literature on B-trees is not uniform in its terminology. + +Bayer and McCreight (1972), Comer (1979), and others define the order of B-tree as the minimum number of keys in a non-root node. Folk and Zoellick points out that terminology is ambiguous because the maximum number of keys is not clear. An order 3 B-tree might hold a maximum of 6 keys or a maximum of 7 keys. Knuth (1998) avoids the problem by defining the order to be the maximum number of children (which is one more than the maximum number of keys). + +The term leaf is also inconsistent. Bayer and McCreight (1972) considered the leaf level to be the lowest level of keys, but Knuth considered the leaf level to be one level below the lowest keys. There are many possible implementation choices. In some designs, the leaves may hold the entire data record; in other designs, the leaves may only hold pointers to the data record. Those choices are not fundamental to the idea of a B-tree. + +For simplicity, most authors assume there are a fixed number of keys that fit in a node. The basic assumption is the key size is fixed and the node size is fixed. In practice, variable length keys may be employed. + +Informal description + +Node structure +As with other trees, B-trees can be represented as a collection of three types of nodes: root, internal (a.k.a. interior), and leaf. + +Note the following variable definitions: + + : Maximum number of potential search keys for each node in a B-tree. (this value is constant over the entire tree). + : The pointer to a child node which starts a sub-tree. + : The pointer to a record which stores the data. + : The search key at the zero-based node index . + +In B-trees, the following properties are maintained for these nodes: + + If exists in any node in a B+ tree, then exists in that node where . + All leaf nodes have the same number of ancestors (i.e., they are all at the same depth). + +Each internal node in a B-tree has the following format: + +Each leaf node in a B-tree has the following format: + +The node bounds are summarized in the table below: + +Insertion and deletion +In order to maintain the pre-defined range of child nodes, internal nodes may be joined or split. + +Usually, the number of keys is chosen to vary between and , where is the minimum number of keys, and is the minimum degree or branching factor of the tree. The factor of 2 will guarantee that nodes can be split or combined. + +If an internal node has keys, then adding a key to that node can be accomplished by splitting the hypothetical key node into two key nodes and moving the key that would have been in the middle to the parent node. Each split node has the required minimum number of keys. Similarly, if an internal node and its neighbor each have keys, then a key may be deleted from the internal node by combining it with its neighbor. Deleting the key would make the internal node have keys; joining the neighbor would add keys plus one more key brought down from the neighbor's parent. The result is an entirely full node of keys. + +A B-tree is kept balanced after insertion by splitting a would-be overfilled node, of keys, into two -key siblings and inserting the mid-value key into the parent. Depth only increases when the root is split, maintaining balance. Similarly, a B-tree is kept balanced after deletion by merging or redistributing keys among siblings to maintain the -key minimum for non-root nodes. A merger reduces the number of keys in the parent potentially forcing it to merge or redistribute keys with its siblings, and so on. The only change in depth occurs when the root has two children, of and (transitionally) keys, in which case the two siblings and parent are merged, reducing the depth by one. + +This depth will increase slowly as elements are added to the tree, but an increase in the overall depth is infrequent, and results in all leaf nodes being one more node farther away from the root. + +Comparison to other trees +Because a range of child nodes is permitted, B-trees do not need re-balancing as frequently as other self-balancing search trees, but may waste some space, since nodes are not entirely full. + +B-trees have substantial advantages over alternative implementations when the time to access the data of a node greatly exceeds the time spent processing that data, because then the cost of accessing the node may be amortized over multiple operations within the node. This usually occurs when the node data are in secondary storage such as disk drives. By maximizing the number of keys within each internal node, the height of the tree decreases and the number of expensive node accesses is reduced. In addition, rebalancing of the tree occurs less often. The maximum number of child nodes depends on the information that must be stored for each child node and the size of a full disk block or an analogous size in secondary storage. While 2–3 B-trees are easier to explain, practical B-trees using secondary storage need a large number of child nodes to improve performance. + +Variants +The term B-tree may refer to a specific design or it may refer to a general class of designs. In the narrow sense, a B-tree stores keys in its internal nodes but need not store those keys in the records at the leaves. The general class includes variations such as the B+ tree, the B* tree and the B*+ tree. + In the B+ tree, the internal nodes do not store any pointers to records, thus all pointers to records are stored in the leaf nodes. In addition, a leaf node may include a pointer to the next leaf node to speed sequential access. Because B+ tree internal nodes have fewer pointers, each node can hold more keys, causing the tree to be shallower, and thus, faster to search. + The B* tree balances more neighboring internal nodes to keep the internal nodes more densely packed. This variant ensures non-root nodes are at least 2/3 full instead of 1/2. As the most costly part of operation of inserting the node in B-tree is splitting the node, B*-trees are created to postpone splitting operation as long as they can. To maintain this, instead of immediately splitting up a node when it gets full, its keys are shared with a node next to it. This spill operation is less costly to do than split, because it requires only shifting the keys between existing nodes, not allocating memory for a new one. For inserting, first it is checked whether the node has some free space in it, and if so, the new key is just inserted in the node. However, if the node is full (it has keys, where is the order of the tree as maximum number of pointers to subtrees from one node), it needs to be checked whether the right sibling exists and has some free space. If the right sibling has keys, then keys are redistributed between the two sibling nodes as evenly as possible. For this purpose, keys from the current node, the new key inserted, one key from the parent node and keys from the sibling node are seen as an ordered array of keys. The array becomes split by half, so that lowest keys stay in the current node, the next (middle) key is inserted in the parent and the rest go to the right sibling. (The newly inserted key might end up in any of the three places.) The situation when right sibling is full, and left isn't is analogous. When both the sibling nodes are full, then the two nodes (current node and a sibling) are split into three and one more key is shifted up the tree, to the parent node. If the parent is full, then spill/split operation propagates towards the root node. Deleting nodes is somewhat more complex than inserting however. + The B*+ tree combines the main B+ tree and B* tree features together. + B-trees can be turned into order statistic trees to allow rapid searches for the Nth record in key order, or counting the number of records between any two records, and various other related operations. + +B-tree usage in databases + +Time to search a sorted file +Usually, sorting and searching algorithms have been characterized by the number of comparison operations that must be performed using order notation. A binary search of a sorted table with records, for example, can be done in roughly comparisons. If the table had 1,000,000 records, then a specific record could be located with at most 20 comparisons: . + +Large databases have historically been kept on disk drives. The time to read a record on a disk drive far exceeds the time needed to compare keys once the record is available. The time to read a record from a disk drive involves a seek time and a rotational delay. The seek time may be 0 to 20 or more milliseconds, and the rotational delay averages about half the rotation period. For a 7200 RPM drive, the rotation period is 8.33 milliseconds. For a drive such as the Seagate ST3500320NS, the track-to-track seek time is 0.8 milliseconds and the average reading seek time is 8.5 milliseconds. For simplicity, assume reading from disk takes about 10 milliseconds. + +Naively, then, the time to locate one record out of a million would take 20 disk reads times 10 milliseconds per disk read, which is 0.2 seconds. + +The time won't be that bad because individual records are grouped together in a disk block. A disk block might be 16 kilobytes. If each record is 160 bytes, then 100 records could be stored in each block. The disk read time above was actually for an entire block. Once the disk head is in position, one or more disk blocks can be read with little delay. With 100 records per block, the last 6 or so comparisons don't need to do any disk reads—the comparisons are all within the last disk block read. + +To speed the search further, the first 13 to 14 comparisons (which each required a disk access) must be sped up. + +An index speeds the search +A significant improvement in performance can be made with a B-tree index. A B-tree index creates a multi-level tree structure that breaks a database down into fixed-size blocks or pages. Each level of this tree can be used to link those pages via an address location, allowing one page (known as a node, or internal page) to refer to another with leaf pages at the lowest level. One page is typically the starting point of the tree, or the "root". This is where the search for a particular key would begin, traversing a path that terminates in a leaf. Most pages in this structure will be leaf pages which ultimately refer to specific table rows. + +Because each node (or internal page) can have more than two children, a B-tree index will usually have a shorter height (the distance from the root to the farthest leaf) than a Binary Search Tree. In the example above, initial disk reads narrowed the search range by a factor of two. That can be improved substantially by creating an auxiliary index that contains the first record in each disk block (sometimes called a sparse index). This auxiliary index would be 1% of the size of the original database, but it can be searched more quickly. Finding an entry in the auxiliary index would tell us which block to search in the main database; after searching the auxiliary index, we would have to search only that one block of the main database—at a cost of one more disk read. The index would hold 10,000 entries, so it would take at most 14 comparisons. Like the main database, the last six or so comparisons in the auxiliary index would be on the same disk block. The index could be searched in about eight disk reads, and the desired record could be accessed in 9 disk reads. + +The trick of creating an auxiliary index can be repeated to make an auxiliary index to the auxiliary index. That would make an aux-aux index that would need only 100 entries and would fit in one disk block. + +Instead of reading 14 disk blocks to find the desired record, we only need to read 3 blocks. This blocking is the core idea behind the creation of the B-tree, where the disk blocks fill-out a hierarchy of levels to make up the index. Reading and searching the first (and only) block of the aux-aux index which is the root of the tree identifies the relevant block in aux-index in the level below. Reading and searching that aux-index block identifies the relevant block to read, until the final level, known as the leaf level, identifies a record in the main database. Instead of 150 milliseconds, we need only 30 milliseconds to get the record. + +The auxiliary indices have turned the search problem from a binary search requiring roughly disk reads to one requiring only disk reads where is the blocking factor (the number of entries per block: entries per block in our example; reads). + +In practice, if the main database is being frequently searched, the aux-aux index and much of the aux index may reside in a disk cache, so they would not incur a disk read. The B-tree remains the standard index implementation in almost all relational databases, and many nonrelational databases use them too. + +Insertions and deletions +If the database does not change, then compiling the index is simple to do, and the index need never be changed. If there are changes, then managing the database and its index becomes more complicated. + +Deleting records from a database is relatively easy. The index can stay the same, and the record can just be marked as deleted. The database remains in sorted order. If there are a large number of lazy deletions, then searching and storage become less efficient. + +Insertions can be very slow in a sorted sequential file because room for the inserted record must be made. Inserting a record before the first record requires shifting all of the records down one. Such an operation is just too expensive to be practical. One solution is to leave some spaces. Instead of densely packing all the records in a block, the block can have some free space to allow for subsequent insertions. Those spaces would be marked as if they were "deleted" records. + +Both insertions and deletions are fast as long as space is available on a block. If an insertion won't fit on the block, then some free space on some nearby block must be found and the auxiliary indices adjusted. The hope is that enough space is available nearby, such that a lot of blocks do not need to be reorganized. Alternatively, some out-of-sequence disk blocks may be used. + +Advantages of B-tree usage for databases +The B-tree uses all of the ideas described above. In particular, a B-tree: + keeps keys in sorted order for sequential traversing + uses a hierarchical index to minimize the number of disk reads + uses partially full blocks to speed up insertions and deletions + keeps the index balanced with a recursive algorithm + +In addition, a B-tree minimizes waste by making sure the interior nodes are at least half full. A B-tree can handle an arbitrary number of insertions and deletions. + +Best case and worst case heights +Let be the height of the classic B-tree (see for the tree height definition). Let be the number of entries in the tree. Let m be the maximum number of children a node can have. Each node can have at most keys. + +It can be shown (by induction for example) that a B-tree of height h with all its nodes completely filled has entries. Hence, the best case height (i.e. the minimum height) of a B-tree is: + + +Let be the minimum number of children an internal (non-root) node must have. For an ordinary B-tree, + +Comer (1979) and Cormen et al. (2001) give the worst case height (the maximum height) of a B-tree as + +Algorithms + +Search +Searching is similar to searching a binary search tree. Starting at the root, the tree is recursively traversed from top to bottom. At each level, the search reduces its field of view to the child pointer (subtree) whose range includes the search value. A subtree's range is defined by the values, or keys, contained in its parent node. These limiting values are also known as separation values. + +Binary search is typically (but not necessarily) used within nodes to find the separation values and child tree of interest. + +Insertion + +All insertions start at a leaf node. To insert a new element, search the tree to find the leaf node where the new element should be added. Insert the new element into that node with the following steps: + + If the node contains fewer than the maximum allowed number of elements, then there is room for the new element. Insert the new element in the node, keeping the node's elements ordered. + Otherwise the node is full, evenly split it into two nodes so: + A single median is chosen from among the leaf's elements and the new element that is being inserted. + Values less than the median are put in the new left node and values greater than the median are put in the new right node, with the median acting as a separation value. + The separation value is inserted in the node's parent, which may cause it to be split, and so on. If the node has no parent (i.e., the node was the root), create a new root above this node (increasing the height of the tree). + +If the splitting goes all the way up to the root, it creates a new root with a single separator value and two children, which is why the lower bound on the size of internal nodes does not apply to the root. The maximum number of elements per node is U−1. When a node is split, one element moves to the parent, but one element is added. So, it must be possible to divide the maximum number U−1 of elements into two legal nodes. If this number is odd, then U=2L and one of the new nodes contains (U−2)/2 = L−1 elements, and hence is a legal node, and the other contains one more element, and hence it is legal too. If U−1 is even, then U=2L−1, so there are 2L−2 elements in the node. Half of this number is L−1, which is the minimum number of elements allowed per node. + +An alternative algorithm supports a single pass down the tree from the root to the node where the insertion will take place, splitting any full nodes encountered on the way pre-emptively. This prevents the need to recall the parent nodes into memory, which may be expensive if the nodes are on secondary storage. However, to use this algorithm, we must be able to send one element to the parent and split the remaining U−2 elements into two legal nodes, without adding a new element. This requires U = 2L rather than U = 2L−1, which accounts for why some textbooks impose this requirement in defining B-trees. + +Deletion +There are two popular strategies for deletion from a B-tree. + + Locate and delete the item, then restructure the tree to retain its invariants, OR + Do a single pass down the tree, but before entering (visiting) a node, restructure the tree so that once the key to be deleted is encountered, it can be deleted without triggering the need for any further restructuring + +The algorithm below uses the former strategy. + +There are two special cases to consider when deleting an element: + + The element in an internal node is a separator for its child nodes + Deleting an element may put its node under the minimum number of elements and children + +The procedures for these cases are in order below. + +Deletion from a leaf node + Search for the value to delete. + If the value is in a leaf node, simply delete it from the node. + If underflow happens, rebalance the tree as described in section "Rebalancing after deletion" below. + +Deletion from an internal node +Each element in an internal node acts as a separation value for two subtrees, therefore we need to find a replacement for separation. Note that the largest element in the left subtree is still less than the separator. Likewise, the smallest element in the right subtree is still greater than the separator. Both of those elements are in leaf nodes, and either one can be the new separator for the two subtrees. Algorithmically described below: + + Choose a new separator (either the largest element in the left subtree or the smallest element in the right subtree), remove it from the leaf node it is in, and replace the element to be deleted with the new separator. + The previous step deleted an element (the new separator) from a leaf node. If that leaf node is now deficient (has fewer than the required number of nodes), then rebalance the tree starting from the leaf node. + +Rebalancing after deletion +Rebalancing starts from a leaf and proceeds toward the root until the tree is balanced. If deleting an element from a node has brought it under the minimum size, then some elements must be redistributed to bring all nodes up to the minimum. Usually, the redistribution involves moving an element from a sibling node that has more than the minimum number of nodes. That redistribution operation is called a rotation. If no sibling can spare an element, then the deficient node must be merged with a sibling. The merge causes the parent to lose a separator element, so the parent may become deficient and need rebalancing. The merging and rebalancing may continue all the way to the root. Since the minimum element count doesn't apply to the root, making the root be the only deficient node is not a problem. The algorithm to rebalance the tree is as follows: + If the deficient node's right sibling exists and has more than the minimum number of elements, then rotate left + Copy the separator from the parent to the end of the deficient node (the separator moves down; the deficient node now has the minimum number of elements) + Replace the separator in the parent with the first element of the right sibling (right sibling loses one node but still has at least the minimum number of elements) + The tree is now balanced + Otherwise, if the deficient node's left sibling exists and has more than the minimum number of elements, then rotate right + Copy the separator from the parent to the start of the deficient node (the separator moves down; deficient node now has the minimum number of elements) + Replace the separator in the parent with the last element of the left sibling (left sibling loses one node but still has at least the minimum number of elements) + The tree is now balanced + Otherwise, if both immediate siblings have only the minimum number of elements, then merge with a sibling sandwiching their separator taken off from their parent + Copy the separator to the end of the left node (the left node may be the deficient node or it may be the sibling with the minimum number of elements) + Move all elements from the right node to the left node (the left node now has the maximum number of elements, and the right node – empty) + Remove the separator from the parent along with its empty right child (the parent loses an element) + If the parent is the root and now has no elements, then free it and make the merged node the new root (tree becomes shallower) + Otherwise, if the parent has fewer than the required number of elements, then rebalance the parent + +Note: The rebalancing operations are different for B+ trees (e.g., rotation is different because parent has copy of the key) and B*-tree (e.g., three siblings are merged into two siblings). + +Sequential access +While freshly loaded databases tend to have good sequential behaviour, this behaviour becomes increasingly difficult to maintain as a database grows, resulting in more random I/O and performance challenges. + +Initial construction + +A common special case is adding a large amount of pre-sorted data into an initially empty B-tree. While it is quite possible to simply perform a series of successive inserts, inserting sorted data results in a tree composed almost entirely of half-full nodes. Instead, a special "bulk loading" algorithm can be used to produce a more efficient tree with a higher branching factor. + +When the input is sorted, all insertions are at the rightmost edge of the tree, and in particular any time a node is split, we are guaranteed that no more insertions will take place in the left half. When bulk loading, we take advantage of this, and instead of splitting overfull nodes evenly, split them as unevenly as possible: leave the left node completely full and create a right node with zero keys and one child (in violation of the usual B-tree rules). + +At the end of bulk loading, the tree is composed almost entirely of completely full nodes; only the rightmost node on each level may be less than full. Because those nodes may also be less than half full, to re-establish the normal B-tree rules, combine such nodes with their (guaranteed full) left siblings and divide the keys to produce two nodes at least half full. The only node which lacks a full left sibling is the root, which is permitted to be less than half full. + +In filesystems +In addition to its use in databases, the B-tree (or ) is also used in filesystems to allow quick random access to an arbitrary block in a particular file. The basic problem is turning the file block address into a disk block address. + +Some operating systems require the user to allocate the maximum size of the file when the file is created. The file can then be allocated as contiguous disk blocks. In that case, to convert the file block address into a disk block address, the operating system simply adds the file block address to the address of the first disk block constituting the file. The scheme is simple, but the file cannot exceed its created size. + +Other operating systems allow a file to grow. The resulting disk blocks may not be contiguous, so mapping logical blocks to physical blocks is more involved. + +MS-DOS, for example, used a simple File Allocation Table (FAT). The FAT has an entry for each disk block, and that entry identifies whether its block is used by a file and if so, which block (if any) is the next disk block of the same file. So, the allocation of each file is represented as a linked list in the table. In order to find the disk address of file block , the operating system (or disk utility) must sequentially follow the file's linked list in the FAT. Worse, to find a free disk block, it must sequentially scan the FAT. For MS-DOS, that was not a huge penalty because the disks and files were small and the FAT had few entries and relatively short file chains. In the FAT12 filesystem (used on floppy disks and early hard disks), there were no more than 4,080 entries, and the FAT would usually be resident in memory. As disks got bigger, the FAT architecture began to confront penalties. On a large disk using FAT, it may be necessary to perform disk reads to learn the disk location of a file block to be read or written. + +TOPS-20 (and possibly TENEX) used a 0 to 2 level tree that has similarities to a B-tree. A disk block was 512 36-bit words. If the file fit in a 512 (29) word block, then the file directory would point to that physical disk block. If the file fit in 218 words, then the directory would point to an aux index; the 512 words of that index would either be NULL (the block isn't allocated) or point to the physical address of the block. If the file fit in 227 words, then the directory would point to a block holding an aux-aux index; each entry would either be NULL or point to an aux index. Consequently, the physical disk block for a 227 word file could be located in two disk reads and read on the third. + +Apple's filesystem HFS+ and APFS, Microsoft's NTFS, AIX (jfs2) and some Linux filesystems, such as Btrfs and ext4, use B-trees. + +B*-trees are used in the HFS and Reiser4 file systems. + +DragonFly BSD's HAMMER file system uses a modified B+-tree. + +Performance + +A B-tree grows slower with growing data amount, than the linearity of a linked list. Compared to a skip list, both structures have the same performance, but the B-tree scales better for growing n. A T-tree, for main memory database systems, is similar but more compact. + +Variations + +Access concurrency +Lehman and Yao showed that all the read locks could be avoided (and thus concurrent access greatly improved) by linking the tree blocks at each level together with a "next" pointer. This results in a tree structure where both insertion and search operations descend from the root to the leaf. Write locks are only required as a tree block is modified. This maximizes access concurrency by multiple users, an important consideration for databases and/or other B-tree-based ISAM storage methods. The cost associated with this improvement is that empty pages cannot be removed from the btree during normal operations. (However, see for various strategies to implement node merging, and source code at.) + +United States Patent 5283894, granted in 1994, appears to show a way to use a 'Meta Access Method' to allow concurrent B+ tree access and modification without locks. The technique accesses the tree 'upwards' for both searches and updates by means of additional in-memory indexes that point at the blocks in each level in the block cache. No reorganization for deletes is needed and there are no 'next' pointers in each block as in Lehman and Yao. + +Parallel algorithms +Since B-trees are similar in structure to red-black trees, parallel algorithms for red-black trees can be applied to B-trees as well. + +Maple tree +A Maple tree is a B-tree developed for use in the Linux kernel to reduce lock contention in virtual memory management. + +See also + B+ tree + R-tree + Red–black tree + 2–3 tree + 2–3–4 tree + +Notes + +References + +Sources + + . + . Chapter 18: B-Trees. + + . Section 6.2.4: Multiway Trees, pp. 481–491. Also, pp. 476–477 of section 6.2.3 (Balanced Trees) discusses 2–3 trees. + +Original papers + . + . + +External links + +B-tree lecture by David Scot Taylor, SJSU +B-Tree visualisation (click "init") +Animated B-Tree visualization +B-tree and UB-tree on Scholarpedia Curator: Dr Rudolf Bayer +B-Trees: Balanced Tree Data Structures +NIST's Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures: B-tree +B-Tree Tutorial +The InfinityDB BTree implementation +Cache Oblivious B(+)-trees +Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures entry for B*-tree +Open Data Structures - Section 14.2 - B-Trees, Pat Morin +Counted B-Trees +B-Tree .Net, a modern, virtualized RAM & Disk implementation + +Bulk loading + + + + +Computer-related introductions in 1971 +Database index techniques +The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. The British Museum was the first public national museum to cover all fields of knowledge. + +In 2022 the museum received 4,097,253 visitors, an increase of 209 per cent from 2021. It ranked third in the list of most-visited art museums in the world. + +The museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonisation and resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881. The right to ownership of some of its most well-known acquisitions, notably the Greek Elgin Marbles and the Egyptian Rosetta Stone, is subject to long-term disputes and repatriation claims. + +In 1973, the British Library Act 1972 detached the library department from the British Museum, but it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as the museum until 1997. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and as with all national museums in the UK it charges no admission fee, except for loan exhibitions. + +History + +Sir Hans Sloane + +Although today principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities, the British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the Anglo-Irish physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), a London-based doctor and scientist from Ulster. During the course of his lifetime, and particularly after he married the widow of a wealthy Jamaican planter, Sloane gathered a large collection of curiosities, and not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to King George II, for the nation, for a sum of £20,000. + +At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, prints and drawings including those by Albrecht Dürer and antiquities from Sudan, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and Far East and the Americas. + +Foundation (1753) +On 7 June 1753, King George II gave his royal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. The British Museum Act 1753 also added two other libraries to the Sloane collection, namely the Cottonian Library, assembled by Sir Robert Cotton, dating back to Elizabethan times, and the Harleian Library, the collection of the Earls of Oxford. They were joined in 1757 by the "Old Royal Library", now the Royal manuscripts, assembled by various British monarchs. Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving manuscript of Beowulf. + +The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element, and meant that the British Museum now became both National Museum and library. + +Cabinet of curiosities (1753–1778) + +The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The trustees rejected Buckingham House, which was later converted into the present day Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost and the unsuitability of its location. + +With the acquisition of Montagu House, the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. At this time, the largest parts of collection were the library, which took up the majority of the rooms on the ground floor of Montagu House, and the natural history objects, which took up an entire wing on the second state storey of the building. In 1763, the trustees of the British Museum, under the influence of Peter Collinson and William Watson, employed the former student of Carl Linnaeus, Daniel Solander, to reclassify the natural history collection according to the Linnaean system, thereby making the museum a public centre of learning accessible to the full range of European natural historians. In 1823, King George IV gave the King's Library assembled by George III, and Parliament gave the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the museum's library would expand indefinitely. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several further gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts and David Garrick's library of 1,000 printed plays. The predominance of natural history, books and manuscripts began to lessen when in 1772 the museum acquired for £8,410 its first significant antiquities in Sir William Hamilton's "first" collection of Greek vases. + +Indolence and energy (1778–1800) + +From 1778, a display of objects from the South Seas brought back from the round-the-world voyages of Captain James Cook and the travels of other explorers fascinated visitors with a glimpse of previously unknown lands. The bequest of a collection of books, engraved gems, coins, prints and drawings by Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode in 1800 did much to raise the museum's reputation; but Montagu House became increasingly crowded and decrepit and it was apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion. + +The museum's first notable addition towards its collection of antiquities, since its foundation, was by Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British Ambassador to Naples, who sold his collection of Greek and Roman artefacts to the museum in 1784 together with a number of other antiquities and natural history specimens. A list of donations to the museum, dated 31 January 1784, refers to the Hamilton bequest of a "Colossal Foot of an Apollo in Marble". It was one of two antiquities of Hamilton's collection drawn for him by Francesco Progenie, a pupil of Pietro Fabris, who also contributed a number of drawings of Mount Vesuvius sent by Hamilton to the Royal Society in London. + +Growth and change (1800–1825) + +In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. After the defeat of the French campaign in the Battle of the Nile, in 1801, the British Museum acquired more Egyptian sculptures and in 1802 King George III presented the Rosetta Stone – key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs. Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, laid the foundations of the collection of Egyptian Monumental Sculpture. Many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman sculpture, in 1805. In 1806, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803 removed the large collection of marble sculptures from the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens and transferred them to the UK. In 1816 these masterpieces of western art were acquired by the British Museum by Act of Parliament and deposited in the museum thereafter. The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815. The Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich. + +In 1802 a buildings committee was set up to plan for expansion of the museum, and further highlighted by the donation in 1822 of the King's Library, personal library of King George III's, comprising 65,000 volumes, 19,000 pamphlets, maps, charts and topographical drawings. The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an eastern extension to the museum "... for the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it ..." and put forward plans for today's quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the King's Library Gallery began in 1823. The extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. However, following the founding of the National Gallery, London in 1824, the proposed Picture Gallery was no longer needed, and the space on the upper floor was given over to the Natural history collections. + +The first Synopsis of the British Museum was published in 1808. This described the contents of the museum, and the display of objects room by room, and updated editions were published every few years. + +The largest building site in Europe (1825–1850) + +As Sir Robert Smirke's grand neo-classical building gradually arose, the museum became a construction site. The King's Library, on the ground floor of the East Wing, was handed over in 1827, and was described as one of the finest rooms in London. Although it was not fully open to the general public until 1857, special openings were arranged during The Great Exhibition of 1851. + +In 1840, the museum became involved in its first overseas excavations, Charles Fellows's expedition to Xanthos, in Asia Minor, whence came remains of the tombs of the rulers of ancient Lycia, among them the Nereid and Payava monuments. In 1857, Charles Newton was to discover the 4th-century BC Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In the 1840s and 1850s the museum supported excavations in Assyria by A.H. Layard and others at sites such as Nimrud and Nineveh. Of particular interest to curators was the eventual discovery of Ashurbanipal's great library of cuneiform tablets, which helped to make the museum a focus for Assyrian studies. + +Sir Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), a trustee of the British Museum from 1830, assembled a library of 20,240 volumes, which he left to the museum in his will. The books arrived in January 1847 in twenty-one horse-drawn vans. The only vacant space for this large library was a room originally intended for manuscripts, between the Front Entrance Hall and the Manuscript Saloon. The books remained here until the British Library moved to St Pancras in 1998. + +Collecting from the wider world (1850–1875) +The opening of the forecourt in 1852 marked the completion of Robert Smirke's 1823 plan, but already adjustments were having to be made to cope with the unforeseen growth of the collections. Infill galleries were constructed for Assyrian sculptures and Sydney Smirke's Round Reading Room, with space for a million books, opened in 1857. Because of continued pressure on space the decision was taken to move natural history to a new building in South Kensington, which would later become the British Museum of Natural History. + +Roughly contemporary with the construction of the new building was the career of a man sometimes called the "second founder" of the British Museum, the Italian librarian Anthony Panizzi. Under his supervision, the British Museum Library (now part of the British Library) quintupled in size and became a well-organised institution worthy of being called a national library, the largest library in the world after the National Library of Paris. The quadrangle at the centre of Smirke's design proved to be a waste of valuable space and was filled at Panizzi's request by a circular Reading Room of cast iron, designed by Smirke's brother, Sydney Smirke. + +Until the mid-19th century, the museum's collections were relatively circumscribed but, in 1851, with the appointment to the staff of Augustus Wollaston Franks to curate the collections, the museum began for the first time to collect British and European medieval antiquities, prehistory, branching out into Asia and diversifying its holdings of ethnography. A real coup for the museum was the purchase in 1867, over French objections, of the Duke of Blacas's wide-ranging and valuable collection of antiquities. Overseas excavations continued and John Turtle Wood discovered the remains of the 4th century BC Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, another Wonder of the Ancient World. + +Scholarship and legacies (1875–1900) +The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to the new British Museum of Natural History in 1887, nowadays the Natural History Museum. With the departure and the completion of the new White Wing (fronting Montague Street) in 1884, more space was available for antiquities and ethnography and the library could further expand. This was a time of innovation as electric lighting was introduced in the Reading Room and exhibition galleries. + +The William Burges collection of armoury was bequeathed to the museum in 1881. In 1882, the museum was involved in the establishment of the independent Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) the first British body to carry out research in Egypt. A bequest from Miss Emma Turner in 1892 financed excavations in Cyprus. In 1897 the death of the great collector and curator, A. W. Franks, was followed by an immense bequest of 3,300 finger rings, 153 drinking vessels, 512 pieces of continental porcelain, 1,500 netsuke, 850 inro, over 30,000 bookplates and miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate, among them the Oxus Treasure. + +In 1898 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed the Waddesdon Bequest, the glittering contents from his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor. This consisted of almost 300 pieces of objets d'art et de vertu which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and maiolica, among them the Holy Thorn Reliquary, probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry. The collection was in the tradition of a Schatzkammer such as those formed by the Renaissance princes of Europe. Baron Ferdinand's will was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void, the collection should be + These terms are still observed, and the collection occupies room 2a. + +New century, new building (1900–1925) + +By the last years of the 19th century, The British Museum's collections had increased to the extent that its building was no longer large enough. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the west, north and east sides of the museum. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing beginning 1906. + +All the while, the collections kept growing. Emil Torday collected in Central Africa, Aurel Stein in Central Asia, D. G. Hogarth, Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence excavated at Carchemish. Around this time, the American collector and philanthropist J. Pierpont Morgan donated a substantial number of objects to the museum, including William Greenwell's collection of prehistoric artefacts from across Europe which he had purchased for £10,000 in 1908. Morgan had also acquired a major part of Sir John Evans's coin collection, which was later sold to the museum by his son J. P. Morgan Jr. in 1915. In 1918, because of the threat of wartime bombing, some objects were evacuated via the London Post Office Railway to Holborn, the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth) and a country house near Malvern. On the return of antiquities from wartime storage in 1919 some objects were found to have deteriorated. A conservation laboratory was set up in May 1920 and became a permanent department in 1931. It is today the oldest in continuous existence. In 1923, the British Museum welcomed over one million visitors. + +Disruption and reconstruction (1925–1950) +New mezzanine floors were constructed and book stacks rebuilt in an attempt to cope with the flood of books. In 1931, the art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen offered funds to build a gallery for the Parthenon sculptures. Designed by the American architect John Russell Pope, it was completed in 1938. The appearance of the exhibition galleries began to change as dark Victorian reds gave way to modern pastel shades. + +Following the retirement of George Francis Hill as Director and Principal Librarian in 1936, he was succeeded by John Forsdyke. + +As tensions with Nazi Germany developed and it appeared that war may be imminent Forsdyke came to the view that with the likelihood of far worse air-raids than that experienced in World War I that the museum had to make preparations to remove its most valuable items to secure locations. Following the Munich crisis Forsdyke ordered 3,300 No-Nail Boxes and stored them in the basement of Duveen Gallery. At the same time he began identifying and securing suitable locations. As a result the museum was able to quickly commence relocating selected items on 24 August 1939, (a mere day after the Home Secretary advised them to do so), to secure basements, country houses, Aldwych Underground station and the National Library of Wales. Many items were relocated in early 1942 from their initial dispersal locations to a newly developed facility at Westwood Quarry in Wiltshire. +The evacuation was timely, for in 1940 the Duveen Gallery was severely damaged by bombing. Meanwhile, prior to the war, the Nazis had sent a researcher to the British Museum for several years with the aim of "compiling an anti-Semitic history of Anglo-Jewry". + +After the war, the museum continued to collect from all countries and all centuries: among the most spectacular additions were the 2600 BC Mesopotamian treasure from Ur, discovered during Leonard Woolley's 1922–34 excavations. Gold, silver and garnet grave goods from the Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo (1939) and late Roman silver tableware from Mildenhall, Suffolk (1946). The immediate post-war years were taken up with the return of the collections from protection and the restoration of the museum after the Blitz. Work also began on restoring the damaged Duveen Gallery. + +A new public face (1950–1975) + +In 1953, the museum celebrated its bicentenary. Many changes followed: the first full-time in-house designer and publications officer were appointed in 1964, the Friends organisation was set up in 1968, an Education Service established in 1970 and publishing house in 1973. In 1963, a new Act of Parliament introduced administrative reforms. It became easier to lend objects, the constitution of the board of trustees changed and the Natural History Museum became fully independent. By 1959 the Coins and Medals office suite, completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt and re-opened, attention turned towards the gallery work with new tastes in design leading to the remodelling of Robert Smirke's Classical and Near Eastern galleries. In 1962 the Duveen Gallery was finally restored and the Parthenon Sculptures were moved back into it, once again at the heart of the museum. + +By the 1970s the museum was again expanding. More services for the public were introduced; visitor numbers soared, with the temporary exhibition "Treasures of Tutankhamun" in 1972, attracting 1,694,117 visitors, the most successful in British history. In the same year the Act of Parliament establishing the British Library was passed, separating the collection of manuscripts and printed books from the British Museum. This left the museum with antiquities; coins, medals and paper money; prints and drawings; and ethnography. A pressing problem was finding space for additions to the library which now required an extra of shelving each year. The Government suggested a site at St Pancras for the new British Library but the books did not leave the museum until 1997. + +The Great Court emerges (1975–2000) +The departure of the British Library to a new site at St Pancras, finally achieved in 1998, provided the space needed for the books. It also created the opportunity to redevelop the vacant space in Robert Smirke's 19th-century central quadrangle into the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court – the largest covered square in Europe – which opened in 2000. The ethnography collections, which had been housed in the short-lived Museum of Mankind at 6 Burlington Gardens from 1970, were returned to new purpose-built galleries in the museum in 2000. + +The museum again readjusted its collecting policies as interest in "modern" objects: prints, drawings, medals and the decorative arts reawakened. Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out in places as diverse as New Guinea, Madagascar, Romania, Guatemala and Indonesia and there were excavations in the Near East, Egypt, Sudan and the UK. The Weston Gallery of Roman Britain, opened in 1997, displayed a number of recently discovered hoards which demonstrated the richness of what had been considered an unimportant part of the Roman Empire. The museum turned increasingly towards private funds for buildings, acquisitions and other purposes. In 2000, the British Museum was awarded National Heritage Museum of the Year. + +The British Museum today + +Today the museum no longer houses collections of natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent British Library. The museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over 13 million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library. + +The Round Reading Room, which was designed by the architect Sydney Smirke, opened in 1857. For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the museum's vast library. The Reading Room closed in 1997 when the national library (the British Library) moved to a new building at St Pancras. Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre. + +With the bookstacks in the central courtyard of the museum empty, the demolition for Lord Foster's glass-roofed Great Court could begin. The Great Court, opened in 2000, while undoubtedly improving circulation around the museum, was criticised for having a lack of exhibition space at a time when the museum was in serious financial difficulties and many galleries were closed to the public. At the same time the African collections that had been temporarily housed in 6 Burlington Gardens were given a new gallery in the North Wing funded by the Sainsbury family – with the donation valued at £25 million. + +As part of its very large website, the museum has the largest online database of objects in the collection of any museum in the world, with nearly 4,500,000 individual object entries in 2,000,000 records, many of them illustrated, online at the start of 2023. There is also a "Highlights" database with longer entries on over 4,000 objects, and several specialised online research catalogues and online journals (all free to access). In 2013 the museum's website received 19.5 millions visits, an increase of 47% from the previous year. + +In 2013 the museum received a record 6.7 million visitors, an increase of 20% from the previous year. Popular exhibitions including "Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum" and "Ice Age Art" are credited with helping fuel the increase in visitors. Plans were announced in September 2014 to recreate the entire building along with all exhibits in the video game Minecraft in conjunction with members of the public. A number of films have been shot at the British Museum. + +Governance + +Director +The British Museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport through a three-year funding agreement. Its head is the Director of the British Museum. The British Museum was run from its inception by a 'principal librarian' (when the book collections were still part of the museum), a role that was renamed 'director and principal librarian' in 1898, and 'director' in 1973 (on the separation of the British Library). + +Trustees +A board of 25 trustees (with the director as their accounting officer for the purposes of reporting to Government) is responsible for the general management and control of the museum, in accordance with the British Museum Act 1963 and the Museums and Galleries Act 1992. Prior to the 1963 Act, it was chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons. The board was formed on the museum's inception to hold its collections in trust for the nation without actually owning them themselves, and now fulfil a mainly advisory role. Trustee appointments are governed by the regulatory framework set out in the code of practice on public appointments issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. + +Building + +The Greek Revival façade facing Great Russell Street is a characteristic building of Sir Robert Smirke, with 44 columns in the Ionic order high, closely based on those of the temple of Athena Polias at Priene in Asia Minor. The pediment over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir Richard Westmacott depicting The Progress of Civilisation, consisting of fifteen allegorical figures, installed in 1852. + +The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing (The King's Library) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. Work was also progressing on the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery) 1826–1831, with Montagu House demolished in 1842 to make room for the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and the South Wing with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when the Front Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public. The museum is faced with Portland stone, but the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built using Haytor granite from Dartmoor in South Devon, transported via the unique Haytor Granite Tramway. + +In 1846 Robert Smirke was replaced as the museum's architect by his brother Sydney Smirke, whose major addition was the Round Reading Room 1854–1857; at in diameter it was then the second widest dome in the world, the Pantheon in Rome being slightly wider. + +The next major addition was the White Wing 1882–1884 added behind the eastern end of the South Front, the architect being Sir John Taylor. + +In 1895, Parliament gave the museum trustees a loan of £200,000 to purchase from the Duke of Bedford all 69 houses which backed onto the museum building in the five surrounding streets – Great Russell Street, Montague Street, Montague Place, Bedford Square and Bloomsbury Street. The trustees planned to demolish these houses and to build around the west, north and east sides of the museum new galleries that would completely fill the block on which the museum stands. The architect Sir John James Burnet was petitioned to put forward ambitious long-term plans to extend the building on all three sides. Most of the houses in Montague Place were knocked down a few years after the sale. Of this grand plan only the Edward VII galleries in the centre of the North Front were ever constructed, these were built 1906–14 to the design by J.J. Burnet, and opened by King George V and Queen Mary in 1914. They now house the museum's collections of Prints and Drawings and Oriental Antiquities. There was not enough money to put up more new buildings, and so the houses in the other streets are nearly all still standing. + +The Duveen Gallery, sited to the west of the Egyptian, Greek & Assyrian sculpture galleries, was designed to house the Elgin Marbles by the American Beaux-Arts architect John Russell Pope. Although completed in 1938, it was hit by a bomb in 1940 and remained semi-derelict for 22 years, before reopening in 1962. Other areas damaged during World War II bombing included: in September 1940 two unexploded bombs hit the Edward VII galleries, the King's Library received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, incendiaries fell on the dome of the Round Reading Room but did little damage; on the night of 10 to 11 May 1941 several incendiaries fell on the south-west corner of the museum, destroying the book stack and 150,000 books in the courtyard and the galleries around the top of the Great Staircase – this damage was not fully repaired until the early 1960s. + +The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court is a covered square at the centre of the British Museum designed by the engineers Buro Happold and the architects Foster and Partners. The Great Court opened in December 2000 and is the largest covered square in Europe. The roof is a glass and steel construction, built by an Austrian steelwork company, with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass. At the centre of the Great Court is the Reading Room vacated by the British Library, its functions now moved to St Pancras. + +Today, the British Museum has grown to become one of the largest museums in the world, covering an area of over 92,000 m2 (990,000 sq. ft). In addition to 21,600 m2 (232,000 sq. ft) of on-site storage space, and 9,400 m2 (101,000 sq. ft) of external storage space. Altogether, the British Museum showcases on public display less than 1% of its entire collection, approximately 50,000 items. + +There are nearly one hundred galleries open to the public, representing of exhibition space, although the less popular ones have restricted opening times. However, the lack of a large temporary exhibition space led to the £135 million World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre to provide one and to concentrate all the museum's conservation facilities into one centre. This project was announced in July 2007, with the architects Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners. It was granted planning permission in December 2009 and was completed in time for the Viking exhibition in March 2014. In 2017, the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize for excellence in architecture. + +Blythe House in West Kensington is used by the museum for off-site storage of small and medium-sized artefacts, and Franks House in East London is used for storage and work on the "Early Prehistory" – Palaeolithic and Mesolithic – and some other collections. + +Departments + +Department of Egypt and Sudan + +The British Museum houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities (with over 100,000 pieces) outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. A collection of immense importance for its range and quality, it includes objects of all periods from virtually every site of importance in Egypt and the Sudan. Together, they illustrate every aspect of the cultures of the Nile Valley (including Nubia), from the Predynastic Neolithic period (c. 10,000 BC) through Coptic (Christian) times (12th century AD), and up to the present day, a time-span over 11,000 years. + +Egyptian antiquities have formed part of the British Museum collection ever since its foundation in 1753 after receiving 160 Egyptian objects from Sir Hans Sloane. After the defeat of the French forces under Napoleon at the Battle of the Nile in 1801, the Egyptian antiquities collected were confiscated by the British army and presented to the British Museum in 1803. These works, which included the famed Rosetta Stone, were the first important group of large sculptures to be acquired by the museum. Thereafter, the UK appointed Henry Salt as consul in Egypt who amassed a huge collection of antiquities, some of which were assembled and transported with great ingenuity by the famous Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni. Most of the antiquities Salt collected were purchased by the British Museum and the Musée du Louvre. + +By 1866 the collection consisted of some 10,000 objects. Antiquities from excavations started to come to the museum in the latter part of the 19th century as a result of the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund under the efforts of E.A. Wallis Budge. Over the years more than 11,000 objects came from this source, including pieces from Amarna, Bubastis and Deir el-Bahari. Other organisations and individuals also excavated and donated objects to the British Museum, including Flinders Petrie's Egypt Research Account and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, as well as the University of Oxford Expedition to Kawa and Faras in Sudan. + +Active support by the museum for excavations in Egypt continued to result in important acquisitions throughout the 20th century until changes in antiquities laws in Egypt led to the suspension of policies allowing finds to be exported, although divisions still continue in Sudan. The British Museum conducted its own excavations in Egypt where it received divisions of finds, including Asyut (1907), Mostagedda and Matmar (1920s), Ashmunein (1980s) and sites in Sudan such as Soba, Kawa and the Northern Dongola Reach (1990s). The size of the Egyptian collections now stand at over 110,000 objects. + +In autumn 2001 the eight million objects forming the museum's permanent collection were further expanded by the addition of six million objects from the Wendorf Collection of Egyptian and Sudanese Prehistory. These were donated by Professor Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University in Texas, and comprise the entire collection of artefacts and environmental remains from his excavations at Prehistoric sites in the Sahara Desert between 1963 and 1997. Other fieldwork collections have recently come from Dietrich and Rosemarie Klemm (University of Munich) and William Adams (University of Kentucky). + +The seven permanent Egyptian galleries at the British Museum, which include its largest exhibition space (Room 4, for monumental sculpture), can display only 4% of its Egyptian holdings. The second-floor galleries have a selection of the museum's collection of 140 mummies and coffins, the largest outside Cairo. A high proportion of the collection comes from tombs or contexts associated with the cult of the dead, and it is these pieces, in particular the mummies, that remain among the most eagerly sought-after exhibits by visitors to the museum. + +Highlights of the collections include: + +Predynastic and Early Dynastic period () + Mummy of Ginger and five other individuals from Gebelein () + Flint knife with an ivory handle (known as the Pit-Rivers Knife), Sheikh Hamada, Egypt () + The Battlefield Palette and Hunters Palette, two cosmetic palettes with complex decorative schemes () + Ivory statuette of a king, from the early temple at Abydos, Egypt () + King Den's sandal label from Abydos, mid-1st Dynasty () + Stela of King Peribsen, Abydos () + +Old Kingdom (2690–2181 BC) + Artefacts from the tomb of King Khasekhemwy from the 2nd Dynasty (2690 BC) + Granite statue of Ankhwa, the shipbuilder, Saqqara, Egypt, 3rd Dynasty (c. 2650 BC) + Several of the original casing stones from the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (c. 2570 BC) + Statue of Nenkheftka from Deshasha, 4th Dynasty (2500 BC) + Limestone false door of Ptahshepses, Saqqara (2440 BC) + Abusir Papyri, some of the oldest papyri from ancient Egypt, Abusir (2400 BC) + Wooden tomb statue of Tjeti, 5th to 6th Dynasty (c. 2345–2181 BC) + +Middle Kingdom (2134–1690 BC) + Inner and outer coffin of Sebekhetepi, Beni Hasan (c. 2125–1795 BC) + Quartzite statue of Ankhrekhu, 12th Dynasty (1985–1795 BC) + Limestone stela of Heqaib, Abydos, Egypt, 12th Dynasty (1990–1750 BC) + Block statue and stela of Sahathor, 12th Dynasty, reign of Amenemhat II (1922–1878 BC) + Limestone statue and stelae from the offering chapel of Inyotef, Abydos, 12th Dynasty (c. 1920 BC) + Stela of Samontu, Abydos (1910 BC) + Reliefs from the tomb of Djehutyhotep, Deir-el-Bersha (1878–1855 BC) + Three Granite statues of Senwosret III, Deir el-Bahri (1850 BC) + Statue of Rehuankh, Abydos (1850–1830 BC) + Colossal head of Amenemhat III, Bubastis (1800 BC) + Stela of Nebipusenwosret, Abydos (1800 BC) + +Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BC) + Coffin of King Nubkheperre Intef, Thebes (1570 BC) + The famous Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, an early example of Ancient Egyptian mathematics, Thebes (1550 BC) + +New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC) + Schist head of Pharaoh Hatshepsut or her successor Tuthmosis III (1480 BC) + Statue of Senenmut with Princess Neferure on his lap, Karnak (1470 BC) + Block statue of Sennefer, Western Thebes (1430 BC) + Twenty Sekhmet statues from the Temple of Mut, Thebes (1400 BC) + Fragment of the beard of the Great Sphinx of Giza (14th century BC) + Pair of granite monumental lion statues from Soleb in Sudan, (1370 BC) + Hoard of silver bullion from El-Amarna (1352–1336 BC) + Colossal head from a statue of Amenhotep III (1350 BC) + Colossal limestone bust of Amenhotep III (1350 BC) + Amarna Tablets, 99 out of 382 tablets found, second largest collection in the world after the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (203 tablets) (1350 BC) + Stela of Horemheb from his tomb at Saqqara (1330 BC) + London Medical Papyrus with 61 medical and magical treatments (1300 BC) + Papyrus of Ani, one of the finest extant Book of the Dead from antiquity, Thebes (1275 BC) + List of the kings of Egypt from the Temple of Ramesses II (1250 BC) + Statue of Khaemwaset, son of Ramses II, Abydos (1250 BC) + The Great Harris Papyrus, the longest surviving papyrus from antiquity, Thebes (1200 BC) + D'Orbiney Papyrus with the Tale of Two Brothers (1200–1194 BC) + Seated statue of Seti II, Temple of Mut, Karnak (1200–1194 BC) + Face from the sarcophagus of Ramses VI, Valley of the Kings (1140 BC) + Book of the Dead of Nedjmet with painted offering-vignettes and columns of Hieroglyphic text, Deir el-Bahari (1070 BC) + +Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 BC) + Greenfield papyrus, funerary papyrus of Princess Nesitanebetashru, daughter of Pinudjem II and Neskhons, and priestess of Amen-Ra at Thebes (950–930 BC) + Pair of gold bracelets that belonged to General Nemareth, son of Shoshenq I, Sais (940 BC) + Colossal column capital of Hathor from Bubastis, 22nd Dynasty (922–887 BC) + Statue of the Nile god Hapy, Karnak (c. 900 BC) + Mummy case and coffin of Nesperennub, Thebes (c. 800 BC) + Shabaka Stone from Memphis, Egypt, 25th Dynasty (c. 700 BC) + Coffin of king Menkaure, Giza (700–600 BC) + One of the three statues of Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqo, Kawa (683 BC) + Inner and outer coffins of the priest Hor, Deir el-Bahari, Thebes, 25th Dynasty (c. 680 BC) + Granite statue of the Sphinx of Taharqo (680 BC) + +Late Period (664–332 BC) + Saite Sarcophagus of Sasobek, the vizier (prime minister) of the northern part of Egypt in the reign of Psammetichus I (664–610 BC) + Sarcophagus lid of Sasobek (630 BC) + Bronze figure of Isis and Horus, North Saqqara, Egypt (600 BC) + Sarcophagus of Hapmen, Cairo, 26th Dynasty or later (600–300 BC) + Kneeling statue of Wahibre, from near Lake Mariout (530 BC) + Sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibre (525 BC) + Torso of Nectanebo I (380–362 BC) + Obelisks and sarcophagus of Pharaoh Nectanebo II (360–343 BC) + Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II, Alexandria (360–343 BC) + +Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC) + The famous Rosetta Stone, trilingual stela that unlocked the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (196 BC) + Naos or temple shrine of Ptolemy VIII from Philae (150 BC) + Giant sculpture of a scarab beetle (32–30 BC) + Fragment of a basalt Egyptian-style statue of Ptolemy I Soter (305–283 BC) + Mummy of Hornedjitef (inner coffin), Thebes (3rd century BC) + Wall from a chapel of Queen Shanakdakhete, Meroë (c. 150 BC) + Shrine of Ptolemy VII, Philae (c. 150 BC) + +Roman Period (30 BC – 641 AD) + Schist head of a young man, Alexandria (after 30 BC) + The Meriotic Hamadab Stela from the Kingdom of Kush found near the ancient site of Meroë in Sudan, 24 BC + Lid of the coffin of Soter and Cleopatra from Qurna, Thebes (early 2nd century AD) + Mummy of a youth with a portrait of the deceased, Hawara (100–200 AD) + Over 30 Fayum mummy portraits from Hawara and other sites in Fayum (40–250 AD) + Bronze lamp and patera from the X-group tombs, Qasr Ibrim (1st–6th centuries AD) + Coptic wall painting of the martyrdom of saints, Wadi Sarga (6th century AD) + +Department of Greece and Rome + +The British Museum has one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of antiquities from the Classical world, with over 100,000 objects. These mostly range in date from the beginning of the Greek Bronze Age (about 3200 BC) to the establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, with the Edict of Milan under the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine I in 313 AD. Archaeology was in its infancy during the nineteenth century and many pioneering individuals began excavating sites across the Classical world, chief among them for the museum were Charles Newton, John Turtle Wood, Robert Murdoch Smith and Charles Fellows. + +The Greek objects originate from across the Ancient Greek world, from the mainland of Greece and the Aegean Islands, to neighbouring lands in Asia Minor and Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean and as far as the western lands of Magna Graecia that include Sicily and southern Italy. The Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean cultures are represented, and the Greek collection includes important sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens, as well as elements of two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos. + +Beginning from the early Bronze Age, the department also houses one of the widest-ranging collections of Italic and Etruscan antiquities outside Italy, as well as extensive groups of material from Cyprus and non-Greek colonies in Lycia and Caria on Asia Minor. There is some material from the Roman Republic, but the collection's strength is in its comprehensive array of objects from across the Roman Empire, with the exception of Britain (which is the mainstay of the Department of Prehistory and Europe). + +The collections of ancient jewellery and bronzes, Greek vases (many from graves in southern Italy that were once part of Sir William Hamilton's and Chevalier Durand's collections), Roman glass including the famous Cameo glass Portland Vase, Roman gold glass (the second largest collection after the Vatican Museums), Roman mosaics from Carthage and Utica in North Africa that were excavated by Nathan Davis, and silver hoards from Roman Gaul (some of which were bequeathed by the philanthropist and museum trustee Richard Payne Knight), are particularly important. Cypriot antiquities are strong too and have benefited from the purchase of Sir Robert Hamilton Lang's collection as well as the bequest of Emma Turner in 1892, which funded many excavations on the island. Roman sculptures (many of which are copies of Greek originals) are particularly well represented by the Townley collection as well as residual sculptures from the famous Farnese collection. + +Objects from the Department of Greece and Rome are located throughout the museum, although many of the architectural monuments are to be found on the ground floor, with connecting galleries from Gallery 5 to Gallery 23. On the upper floor, there are galleries devoted to smaller material from ancient Italy, Greece, Cyprus and the Roman Empire. + +The current collection includes: + +Temple of Hephaestus + Marble coffer frame and coffer from the colonnade, (449–415 BC) + +Parthenon + The Parthenon Marbles (Elgin Marbles), (447–438 BC) +Propylaea + Capital and column drum, (437–432 BC) + +Erechtheion + A surviving column and architectural fittings, (420–415 BC) + One of six remaining Caryatids, (415 BC) + +Temple of Athena Nike + Surviving frieze slabs and capital, (427–424 BC) + +Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos + Statue of Dionysos, (270 BC) + +Tower of the Winds + Marble Corinthian capital, (50 BC) + +Temple of Poseidon, Sounion +Fluted column base, (444–440 BC) + +Temple of Nemesis, Rhamnus + Head from the statue of Nemesis, (430–420 BC) + +Temple of Bassae + Twenty-three surviving blocks of the frieze from the interior of the temple, (420–400 BC) + +Sanctuary of Apollo at Daphni + Fluted columns, column bases and ionic capitals, (399–301 BC) + +Temple of Athena Polias, Priene + Sculptural coffers from the temple ceiling, (350–325 BC) + Ionic capitals, architraves and antae, (350–325 BC) + Marble torso of a charioteer, (320–300 BC) + +Mausoleum at Halicarnassus + Two colossal free-standing figures identified as Maussollos and his wife Artemisia, () + Part of an impressive horse from the chariot group adorning the summit of the Mausoleum, () + The Amazonomachy frieze – A long section of relief frieze showing the battle between Greeks and Amazons, () + +Temple of Artemis in Ephesus + One of the sculptured column bases, (340–320 BC) + Part of the Ionic frieze situated above the colonnade, (330–300 BC) + +Knidos in Asia Minor + Demeter of Knidos, (350 BC) + Lion of Knidos, (350–200 BC) + +Xanthos in Asia Minor + Lion Tomb, (550–500 BC) + Harpy Tomb, (480–470 BC) + Nereid Monument, partial reconstruction of a large and elaborate Lykian tomb, (390–380 BC) + Tomb of Merehi, (390–350 BC) + Tomb of Payava, (375–350 BC) + Bilingual Decree of Pixodaros, (340 BC) + +Temple of Zeus, Salamis in Cyprus + Marble capital with caryatid figure standing between winged bulls, (300–250 BC) + +Wider collection + +Prehistoric Greece and Italy (3300 BC – 8th century BC) + Over thirty Cycladic figures from islands in the Aegean Sea, many collected by James Theodore Bent, Greece, (3300–2000 BC) + A large Gaudo culture askos from Paestum, southern Italy, (2800–2400 BC) + Kythnos Hoard of wood working metal tools from the island of Naxos, Greece, (2700–2200 BC) + Two pottery kernos from Phylakopi in Melos, Greece (2300–2000 BC) + Material from the Palace of Knossos including a huge pottery storage jar, some donated by Sir Arthur Evans, Crete, Greece, (1900–1100 BC) + The Minoan gold treasure from Aegina, northern Aegean, Greece, (1850–1550 BC) + Artefacts from the Psychro Cave in Crete, including two serpentine libation tables, (1700–1450 BC) + Bronze Minoan Bull-leaper from Rethymnon, Crete, (1600–1450 BC) + Segments of the columns and architraves from the Treasury of Atreus, Peloponnese, Greece, (1350–1250 BC) + Ivory game board found at Enkomi, Cyprus, (12th century BC) + Nuragic hoard of bronze artefacts found at Santa Maria in Paulis, Cagliari, Sardinia, (1100–900 BC) + Elgin Amphora, highly decorated pottery vase attributed to the Dipylon Master, Athens, Greece, (8th century BC) + Votive offerings from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, (8th century BC) + +Etruscan (8th century BC – 1st century BC) + Gold jewellery and other rich artefacts from the Castellani and Galeassi Tombs in Palestrina, central Italy, (8th–6th centuries BC) + Ornate gold fibula with granulated parade of animals from the Bernardini Tomb, Cerveteri, (675–650 BC) + Various objects including two small terracotta statues from the "Tomb of the five chairs" in Cerveteri (625–600 BC) + Gold libation bowl from Sant'Angelo Muxaro, Sicily, (600 BC) + Contents of the Isis tomb and François Tomb, Vulci, (570–560 BC) + Painted terracotta plaques (the so-called Boccanera Plaques) from a tomb in Cerveteri, (560–550 BC) + Decorated silver panels from Castel San Marino, near Perugia (540–520 BC) + Statuette of a bronze votive figure from Pizzidimonte, near Prato, Italy (500–480 BC) + Bronze helmet with inscription commemorating the Battle of Cumae, Olympia, Greece, (480 BC) + Bronze votive statuettes from the Lake of the Idols, Monte Falterona, (420–400 BC) + Part of a symposium set of bronze vessels from the tomb of Larth Metie, Bolsena, Italy, (400–300 BC) + Exquisite gold ear-ring with female head pendant, one of a pair from Perugia, (300–200 BC) + Oscan Tablet, one of the most important inscriptions in the Oscan language, (300–100 BC) + Hoard of gold jewellery from Sant'Eufemia Lamezia, southern Italy, (340–330 BC) + Latian bronze figure from the Sanctuary of Diana, Lake Nemi, Latium, (200–100 BC) + Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa from Chiusi, (150–140 BC) + +Ancient Greece (8th century BC – 4th century AD) + Orientalising gold jewellery from the Camirus cemetery in Rhodes, (700–600 BC) + Foot from the colossal Kouros of Apollo, Delos, (600–500 BC) + Group of life-size archaic statues from the Sacred Way at Didyma, western Turkey, (600–580 BC) + Bronze statuette of a rider and horse from Armento, southern Italy (550 BC) + Bronze head of an axe from San Sosti, southern Italy, (520 BC) + Statue of a nude standing youth from Marion, Cyprus, (520–510 BC) + Large terracotta sarcophagus and lid with painted scenes from Klazomenai, western Turkey, (510–480 BC) + Two bronze tablets in the Locrian Greek dialect from Galaxidi, central Greece, (500–475 BC) + Fragments from a large bronze equestrian statue of the Taranto Rider, southern Italy, (480–460 BC) + Chatsworth Apollo Head, Tamassos, Cyprus (460 BC) + Statue of recumbent bull from the Dipylon Cemetery, Athens (4th century BC) + Hoard of gold jewellery from Avola, Sicily, (370–300 BC) + Dedicatory Inscription by Alexander the Great from Priene in Turkey (330 BC) + Head from the colossal statue of the Asclepius of Milos, Greece, (325–300 BC) + Braganza Brooch, Ornamental gold fibula reflecting Celtic and Greek influences (3rd century BC) + Hoard of silver patera from Èze, southeastern France, (3rd century BC) + Gold tablet from an Orphic sanctuary in southern Italy (3rd–2nd centuries BC) + Marble relief of the Apotheosis of Homer from Bovillae, central Italy, (221–205 BC) + Bronze sculpture of a Greek poet known as the Arundel Head, western Turkey, (2nd–1st centuries BC) + Remains of the Scylla monument at Bargylia, south west Anatolia, Turkey, (200–150 BC) + Bronze head and hand of the statue of Aphrodite of Satala (1st century BC) + Bronze statuettes from Paramythia (2nd century AD) + Large statue of Europa sitting on the back of a bull from the amphitheatre at Gortyna, Crete, (100 BC) + +Ancient Rome (1st century BC – 4th century AD) + Pair of engraved oval agate plaques depicting Livia as Diana and Octavian as Mercury, (Rome, 30–25 BC) + Guildford Puteal from Corinth, Greece (30–10 BC) + Bronze head of Augustus from Meroë in Sudan (27–25 BC) + Cameo glass Portland Vase, the most famous glass vessel from ancient Rome, (1–25 AD) + Silver Warren Cup with homoerotic scenes, found near Jerusalem, (5–15 AD) + Gladius of Mainz (or "Sword of Tiberius") and Blacas Cameo, depicting Roman emperors in triumph (15 AD) + Horse trappings in decorated silver-plated bronze from Xanten, Germany (1st century AD) + Pair of carved fluorite cups known as the Barber Cup and Crawford Cup (100 AD) + Athlete statue, "Vaison Diadumenos", from an ancient Roman city in southern France (118–138 AD) + A hoard of silver votive plaques dedicated to the Roman God Jupiter Dolichenus, discovered in Heddernheim, near Frankfurt, Germany, (1st–2nd centuries AD) + Discus-thrower (Discobolos) and Bronze Head of Hypnos from Civitella d'Arna, Italy, (1st–2nd centuries AD) + Part of a large wooden wheel for draining a copper mine in Huelva, southern Spain, (1st–2nd centuries AD) + Capitals from some of the pilasters of the Pantheon, Rome, (126 AD) + Colossal marble head of Faustina the Elder, wife of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius from Sardis, western Turkey, (140 AD) + Marble throne from the prohedria of the Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, (140–143 AD) + Hoard of jewellery from a tomb in the vicinity of Miletopolis, Turkey, (175–180 AD) + Inscribed marble base of the Roman Consul Tiberius Claudius Candidus, unearthed in Tarragona, Spain (195–199 AD) + Jennings Dog, a statue of a Molossian guard dog, central Italy, (2nd century AD) + Segment of a decorated marble balustrade from the Colosseum, Rome, Italy, (2nd century AD) + Politarch inscription from the Vardar Gate, Thessaloniki, Greece, (2nd century AD) + Various silver treasures found at Arcisate, Beaurains, Boscoreale, Bursa, Chaourse, Caubiac, Chatuzange, Conimbriga, Mâcon and Revel-Tourdan (1st–3rd century AD) + Votive statue of Apollo of Cyrene, Libya (2nd century AD) + Uerdingen Hoard found near Düsseldorf in Germany (2nd–3rd centuries AD) +The collection encompasses architectural, sculptural and epigraphic items from many other sites across the classical world including Amathus, Atripalda, Aphrodisias, Delos, Iasos, Idalion, Lindus, Kalymnos, Kerch, Rhamnous, Salamis, Sestos, Sounion, Tomis and Thessaloniki. + +Department of the Middle East + +With a collection numbering some 330,000 works, the British Museum possesses the world's largest and most important collection of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq. A collection of immense importance, the holdings of Assyrian sculpture, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world with entire suites of rooms panelled in alabaster Assyrian palace reliefs from Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad. + +The collections represent the civilisations of the ancient Near East and its adjacent areas. These cover Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, the Holy Land and Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean from the prehistoric period and include objects from the 7th century. + +The first significant addition of Mesopotamian objects was from the collection of Claudius James Rich in 1825. The collection was later dramatically enlarged by the excavations of A. H. Layard at the Assyrian sites of Nimrud and Nineveh between 1845 and 1851. At Nimrud, Layard discovered the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, as well as three other palaces and various temples. He later uncovered the Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh with 'no less than seventy-one halls'. As a result, a large numbers of Lamassus, palace reliefs, stelae, including the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, were brought to the British Museum. + +Layard's work was continued by his assistant, Hormuzd Rassam and in 1852–1854 he went on to discover the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh with many magnificent reliefs, including the famous Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal and Lachish reliefs. He also discovered the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, a large collection of cuneiform tablets of enormous importance that today number around 130,000 pieces. W. K. Loftus excavated in Nimrud between 1850 and 1855 and found a remarkable hoard of ivories in the Burnt Palace. Between 1878 and 1882 Rassam greatly improved the museum's holdings with exquisite objects including the Cyrus Cylinder from Babylon, the bronze gates from Balawat, important objects from Sippar, and a fine collection of Urartian bronzes from Toprakkale including a copper figurine of a winged, human-headed bull. + +In the early 20th century excavations were carried out at Carchemish, Turkey by D. G. Hogarth and Leonard Woolley, the latter assisted by T. E. Lawrence. The Mesopotamian collections were greatly augmented by excavations in southern Iraq after the First World War. From Tell al-Ubaid came the bronze furnishings of a Sumerian temple, including life-sized lions and a panel featuring the lion-headed eagle Indugud found by H. R. Hall in 1919–24. Woolley went on to excavate Ur between 1922 and 1934, discovering the 'Royal Cemeteries' of the 3rd millennium BC. Some of the masterpieces include the 'Standard of Ur', the 'Ram in a Thicket', the 'Royal Game of Ur', and two bull-headed lyres. The department also has three diorite statues of the ruler Gudea from the ancient state of Lagash and a series of limestone kudurru or boundary stones from different locations across ancient Mesopotamia. + +Although the collections centre on Mesopotamia, most of the surrounding areas are well represented. The Achaemenid collection was enhanced with the addition of the Oxus Treasure in 1897 and objects excavated by the German scholar Ernst Herzfeld and the Hungarian-British explorer Sir Aurel Stein. Reliefs and sculptures from the site of Persepolis were donated by Sir Gore Ouseley in 1825 and the 5th Earl of Aberdeen in 1861 and the museum received part of a pot-hoard of jewellery from Pasargadae as the division of finds in 1963 and part of the Ziwiye hoard in 1971. A large column base from the One Hundred Column Hall at Persepolis was acquired in exchange from the Oriental Institute, Chicago. Moreover, the museum has been able to acquire one of the greatest assemblages of Achaemenid silverware in the world. The later Sasanian Empire is also well represented by ornate silver plates and cups, many representing ruling monarchs hunting lions and deer. Phoenician antiquities come from across the region, but the Tharros collection from Sardinia, the hoard of 16 metal bowls and hundreds of ivories from Nimrud and the large number of Phoenician stelae from Carthage and Maghrawa are outstanding. The number of Phoenician inscriptions from sites across Cyprus is also considerable, and include artefacts found at the Kition necropolis (with the two Kition Tariffs having the longest Phoenician inscription discovered on the island), the Idalion temple site and two bilingual pedestals found at Tamassos. Another often overlooked highlight is Yemeni antiquities, the finest collection outside that country. Furthermore, the museum has a representative collection of Dilmun and Parthian material excavated from various burial mounds at the ancient sites of A'ali and Shakhura (that included a Roman ribbed glass bowl) in Bahrain. + +From the modern state of Syria come almost forty funerary busts from Palmyra and a group of stone reliefs from the excavations of Max von Oppenheim at Tell Halaf that was purchased in 1920. More material followed from the excavations of Max Mallowan at Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak in 1935–1938 and from Woolley at Alalakh in the years just before and after the Second World War. Mallowan returned with his wife Agatha Christie to carry out further digs at Nimrud in the postwar period which secured many important artefacts for the museum. The collection of Palestinian material was strengthened by the work of Kathleen Kenyon at Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) in the 1950s and the acquisition in 1980 of around 17,000 objects found at Lachish by the Wellcome-Marston expedition of 1932–1938. Archaeological digs are still taking place where permitted in the Middle East, and, depending on the country, the museum continues to receive a share of the finds from sites such as Tell es Sa'idiyeh in Jordan. + +The museum's collection of Islamic art, including archaeological material, numbers about 40,000 objects, one of the largest of its kind in the world. As such, it contains a broad range of pottery, paintings, tiles, metalwork, glass, seals, and inscriptions from across the Islamic world, from Spain in the west to India in the east. It is particularly famous for its collection of Iznik ceramics (the largest in the world), its large number of mosque lamps including one from the Dome of the Rock, mediaeval metalwork such as the Vaso Vescovali with its depictions of the Zodiac, a fine selection of astrolabes, and Mughal paintings and precious artwork including a large jade terrapin made for the emperor Jahangir. Thousands of objects were excavated after the war by professional archaeologists at Iranian sites such as Siraf by David Whitehouse and Alamut Castle by Peter Willey. The collection was augmented in 1983 by the Godman bequest of Iznik, Hispano-Moresque and early Iranian pottery. Artefacts from the Islamic world are on display in Gallery 34 of the museum. + +A representative selection from the Department of Middle East, including the most important pieces, are on display in 13 galleries throughout the museum and total some 4,500 objects. A whole suite of rooms on the ground floor display the sculptured reliefs from the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh, Nimrud and Khorsabad, while 8 galleries on the upper floor hold smaller material from ancient sites across the Middle East. The remainder form the study collection which ranges in size from beads to large sculptures. They include approximately 130,000 cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia. + +Highlights of the collections include: + +Nimrud: + +Assyrian palace reliefs from: + The North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, (883–859 BC) + Palace of Adad-nirari III, (811–783 BC) + The Sharrat-Niphi Temple, () + Temple of Ninurta, () + South-East Palace ('Burnt Palace'), (8th–7th century BC) + Central- Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III, (745–727 BC) + South-West Palace of Esarhaddon, (681–669 BC) + The Nabu Temple (Ezida), (c. 7th century BC) + +Sculptures and inscriptions: + Pair of Human Headed Lamassu Lions, (883–859 BC) + Human Headed Lamassu Bull, sister piece in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (883–859 BC) + Human Headed Lamassu Lion, sister piece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (883–859 BC) + Colossal Statue of a Lion, (883–859 BC) + Foundation tablet of Ashurnasirpal II from the Temple of Ishtar, (875–865 BC) + Rassam Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal II, (873–859 BC) + Stela and Statue of King Ashurnasirpal II, (883–859 BC) + The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, (858–824 BC) + Stela of Shamshi-Adad V, (824–811 BC) + Rare Head of Human Headed 'Lamassu', recovered from the North-West Palace, (811–783 BC) + Pair of statues of attendant god dedicated to Nabu by Adad-Nirari III and Sammuramat, (810–800 BC) + Bilingual Assyrian lion weights with both cuneiform and Phoenician inscriptions, (800–700 BC) + Large sculpture of a male bearded head from a Lamassu with inscription dedicated to Esarhaddon, (670 BC) + +Nineveh: + +Assyrian palace reliefs and sculptures from: + South-West Palace of Sennacherib, (705–681 BC) + North-Palace of Ashurbanipal, (c. 645 BC), including the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal and Lachish relief + The famous Garden Party Relief, (645 BC) + Statue of a nude woman, (11th century BC) + Broken Obelisk of Ashur-bel-kala, the earliest known Assyrian obelisk, (11th century BC) + White Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal I, (1050–1031 BC) + +Royal Library of Ashurbanipal: + A large collection of cuneiform tablets of enormous importance, approximately 22,000 inscribed clay tablets, (7th century BC) + The Flood Tablet, relating part of the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, (7th century BC) + Taylor Prism, hexagonal clay foundation record, (691 BC) + Rassam cylinder with ten faces, that describes the military campaigns of king Ashurbanipal, (643 BC) + + +Other Mesopotamian sites: + +Khorsabad and Balawat: + Alabaster bas-reliefs from the Palace of Sargon II, (710–705 BC) + Pair of Human Headed Winged Lamassu Bulls, (710–705 BC) + The Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III, (860 BC) + +Ur: + The Standard of Ur with depictions of war and peace, (2600 BC) + Queen's Lyre and gold drinking cup from Queen Puabi's tomb, (2600 BC) + The Ram in a Thicket, one of pair, the other is in Philadelphia, (2600–2400 BC) + The Royal Game of Ur, an ancient game board, (2600–2400 BC) + +Wider collection: + Plastered human skull from Jericho, a very early form of portraiture, Palestine, (7000–6000 BC) + Tell Brak Head, one of the oldest portrait busts from the Middle East, north east Syria, (3500–3300 BC) + Uruk Trough, one of the earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture from the Middle East, southern Iraq, (3300–3000 BC) + Pair of inscribed stone objects known as the Blau Monuments from Uruk, Iraq, (3100–2700 BC) + Hoard of Bronze Age gold jewellery found at the Canaanite site of Tell el-Ajjul in Gaza, (1750–1550 BC) + Statue of Idrimi from the ancient city of Alalakh, southern Turkey, (1600 BC) + Bronze bowl and ivory cosmetic box in the shape of a fish from Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, Jordan, (1250–1150 BC) + Group of 16 stone reliefs from the palace of King Kapara at Tell Halaf, northern Syria, (10th century BC) + Tablet of Shamash, depicting the sun-god Shamash, from Sippar, Iraq, (early 9th century BC) + Hittite lion head from the monument to King Katuwa at Carchemish, southern Turkey, (9th century BC) + Two large Assyrian stelae from Kurkh, southern Turkey, (850 BC) + Seated statue of Kidudu or guardian spirit from the Assyrian city of Assur under Shalmaneser III, Iraq, (835 BC) + Basalt bowl with engraved inscription in Hieroglyphic Luwian found at Babylon, southern Iraq, (8th century BC) + Babylonian Chronicles, series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history, Babylon, Iraq, (8th–3rd centuries BC) + Shebna Inscription from Siloam near Jerusalem, (7th century BC) + Group of 4 bronze shields with inscription of king Rusa III from the temple of Khaldi at the Urartian fortress of Toprakkale, eastern Turkey, (650 BC) + East India House Inscription from Babylon, Iraq, (604–562 BC) + Lachish Letters, group of ostraka written in alphabetic Hebrew from Lachish, Israel, (586 BC) + Cylinder of Nabonidus, foundation cylinder of King Nabonidus, Sippar, Iraq, (555–540 BC) + The famous Oxus Treasure, the largest ancient Persian hoard of gold artefacts, (550–330 BC) + Jar of Xerxes I, alabaster alabastron with quadrilingual signature of Achaemenid ruler Xerxes I, found in the ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Turkey, (486–465 BC) + Idalion Bilingual, bilingual Cypriot-Phoenician inscription, key to the decipherment of the Cypriot syllabary, Idalion, Cyprus, (388 BC) + Punic-Libyan Inscription from the Mausoleum of Ateban, key to the decipherment of the Numidian language, Dougga, Tunisia, (146 BC) + Amran Tablets found near Sana'a, Yemen, (1st century BC) + One of the pottery storage jars containing the Dead Sea Scrolls found in a cave near Qumran, Jordan, (4 BC – 68 AD) + Two limestone ossuaries from caves in Jerusalem, (1st century AD) + Fragment of a carved basalt architrave depicting a lion's head from the Temple of Garni, Armenia, (1st century AD) + Group of boulders with Safaitic inscriptions from Jordan/Syria, one of which was donated by Gertrude Bell, (1st–2nd centuries AD) + Parthian dynasty gold belt-buckle with central repoussé figure of eagle with outstretched wings from Nihavand, Iran, (1st–3rd centuries AD) + Silver bowl from Khwarezm depicting a four-armed goddess seated on a lion, Kazakhstan, (658 AD) + One of the rare Hedwig glasses, originating from the Middle East or Norman Sicily, (10th–12th centuries AD) + Hoard of Seljuq artefacts from Hamadan including gold cup, silver gilt belt fittings and dress accessories, Iran, (11th–12th centuries) + Islamic brass ewers with engraved decoration and inlaid with silver and copper from Herat, Afghanistan and Mosul, Iraq (12th–13th centuries AD) + +Department of Prints and Drawings + +The Department of Prints and Drawings holds the national collection of Western prints and drawings. It ranks as one of the largest and best print room collections in existence alongside the Albertina in Vienna, the Paris collections and the Hermitage. The holdings are easily accessible to the general public in the Study Room, unlike many such collections. The department also has its own exhibition gallery in Room 90, where the displays and exhibitions change several times a year. + +Since its foundation in 1808, the prints and drawings collection has grown to international renown as one of the richest and most representative collections in the world. There are approximately 50,000 drawings and over two million prints. The collection of drawings covers the period from the 14th century to the present, and includes many works of the highest quality by the leading artists of the European schools. The collection of prints covers the tradition of fine printmaking from its beginnings in the 15th century up to the present, with near complete holdings of most of the great names before the 19th century. Key benefactors to the department have been Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode, Richard Payne Knight, John Malcolm, Campbell Dodgson, César Mange de Hauke and Tomás Harris. Writer and author Louis Alexander Fagan, who worked in the department 1869–1894 made significant contributions to the department in form of his Handbook to the Department, as well as various other books about the museum in general. + +There are groups of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, (including his only surviving full-scale cartoon), Dürer (a collection of 138 drawings is one of the finest in existence), Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude and Watteau, and largely complete collections of the works of all the great printmakers including Dürer (99 engravings, 6 etchings and most of his 346 woodcuts), Rembrandt and Goya. More than 30,000 British drawings and watercolours include important examples of work by Hogarth, Sandby, Turner, Girtin, Constable, Cotman, Cox, Gillray, Rowlandson, Towne and Cruikshank, as well as all the great Victorians. The collection contains the unique set of watercolours by the pioneering colonist John White, the first British artist in America and first European to paint Native Americans. There are about a million British prints including more than 20,000 satires and outstanding collections of works by William Blake and Thomas Bewick.. The great eleven volume Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum compiled between 1870 and 1954 is the definitive reference work for the study of British Satirical prints. Over 500,000 objects from the department are now on the online collection database, many with high-quality images. A 2011 donation of £1 million enabled the museum to acquire a complete set of Pablo Picasso's Vollard Suite. + +Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory + +The Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory is responsible for collections that cover a vast expanse of time and geography. It includes some of the earliest objects made by humans in east Africa over 2 million years ago, as well as Prehistoric and neolithic objects from other parts of the world; and the art and archaeology of Europe from the earliest times to the present day. Archeological excavation of prehistoric material took off and expanded considerably in the twentieth century and the department now has literally millions of objects from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods throughout the world, as well as from the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age in Europe. Stone Age material from Africa has been donated by famous archaeologists such as Louis and Mary Leakey, and Gertrude Caton–Thompson. Paleolithic objects from the Sturge, Christy and Lartet collections include some of the earliest works of art from Europe. Many Bronze Age objects from across Europe were added during the nineteenth century, often from large collections built up by excavators and scholars such as Greenwell in Britain, Tobin and Cooke in Ireland, Lukis and de la Grancière in Brittany, Worsaae in Denmark, Siret at El Argar in Spain, and Klemm and Edelmann in Germany. A representative selection of Iron Age artefacts from Hallstatt were acquired as a result of the Evans/Lubbock excavations and from Giubiasco in Ticino through the Swiss National Museum. + +In addition, the British Museum's collections covering the period AD 300 to 1100 are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world, extending from Spain to the Black Sea and from North Africa to Scandinavia; a representative selection of these has recently been redisplayed in a newly refurbished gallery. Important collections include Latvian, Norwegian, Gotlandic and Merovingian material from Johann Karl Bähr, Alfred Heneage Cocks, Sir James Curle and Philippe Delamain respectively. However, the undoubted highlight from the early mediaeval period is the magnificent items from the Sutton Hoo royal grave, generously donated to the nation by the landowner Edith Pretty. The late mediaeval collection includes a large number of seal-dies from across Europe, the most famous of which include those from the Town of Boppard in Germany, Isabella of Hainault from her tomb in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, Inchaffray Abbey in Scotland and Robert Fitzwalter, one of the Barons who led the revolt against King John in England. There is also a large collection of medieval signet rings, prominent among them is the gold signet ring belonging to Jean III de Grailly who fought in the Hundred Years' War, as well as those of Mary, Queen of Scots and Richard I of England. Other groups of artefacts represented in the department include the national collection of (c.100) icon paintings, most of which originate from the Byzantine Empire and Russia, and over 40 mediaeval astrolabes from across Europe and the Middle East. The department also includes the national collection of horology with one of the most wide-ranging assemblage of clocks, watches and other timepieces in Europe, with masterpieces from every period in the development of time-keeping. Choice horological pieces came from the Morgan and Ilbert collections. The department is also responsible for the curation of Romano-British objects – the museum has by far the most extensive such collection in Britain and one of the most representative regional collections in Europe outside Italy. It is particularly famous for the large number of late Roman silver treasures, many of which were found in East Anglia, the most important of which is the Mildenhall Treasure. The museum purchased many Roman-British objects from the antiquarian Charles Roach Smith in 1856. These quickly formed the nucleus of the collection. The department also includes ethnographic material from across Europe including a collection of Bulgarian costumes and shadow puppets from Greece and Turkey. A particular highlight are the three Sámi drums from northern Sweden of which only about 70 are extant. + +Objects from the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory are mostly found on the upper floor of the museum, with a suite of galleries numbered from 38 to 51. Most of the collection is stored in its archive facilities, where it is available for research and study. + +Highlights of the collections include: + +Stone Age (c. 3.4 million years BC – c. 2000 BC) + Palaeolithic material from across Africa, particularly Olduvai, Kalambo Falls, Olorgesailie and Cape Flats, (1.8 million BC onwards) + One of the 11 leaf-shaped points found near Volgu, Saône-et-Loire, France and estimated to be 16,000 years old + Ice Age art from France including the Wolverine pendant of Les Eyzies, Montastruc decorated stone and Baton fragment, (c. 12–11,000 BC) + Ice Age art from Britain including the decorated jaw from Kendrick and Robin Hood Cave Horse, (11,500–10,000 BC) + Rare mesolithic artefacts from the site of Star Carr in Yorkshire, northern England, (8770–8460 BC) + Terracotta figurine from Vinča, Serbia, (5200–4900 BC) + Callaïs bead jewellery from Lannec-er-Ro'h, intact schist bracelet from Le Lizo, Carnac and triangular pendant from Mané-er-Hroëk, Morbihan, Brittany, western France, (5000–4300 BC) + Polished jade axe produced in the Italian Alps and found in Canterbury, Kent, southeast England, (4500–4000 BC) + Section of the Sweet Track, an ancient timber causeway from the Somerset Levels, England, (3807/6 BC) + Small collection of Neolithic finds including a necklace of flat bone beads from Skara Brae, Orkneys, northern Scotland, (3180–2500 BC) + Representative sample of artefacts (sherds, vessels, etc.) from the megalithic site of Tarxien, Malta, (3150–2500 BC) + A number of carved stone balls from Scotland, Ireland and northern England, (3200–2500 BC) + The three Folkton Drums, made from chalk and found in Yorkshire, northern England, (2600–2100 BC) + +Bronze Age () + Jet beaded necklace from Melfort in Argyll, Scotland, () + Gold lunula from Blessington, Ireland, one of twelve from Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, (2400–2000 BC) + Early Bronze Age hoards from Barnack, Driffield, Sewell and Snowshill in England, Arraiolos and Vendas Novas in Iberia and Auvernier, Biecz and Neunheilingen in central Europe (2280–1500 BC) +Mold cape, unique cape made of gold sheet from Mold, Wales (1900–1600 BC) + Contents of the Rillaton Barrow including a gold cup, and the related Ringlemere Cup, England, (1700–1500 BC) + Bronze Age hoards from Forró, Paks-Dunaföldvár, Szőny and Zsujta in Hungary, (1600–1000 BC) + Large ceremonial swords or dirks from Oxborough and Beaune, western Europe, (1450–1300 BC) + Eight bronze shields including those from Moel Hebog and Rhyd-y-gors, Wales and Athenry, County Galway, Ireland, (12th–10th centuries BC) + Gold hoards from Morvah and Towednack in Cornwall, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire and Mooghaun in Ireland, (1150��750 BC) + Gold bowl with intricate repoussé decoration from Leer, Lower Saxony, northern Germany, (1100–800 BC) + Dunaverney flesh-hook found near Ballymoney, Northern Ireland and part of the Dowris Hoard from County Offaly, Ireland, (1050–900 BC & 900–600 BC) + Late Bronze Age gold hoards from Abia de la Obispalía and Mérida, Spain and an intricate gold collar from Sintra, Portugal, (10th–8th centuries BC) +Shropshire bulla, gold pendant decorated with intricately carved geometric designs, (1000–750 BC)  + Part of a copper alloy lur from Årslev on the island of Funen, Denmark, one of only about 40 extant and the Dunmanway Horn from County Cork, Ireland (900–750 BC) + Gold bowl with embossed ornament and fluted wire handle from Angyalföld, Budapest, Hungary, (800–600 BC) + +Iron Age (c. 600 BC – ) + Basse Yutz Flagons, a pair of bronze drinking vessels from Moselle, eastern France, (5th century BC) + Morel collection of La Tène material from eastern France, including the Somme-Bionne chariot burial and the Prunay Vase, (450-300BC) + Important finds from the River Thames including the Battersea, Chertsey and Wandsworth shields and Waterloo Helmet, as well as the Witham Shield from Lincolnshire, eastern England, (350–50 BC) + Bronze scabbard with La Tène engraved decoration, found at Lisnacrogher bog, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, (300–200 BC) + Pair of gold collars called the Orense Torcs from northwest Spain, (300–150 BC) + Arras culture items from chariot burials in the Lady's Barrow near Market Weighton and Wetwang Slack, Yorkshire, (300 BC – 100 BC) + Other gold neck collars including the Ipswich Hoard and the Sedgeford Torc, England, (200–50 BC) + Winchester Hoard of gold jewellery from southern England and the Great Torc from Snettisham in Norfolk, East Anglia, (100 BC) + Eight out of about thirty extant intact Celtic bronze mirrors with La Tène decoration including those from Aston, Chettle, Desborough, Holcombe and St Keverne in England, (100 BC – 100 AD) + Cordoba and Arcillera Treasures, two silver Celtic hoards from Spain, (100–20 BC) + Grave find of ornately decorated bronze bucket with human shaped handles, a pan, jug, three brooches and at least four pottery vessels from Aylesford, Kent, (75 BC – 25 BC) + Lindow Man found by accident in a peat bog in Cheshire, England, (1st century AD) + Stanwick Hoard of horse and chariot fittings and the Meyrick Helmet, northern England, (1st century AD) + La Tène silver hinged brooch from Székesfehérvár, Hungary, (1–100 AD) + Lochar Moss Torc and two pairs of massive bronze armlets from Muthill and Strathdon, Scotland, (50–200 AD) + +Romano-British (43 AD – 410 AD) + Tombstone of Roman procurator Gaius Julius Alpinus Classicianus from London, (1st century) + Ribbed glass bowl found in a grave at Radnage, Buckinghamshire, (1st century) + Large milestone marker with inscription from the reign of the emperor Hadrian from Llanfairfechan, Gwynedd in North Wales, (120–121 AD)  + Ribchester, Guisborough and Witcham helmets once worn by Roman cavalry in Britain, (1st–2nd centuries) + Elaborate gold bracelets and ring found near Rhayader, central Wales, (1st–2nd centuries) + Hoard of gold jewellery found at Dolaucothi mine in Carmarthenshire, Wales, (1st–2nd centuries) + Bronze heads of the Roman emperors Hadrian and Claudius, found in London and Suffolk, (1st–2nd centuries) + Vindolanda Tablets, important historical documents found near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, (1st–2nd centuries) + Head of Mercury from Roman-Celtic Temple at Uley, Gloucestershire and limestone head from Towcester, Northamptonshire (2nd–4th centuries) + Wall-paintings and sculptures from the Roman Villa at Lullingstone, Kent, south east England, 1st–4th centuries) + Capheaton and Backworth treasures, remnants of two important hoards from northern England, (2nd–3rd centuries) + Stony Stratford Hoard of copper headdresses, fibulae and silver votive plaques, central England, (3rd century) + Square silver dish from Mileham in Norfolk, (4th century) + Gold jewellery deposited at the site of Newgrange, Ireland, (4th century) + Thetford Hoard, late Roman jewellery from eastern England, (4th century) + +Early Mediaeval () + One of five Largitio silver dishes of the emperor Licinius found at Niš, Serbia and a hexagonal gold coin-set pendant of Constantine the Great, (Early 4th century AD) +Two wooden ship figureheads dredged from the River Scheldt at Moerzeke and Appels, Belgium, (4th–6th centuries) + Part of the Asyut, Domagnano, Artres, Sutri, Bergamo and Belluno Treasures, (4th–7th centuries) + Lycurgus Cup, a unique figurative glass cage cup, and the Byzantine Archangel ivory panel, (4th–6th centuries) + Three large Ogham stones from the Roofs More Rath, County Cork, Ireland, (5th–7th centuries) + The Sutton Hoo treasure, Taplow burial and Crundale grave objects with some of the greatest finds from the early Middle Ages in Europe, England, (6th–7th centuries) + One of the Burghead Bulls, Pictish stone relief from northeast Scotland, (7th–8th centuries) + Three Viking hoards from Norway known as the Lilleberge Viking Burial, Tromsø Burial and Villa Farm barrow burial in Vestnes and the Ardvouray, Ballaquayle, Cuerdale, Goldsborough and Vale of York hoards from Britain, (7th–10th centuries) + Irish reliquaries such as the Kells Crozier, Bell Shrine of St. Cuileáin and St Conall Cael's Shrine from Inishkeel, (7th–11th centuries) + Early Anglo Saxon Franks Casket, a unique ivory container from northern England, (8th century) + T-shaped Carolingian antler container with carved geometric interlace and zigzag decoration, found near Grüneck Castle, Ilanz, Switzerland, (8th–9th centuries) + A number of luxurious penannular brooches such as the Londesborough Brooch, Breadalbane Brooch and those from the Penrith Hoard, British Isles, (8th–9th centuries) + Three of the twenty extant Carolingian crystal intaglios including the Lothair Crystal, the Metz engraved gem with crucifixion and Saint-Denis Crystal, central Europe, (9th century) + Anglo-Saxon Fuller and Strickland Brooches with their complex, niello-inlaid design, England, (9th century) + Seax of Beagnoth, iron sword with long Anglo-Saxon Runic inscription, London, England, (10th century) + +Mediaeval (c. 1000 AD – c. 1500 AD) + A number of mediaeval ivory panels including the Borradaile, Wernher and John Grandisson Triptychs, (10th–14th centuries) + Several elephant ivory horns including the Borradaile Horn, Clephane Horn and Savernake Horn, (11th–12th centuries) + The famous Lewis chessmen found in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, (12th century) + Reliquary of St. Eustace from the treasury of Basel Munster, Switzerland and fragments of a rare Romanesque crucifix from South Cerney, England, (12th century) + Armenian stone-cross or Khachkar from the Noratus cemetery in Armenia, (1225 AD) + Items from the tomb of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor at Palermo Cathedral, Sicily, including his mitre, silk pall and shoe, (late 12th century) + The unique Warwick Castle Citole, an early form of guitar, central England, (1280–1330) + Set of 10 wooden door panels engraved with Christian scenes from the Hanging Church in Old Cairo, Egypt, (1300) + Asante Jug, mysteriously found at the Asante Court in the late 19th century, England, (1390–1400) + Holy Thorn Reliquary bequeathed by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesdon Bequest, Paris, France, (14th century) + Dunstable Swan Jewel, a gold and enamel brooch in the form of a swan, England, (14th century) + A silver astrolabe quadrant from Canterbury, southeastern England, (14th century) + Chalcis treasure of jewellery, dress accessories and silver plate from the island of Euboea, Greece, (14th–15th centuries) + Magnificent cups made from precious metal such as the Royal Gold Cup and the Lacock Cup, western Europe, (14th–15th centuries) + Complete church altar set from Medina de Pomar near Burgos, Spain (1455 AD) + +Renaissance to Modern (c. 1500 AD – present) + Two luxurious silver brooches set with precious stones from Glen Lyon and Lochbuie, Scotland (early 16th century) + Intricately decorated parade shield made by Giorgio Ghisi from Mantua, Italy, (1554 AD) + The Armada Service, 26 silver dishes found in Devon, south west England, (late 16th to early 17th centuries) + Early Renaissance Lyte Jewel, presented to Thomas Lyte of Lytes Cary, Somerset by King James I of England, (1610) + Huguenot silver from the Peter Wilding bequest, England, (18th century) + Pair of so-called Cleopatra Vases from the Chelsea porcelain factory, London, England, (1763) + Jaspar ware vase known as the Pegasus Vase made by Josiah Wedgwood, England, (1786) + Two of Charles Darwin's chronometers used on the voyage of HMS Beagle, (1795–1805) + The Hull Grundy Gift of jewellery, Europe and North America, (19th century) + Oak clock with mother-of-pearl engraving designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, (1919) + Silver tea-infuser designed by Marianne Brandt from the Bauhaus art school, Germany, (1924) + The Rosetta Vase, earthenware pottery vase designed by the contemporary British artist Grayson Perry, (2011) + +The many hoards of treasure include those of Esquiline, Carthage, First Cyprus, Hockwold, Hoxne, Lampsacus, Mildenhall, Vale of York and Water Newton, (4th–10th centuries AD) + +Department of Asia + +The scope of the Department of Asia is extremely broad; its collections of over 75,000 objects cover the material culture of the whole Asian continent (from East, South, Central and South-East Asia) and from the Neolithic up to the present day. Until recently, this department concentrated on collecting Oriental antiquities from urban or semi-urban societies across the Asian continent. Many of those objects were collected by colonial officers and explorers in former parts of the British Empire, especially the Indian subcontinent. Examples include the collections made by individuals such as James Wilkinson Breeks, Sir Alexander Cunningham, Sir Harold Deane, Sir Walter Elliot, James Prinsep, Charles Masson, Sir John Marshall and Charles Stuart. A large number of Chinese antiquities were purchased from the Anglo-Greek banker George Eumorfopoulos in the 1930s. The large collection of some 1800 Japanese prints and paintings owned by Arthur Morrison was acquired in the early twentieth century. In the second half of the twentieth century, the museum greatly benefited from the bequest of the philanthropist PT Brooke Sewell, which allowed the department to purchase many objects and fill in gaps in the collection. + +In 2004, the ethnographic collections from Asia were transferred to the department. These reflect the diverse environment of the largest continent in the world and range from India to China, the Middle East to Japan. Much of the ethnographic material comes from objects originally owned by tribal cultures and hunter-gatherers, many of whose way of life has disappeared in the last century. Particularly valuable collections are from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (much assembled by the British naval officer Maurice Portman), Sri Lanka (especially through the colonial administrator Hugh Nevill), Northern Thailand, south-west China, the Ainu of Hokaidu in Japan (chief among them the collection of the Scottish zoologist John Anderson), Siberia (with artefacts collected by the explorer Kate Marsden and Bassett Digby and is notable for its Sakha pieces, especially the ivory model of a summer festival at Yakutsk) and the islands of South-East Asia, especially Borneo. The latter benefited from the purchase in 1905 of the Sarawak collection put together by Dr Charles Hose, as well as from other colonial officers such as Edward A Jeffreys. In addition, a unique and valuable group of objects from Java, including shadow puppets and a gamelan musical set, was assembled by Sir Stamford Raffles. + +The principal gallery devoted to Asian art in the museum is Gallery 33 with its comprehensive display of Chinese, Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asian objects. An adjacent gallery showcases the Amaravati sculptures and monuments. Other galleries on the upper floors are devoted to its Japanese, Korean, painting and calligraphy, and Chinese ceramics collections. + +Highlights of the collections include: + The most comprehensive collection of sculpture from the Indian subcontinent in the world, including the celebrated Buddhist limestone reliefs from Amaravati excavated by Sir Walter Elliot + An outstanding collection of Chinese antiquities, paintings, and porcelain, lacquer, bronze, jade, and other applied arts + The Frau Olga-Julia Wegener Collection of 147 Chinese paintings from the Tang to the Qing dynasties. + The most comprehensive collection of Japanese pre-20th century art in the Western world, many of which originally belonged to the surgeon William Anderson and diplomat Ernest Mason Satow + +East Asia + A large collection of Chinese ritual bronzes, including a wine vessel in the shape of two rams supporting a jar, (1500–200 BC) + Jade bi or disc with inscription from the Qianlong Emperor, (1500–1050 BC) + Group of Oracle bones that were used for divination from the Shang dynasty, China, (1200–1050 BC) + Intricately designed gold dagger handle from Eastern Zhou period, China, (6th–5th centuries BC) + Huixian Bronze Hu, an identical pair of bronze vessels from the Eastern Zhou period, China, (5th century BC) + Japanese antiquities from the Kofun period excavated by the pioneering archaeologist William Gowland, (3rd–6th centuries AD) + Three ornate bronze Dōtaku or bells from the Yayoi period, Japan, (200 BC – 200 AD) + Gilded and inscribed Han dynasty wine-cup made from lacquer and found in Pyongyang, Korea (4 AD) + Gandharan architectural wood carvings, furniture and dress accessories from Loulan, Xinjiang, (4th century AD) + The famous Admonitions Scroll by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi, (344–406 AD) + The colossal Amitābha Buddha from Hancui, China, (585 AD) + A set of ceramic Tang dynasty tomb figures of Liu Tingxun, (c. 728 AD) + Silk Princess painting from Dandan-oilik Buddhist sanctuary in Khotan, Xinjiang, China, (7th–8th century AD) + Seated Luohan from Yixian, one from a set of eight surviving statues, China, (907–1125 AD) + Hoard of Tang dynasty silverware from Beihuangshan, Shaanxi, China, (9th–10th centuries AD) + Seventeen examples of extremely rare Ru ware, the largest collection in the West, (1100 AD) + A fine assemblage of Buddhist scroll paintings from Dunhuang, western China, collected by the British-Hungarian explorer Aurel Stein, (5th–11th centuries AD) + Pericival David collection of Chinese ceramics, (10th–18th centuries AD) + Ivory stand in the form of a seated lion, Chos-'khor-yan-rtse monastery in Tibet, (13th century AD) + Copy of a hanging scroll painting of Minamoto no Yoritomo, first Shogun of Japan, (14th century AD) + Handscroll silk painting called 'Fascination of Nature' by Xie Chufang depicting insects and plants, China, (1321 AD) + Ornate Sino-Tibetan figure of Buddha Sakyamuni made of gilded bronze, China, (1403–1424 AD) + Large Cloisonné jar with dragon made for the Ming dynasty Imperial Court, paired with another in the Rietberg Museum, Zürich, Beijing, China, (1426–35 AD) + Pair of ceramic Kakiemon elephants from Japan, (17th century AD) + Moon jar from the Joseon Dynasty collected by the potter Bernard Leach, Korea, (18th century AD) + Japanese prints including The Great Wave off Kanagawa, (1829–32 AD) + Illustrations for the Great Picture Book of Everything, rare album of drawings by the celebrated Japanese artist Hokusai, (1820–1840 AD) + +South Asia + Excavated objects from the Indus Valley sites of Mohenjo-daro, and Harappa, Ancient India (now in Pakistan), (2500–2000 BC) + Hoard of Copper Hoard Culture celts, plaques and disc from Gungeria, Madhya Pradesh, India, (2000–1000 BC) + Assembly of prehistoric artefacts from the Nilgiri Hills in southern India, (10th century BC – 2nd century AD) + Hoard of Iron Age metal weapons excavated at the Wurreegaon barrow near Kamptee in Maharastra, India, (7th – 1st centuries BC) + Sandstone fragment of a Pillar of Ashoka with Brahmi inscription from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India, (238 BC) + The Kulu Vase found near a monastery in Himachal Pradesh, one of the earliest examples of figurative art from the sub-continent, northern India, (1st century BC) + Copper plate from Taxila, with important Kharoshthi inscription, Ancient India (now in Pakistan), (1st century BC – 1st century AD) + Indo-Scythian sandstone Mathura Lion Capital and Bracket figure from one of the gateways to the Great Stupa at Sanchi, central India, (1st century AD) + Bimaran Casket and Wardak Vase, reliquaries from ancient stupas in Afghanistan, (1st–2nd centuries AD) + Hoard of gold jewellery with precious stones found under the Enlightenment Throne at the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, eastern India, (2nd century AD) + Relic deposits from stupas at Ahin Posh, Ali Masjid, Gudivada, Manikyala, Sonala Pind, Sanchi and Taxila, (1st–3rd centuries AD) + Seated Hārītī and Buddha statues and other Gandhara sculptures from Kafir Kot, Jamal Garhi, Takht-i-Bahi and Yusufzai, Pakistan, (1st–3rd centuries AD) + Hephthalite silver bowl with hunting scenes from the Swat District, Pakistan, (460–479 AD) + Three sandstone carved sculptures of the Buddha in Gupta style from Sarnath, eastern India, (5th–6th centuries AD) + Aphsad inscription of Ādityasena with important record of the genealogy of the Later Gupta dynasty up to king Ādityasena, Ghosrawan, Bihar, India, (675 AD) + The Buddhapad Hoard of bronze images from southern India, (6th–8th centuries AD) + Small bronze figure of Buddha Shakyamuni, Bihar, eastern India, (7th century AD) + Stone statue of Buddha from the Sultanganj hoard, Bihar, eastern India, (7th–8th centuries AD) + Earliest known figure of the dancing four-armed god Shiva Nataraja, Pallava dynasty, southern India (800 AD) + Statue of Tara from Sri Lanka and the Thanjavur Shiva from Tamil Nadu, southern India, (8th century & 10th century AD) + Standing Pala statue of Buddha from Kurkihar, Bihar, India, (9th century AD) + Several wooden architectural panels from the Kashmir Smast caves, northern Pakistan, (9th–10th centuries AD) + Hoard of Buddhist terracotta sealings from the Pala period found at the Nālandā Monastery, Bihar, eastern India, (10th century AD) + Statue of the goddess Ambika found at Dhar in central India, (1034 AD) + Foundation inscription of the Ananta Vasudeva Temple in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, eastern India, (1278 AD) + Jade dragon cup that once belonged to Sultan Ulugh Beg from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, (1420–1449 AD) + Foundation inscription with Arabic inscription in Naskh script in the name of Sultan Yusufshah from Gauda, Bengal, eastern India, (1477 AD) + Large standing gilded copper figure of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, Nepal, (15th–16th centuries AD) + +South-east Asia + Earthenware tazza from the Phùng Nguyên culture, northern Vietnam, (2000–1500 BC) + Pottery vessels and sherds from the ancient site of Ban Chiang, Thailand, (10th–1st centuries BC) + Bronze bell from Klang and iron socketed axe (tulang mawas) from Perak, western Malaysia, (200 BC–200 AD) + Group of six Buddhist clay votive plaques found in a cave in Patania, Penang, Malaysia, (6th–11th centuries AD) + The famous Sambas Treasure of buddhist gold and silver figures from west Borneo, Indonesia, (8th–9th centuries AD) + Three stone Buddha heads from the temple at Borobodur in Java, Indonesia, (9th century AD) + Granite Kinnari figure in the shape of a bird from Candi Prambanan in Java, Indonesia, (9th century AD) + Sandstone Champa figure of a rampant lion, Vietnam, (11th century AD) + Gilded bronze figure of Śiva holding a rosary, Cambodia, (11th century AD) + Stone figure representing the upper part of an eleven-headed Avalokiteśvara, Cambodia, (12th century AD) + Bronze figure of a seated Buddha from Bagan, Burma, (12th–13th centuries AD) + Hoard of Southern Song dynasty ceramic vessels excavated at Pinagbayanan, Taysan Municipality, Philippines, (12th–13th centuries AD) + Statue of the Goddess Mamaki from Candi Jago, eastern Java, Indonesia, (13th–14th centuries AD) + Glazed terracotta tiles from the Shwegugyi Temple erected by king Dhammazedi in Bago, Myanmar, (1476 AD) + Inscribed bronze figure of a Buddha from Fang District, part of a large SE Asian collection amassed by the Norwegian explorer Carl Bock, Thailand, (1540 AD) + Large impression of the Buddha's foot made of gilded stone (known as Shwesettaw Footprints) donated by Captain Frederick Marryat, from Ponoodang near Yangon, Myanmar, (18th–19th centuries AD) + +Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas + +The British Museum houses one of the world's most comprehensive collections of Ethnographic material from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, representing the cultures of indigenous peoples throughout the world. Over 350,000 objects spanning thousands of years tells the history of mankind from three major continents and many rich and diverse cultures; the collecting of modern artefacts is ongoing. Many individuals have added to the department's collection over the years but those assembled by Henry Christy, Harry Beasley and William Oldman are outstanding. + +Objects from this department are mostly on display in several galleries on the ground and lower floors. Gallery 24 displays ethnographic from every continent while adjacent galleries focus on North America and Mexico. A long suite of rooms (Gallery 25) on the lower floor display African art. There are plans in place to develop permanent galleries for showcasing art from Oceania and South America. + +Africa + +The Sainsbury African Galleries display 600 objects from the greatest permanent collection of African arts and culture in the world. The three permanent galleries provide a substantial exhibition space for the museum's African collection comprising over 200,000 objects. A curatorial scope that encompasses both archaeological and contemporary material, including both unique masterpieces of artistry and objects of everyday life. A great addition was material amassed by Sir Henry Wellcome, which was donated by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1954. + +Highlights of the African collection include objects found at megalithic circles in The Gambia, a dozen exquisite Afro-Portuguese ivories, a series of soapstone figures from the Kissi people in Sierra Leone and Liberia, hoard of bronze Kru currency rings from the Sinoe River in Liberia, Asante goldwork and regalia from Ghana including the Bowdich collection, the rare Akan Drum from the same region in west Africa, pair of door panels and lintel from the palace at Ikere-Ekiti in Yorubaland, the Benin and Igbo-Ukwu bronze sculptures, the beautiful Bronze Head of Queen Idia, a magnificent brass head of a Yoruba ruler and quartz throne from Ife, a similar terracotta head from Iwinrin Grove near Ife, the Apapa Hoard from Lagos and other mediaeval bronze hoards from Allabia and the Forçados River in southern Nigeria. + +Included is an Ikom monolith from Cross River State, several ancestral screens from the Kalabari tribe in the Niger Delta, the Torday collection of central African sculpture, textiles and weaponry from the Kuba Kingdom including three royal figures, the unique Luzira Head from Uganda, processional crosses and other ecclesiastical and royal material from Gondar and Magdala, Ethiopia following the British Expedition to Abyssinia, excavated objects from Great Zimbabwe (that includes a unique soapstone, anthropomorphic figure) and satellite towns such as Mutare including a large hoard of Iron Age soapstone figures, a rare divining bowl from the Venda peoples and cave paintings and petroglyphs from South Africa. + +Oceania + +The British Museum's Oceanic collections originate from the vast area of the Pacific Ocean, stretching from Papua New Guinea to Easter Island, from New Zealand to Hawaii. The three main anthropological groups represented in the collection are Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia – Aboriginal art from Australia is considered separately in its own right. Metal working was not indigenous to Oceania before Europeans arrived, so many of the artefacts from the collection are made from stone, shell, bone and bamboo. Prehistoric objects from the region include a bird-shaped pestle and a group of stone mortars from Papua New Guinea. + +The British Museum is fortunate in having some of the earliest Oceanic and Pacific collections, many of which were put together by members of Cook's and Vancouver's expeditions or by colonial administrators and explorers such as Sir George Grey, Sir Frederick Broome, Joseph Bradshaw, Robert Christison, Gregory Mathews, Frederick Meinertzhagen, Thomas Mitchell and Arthur Gordon, before Western culture significantly impacted on indigenous cultures. The department has also benefited greatly from the legacy of pioneering anthropologists such as AC Haddon, Bronisław Malinowski and Katherine Routledge. An artefact is a wooden Aboriginal shield, probably dating from the late eighteenth century. There is some debate as to whether this shield was found at Botany Bay or, given the nature of the wood being red mangrove which grows abundantly only 500 km north of Botany Bay, possibly obtained through trade networks or at an entirely different location. + +The Wilson cabinet of curiosities from Palau is an example of pre-contact ware. Another outstanding exemplar is the mourner's dress from Tahiti given to Cook on his second voyage, one of only ten in existence. In the collection is a large war canoe from the island of Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands, one of the last ever to be built in the archipelago. + +The Māori collection is the finest outside New Zealand with many intricately carved wooden and jade objects and the Aboriginal art collection is distinguished by its wide range of bark paintings, including two very early bark etchings collected by John Hunter Kerr. A particularly important group of objects was purchased from the London Missionary Society in 1911, that includes the unique statue of A'a from Rurutu Island, the rare idol from the isle of Mangareva and the Cook Islands deity figure. Other highlights include the huge Hawaiian statue of Kū-ka-ili-moku or god of war (one of three extant in the world) and the famous Easter Island statues Hoa Hakananai'a and Moai Hava. + +Americas + +The Americas collection mainly consists of 19th and 20th century items although the Paracas, Moche, Inca, Maya, Aztec, Taino and other early cultures are well represented. The Kayung totem pole, which was made in the late nineteenth century on Haida Gwaii, dominates the Great Court and provides a fitting introduction to this very wide-ranging collection that stretches from the very north of the North American continent where the Inuit population has lived for centuries, to the tip of South America where indigenous tribes have long thrived in Patagonia. + +Highlights of the collection include Aboriginal Canadian and Native American objects from North America collected by the 5th Earl of Lonsdale, the Marquis of Lorne, the explorer David Haig-Thomas and Bryan Mullanphy, Mayor of St. Louis, the Squier and Davis collection of prehistoric mound relics from North America, two carved stone bowls in the form of a seated human figure made by ancient North West Coast peoples from British Columbia, the headdress of Chief Yellow Calf from the Arapaho tribe in Wyoming, a lidded rivercane basket from South Carolina and the earliest historic example of Cherokee basketry, a selection of pottery vessels found in prehistoric dwellings at Mesa Verde and Casas Grandes, one of the enigmatic crystal skulls of unknown origin, a collection of nine turquoise Aztec mosaics from Mexico (the largest in Europe), important artefacts from Teotihuacan and Isla de Sacrificios. + +There are several rare pre-Columbian manuscripts including the Codex Zouche-Nuttall and Codex Waecker-Gotter and post-colonial ones such as the Codex Aubin and Codex Kingsborough, a spectacular series of Mayan lintels from Yaxchilan excavated by the British Mayanist Alfred Maudslay, a very high quality Mayan collection that includes sculptures from Copan, Tikal, Tulum, Pusilha, Naranjo and Nebaj (including the celebrated Fenton Vase), an ornate calcite vase with jaguar handles from the Ulua Valley in Honduras, the Lord Moyne collection from the Bay Islands, Honduras and Boyle collection from Nicarugua, over 20 stone metates with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic ornamentation from Costa Rica, a group of Zemi Figures from Vere, Jamaica, and wooden duhos from the Dominican Republic and The Bahamas. + +There are a collection of Pre-Columbian human mummies from sites across South America including Ancon, Acari, Arica and Leyva, a number of prestigious pre-Columbian gold and votive objects from Colombia, three axe-shaped gold diadems found near Camaná from the Siguas culture in Peru, unique collection of Moche wooden figures and staffs from the Macabi islands off Peru, ethnographic objects from across the Amazon region including the Schomburgk and Maybury Lewis collections and part of the von Martius and von Spix collection, two rare Tiwanaku pottery vessels from Lake Titicaca and important items from Tierra del Fuego donated by Commander Phillip Parker King. + +Department of Coins and Medals + + +The British Museum is home to one of the world's finest numismatic collections, comprising about a million objects, including coins, medals, tokens and paper money. The collection spans the entire history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day and is representative of both the East and West. The Department of Coins and Medals was created in 1861 and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2011. + +Department of Conservation and Scientific Research +This department was founded in 1920. Conservation has six specialist areas: ceramics & glass; metals; organic material (including textiles); stone, wall paintings and mosaics; Eastern pictorial art and Western pictorial art. The science department has and continues to develop techniques to date artefacts, analyse and identify the materials used in their manufacture, to identify the place an artefact originated and the techniques used in their creation. The department also publishes its findings and discoveries. + +Libraries and archives +This department covers all levels of education, from casual visitors, schools, degree level and beyond. The museum's various libraries hold in excess of 350,000 books, journals and pamphlets covering all areas of the museum's collection. Also the general museum archives which date from its foundation in 1753 are overseen by this department; the individual departments have their own separate archives and libraries covering their various areas of responsibility, which can be consulted by the public on application. The Anthropology Library is especially large, with 120,000 volumes. However, the Paul Hamlyn Library, which had become the central reference library of the British Museum and the only library there freely open to the general public, closed permanently in August 2011. The website and online database of the collection also provide increasing amounts of information. + +British Museum Press +The British Museum Press (BMP) is the publishing business and a division of the British Museum Company Ltd., a company and a charity (established in 1973) wholly owned by the trustees of the British Museum. + +The BMP publishes both popular and scholarly illustrated books to accompany the exhibition programme and explore aspects of the general collection. Profits from their sales goes to support the British Museum. + +Scholarly titles are published in the Research Publications series, all of which are peer-reviewed. This series was started in 1978 and was originally called Occasional Papers. The series is designed to disseminate research on items in the collection. Between six and eight titles are published each year in this series. + +Controversies + +Artefacts from other countries +It is a point of controversy whether museums should possess artefacts looted from other countries, and the British Museum is a notable target for criticism. The Elgin Marbles, Benin Bronzes, Ethiopian Tabots and the Rosetta Stone are among the most disputed objects in its collections, and organisations have been formed demanding the return of these artefacts to their native countries. The Parthenon Marbles (Elgin Marbles) claimed by Greece were also cited by UNESCO, among others, for restitution. From 1801 to 1812, Elgin's agents removed about half of the surviving sculptures from the Parthenon, as well as sculptures from the Propylaea and Erechtheum. The former director of the museum has stated, "We are indebted to Elgin for having rescued the Parthenon sculptures and others from the Acropolis from the destruction they were suffering, as well as from the damage that the Acropolis monuments, including the sculptures that he did not remove, have suffered since." The British Museum itself damaged some of the artefacts during restoration in the 1930s. + +There is also controversy over artefacts taken during the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing by an Anglo-French expeditionary force during the Second Opium War in 1860, an event which drew a protest from Victor Hugo. The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others, have been asked since 2009 to open their archives for investigation by a team of Chinese investigators as a part of an international mission to document Chinese national treasures in foreign collections. In 2010 Neil MacGregor, the former Director of the British Museum, said he hoped that both British and Chinese investigators would work together on the controversial collection. In 2020 the museum appointed a curator to research the history of its collections, including disputed items. + +The British Museum has stated that the "restitutionist premise, that whatever was made in a country must return to an original geographical site, would empty both the British Museum and the other great museums of the world". The museum has also argued that the British Museum Act of 1963 prevents any object from leaving its collection once it has entered it. "The Museum owns its collections, but its Trustees are not empowered to dispose of them". Nevertheless, it has returned items such as Tasmanian Aboriginal burial remains when this was consistent with legislation regarding the disposal of items in the collections. + +In late 2022, the British Museum had entered into preliminary negotiations with the Greek government about the future of the Elgin marbles. + +Disputed items in the collection + Elgin Marbles – claimed by Greece and backed by UNESCO among others for restitution + Benin Bronzes – claimed by Nigeria; the Nigerian government has passed a resolution demanding the return of all 700 bronze pieces. 30 pieces of the bronzes were sold by the British Museum privately from the 1950s until 1972, mostly back to the Nigerians. + Ethiopian Tabots, Pre-Axumite Civilisation Coins – claimed by Ethiopia + Four stolen drawings (Nazi plunder) – Compensation paid to Uri Peled for the amount of £175,000 by the British Museum + Achaemenid empire gold and silver artefacts from the Oxus Treasure – in 2007 the President of Tajikistan ordered experts to look into making a claim. + Rosetta Stone – claimed by Egypt + Dunhuang manuscripts, part of a cache of scrolls, manuscripts, paintings, scriptures, and relics from the Mogao Caves, including the Diamond Sutra – claimed by the People's Republic of China + Aboriginal shield – claimed by Aboriginal people of Australia. + Hoa Hakananai'a – claimed by Chile on behalf of Easter Island + Repatriation and reburial of human remains is a controversial issue, and the British Museum has issued a policy on the subject. + Welsh artefacts – claimed by Welsh people, particularly for the return of the Mold gold cape but also the Rhyd-y-gors Shield, Moel Hebog shield and Llanllyfni lunula. + +Nazi-looted art +In 2002 the heirs of Dr. Arthur Feldmann, an art collector murdered in the Holocaust, requested that four old master drawings stolen by the Gestapo in 1939 be returned to the family. A UK High Court judge ruled in 2005 that it would be illegal for the British Museum to return artworks looted by the Nazis to a Jewish family, despite its willingness and moral obligation to do so.The law was changed in 2009, and again in 2022 giving museums additional powers to return looted art or provide compensation. The heirs of Dr Feldmann accepted a compensation payment for a looted drawing and stated that they were happy the drawing would remain in the British Museum collection. + +According to the British Museum Spoliation report published by the Collections Trust in 2017, "Around 30% of some 21,350 continental and British drawings acquired since 1933 have an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the 1933–1945 period". The museum lists these works on its website and investigates claims for restitution. + +BP sponsorship +In recent years there have been several protests against the British Museum's relationship with the oil company BP. In May 2016, the British Museum was temporarily closed after a Greenpeace protest. In February 2019, hundreds of people occupied the museum in protest against the BP sponsorship. In July 2019, Ahdaf Soueif resigned from the British Museum's board of trustees in protest against the sponsorship. In February 2020, 1,500 demonstrators, including British Museum staff, took part in a day of protest over the issue, occupying 11 of the museum's rooms. The PCS union said the museum had a duty to recognise the escalating climate crisis and cut its ties with BP. In reply the museum said: “We are aware of the comments from the PCS union and will continue to liaise with the British Museum PCS branch and our staff more generally.” + +Chairman's Advisory Group +The Chairman's Advisory Group is an informal group of business leaders who provide advice to the chairman on various issues including the museum's relationship with the British government and policy on the museum's collections. Its existence was made public after a freedom of information request by a group campaigning against the museum's links with the fossil fuel industry. The museum has declined to name the members of the advisory group as they are acting in their personal capacity. + +Thefts +Several incidents of theft from the museum have been recorded. During the 1970s, several historic coins and medals were stolen. In 1990 a 17th-century Japanese Kakiemon figure was stolen. In 1991 two Meiji figurines were taken from a basement and in a separate incident a fragment of a gold ring was taken from a store. In 1993 fifteen Roman coins and jewellery worth £250,000 were stolen. In 1996 a Japanese chest and two Persian books were stolen. + +In July 2002 a marble head, valued at £50,000, was stolen from the Archaic Greek gallery. In 2004, 15 "historically important" Chinese artefacts, including jewels, ornate hairpins and fingernail guards were stolen. In 2017, it was revealed that a Cartier diamond had been missing since 2011. + +In August 2023, a staff member was fired after it emerged that items including gold, jewellery and gems had been stolen over a "significant" period of time. The incident led to an investigation by the Metropolitan Police and an independent review by the museum. Some of the missing artefacts were later found to have been sold on eBay for considerably less than their estimated value. The museum had been warned of the thefts as early as 2021. The museum's director, Hartwig Fischer, announced that he would resign because the museum "did not respond as comprehensively as it should have" to the warnings of theft. The number of artefacts stolen was estimated to be at about 2,000; some of which were subsequently recovered. As a consequence of the thefts, the museum announced a five-year plan to digitise the complete collection and make it available to view on-line. + +Copyright settlement +In August 2023, the British Museum reached a settlement with translator Yilin Wang over translations she had done of the poet Qiu Jin. The museum had used her work without credit or permission in their exhibit “China’s Hidden Century” which ran between May 2023 and October 2023. + +Galleries +Building + +Museum galleries +Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan + +Department of the Middle East + +Department of Greece and Rome + +Digital and online +The museum has a collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the collection online. + +Exhibitions + Chronology of Temporary Exhibitions at the British Museum, by Joanna Bowring (British Museum Research Paper 189, 2012) lists all temporary exhibitions from 1838 to 2012. + +Forgotten Empire Exhibition (October 2005 – January 2006) + +From January to April 2012 the museum presented Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, the first major exhibition on the topic of the Hajj, the pilgrimage that is one of the five pillars of Islam. + +See also +2016–17 all-female UK terror plot – involved a plan to attack the British Museum + +Notes + +References + +Further reading + + Anderson, Robert (2005). The Great Court and the British Museum. London: The British Museum Press + Arrowsmith, Rupert Richard. Modernism and the Museum: Asian, African and Pacific Art and the London Avant Garde. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 103–164. . + Arrowsmith, Rupert Richard. "The Transcultural Roots of Modernism: Imagist Poetry, Japanese Visual Culture, and the Western Museum System" , Modernism/modernity Volume 18, Number 1, January 2011, pp. 27–42. . + Bowring, Joanna (2012). Chronology of Temporary Exhibitions at the British Museum London: British Museum Research Paper 189. + Caygill, Marjorie (2006). The British Museum: 250 Years. London: The British Museum Press + Caygill, Marjorie (2002). The Story of the British Museum. London: The British Museum Press + --do.-- (2009) Treasures of the British Museum London: The British Museum Press (1st ed. 1985; 2nd ed. 1992) + Cook, B. F. (2005). The Elgin Marbles. London: The British Museum Press + Esdaile, Arundell (1946) The British Museum Library: a Short History and Survey. London: Allen & Unwin + Jacobs, Norman (2010) Behind the Colonnade. Stroud: The History Press + Jenkins, Ian (2006). Greek Architecture and its Sculpture in The British Museum. London: The British Museum Press + Francis, Frank, ed. (1971) Treasures of the British Museum. London: Thames & Hudson (rev. ed., 1975) + Moser, Stephanie (2006). Wondrous Curiosities: Ancient Egypt at The British Museum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press + Reade, Julian (2004). Assyrian Sculpture. London: The British Museum Press + Reeve, John (2003). The British Museum: Visitor's Guide. London: The British Museum Press + Wilson, David M. (2002). The British Museum: a history. London: The British Museum Press + +External links + + + The British Museum from The Survey of London + British Museum elevation + + + +Virtual tour of the British Museum provided by Google Arts & Culture + + + +1753 establishments in England +Archaeological museums in London +Art museums and galleries in London +Asian art museums in the United Kingdom +Charities based in London +Cultural infrastructure completed in 1847 +Cultural infrastructure completed in 2000 +Egyptological collections in London +Exempt charities +History of museums +Georgian architecture in the London Borough of Camden +Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden +Grade I listed museum buildings +Greek Revival architecture in the United Kingdom +Horological museums in the United Kingdom +Mesoamerican art museums +Museums in the London Borough of Camden +Museums of ancient Greece in the United Kingdom +Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom +Museums of Ancient Near East in the United Kingdom +Museums established in 1753 +Museums sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport +Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government +Robert Smirke (architect) buildings +Neoclassical architecture in London +Buildings and structures in Bloomsbury +Foster and Partners buildings +Museum of the Year (UK) recipients +In elementary algebra, the binomial theorem (or binomial expansion) describes the algebraic expansion of powers of a binomial. According to the theorem, it is possible to expand the polynomial into a sum involving terms of the form , where the exponents and are nonnegative integers with , and the coefficient of each term is a specific positive integer depending on and . For example, for , + +The coefficient in the term of is known as the binomial coefficient or (the two have the same value). These coefficients for varying and can be arranged to form Pascal's triangle. These numbers also occur in combinatorics, where gives the number of different combinations of elements that can be chosen from an -element set. Therefore is often pronounced as " choose ". + +History +Special cases of the binomial theorem were known since at least the 4th century BC when Greek mathematician Euclid mentioned the special case of the binomial theorem for exponent . Greek mathematican Diophantus cubed various binomials, including . Indian mathematican Aryabhata's method for finding cube roots, from around 510 CE, suggests that he knew the binomial formula for exponent . + +Binomial coefficients, as combinatorial quantities expressing the number of ways of selecting objects out of without replacement, were of interest to ancient Indian mathematicians. The earliest known reference to this combinatorial problem is the Chandaḥśāstra by the Indian lyricist Pingala (c. 200 BC), which contains a method for its solution. The commentator Halayudha from the 10th century AD explains this method. By the 6th century AD, the Indian mathematicians probably knew how to express this as a quotient , and a clear statement of this rule can be found in the 12th century text Lilavati by Bhaskara. + +The first formulation of the binomial theorem and the table of binomial coefficients, to our knowledge, can be found in a work by Al-Karaji, quoted by Al-Samaw'al in his "al-Bahir". Al-Karaji described the triangular pattern of the binomial coefficients and also provided a mathematical proof of both the binomial theorem and Pascal's triangle, using an early form of mathematical induction. The Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam was probably familiar with the formula to higher orders, although many of his mathematical works are lost. The binomial expansions of small degrees were known in the 13th century mathematical works of Yang Hui and also Chu Shih-Chieh. Yang Hui attributes the method to a much earlier 11th century text of Jia Xian, although those writings are now also lost. + +In 1544, Michael Stifel introduced the term "binomial coefficient" and showed how to use them to express in terms of , via "Pascal's triangle". Blaise Pascal studied the eponymous triangle comprehensively in his Traité du triangle arithmétique. However, the pattern of numbers was already known to the European mathematicians of the late Renaissance, including Stifel, Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, and Simon Stevin. + +Isaac Newton is generally credited with discovering the generalized binomial theorem, valid for any rational exponent, in 1665. It was discovered independently in 1670 by James Gregory. + +Statement +According to the theorem, it is possible to expand any nonnegative integer power of into a sum of the form + +where is an integer and each is a positive integer known as a binomial coefficient. (When an exponent is zero, the corresponding power expression is taken to be 1 and this multiplicative factor is often omitted from the term. Hence one often sees the right hand side written as .) This formula is also referred to as the binomial formula or the binomial identity. Using summation notation, it can be written as + +The final expression follows from the previous one by the symmetry of and in the first expression, and by comparison it follows that the sequence of binomial coefficients in the formula is symmetrical. A simple variant of the binomial formula is obtained by substituting for , so that it involves only a single variable. In this form, the formula reads + +or equivalently + +or more explicitly + +Examples + +Here are the first few cases of the binomial theorem: + +In general, for the expansion of on the right side in the th row (numbered so that the top row is the 0th row): + the exponents of in the terms are (the last term implicitly contains ); + the exponents of in the terms are (the first term implicitly contains ); + the coefficients form the th row of Pascal's triangle; + before combining like terms, there are terms in the expansion (not shown); + after combining like terms, there are terms, and their coefficients sum to . +An example illustrating the last two points: with . + +A simple example with a specific positive value of : + +A simple example with a specific negative value of : + +Geometric explanation + +For positive values of and , the binomial theorem with is the geometrically evident fact that a square of side can be cut into a square of side , a square of side , and two rectangles with sides and . With , the theorem states that a cube of side can be cut into a cube of side , a cube of side , three rectangular boxes, and three rectangular boxes. + +In calculus, this picture also gives a geometric proof of the derivative if one sets and interpreting as an infinitesimal change in , then this picture shows the infinitesimal change in the volume of an -dimensional hypercube, where the coefficient of the linear term (in ) is the area of the faces, each of dimension : + +Substituting this into the definition of the derivative via a difference quotient and taking limits means that the higher order terms, and higher, become negligible, and yields the formula interpreted as +"the infinitesimal rate of change in volume of an -cube as side length varies is the area of of its -dimensional faces". +If one integrates this picture, which corresponds to applying the fundamental theorem of calculus, one obtains Cavalieri's quadrature formula, the integral – see proof of Cavalieri's quadrature formula for details. + +Binomial coefficients + +The coefficients that appear in the binomial expansion are called binomial coefficients. These are usually written and pronounced " choose ". + +Formulas +The coefficient of is given by the formula + +which is defined in terms of the factorial function . Equivalently, this formula can be written + +with factors in both the numerator and denominator of the fraction. Although this formula involves a fraction, the binomial coefficient is actually an integer. + +Combinatorial interpretation +The binomial coefficient can be interpreted as the number of ways to choose elements from an -element set. This is related to binomials for the following reason: if we write as a product + +then, according to the distributive law, there will be one term in the expansion for each choice of either or from each of the binomials of the product. For example, there will only be one term , corresponding to choosing from each binomial. However, there will be several terms of the form , one for each way of choosing exactly two binomials to contribute a . Therefore, after combining like terms, the coefficient of will be equal to the number of ways to choose exactly elements from an -element set. + +Proofs + +Combinatorial proof + +Example +The coefficient of in + +equals because there are three strings of length 3 with exactly two s, namely, + +corresponding to the three 2-element subsets of , namely, + +where each subset specifies the positions of the in a corresponding string. + +General case +Expanding yields the sum of the products of the form where each is or . Rearranging factors shows that each product equals for some between and . For a given , the following are proved equal in succession: + the number of copies of in the expansion + the number of -character strings having in exactly positions + the number of -element subsets of + either by definition, or by a short combinatorial argument if one is defining as +This proves the binomial theorem. + +Inductive proof +Induction yields another proof of the binomial theorem. When , both sides equal , since and Now suppose that the equality holds for a given ; we will prove it for . For , let denote the coefficient of in the polynomial . By the inductive hypothesis, is a polynomial in and such that is if , and otherwise. The identity + +shows that is also a polynomial in and , and + +since if , then and . Now, the right hand side is + +by Pascal's identity. On the other hand, if , then and , so we get . Thus + +which is the inductive hypothesis with substituted for and so completes the inductive step. + +Generalizations + +Newton's generalized binomial theorem + +Around 1665, Isaac Newton generalized the binomial theorem to allow real exponents other than nonnegative integers. (The same generalization also applies to complex exponents.) In this generalization, the finite sum is replaced by an infinite series. In order to do this, one needs to give meaning to binomial coefficients with an arbitrary upper index, which cannot be done using the usual formula with factorials. However, for an arbitrary number , one can define + +where is the Pochhammer symbol, here standing for a falling factorial. This agrees with the usual definitions when is a nonnegative integer. Then, if and are real numbers with , and is any complex number, one has + +When is a nonnegative integer, the binomial coefficients for are zero, so this equation reduces to the usual binomial theorem, and there are at most nonzero terms. For other values of , the series typically has infinitely many nonzero terms. + +For example, gives the following series for the square root: + +Taking , the generalized binomial series gives the geometric series formula, valid for : + +More generally, with , we have for : + +So, for instance, when , + +Replacing with yields: + +So, for instance, when , we have for : + +Further generalizations +The generalized binomial theorem can be extended to the case where and are complex numbers. For this version, one should again assume and define the powers of and using a holomorphic branch of log defined on an open disk of radius centered at . The generalized binomial theorem is valid also for elements and of a Banach algebra as long as , and is invertible, and . + +A version of the binomial theorem is valid for the following Pochhammer symbol-like family of polynomials: for a given real constant , define and + +for Then + +The case recovers the usual binomial theorem. + +More generally, a sequence of polynomials is said to be of binomial type if + for all , + , and + for all , , and . +An operator on the space of polynomials is said to be the basis operator of the sequence if and for all . A sequence is binomial if and only if its basis operator is a Delta operator. Writing for the shift by operator, the Delta operators corresponding to the above "Pochhammer" families of polynomials are the backward difference for , the ordinary derivative for , and the forward difference for . + +Multinomial theorem + +The binomial theorem can be generalized to include powers of sums with more than two terms. The general version is + +where the summation is taken over all sequences of nonnegative integer indices through such that the sum of all is . (For each term in the expansion, the exponents must add up to ). The coefficients are known as multinomial coefficients, and can be computed by the formula + +Combinatorially, the multinomial coefficient counts the number of different ways to partition an -element set into disjoint subsets of sizes . + +Multi-binomial theorem +When working in more dimensions, it is often useful to deal with products of binomial expressions. By the binomial theorem this is equal to + +This may be written more concisely, by multi-index notation, as + +General Leibniz rule + +The general Leibniz rule gives the th derivative of a product of two functions in a form similar to that of the binomial theorem: + +Here, the superscript indicates the th derivative of a function. If one sets and , and then cancels the common factor of from both sides of the result, the ordinary binomial theorem is recovered. + +Applications + +Multiple-angle identities +For the complex numbers the binomial theorem can be combined with de Moivre's formula to yield multiple-angle formulas for the sine and cosine. According to De Moivre's formula, + +Using the binomial theorem, the expression on the right can be expanded, and then the real and imaginary parts can be taken to yield formulas for and . For example, since + +De Moivre's formula tells us that + +which are the usual double-angle identities. Similarly, since + +De Moivre's formula yields + +In general, + +and + +Series for e +The number is often defined by the formula + +Applying the binomial theorem to this expression yields the usual infinite series for . In particular: + +The th term of this sum is + +As , the rational expression on the right approaches , and therefore + +This indicates that can be written as a series: + +Indeed, since each term of the binomial expansion is an increasing function of , it follows from the monotone convergence theorem for series that the sum of this infinite series is equal to . + +Probability +The binomial theorem is closely related to the probability mass function of the negative binomial distribution. The probability of a (countable) collection of independent Bernoulli trials with probability of success all not happening is + +An upper bound for this quantity is + +In abstract algebra + +The binomial theorem is valid more generally for two elements and in a ring, or even a semiring, provided that . For example, it holds for two matrices, provided that those matrices commute; this is useful in computing powers of a matrix. + +The binomial theorem can be stated by saying that the polynomial sequence is of binomial type. + +In popular culture + The binomial theorem is mentioned in the Major-General's Song in the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. + Professor Moriarty is described by Sherlock Holmes as having written a treatise on the binomial theorem. + The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, using the heteronym Álvaro de Campos, wrote that "Newton's Binomial is as beautiful as the Venus de Milo. The truth is that few people notice it." + In the 2014 film The Imitation Game, Alan Turing makes reference to Isaac Newton's work on the binomial theorem during his first meeting with Commander Denniston at Bletchley Park. + +See also + + Binomial approximation + Binomial distribution + Binomial inverse theorem + Stirling's approximation + Tannery's theorem + Polynomials calculating sums of powers of arithmetic progressions + +Notes + +References + +Further reading + +External links + + + Binomial Theorem by Stephen Wolfram, and "Binomial Theorem (Step-by-Step)" by Bruce Colletti and Jeff Bryant, Wolfram Demonstrations Project, 2007. + +Factorial and binomial topics +Theorems about polynomials +Articles containing proofs +Balboa may refer to: + +Boats + Balboa 16, an American sailboat design + Balboa 20, an American sailboat design + Balboa 21, an American sailboat design + Balboa 22, an American sailboat design + Balboa 23, an American sailboat design + Balboa 24, an American sailboat design + +Places + Balboa, Cauca, a town and municipality in Colombia + Balboa, León, a Spanish village and municipality + Balboa, Panama, a port city in Panama + Balboa District of Panamá Province in Panama + Balboa, Risaralda, a town and municipality in Colombia + Balboa (Los Angeles Metro station), on the Los Angeles Metro Orange Line + Balboa (lunar crater), located near the western limb of the Moon + Balboa High School (California), an American public high school of San Francisco, California + Balboa Island, Newport Beach, California, a harborside community in Newport Beach + Balboa Park (disambiguation), any of several + Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, California, a neighborhood of the city of Newport Beach + Naval Medical Center San Diego, a US Navy medical treatment facility informally known as "Balboa Hospital" + +People + Vasco Núñez de Balboa ( 1475 – 1519), a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador + Javier Balboa (born 1985), football midfielder + Marcelo Balboa (born 1967), American former soccer defender + Álex Balboa (born 2001), football midfielder + +Entertainment + Balboa (dance), a close embrace style of swing dancing + Balboa (band), a hardcore band from Philadelphia + Balboa County, a fictional county setting for the Veronica Mars television series + Rocky Balboa, protagonist of the Rocky film series + Balboa, the merged tribe name in Survivor: Pearl Islands + Balboa, a probe featured in Alien Planet + +Other uses + Balboa (bug), a genus of dirt-colored seed bugs + Balboa Line, a former train route in California, U.S. + Panamanian balboa, the official currency of Panama + +See also + Rocky Balboa (disambiguation) +Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to poor people, today, Boxing Day forms part of Christmas celebrations, with many people choosing to take advantage of Boxing Day sales. It originated in Great Britain and is celebrated in several countries that previously formed part of the British Empire. The attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place on 28 December if necessary to ensure it falls on a weekday. Boxing Day is also concurrent with the Christian festival Saint Stephen's Day. + +In parts of Europe, such as several regions of Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, and Ireland, 26 December is Saint Stephen's Day, which is considered the second day of Christmas. + +Etymology + +There are competing theories for the origins of the term, none of which is definitive. + +The European tradition of giving money and other gifts to those in need, or in service positions, has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown; it may reference the alms box placed in the narthex of Christian churches to collect donations for the poor. The tradition may come from a custom in the late Roman/early Christian era wherein alms boxes placed in churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen, which, in the Western Christian Churches, falls on the same day as Boxing Day, the second day of Christmastide. On this day, it is customary in some localities for the alms boxes to be opened and distributed to the poor. + +The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestation from Britain in 1743, defining it as "the day after Christmas day", and saying "traditionally on this day tradespeople, employees, etc., would receive presents or gratuities (a "Christmas box") from their customers or employers." + +The term "Christmas box" dates back to the 17th century, and among other things meant: + +A present or gratuity given at Christmas: in Great Britain, usually confined to gratuities given to those who are supposed to have a vague claim upon the donor for services rendered to him as one of the general public by whom they are employed and paid, or as a customer of their legal employer; the undefined theory being that as they have done offices for this person, for which he has not directly paid them, some direct acknowledgement is becoming at Christmas. + +In Britain, it was a custom for tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This is mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary entry for 19 December 1663. This custom is linked to an older British tradition where the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families since they would have had to serve their masters on Christmas Day. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses, and sometimes leftover food. Until the late 20th century, there continued to be a tradition among many in the UK to give a Christmas gift, usually cash, to vendors, although not on Boxing Day, as many would not work on that day. + +In South Africa, vendors who normally have little interaction with those they serve are accustomed to knocking on the customers' doors to ask for a "Christmas box", being a small cash donation, in the weeks before or after Christmas. This practice has become controversial, and some municipalities ban staff from asking for Christmas boxes. + +Date + +Saint Stephen's Day, a religious holiday, also falls on 26th December. + +In the UK, Boxing Day could not fall on a Sunday the 26th of December. Instead, Boxing Day would be celebrated on the Monday 27th of December and Sunday 26th of December would be called Christmas Sunday. This rule was independent of the rule of bank holidays being taken in lieu. The rule of no Boxing Day on a Sunday appeared to change (quietly) around the time that the Sunday Trading Act 1994 was enacted, the last Boxing Day to land on the 27th of December was in 1993. + +Unlike the contemporary understanding of Boxing Day itself, the bank holiday or public holiday associated with the observance always falls on a weekday. Where 25 December falls on a Saturday and 26 December falls on a Sunday, the Christmas Day substitute holiday always takes place on Monday 27 December, while the Boxing Day substitute holiday always takes place on Tuesday 28 December. When Christmas Day is a Sunday, the Boxing Day holiday is still on the 26th, while Tuesday 27 December is the substitute holiday for Christmas Day. + +Status by country + +In Australia, Boxing Day is a public holiday in all jurisdictions except the state of South Australia, where a public holiday known as Proclamation Day is celebrated on the first weekday after Christmas Day or the Christmas Day holiday. Both the Boxing Day Test cricket match held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race begin on Boxing Day. + +In Canada, Boxing Day () is a federal statutory holiday. Government offices, banks, and postal services are closed. In Ontario, and other Canadian provinces, it is a provincial statutory holiday. + +In Hong Kong, despite the transfer of sovereignty from the UK to China in 1997, Boxing Day is a general holiday as the first weekday after Christmas. + +In Ireland, when the entire island was part of the United Kingdom, the Bank Holidays Act 1871 established the feast day of Saint Stephen as a non-moveable public holiday on 26 December. Following partition in 1920, Northern Ireland reverted to the British name, Boxing Day. In County Donegal, particularly in East Donegal and Inishowen, the day is also popularly known as Boxing Day. + +In New Zealand, Boxing Day is a statutory holiday. On these holidays, people who must work receive times their salaries, and a day in lieu is provided to employees who work. + +In Nigeria, Boxing Day is a public holiday for working people and students. When it falls on a Saturday or Sunday, there is always a holiday on Monday. + +In Scotland, Boxing Day has been specified as an additional bank holiday since 1974, by royal proclamation under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. + +In Singapore, Boxing Day was a public holiday for working people and students; when it fell on a Saturday or Sunday, there was a holiday on Monday. However, Boxing Day is no longer a public holiday. + +In South Africa, 26 December is the Day of Goodwill, a public holiday. + +In Trinidad and Tobago, Boxing Day is a public holiday. + +In the UK outside Scotland, 26 December (unless it is a Sunday) has been a bank holiday since 1871. When 26 December falls on a Saturday, the associated public holiday is on the following Monday. When 26 December falls on a Sunday, the public holiday is the following Tuesday, Monday being the public holiday associated with Christmas Day. The same practice is observed in Canada. + +In the British overseas territory of Bermuda, the costumed Gombey dancers perform throughout the mid-Atlantic island on Boxing Day, a tradition believed to date back to the 18th century when slaves were permitted to gather at Christmastime. + +In Massachusetts, US, Governor William F. Weld declared in 1996 that every 26 December is Boxing Day, in response to the efforts of a coalition of British citizens to "transport the English tradition to the United States", but not an employee holiday. + +Shopping + +In the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Trinidad and Tobago, Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. Boxing Day sales are common and shops often allow dramatic price reductions. For many merchants, Boxing Day has become the day of the year with the greatest revenue. In the UK, it was estimated in 2009 that up to 12 million shoppers appeared at the sales (a rise of almost 20% compared to 2008, although this was also affected by the fact that the VAT was about to revert to 17.5% from 1 January, following the temporary reduction to 15%). + +Many retailers open very early (typically 5 am or even earlier) and offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores. It is not uncommon for long queues to form early in the morning of 26 December, hours before the opening of shops holding the big sales, especially at big-box consumer electronics retailers. Many stores have a limited quantity of big draw or deeply discounted items. Because of the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, many choose to stay at home and avoid the hectic shopping experience. Local media often covers the event, mentioning how early the shoppers began queuing up and showing videos of shoppers queuing and later leaving with their purchased items. Many retailers have implemented practices aimed at managing large numbers of shoppers. They may limit entrances, restrict the number of patrons in a store at a time, provide tickets to people at the head of the queue to guarantee them a hot ticket item, or canvass queued-up shoppers to inform them of inventory limitations. + +In some areas of Canada, particularly in Atlantic Canada and parts of Northern Ontario, most retailers are prohibited from opening on Boxing Day, either by provincial law or by municipal bylaw, or by informal agreement among major retailers, to provide a day of relaxation following Christmas Day. In these areas, sales otherwise scheduled for 26 December are moved to the 27th. The city council of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, which was the largest city in Canada to maintain this restriction as of the early 2010s, formally repealed its store hours bylaw on 9 December 2014. + +While Boxing Day is 26 December, many retailers run the sales for several days before or after 26 December, often up to New Year's Eve, branding it as "Boxing Week". Notably, in the recession of late 2008, a record number of retailers held early promotions due to a weak economy. In 2009, many retailers with both online and High Street stores launched their online sales on Christmas Eve and their High Street sales on Boxing Day. + +Comparisons to Black Friday + +In terms of seasonal or holiday shopping traditions, Boxing Day sales have been compared to the U.S. phenomenon of Black Friday sales Black Friday being the Friday following the American Thanksgiving holiday in late November. In the late 2000s, when the Canadian and United States dollars were near parity, Canadian retailers began to hold Black Friday promotions to attract consumers who would otherwise travel across the border to visit United States stores. This may have been a contributory factor, since 2013, in a relative decline of traditional Canadian Boxing Day sales, when compared to sales on Black Friday. + +The traditional Boxing Day sales in the United Kingdom were never as large an event as the Black Friday sales are in the United States. However, many British retailers began to see an opportunity to import the Black Friday tradition into the UK, not to replace Boxing Day sales, but as an addition to their overall seasonal promotions. However, Black Friday and Boxing Day are close enough together that spending on one sale was likely to affect spending on the other. Ultimately, the result was a marked decline in traditional Boxing Day sales in the UK. The change was initially facilitated, although not necessarily by design, by the fact that many retailers had American ownership, such as Amazon. This phenomenon was furthered by a general decline in traditional high-street shopping, and a growing online marketplace, which is more internationalist by nature. This led, in 2015, to November retail sales in the UK overtaking sales in December for the first time. In 2019, a retail analysis firm estimated that there was a 9.8% drop in British store traffic on Boxing Day in comparison to 2018 (the largest year-over-year drop since 2010), citing several factors, such as the weather, the increased prominence of online shopping, uncertainties in the wake of the general election, and the growing prominence of Black Friday sales. + +Boxing Day sales are not a prominent tradition in the United States, although many retailers often begin after-Christmas sales that day. It is typically the earliest starting day after Christmas for people to return unwanted gifts for exchanges or refunds, and to redeem gift cards. + +Sport + +In the United Kingdom, it is traditional for all top-tier football leagues in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland – the Premier League, the Scottish Premiership, and the NIFL Premiership – and the lower ones, as well as the rugby leagues, to hold a full programme of football matches on Boxing Day. Originally, matches on Boxing Day were played against local rivals to avoid teams and their fans having to travel a long distance to an away game on the day after Christmas Day. Before the formation of leagues, several traditional rugby union fixtures took place on Boxing Day each year, notably Llanelli v London Welsh and Leicester v The Barbarians. The 2022 Premier League Boxing Day fixtures saw the return of domestic top flight football for the 2022–23 Premier League season, following the six-week break for to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. + +In Italy, Boxing Day football was played for the first time in the 2018–19 Serie A season. The experiment was successful, with Italian stadiums 69% full on average – more than any other match day in December 2018. + +In rugby league, festive fixtures were a staple of the traditional winter season. Since the transition to a summer season in the 1990s, no formal fixtures are now arranged on Boxing Day but some clubs, such as Wakefield Trinity, arrange a traditional local derby friendly fixture instead. + +Since 1980, the Australian cricket team has traditionally opened an annual test match on Boxing Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. While several test matches had occasionally been held at the MCG around Boxing Day, it wasn't until 1980 that the concept was formalized by the Australian Cricket Board. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is also traditionally held on Boxing Day. + +In horse racing, there is the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park Racecourse in Surrey, England. It is the second most prestigious chase in Britain, after the Cheltenham Gold Cup. In addition to the prestigious race at Kempton, in Britain, it is usually the day with the highest number of racing meetings of the year, with eight in 2016, in addition to three more in Ireland. In Barbados, the final day of horse racing is held on Boxing Day at The Historic Garrison Savannah, a UNESCO world heritage site. This tradition has been going on for decades in this former British colony. + +Boxing Day is one of the main days in the hunting calendar for hunts in the UK and US, with most hunts (both mounted foxhound or harrier packs and foot packs of beagles or bassets) holding meets, often in town or village centres. + +Several ice hockey contests are associated with the day. The IIHF World Junior Championship typically begins on 26 December, while the Spengler Cup also begins on 23 December in Davos, Switzerland; the Spengler Cup competition includes HC Davos, Team Canada, and other top European Hockey teams. The National Hockey League traditionally had close to a full slate of games (10 were played in 2011), following the league-wide days off given for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. However, the 2013 collective bargaining agreement (which followed a lock-out) extended the league mandate of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off to include Boxing Day, except when it falls on a Saturday, in which case the league can choose to make 23 December a league-wide off day instead for that year. + +In some African Commonwealth nations, particularly Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania, professional boxing contests are held on Boxing Day. This practice has also been followed for decades in Guyana and Italy. + +A notable tradition in Sweden is , which formerly marked the start of the bandy season and always draws large crowds. Games traditionally begin at 1:15 pm. + +Boxing Day Tsunami + +The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami occurred the day after Christmas, and therefore has been referred to as "the Boxing Day Tsunami". + +See also + +References + +External links + + The Origins of Boxing Day at Snopes + + +Christmastide +Christmas events and celebrations +December observances +Public holidays in Australia +Public holidays in Canada +Public holidays in New Zealand +Public holidays in the United Kingdom +Public holidays in Denmark +Public holidays in Sweden +Public holidays in Norway +Public holidays in Iceland +Public holidays in the Netherlands +Balochistan (; ; , ) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-east, Punjab to the east and Sindh to the south-east; shares international borders with Iran to the west and Afghanistan to the north; and is bound by the Arabian Sea to the south. Balochistan is an extensive plateau of rough terrain divided into basins by ranges of sufficient heights and ruggedness. It has the world's largest deep sea port, the Port of Gwadar lying in the Arabian Sea. + +Although it makes up about 44% of the land area of Pakistan, only 5% of it is arable and it is noted for an extremely dry desert climate. Despite this, agriculture and livestock make up about 47% of Balochistan's economy. + +The name "Balochistan" means "the land of the Baloch". Largely underdeveloped, its economy is also dominated by natural resources, especially its natural gas fields. Aside from Quetta, the second-largest city of the province is Turbat in the south, while another area of major economic importance is the port city of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, an emerging future business hub. + +History + +Early history + +Balochistan occupies the very southeasternmost portion of the Iranian Plateau, the setting for the earliest known farming settlements in the pre-Indus Valley civilisation era, the earliest of which was Mehrgarh, dated at 7000 BCE, within the province. Balochistan marked the westernmost extent of civilisation. Centuries before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century, parts of Balochistan were ruled by the Paratarajas, an Indo-Scythian dynasty. At certain times, the Kushans also held political sway in parts of Balochistan. + +The Hindu Sewa Dynasty ruled parts of Balochistan, chiefly Kalat. The Sibi Division, which was carved out of Quetta Division and Kalat Division in 1974, derives its name from Rani Sewi, the queen of the Sewa dynasty. + +The remnants of the earliest people in Balochistan were the Brahui people, a Dravidian speaking people. The Brahuis retained the Dravidian language throughout the millennias. + +Although during the Stone and Bronze Age and Alexander the Great's empire an indigenous population existed, the Baloch people themselves did not enter the region until the 14th century CE. A theory of the origin of the Baloch people, the largest ethnic group in the region, is that they are of Median descent. + +Arrival of Islam +In 654, Abdulrehman ibn Samrah, governor of Sistan and the newly emerged Rashidun caliphate at the expense of Sassanid Persia and the Byzantine Empire, sent an Islamic army to crush a revolt in Zaranj, which is now in southern Afghanistan. After conquering Zaranj, a column of the army pushed north, conquering Kabul and Ghazni, in the Hindu Kush mountain range, while another column moved through Quetta District in north-western Balochistan and conquered the area up to the ancient cities of Dawar and Qandabil (Bolan). It is documented that the major settlements, falling within today's province, became in 654 controlled by the Rashidun caliphate, except for the well-defended mountain town of QaiQan which is now Kalat. + +During the caliphate of Ali, a revolt broke out in southern Balochistan's Makran region. In 663, during the reign of Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I, his Muslim rule lost control of north-eastern Balochistan and Kalat when Haris ibn Marah and a large part of his army died in battle against a revolt in Kalat. + +Pre-modern era +In the 15th century, Mir Chakar Khan Rind became the first Sirdar of Afghan, Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan. He was a close aide of the Timurid ruler Humayun, and was succeeded by the Khanate of Kalat, which owed allegiance to the Mughal Empire. Later, Nader Shah won the allegiance of the rulers of eastern Balochistan. He ceded Kalhora, one of the Sindh territories of Sibi-Kachi, to the Khanate of Kalat. Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Afghan Empire, also won the allegiance of that area's rulers, and many Baloch fought under him during the Third Battle of Panipat. Most of the area would eventually revert to local Baloch control after Afghan rule. + +Colonial era + +In 1876, northern Baluchistan became one of the Presidencies and provinces of British India in colonial India. During this time from the fall of the Durrani Empire in 1823, four princely states were recognised and reinforced in Balochistan: Makran, Kharan, Las Bela and Kalat. In 1876, Robert Sandeman negotiated the Treaty of Kalat, which brought the Khan's territories, including Kharan, Makran, and Las Bela, under British protection, even though they remained independent princely states. After the Second Afghan War was ended by the Treaty of Gandamak in May 1879, the Afghan Emir ceded the districts of Quetta, Pishin, Harnai, Sibi and Thal Chotiali to British control. On 1 April 1883, the British took control of the Bolan Pass, south-east of Quetta, from the Khan of Kalat. In 1887, small additional areas of Balochistan were declared British territory. In 1893, Sir Mortimer Durand negotiated an agreement with the Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan, to fix the Durand Line running from Chitral to Balochistan as the boundary between the Emirate of Afghanistan and British-controlled areas. Two devastating earthquakes occurred in Balochistan during British colonial rule: the 1935 Quetta earthquake, which devastated Quetta, and the 1945 Balochistan earthquake with its epicentre in the Makran region. During the time of the Indian independence movement, "three pro-Congress parties were still active in Balochistan's politics apart from Balochistan's Muslim League", such as the Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan, which favoured a united India and opposed its partition. + +After independence + +In British-ruled Colonial India, Baluchistan contained a Chief Commissioner's province and princely states (including Kalat, Makran, Las Bela and Kharan) that became a part of Pakistan. The province's Shahi Jirga (the grand council of tribal elders) and the non-official members of the Quetta Municipality, according to the Pakistani narrative, agreed to join Pakistan unanimously on 29 June 1947; however, the Shahi Jirga was stripped of its members from the Kalat State prior to the vote. The then-president of the Baluchistan Muslim League, Qazi Muhammad Isa, informed Muhammad Ali Jinnah that "Shahi Jirga in no way represents the popular wishes of the masses" and that members of the Kalat State were "excluded from voting; only representatives from the British part of the province voted and the British part included the leased areas of Quetta, Nasirabad Tehsil, Nushki and Bolan Agency." Following the referendum, on 22 June 1947 the Khan of Kalat received a letter from members of the Shahi Jirga, as well as sardars from the leased areas of Baluchistan, stating that they, "as a part of the Baloch nation, were a part of the Kalat state too" and that if the question of Baluchistan's accession to Pakistan arise, "they should be deemed part of the Kalat state rather than (British) Balochistan". This has brought into question whether an actual vote took place. Political scientist Salman Rafi Sheikh, in locating the origins of the insurgency in Balochistan, says "that Balochistan's accession to Pakistan was, as against the officially projected narrative, not based upon consensus, nor was support for Pakistan overwhelming. What this manipulation indicates is that even before formally becoming a part of Pakistan, Balochistan had fallen a prey to political victimization." + +Initially aspiring for independence, the Khan of Kalat finally acceded to Pakistan on 27 March 1948 after period of negotiations with Pakistan. The signing of the Instrument of Accession by Ahmad Yar Khan led his brother, Prince Abdul Karim, to revolt against his brother's decision due to their family rift. in July 1948. Princes Agha Abdul Karim Baloch and Muhammad Rahim refused to lay down arms, leading the Dosht-e Jhalawan in unconventional attacks on the army until 1950. The Prince indulged in Terror activities without any assistance from others. Jinnah and his successors allowed Yar Khan to retain his title until the province's dissolution in 1955. + +Insurgencies by Baloch nationalists took place in 1948, 1958–59, 1962–63 and 1973–77, with a new ongoing insurgency by autonomy-seeking Baloch groups since 2003. While many Baloch support the demand for autonomy, the majority are not interested in seceding from Pakistan. + +At a press conference on 8 June 2015 in Quetta, Balochistan's Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti accused India's prime minister Narendra Modi of openly supporting terrorism. Bugti implicated India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of being responsible for recent attacks at military bases in Smangli and Khalid, and for subverting the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement. + +Gwadar, a region of Balochistan was a Colony of Oman for more than a century and in the 1960s, Pakistan took over the land. Many people in this region are therefore Omani. + +Geography + +Balochistan is situated in the southwest of Pakistan and covers an area of . It is Pakistan's largest province by area, constituting 44% of Pakistan's total landmass. The province is bordered by Afghanistan to the north and north-west, Iran to the south-west, Punjab and Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to the north-east. To the south lies the Arabian Sea. Balochistan is located on the south-eastern part of the Iranian plateau. It borders the geopolitical regions of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, Central Asia and South Asia. Balochistan lies at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz and provides the shortest route from seaports to Central Asia. Its geographical location has placed the otherwise desolate region in the scope of competing for global interests for all of recorded history. + +The capital city Quetta is located in a densely populated portion of the Sulaiman Mountains in the northeast of the province. It is situated in a river valley near the Bolan Pass, which has been used as the route of choice from the coast to Central Asia, entering through Afghanistan's Kandahar region. The British and other historic empires have crossed the region to invade Afghanistan by this route. + +Balochistan is rich in exhaustible and renewable resources; it is the second major supplier of natural gas in Pakistan. The province's renewable and human resource potential has not been systematically measured or exploited. Local inhabitants have chosen to live in towns and have relied on sustainable water sources for thousands of years. + +Climate +The climate of the upper highlands is characterised by very cold winters and hot summers. In the lower highlands, winters vary from extremely cold in northern districts Ziarat, Quetta, Kalat, Muslim Baagh and Khanozai, where temperatures can drop to , to milder conditions closer to the Makran coast. Winters are mild on the plains, with temperatures never falling below freezing point. Summers are hot and dry, especially in the arid zones of Chagai and Kharan districts. The plains are also very hot in summer, with temperatures reaching . The record highest temperature, , was recorded in Sibi on 26 May 2010, exceeding the previous record, . Other hot areas include Turbat and Dalbandin. The desert climate is characterised by hot and very arid conditions. Occasionally, strong windstorms make these areas very inhospitable. + +Government and politics + +In common with the other provinces of Pakistan, Balochistan has a parliamentary form of government. The ceremonial head of the province is the Governor, who is appointed by the President of Pakistan on the advice of the provincial Chief Minister. The Chief Minister, the province's chief executive, is normally the leader of the largest political party or alliance of parties in the provincial assembly. + +The unicameral Provincial Assembly of Balochistan comprises 65 seats of which 11 are reserved for women and 3 reserved for non-Muslims. The judicial branch of government is carried out by the Balochistan High Court, which is based in Quetta and headed by a Chief Justice. + +Besides dominant Pakistan-wide political parties (such as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party), Balochistan nationalist parties (such as the National Party and the Balochistan National Party (Mengal)) have been prominent in the province. + +Administrative divisions + +For administrative purposes, the province is divided into seven divisions: Kalat, Makran, Nasirabad, Quetta, Sibi, Zhob and Rakhshan. This divisional level was abolished in 2000, but restored after the 2008 election. Each division is under an appointed commissioner. The seven divisions are further subdivided into 36 districts: + +As of June 2021, there are eight divisions. The eighth division, Loralai Division was created by bifurcating Zhob Division. + +Demographics + +Balochistan's population density is low due to the mountainous terrain and scarcity of water. In March 2012, preliminary census figures showed that the population of Balochistan, not including the districts of Khuzdar, Kech and Panjgur, had reached 13,162,222, an increase of 139.3% from 5,501,164 in 1998. The population constituted 6.85% of Pakistan's total population. This was the largest increase in population in any province of Pakistan during that time period, almost thrice the national increase of 46.9%. Official estimates of Balochistan's population grew from approximately 7.45 million in 2003 to 7.8 million in 2005. The 2017 Census enumerated a population of 12,344,408. + +Languages and ethnicities + +According to the preliminary results of the 2017 census, the languages with the most native speakers in the province are Balochi, spoken by 35.49% of the population, and Pashto, whose share at 35.34% is a marked increase on the 1998 census, when it stood at 29.6%. The Pasthuns mainly inhabit the north of Balochistan and form the majority in Quetta. Baloch on the other hand are found throughout Balochistan, but most highly concentrated in the west and south of the province. Brahui is spoken by 17.12% mainly in the central part of Balochistan. Other languages include Sindhi (%), Saraiki (%), Punjabi (%), and Urdu (%). + +Balochi forms the majority in 21 districts and Pashto forms majority in 9 districts of Balochistan. Brahui has majority in 4 districts. In the Lasbela, Hub districts and in Kachhi plain region a large minority of the population speaks Lasi and Siraiki, which are dialects of Sindhi. + +According to the Ethnologue, households speaking Balochi, whose primary dialect is Makrani constitutes 13%, Rukhshani 10%, Sulemani 7%, and Khetrani 3% of the population. Other languages spoken are Lasi, Urdu, Punjabi, Hazargi, Sindhi, Saraiki, Dehvari, Dari, Tajik, Hindko, Uzbek, and Hindki. + +The 2005 census concerning Afghans in Pakistan showed that a total of 769,268 Afghan refugees were temporarily staying in Balochistan. However, there are probably fewer Afghans living in Balochistan today as many refugees repatriated in 2013. As of 2015, there are only 327,778 registered Afghan refugees according to the UNHCR. + +Religion + +According to the 2017 Census, nearly all of the population of Balochistan were Muslims. There were also Hindu and Christian minorities in the province. The Hindu population in the province was approximately 49,133 (including the Scheduled Castes). The Shri Hinglaj Mata mandir which is the largest Hindu pilgrimage centre in Pakistan is situated in Balochistan. There was also a Christian minority of 26,462 individuals in the province. + +Education + +The literacy rate of the province in 2017 was 43.6%, an increase from 24.8% in 1998. + +Medical colleges + + Bolan University of Medical & Health Sciences + Makran Medical College, Turbat + +Engineering universities + + Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology, Khuzdar + Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Quetta + +General universities + + University of Balochistan, Quetta + Al-Hamd Islamic University, Quetta + Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University, Quetta + Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Lasbela + University of Turbat, Turbat + University of Loralai, Loralai + University of Gwadar, Gwadar + +Economy + +The economy of Balochistan is largely based upon agriculture, livestock, fisheries, production of natural gas, coal and other minerals. + +Though agriculture and livestock play a dominant role in the provincial economy by contributing 47% of its GDP, it faced intense damages due to the 2022 Pakistan floods. The floods killed around 500,000 of Balochistan's livestock and damaged cultivation and agricultural output in 32 out of 35 districts of the province. The Lasbela district was the worst hit as the floods washed away fourt-fifth's of the homes, crops and livestock. Due to the floods and severe drought conditions, the province faces food insecurity and is 85% dependent on the Sindh and Punjab provinces for the supply of wheat. + +Furthermore, with the exception of Quetta, Balochistan has been called a "neglected province where a majority of population lacks amenities". Although the province is rich in natural resources capable of uplifting its economy, most of them have not been fully utilised for the welfare of the population and are yet to be explored or developed. + +Since the mid-1970s the province's contribution to Pakistan's GDP has dropped from 4.9 to 3.7%, and as of 2007 it had the highest poverty rate and infant and maternal mortality rate, and the lowest literacy rate in comparison to other provinces, factors some allege have contributed to the insurgency. However, in seventh NFC awards, Punjab province and Federal contributed to increase Baluchistan share more than its entitled population based share. In Balochistan poverty is increasing. In 2001–2002 poverty incidences were at 48% and by 2005–2006 these were at 50.9%. According to a report on Dawn, the rate of multidimensional poverty in Balochistan had risen to 71% by 2016. + +Several major development projects, including the construction of a new deep sea port at the strategically important town of Gwadar, are in progress in Balochistan. The port is projected to be the hub of an energy and trade corridor to and from China, Middle East and the Central Asian republics. The Mirani Dam on the Dasht River, west of Turbat in the Makran Division, is being built to provide water to expand agricultural land use by where it would otherwise be unsustainable. In the district Lasbela, there is an oil refinery owned by Byco International Incorporated (BII), which is capable of processing 120,000 barrels of oil per day. A power station is located adjacent to the refinery. Several cement plants and a marble factory are also located there. One of the world's largest ship breaking yards is located on the coast. + +Natural resource extraction +Balochistan's share of Pakistan's national income has historically ranged between 3.7% to 4.9%. Since 1972, Balochistan's gross income has grown in size by 2.7 times. Outside Quetta, the resource extraction infrastructure of the province is gradually developing but still lags far behind other parts of Pakistan. + +The agreements for royalty rights and ownership of mineral rights were reached during a period of unprecedented natural disasters, economic, social, political, and cultural unrest in Pakistan. The negotiations were widely considered to be insufficiently transparent. + +Culture + +Tourism + +Places of interest +Following is a list of a few tourist attractions and places of interest in Balochistan: + + Astola Island + Bolan Pass + Dureji + Gadani Beach + Gadani Ship Breaking Yard + Gwadar + Hanna Lake + Hazarganji-Chiltan National Park, near Quetta. + Hinglaj Mata Temples + Hingol National Park + Hub Dam + Jiwani Coastal Wetland + Khuzdar + Kund Malir + Makran Coastal Highway + Mehrgarh + Moola Chotok + Pir Ghaib Waterfall, Balochistan + Quaid-e-Azam Residency + Quetta + The princess of hope, Balochistan + Urak Valley + Zhob + Ziarat Juniper Forest + Ziarat + +Villages + + +Kappar +Lahor + +See also + + Balochistan (geographic region) + Balochistan, Afghanistan + Balochistan, Iran + Goth Gorshani + List of cities in Balochistan, Pakistan by population + List of cultural heritage sites in Balochistan, Pakistan + Insurgency in Balochistan + Randghar China + +References + +Further reading + +Philippe Fabry, Balouchistan, le désert insoumis, Paris, Nathan Image, 1991, 136 p., + +External links + + + Sibi District; + Guide to Balochistan + Balochistan Archives—Preserving our Past + + + +1970 establishments in Pakistan +Provinces of Pakistan +States and territories established in 1970 +William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as William "Marcy" Tweed (see below), and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party's political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York City and state. + +At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railroad, a director of the Tenth National Bank, a director of the New-York Printing Company, the proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel, a significant stockholder in iron mines and gas companies, a board member of the Harlem Gas Light Company, a board member of the Third Avenue Railway Company, a board member of the Brooklyn Bridge Company, and the president of the Guardian Savings Bank. + +Tweed was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1852 and the New York County Board of Supervisors in 1858, the year that he became the head of the Tammany Hall political machine. He was also elected to the New York State Senate in 1867. However, Tweed's greatest influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards and commissions, his control over political patronage in New York City through Tammany, and his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects. + +Tweed was convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York City taxpayers from political corruption, but later estimates ranged as high as $200 million. Unable to make bail, he escaped from jail once but was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail. + +Early life and education +Tweed was born April 3, 1823, at 1 Cherry Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The son of a third-generation Scottish chair-maker, Tweed grew up on Cherry Street. His grandfather arrived in the United States from a town near the River Tweed close to Edinburgh. Tweed's religious affiliation was not widely known in his lifetime, but at the time of his funeral The New York Times, quoting a family friend, reported that his parents had been Quakers and "members of the old Rose Street Meeting house". At the age of 11, he left school to learn his father's trade, and then became an apprentice to a saddler. He also studied to be a bookkeeper and worked as a brushmaker for a company he had invested in, before eventually joining in the family business in 1852. On September 29, 1844, he married Mary Jane C. Skaden and lived with her family on Madison Street for two years. + +Early career + +Tweed became a member of the Odd Fellows and the Masons, and joined a volunteer fire company, Engine No. 12. In 1848, at the invitation of state assemblyman John J. Reilly, he and some friends organized the Americus Fire Company No. 6, also known as the "Big Six", as a volunteer fire company, which took as its symbol a snarling red Bengal tiger from a French lithograph, a symbol which remained associated with Tweed and Tammany Hall for many years. At the time, volunteer fire companies competed vigorously with each other; some were connected with street gangs and had strong ethnic ties to various immigrant communities. The competition could become so fierce, that burning buildings would sometimes be ignored as the fire companies fought each other. Tweed became known for his ax-wielding violence, and was soon elected the Big Six foreman. Pressure from Alfred Carlson, the chief engineer, got him thrown out of the crew. However, fire companies were also recruiting grounds for political parties at the time, thus Tweed's exploits came to the attention of the Democratic politicians who ran the Seventh Ward. The Seventh Ward put him up for Alderman in 1850, when Tweed was 26. He lost that election to the Whig candidate Morgan Morgans, but ran again the next year and won, garnering his first political position. Tweed then became associated with the "Forty Thieves", the group of aldermen and assistant aldermen who, up to that point, were known as some of the most corrupt politicians in the city's history. + +Tweed was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1852, but his two-year term was undistinguished. In an attempt by Republican reformers in Albany, the state capital, to control the Democratic-dominated New York City government, the power of the New York County Board of Supervisors was beefed up. The board had 12 members, six appointed by the mayor and six elected, and in 1858 Tweed was appointed to the board, which became his first vehicle for large-scale graft; Tweed and other supervisors forced vendors to pay a 15% overcharge to their "ring" in order to do business with the city. By 1853, Tweed was running the seventh ward for Tammany. The board also had six Democrats and six Republicans, but Tweed often just bought off one Republican to sway the board. One such Republican board member was Peter P. Voorhis, a coal dealer by profession who absented himself from a board meeting in exchange for $2,500 so that the board could appoint city inspectors. Henry Smith was another Republican that was a part of the Tweed ring. + +Although he was not trained as a lawyer, Tweed's friend, Judge George G. Barnard, certified him as an attorney, and Tweed opened a law office on Duane Street. He ran for sheriff in 1861 and was defeated, but became the chairman of the Democratic General Committee shortly after the election, and was then chosen to be the head of Tammany's general committee in January 1863. Several months later, in April, he became "Grand Sachem", and began to be referred to as "Boss", especially after he tightened his hold on power by creating a small executive committee to run the club. Tweed then took steps to increase his income: he used his law firm to extort money, which was then disguised as legal services; he had himself appointed deputy street commissioner – a position with considerable access to city contractors and funding; he bought the New-York Printing Company, which became the city's official printer, and the city's stationery supplier, the Manufacturing Stationers' Company, and had both companies begin to overcharge the city government for their goods and services. Among other legal services he provided, he accepted almost $100,000 from the Erie Railroad in return for favors. He also became one of the largest owners of real estate in the city. He also started to form what became known as the "Tweed Ring", by having his friends elected to office: George G. Barnard was elected Recorder of New York City; Peter B. Sweeny was elected New York County District Attorney; and Richard B. Connolly was elected City Comptroller. Other judicial members of the Tweed ring included Albert Cardozo, John McCunn, and John K. Hackett. + +When Grand Sachem Isaac Fowler, who had produced the $2,500 to buy off the Republican Voorhis on the Board of Supervisors, was found to have stolen $150,000 in post office receipts, the responsibility for Fowler's arrest was given to Isaiah Rynders, another Tammany operative who was serving as a United States marshal at the time. Rynders made enough ruckus upon entering the hotel where Fowler was staying that Fowler was able to escape to Mexico. + +With his new position and wealth came a change in style: Tweed began to favor wearing a large diamond in his shirtfront – a habit that Thomas Nast used to great effect in his attacks on Tweed in Harper's Weekly beginning in 1869 – and he bought a brownstone to live in at 41 West 36th Street, then a very fashionable area. He invested his now considerable illegal income in real estate, so that by the late 1860s he ranked among the biggest landowners in New York City. + +Tweed became involved in the operation of the New York Mutuals, an early professional baseball club, in the 1860s. He brought in thousands of dollars per home game by dramatically increasing the cost of admission and gambling on the team. He has been credited with originating the practice of spring training in 1869 by sending the club south to New Orleans to prepare for the season. + +Tweed was a member of the New York State Senate (4th D.) from 1868 to 1873, sitting in the 91st, 92nd, 93rd, and 94th New York State Legislatures, but not taking his seat in the 95th and 96th New York State Legislatures. While serving in the State Senate, he split his time between Albany, New York and New York City. While in Albany, he stayed in a suite of seven rooms in Delevan House. Accompanying him in his rooms were his favorite canaries. Guests are presumed to have included members of the Black Horse Cavalry, thirty state legislators whose votes were up for sale. In the Senate he helped financiers Jay Gould and Big Jim Fisk to take control of the Erie Railroad from Cornelius Vanderbilt by arranging for legislation that legitimized fake Erie stock certificates that Gould and Fisk had issued. In return, Tweed received a large block of stock and was made a director of the company. + +Corruption +After the election of 1869, Tweed took control of the New York City government. His protégé, John T. Hoffman, the former mayor of the city, won election as governor, and Tweed garnered the support of good-government reformers like Peter Cooper and the Union League Club, by proposing a new city charter which returned power to City Hall at the expense of the Republican-inspired state commissions. The new charter passed, thanks in part to $600,000 in bribes Tweed paid to Republicans, and was signed into law by Hoffman in 1870. Mandated new elections allowed Tammany to take over the city's Common Council when they won all fifteen aldermanic contests. + +The new charter put control of the city's finances in the hands of a Board of Audit, which consisted of Tweed, who was Commissioner of Public Works, Mayor A. Oakey Hall and Comptroller Richard "Slippery Dick" Connolly, both Tammany men. Hall also appointed other Tweed associates to high offices – such as Peter B. Sweeny, who took over the Department of Public Parks – providing what became known as the Tweed Ring with even firmer control of the New York City government and enabling them to defraud the taxpayers of many more millions of dollars. In the words of Albert Bigelow Paine, "their methods were curiously simple and primitive. There were no skilful manipulations of figures, making detection difficult ... Connolly, as Controller, had charge of the books, and declined to show them. With his fellows, he also 'controlled' the courts and most of the bar." Crucially, the new city charter allowed the Board of Audit to issue bonds for debt in order to finance opportunistic capital expenditures the city otherwise could not afford. This ability to float debt was enabled by Tweed's guidance and passage of the Adjusted Claims Act in 1868. Contractors working for the city – "Ring favorites, most of them – were told to multiply the amount of each bill by five, or ten, or a hundred, after which, with Mayor Hall's 'O. K.' and Connolly's endorsement, it was paid ... through a go-between, who cashed the check, settled the original bill and divided the remainder ... between Tweed, Sweeny, Connolly and Hall". + +For example, the construction cost of the New York County Courthouse, begun in 1861, grew to nearly $13 million—about $434,730,541 in 2022 dollars, and nearly twice the cost of the Alaska Purchase in 1867. +"A carpenter was paid $360,751 (roughly $4.9 million today) for one month's labor in a building with very little woodwork ... a plasterer got $133,187 ($1.82 million) for two days' work". Tweed bought a marble quarry in Sheffield, Massachusetts, to provide much of the marble for the courthouse at great profit to himself. After the Tweed Charter to reorganize the city's government was passed in 1870, four commissioners for the construction of the New York County Courthouse were appointed. The commission never held a meeting, though each commissioner received a 20% kickback from the bills for the supplies. + +Tweed and his friends also garnered huge profits from the development of the Upper East Side, especially Yorkville and Harlem. They would buy up undeveloped property, then use the resources of the city to improve the area – for instance by installing pipes to bring in water from the Croton Aqueduct – thus increasing the value of the land, after which they sold and took their profits. The focus on the east side also slowed down the development of the west side, the topography of which made it more expensive to improve. The ring also took their usual percentage of padded contracts, as well as raking off money from property taxes. Despite the corruption of Tweed and Tammany Hall, they did accomplish the development of upper Manhattan, though at the cost of tripling the city's bond debt to almost $90 million. + +During the Tweed era, the proposal to build a suspension bridge between New York and Brooklyn, then an independent city, was floated by Brooklyn-boosters, who saw the ferry connections as a bottleneck to Brooklyn's further development. In order to ensure that the Brooklyn Bridge project would go forward, State Senator Henry Cruse Murphy approached Tweed to find out whether New York's aldermen would approve the proposal. Tweed's response was that $60,000 for the aldermen would close the deal, and contractor William C. Kingsley put up the cash, which was delivered in a carpet bag. Tweed and two others from Tammany also received over half the private stock of the Bridge Company, the charter of which specified that only private stockholders had voting rights, so that even though the cities of Brooklyn and Manhattan put up most of the money, they essentially had no control over the project. + +Tweed bought a mansion on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, and stabled his horses, carriages and sleighs on 40th Street. By 1871, he was a member of the board of directors of not only the Erie Railroad and the Brooklyn Bridge Company, but also the Third Avenue Railway Company and the Harlem Gas Light Company. He was president of the Guardian Savings Banks and he and his confederates set up the Tenth National Bank to better control their fortunes. + +Scandal + +Tweed's downfall began in 1871. James Watson, who was a county auditor in Comptroller Dick Connolly's office and who also held and recorded the ring's books, died a week after his head was smashed by a horse in a sleigh accident on January 21, 1871. Although Tweed guarded Watson's estate in the week prior to Watson's death, and although another ring member attempted to destroy Watson's records, a replacement auditor, Matthew O'Rourke, associated with former sheriff James O'Brien, provided city accounts to O'Brien. The Orange riot of 1871 in the summer of that year did not help the ring's popularity. The riot was prompted after Tammany Hall banned a parade of Irish Protestants celebrating a historical victory against Catholicism, namely the Battle of the Boyne. The parade was banned because of a riot the previous year in which eight people died when a crowd of Irish Catholic laborers attacked the paraders. Under strong pressure from the newspapers and the Protestant elite of the city, Tammany reversed course, and the march was allowed to proceed, with protection from city policemen and state militia. The result was an even larger riot in which over 60 people were killed and more than 150 injured. + +Although Tammany's electoral power base was largely centered in the Irish immigrant population, it also needed both the city's general population and elite to acquiesce in its rule, and this was conditional on the machine's ability to control the actions of its people. The July riot showed that this capability was not nearly as strong as had been supposed. + +Tweed had for months been under attack from The New York Times and Thomas Nast, the cartoonist from Harper's Weekly – regarding Nast's cartoons, Tweed reportedly said, "Stop them damned pictures. I don't care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures!" – but their campaign had only limited success in gaining traction. They were able to force an examination of the city's books, but the blue-ribbon commission of six businessmen appointed by Mayor A. Oakey Hall, a Tammany man, which included John Jacob Astor III, banker Moses Taylor and others who benefited from Tammany's actions, found that the books had been "faithfully kept", letting the air out of the effort to dethrone Tweed. + +The response to the Orange riot changed everything, and only days afterwards the Times/Nast campaign began to garner popular support. More important, the Times started to receive inside information from County Sheriff James O'Brien, whose support for Tweed had fluctuated during Tammany's reign. O'Brien had tried to blackmail Tammany by threatening to expose the ring's embezzlement to the press, and when this failed he provided the evidence he had collected to the Times. Shortly afterward, county auditor Matthew J. O'Rourke supplied additional details to the Times, which was reportedly offered $5 million to not publish the evidence. The Times also obtained the accounts of the recently deceased James Watson, who was the Tweed Ring's bookkeeper, and these were published daily, culminating in a special four-page supplement on July 29 headlined "Gigantic Frauds of the Ring Exposed". In August, Tweed began to transfer ownership in his real-estate empire and other investments to his family members. + +The exposé provoked an international crisis of confidence in New York City's finances, and, in particular, in its ability to repay its debts. European investors were heavily positioned in the city's bonds and were already nervous about its management – only the reputations of the underwriters were preventing a run on the city's securities. New York's financial and business community knew that if the city's credit were to collapse, it could potentially bring down every bank in the city with it. + +Thus, the city's elite met at Cooper Union in September to discuss political reform: but for the first time, the conversation included not only the usual reformers, but also Democratic bigwigs such as Samuel J. Tilden, who had been thrust aside by Tammany. The consensus was that the "wisest and best citizens" should take over the governance of the city and attempt to restore investor confidence. The result was the formation of the Executive Committee of Citizens and Taxpayers for Financial Reform of the city (also known as "the Committee of Seventy"), which attacked Tammany by cutting off the city's funding. Property owners refused to pay their municipal taxes, and a judge—Tweed's old friend George Barnard—enjoined the city Comptroller from issuing bonds or spending money. Unpaid workers turned against Tweed, marching to City Hall demanding to be paid. Tweed doled out some funds from his own purse—$50,000—but it was not sufficient to end the crisis, and Tammany began to lose its essential base. + +Shortly thereafter, the Comptroller resigned, appointing Andrew Haswell Green, an associate of Tilden, as his replacement. Green loosened the purse strings again, allowing city departments not under Tammany control to borrow money to operate. Green and Tilden had the city's records closely examined, and discovered money that went directly from city contractors into Tweed's pocket. The following day, they had Tweed arrested. + +Imprisonment, escape, and death + +Tweed was released on $1 million bail, and Tammany set to work to recover its position through the ballot box. Tweed was re-elected to the state senate in November 1871, due to his personal popularity and largesse in his district, but in general Tammany did not do well, and the members of the Tweed Ring began to flee the jurisdiction, many going overseas. Tweed was re-arrested, forced to resign his city positions, and was replaced as Tammany's leader. Once again, he was released on bail—$8 million this time—but Tweed's supporters, such as Jay Gould, felt the repercussions of his fall from power. + +Tweed's first trial before Judge Noah Davis, in January 1873, ended when the jury was unable to deliver a verdict. Tweed's defense counsel included David Dudley Field II and Elihu Root. His retrial, again before Judge Noah Davis in November resulted in convictions on 204 of 220 counts, a fine of $12,750 (the equivalent of $ today) and a prison sentence of 12 years; a higher court, however, reduced Tweed's sentence to one year. After his release from The Tombs prison, New York State filed a civil suit against Tweed, attempting to recover $6 million in embezzled funds. Unable to put up the $3 million bail, Tweed was locked up in the Ludlow Street Jail, although he was allowed home visits. During one of these on December 4, 1875, Tweed escaped and fled to Spain, where he worked as a common seaman on a Spanish ship. The U.S. government discovered his whereabouts and arranged for his arrest once he reached the Spanish border, where he was recognized from Nast's political cartoons. He was turned over to an American warship, the , which delivered him to authorities in New York City on November 23, 1876, and he was returned to prison. + +Desperate and broken, Tweed now agreed to testify about the inner workings of the Tweed Ring to a special committee set up by the Board of Aldermen in return for his release, but after he did so, Tilden, now governor of New York, refused to abide by the agreement, and Tweed remained incarcerated. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail on April 12, 1878, from severe pneumonia, and was buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. Mayor Smith Ely would not allow the flag at City Hall to be flown at half staff. + +Evaluations +According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:It's hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed's system ... The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization. + +A minority view that Tweed was mostly innocent is presented in a scholarly biography by history professor Leo Hershkowitz. He states:Except for Tweed's own very questionable "confession," there really was no evidence of a "Tweed Ring," no direct evidence of Tweed's thievery, no evidence, excepting the testimony of the informer contractors, of "wholesale" plunder by Tweed....[Instead there was] a conspiracy of self-justification of the corruption of the law by the upholders of that law, of a venal irresponsible press and a citizenry delighting in the exorcism of witchery. + +In depictions of Tweed and the Tammany Hall organization, most historians have emphasized the thievery and conspiratorial nature of Boss Tweed, along with lining his own pockets and those of his friends and allies. The theme is that the sins of corruption so violated American standards of political rectitude that they far overshadow Tweed's positive contributions to New York City. + +Although he held numerous important public offices and was one of a handful of senior leaders of Tammany Hall, as well as the state legislature and the state Democratic Party, Tweed was never the sole "boss" of New York City. He shared control of the city with numerous less famous people, such as the villains depicted in Nast's famous circle of guilt cartoon shown above. Seymour J. Mandelbaum has argued that, apart from the corruption he engaged in, Tweed was a modernizer who prefigured certain elements of the Progressive Era in terms of more efficient city management. Much of the money he siphoned off from the city treasury went to needy constituents who appreciated the free food at Christmas time and remembered it at the next election, and to precinct workers who provided the muscle of his machine. As a legislator he worked to expand and strengthen welfare programs, especially those by private charities, schools, and hospitals. With a base in the Irish Catholic community, he opposed efforts of Protestants to require the reading of the King James Bible in public schools, which was done deliberately to keep out Catholics. He facilitated the founding of the New York Public Library, even though one of its founders, Samuel Tilden, was Tweed's sworn enemy in the Democratic Party. + +Tweed recognized that the support of his constituency was necessary for him to remain in power, and as a consequence he used the machinery of the city's government to provide numerous social services, including building more orphanages, almshouses and public baths. Tweed also fought for the New York State Legislature to donate to private charities of all religious denominations, and subsidize Catholic schools and hospitals. From 1869 to 1871, under Tweed's influence, the state of New York spent more on charities than for the entire time period from 1852 to 1868 combined. + +During Tweed's regime, the main business thoroughfare Broadway was widened between 34th Street and 59th Street, land was secured for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Upper East Side and Upper West Side were developed and provided the necessary infrastructure – all to the benefit of the purses of the Tweed Ring. + +Hershkowitz blames the implications of Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly and the editors of The New York Times, which both had ties to the Republican party. In part, the campaign against Tweed diverted public attention from Republican scandals such as the Whiskey Ring. + +Tweed himself wanted no particular recognition of his achievements, such as they were. When it was proposed, in March 1871, when he was at the height of his power, that a statue be erected in his honor, he declared: "Statues are not erected to living men ... I claim to be a live man, and hope (Divine Providence permitting) to survive in all my vigor, politically and physically, some years to come." One of Tweed's unwanted legacies is that he has become "the archetype of the bloated, rapacious, corrupt city boss". + +Middle name +Tweed never signed his middle name with anything other than a plain "M.", and his middle name is often mistakenly listed as "Marcy". His actual middle name was Magear, his mother's maiden name. + +Confusion derived from a Nast cartoon with a picture of Tweed supplemented with a quote from William L. Marcy, the former governor of New York. + +In popular culture + Arthur Train featured Tweed in his 1940 novel of life in Gilded Age New York, Tassels On Her Boots. Tweed is portrayed as having contempt for the people he rules, at one point saying that once he would have been a Baron, with a castle, levying tribute on the people. But now, "'Boss', they call me - and they are glad to have me." + In 1945, Tweed was portrayed by Noah Beery Sr. in the Broadway production of Up in Central Park, a musical comedy with music by Sigmund Romberg. The role was played by Malcolm Lee Beggs for a revival in 1947. In the 1948 film version, Tweed is played by Vincent Price. + On the 1963–1964 CBS TV series The Great Adventure, which presented one-hour dramatizations of the lives of historical figures, Edward Andrews portrayed Tweed in the episode "The Man Who Stole New York City", about the campaign by The New York Times to bring down Tweed. The episode aired on December 13, 1963. + In John Varley's 1977 science-fiction novel, The Ophiuchi Hotline, a crooked politician in a 27th-century human settlement on the Moon assumes the name "Boss Tweed" in emulation of the 19th-century politician, and names his lunar headquarters "Tammany Hall". + Tweed was played by Philip Bosco in the 1986 TV movie Liberty. According to a review of the film in The New York Times, it was Tweed who made the suggestion to call the Statue of Liberty by that name, instead of its formal name Liberty Enlightening the World, in order to read better in newspaper headlines. + Andrew O'Hehir of The New York Times notes that Forever, a 2003 novel by Pete Hamill, and Gangs of New York, a 2002 film, both "offer a significant supporting role to the legendary Manhattan political godfather Boss Tweed", among other thematic similarities. In a review of the latter work, Chuck Rudolph praised Jim Broadbent's portrayal of Tweed as "giving the role a masterfully heartless composure". + Tweed appears as an antagonist in the 2016 novel, Assassin's Creed Last Descendants where he is the Grand Master of the American Templars during the American Civil War. + +See also + Elbert A. Woodward + Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan + Tweed law + William J. Sharkey (murderer) + +References +Notes + +Bibliography + Ackerman, K. D. (2005). Boss Tweed: The rise and fall of the corrupt pol who conceived the soul of modern New York. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. . + + Callow, Alexander B. (1966). The Tweed Ring. New York: Oxford University Press + Ellis, Edward R. (2004). The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History. Carroll & Graf Publishers. , + Hershkowitz, Leo. Tweed's New York: Another Look. (New York: Anchor Press, 1977), online + "William Marcy [sic] Tweed" Encyclopedia.com (Cengage), May 23, 2018 + Mandelbaum, Seymour J. (1965). Boss Tweed's New York. New York: John Wiley. + Paine, Albert B. (1974). Th. Nast, His Period and His Pictures. Princeton: Pyne Press. (The original edition, published in 1904, is now in the public domain.) + Sante, Lucy (2003). Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. + Staff (July 4, 2005). "Boss Tweed", Gotham Gazette + +Further reading + Lynch, Denis Tilden (2005) [1927]. Boss Tweed: The story of a grim generation. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Michigan Historical Reprint Series, Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan. + +External links + + + Green-Wood Cemetery page for WM Tweed + Map Showing the Portions of the City of New York and Westchester County under the Jurisdiction of the Department of Public Parks talks about Tweed's takeover of the New York City parks system, from the World Digital Library + + + +1823 births +1878 deaths +19th-century American politicians +American escapees +American people of Scottish descent +American people who died in prison custody +American political bosses from New York (state) +American politicians convicted of fraud +Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery +County legislators in New York (state) +Criminals from New York City +Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) +Escapees from New York (state) detention +Fugitives +Leaders of Tammany Hall +New York (state) politicians convicted of crimes +Democratic Party New York (state) state senators +Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government +Prisoners who died in New York (state) detention +American Freemasons +American people convicted of tax crimes +Balsall Heath is an inner-city area of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It has a diverse cultural mix of people and is the location of the Balti Triangle. + +History + +The name is first found as Bordeshale in 1275, which is derived from the Old English words Bord's healh meaning 'Bord's heath' or 'Bord's nook' implying a corner or small area of land, perhaps a sheltered hollow in the landscape, protected by trees, possibly within a river-bend. The name stems from the Anglian personal name of one Bord, who held property in the area, and in this way shares its origin with that of neighbouring Bordesley, first record as Bordesleie or Bordeslea meaning 'Bord's clearing'. + +Balsall Heath was largely agricultural and park land between Moseley village and the city of Birmingham until the 1850s when expansion along Moseley Road joined the two. The area was originally part of the Worcestershire parish of King's Norton, and was added to the county borough of Birmingham in Warwickshire on 1 October 1891. + +During negotiations in the previous year it had been promised a public baths and a free library. In 1895, the library was opened on Moseley Road and, in 1907, Balsall Heath Baths were opened in an adjoining building. + +In 1900, the city's College of Art was also opened on Moseley Road. By this time the small lake ("Lady Pool" on old maps) at the end of Ladypool Road had been filled in to create a park. + +Balsall Heath initially had a reasonably affluent population, which can still be seen in the dilapidated grandeur of some of the larger houses. A railway station on Brighton Road (on the Birmingham to Bristol line) led to further expansion, and the end of the 19th century saw a proliferation of high-density small terraced houses. + +A Muslim community was started in June 1940 when two Yemenis purchased an artisan cottage on Mary Street. With the mosque being located in the area, more Muslim immigrants began to move into private lodgings in Balsall Heath. Today, Balsall Heath has one of the largest Muslim communities in Birmingham. It is also home to diverse communities from across the Commonwealth. + +By the 1980s, many of Balsall Heath's houses were in a dilapidated condition; some still lacked bathrooms or indoor toilets. The local council considered demolishing these properties but chose to refurbish them as part of an urban renewal scheme. Most of these Victorian terraces still exist and, along with more modern social housing, characterise the area today. The area's traditional 'brick' pavements were replaced at this time by the more modern and conventional paving slabs. + +Balsall Heath's low rents also attracted a bohemian student population. Its proximity to the University of Birmingham, the city centre and the "trendy" area of Moseley were all contributing factors. There was little conflict between the students and locals despite their vastly differing lifestyles. However, a knife-incident in 1991 led to an article in Redbrick warning students not to live in the area. + +In July 2005, Balsall Heath was hit by a tornado, which devastated many buildings around Church Road and Ladypool Road. Birmingham City Council offered loans to those who would otherwise be unable to repair their properties, and the area has now made a full recovery. + +Red light era +Street prostitution first appeared in Balsall Heath during the 1950s. Property values fell, attracting Birmingham's poorer migrants. By the 1970s, the area was notorious for street robberies and drug dealing. Cheddar Road was the centre of a red-light district worked by 450 women. About half of the 50 houses on this road had prostitutes advertising themselves in the windows, similar to Amsterdam. It was labelled Britain's busiest cul-de-sac. This period of the area's history is depicted in the 1980 film Prostitute. + +In 1986, an organisation called ANAWIM was formed by the Sisters of Charity to provide outreach support to the prostitutes. + +In September 1992, a report was published encouraging the formation of a zone of tolerance towards prostitution in Balsall Heath. This was opposed by residents and a local police inspector. In the following year Samo Paull, a woman working as a prostitute, was abducted from Balsall Heath and murdered. + +In 1994, residents began to organise street patrols forcing the prostitutes and street criminals out of the area. These patrols had the qualified support of the police but were regarded as vigilantes by some. There was an immediate two-thirds reduction in street and window prostitution. By November 1995, they had been almost eliminated. + +The area has enjoyed a slow revival. House prices are now similar to those in other inner-city areas, while the crime rate is among the lowest. + +Politics and governance +Balsall Heath is divided by two wards for elections to Birmingham City Council; Balsall Heath West and Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath East. + +Balsall Heath is part of the Birmingham Hall Green constituency for general elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. + +Notable buildings + +Moseley Road Baths +Moseley School of Art +St Barnabas' Church +St Paul's Church + +Notable residents + +Donnaleigh Bailey, Michelle Corrigan in the Birmingham-based soap Doctors +Alderman John Bowen, JP +Percy Bullock, Worcestershire cricketer +Howard R. Davies, racing motorcyclist +Alan Deakin, former Aston Villa captain +Oscar Deutsch, founder of the Odeon cinema chain +David Edgar, playwright +John Kenneally VC +Don Maclean, comedian +Conroy Maddox, surrealist artist +William Mosedale, George Cross recipient +Sir Robert Howson Pickard FRS stereochemist and vice-chancellor of the University of London 1937–1939 +Anthony E. Pratt, inventor of the board game Cluedo +UB40, a reggae band + +References + + V.M. Hart (1992) Balsall Heath: A History. Brewin Books Limited + J. Moth (1951) The City of Birmingham Baths Department 1851 – 1951. + +External links +Balsall Heath Local History Society +About Balsall Heath + +Areas of Birmingham, West Midlands +Bunge & Born was a multinational corporation based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, whose diverse interests included food processing and international trade in grains and oilseeds. It is now known as Bunge Limited. + +History + +Bunge & Born was founded in 1884 by Ernesto Bunge, a German Argentine whose uncle, Carl Bunge, had been Consul General in Argentina for both the Netherlands and Prussia, and his brother-in-law, Jorge Born, who had recently arrived from Antwerp. The company superseded the Bunge Company founded in Amsterdam by Johann Bunge, in 1818. Following the purchase of of prime pampas wheat fields, Bunge & Born established Centenera, their first food processing plant, in 1899. They had one of the largest wheat mills in the country built on a Puerto Madero lot in 1902, and with it, established Molinos Río de la Plata (later a leader in the local retail foods market). +The company started Argentina's first burlap bag manufacturer, following which they successfully lobbied government policy makers for protective tariffs on the then-critical commercial staple. They established a mortgage bank, the Banco Hipotecario Franco Argentino, and a subsidiary in Brazil in 1905, and by 1910, they reportedly controlled 80% of Argentine cereal exports (Argentina was, by then, the world's third-largest grain exporter).Rock, David. Argentina: 1516-1982. University of California Press, 1987. p.172 They later established paint manufacturer Alba (1925), chemical and fertilizer maker Compañía Química, and textile maker Grafa (1932), among others; by the late 1920s, the company's annual export receipts alone reached US$300 million. The company inaugurated its neo-gothic Buenos Aires headquarters on Leandro Alem Avenue, designed by local architect Pablo Naeff, in 1926. + +Bunge & Born's near-monopoly on cereal and flour exports ended with populist President Juan Perón's 1946 establishment of the IAPI, a state agricultural purchasing and export agent. The company responded by extending its reach into the country fast-growing retail processed foods market, and though its prominence as the nation's chief exporter was partly restored by Perón's 1955 ousting and the IAPI's liquidation, its focus remained domestic over the next three decades. A privately held company, Bunge & Born did not release periodical financial statements, though it did report US$2bn in gross receipts in 1962; by then it had become a leader in commodity futures trading, operating 110 offices worldwide. + +The Bunge, Born, Hirsch, Engels and De La Tour families remained the company's chief stock-holders, and by extension, leaders in the domestic textile, paint, chemical, fertilizer, and food processing industries. On September 19, 1974, however, the consortium was shaken by the kidnapping of siblings Jorge and Juan Born by the far-left terrorist group, Montoneros. The Born brothers were kept in a known Argentine State Intelligence safehouse for nine months until their June 1975 release, something made possible without public suspicion of outside involvement by the agency's numerous contacts inside the Montoneros (including the leader, Mario Firmenich). Freed for a US$60 million ransom (the largest on record at that time), the ordeal triggered the company headquarters' relocation to São Paulo, Brazil, and contributed to the March 1976 coup. + +Retaining their Argentine interests (44 companies, by the 1980s), the families continued to suffer from ongoing disputes, and in 1987, CEO Mario Hirsch died suddenly. The election of Carlos Menem to the Argentine Presidency in May 1989, however, resulted in an agreement between the President-elect and Jorge Born that gave the company partial control over national economic policy. Bunge & Born provided the Menem government with its first two economy ministers, and the combination of large rate increases on public services (around 500%), a simplified exchange rate and a massive, mandatory wage hike led to a sharp economic turnaround between July and November 1989. This foray into government policy making, however, ended in a new currency crisis that December and the failure (compounded by the company's lackluster business performance) resulted in Born's 1991 ouster from the board; he was replaced by Chief Operations Officer Octavio Caraballo. + +Beset by the rift between Jorge Born and his brother, Juan, the prior unity between the shareholders disintegrated as Caraballo struggled to modernize the company. Family frictions intensified when Jorge Born formed a business partnership with one of his former kidnappers, erstwhile Montonero strategist Rodolfo Galimberti. + +Bunge International +The company was converted into the Bermuda-registered Bunge International in 1994, retaining the Bunge y Born name only in Argentina. Bunge remained a privately held company of 180 shareholders (including the longtime controlling family interests) and divested itself in 1998, of almost all its retail foods interests in favor of a greater role in international agribusiness and commodity markets; by then the company's gross annual turnover had reached US$13 billion. Bunge ultimately went public on the NYSE in 2001, becoming Bunge Limited''. + +References + + +Conglomerate companies established in 1884 +1884 establishments in Argentina +Conglomerate companies of Argentina +"The Big Apple" is a nickname for New York City. It was first popularized in the 1920s by John J. Fitz Gerald, a sportswriter for the New York Morning Telegraph. Its popularity since the 1970s is due in part to a promotional campaign by the New York tourist authorities. + +Origin +Although the history of Big Apple was once thought a mystery, a clearer picture of the term's history has emerged due to the work of historian Barry Popik, and Gerald Cohen of the Missouri University of Science and Technology. A number of false theories had previously existed, including a claim that the term derived from a woman named Eve who ran a brothel in the city. This was subsequently exposed as a hoax. + +The earliest known usage of "big apple" appears in the book The Wayfarer in New York (1909), in which Edward Sandford Martin writes: Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city ... It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap. William Safire considered this the coinage, but because the phrase is not quoted in the text, it is likely that it was used as a metaphor, and not as a nickname for the city. + +Horse racing origin +The Big Apple was popularized as a name for New York City by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number of horse-racing articles for the New York Morning Telegraph in the 1920s. The earliest of these was a casual reference on 3 May 1921: + +Fitz Gerald referred to the "big apple" frequently thereafter. He explained his use in a column dated February 18, 1924, under the headline "Around the Big Apple": + +Fitz Gerald reportedly first heard "The Big Apple" used to describe New York's racetracks by two African American stable hands at the New Orleans Fair Grounds. Using racing records, Popik traced that conversation to January 1920. + +In recognition of Fitz Gerald's role in promulgating "The Big Apple" as a nickname for New York City, in 1997 Mayor Rudy Giuliani signed legislation designating as "Big Apple Corner" the southwest corner of West 54th Street and Broadway, the corner on which John J. Fitz Gerald lived from 1934 to 1963. The Hotel Ameritania also once had a plaque which was installed in 1996, according to Popik, but it was removed during renovations to the building and was lost. + +Evidence can also be found in the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper that had a national circulation. Writing for the Defender on September 16, 1922, "Ragtime" Billy Tucker used the name "big apple" to refer to New York in a non-horse-racing context: + +Tucker had also earlier used "big apple" as a reference to Los Angeles. It is possible that he simply used "big apple" as a nickname for any large city: + +Popularity + +By the late 1920s, New York writers other than Fitz Gerald were starting to use "Big Apple", and were using it in contexts other than horse racing. "The Big Apple" was a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Jazz musicians in the 1930s also contributed to the use of the phrase to refer to New York City, specifically to the city and Harlem as the jazz capital of the world. Beside the song and the dance, two nightclubs in the city used "Big Apple" in their names. + +Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the term in the 1940s and early 1950s, but by the late 1950s, if it was known at all, it had come to be considered an outdated nickname for New York. + +In the early 1970s, however, during the city's fiscal crisis, "People were looking around desperately and some of them seized that old phrase the Big Apple to remind people of when New York had been a strong and powerful city and might become that again," according to the official Manhattan Borough Historian, Dr. Robert Snyder. It was then that the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau – now NYC & Company, New York City's official marketing and tourism organization) – with the help of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising firm, began to promote the city's "Big Apple" nickname to tourists, under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett. The campaign was a success, and the nickname has remained popular since then. + +Today the name is used exclusively to refer to New York City, and is used with regularity by journalists and news headline writers across the English-speaking world. + +In popular culture +The term "big apple" was used by Frank Sinatra in conversation with opera singer Dorothy Kirsten on an episode of the NBC radio program Light Up Time on March 28, 1950. +The Big Apple Circus was founded in Manhattan in 1977. +The New York Mets baseball team have featured a "Home Run Apple" that rises whenever a Mets player hits a home run. It has become a symbol of the Mets baseball team, recognized throughout Major League Baseball as an iconic feature of the Mets' stadiums. It first appeared in Shea Stadium, and the original can still be seen on display at Citi Field, outside the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. Citi Field now uses a new apple, one that is much larger than original. +Uses of the term abound elsewhere in the names of cultural products and events in or concerning New York, including the Big Apple Anime Fest, the Big Apple Circus, the Big Apple Theater Festival, Jess Teong's The Kid from the Big Apple and Kajagoogoo's Big Apple, and playful uses of the nickname have been seen, such as Patrick Downey's 2008 historical study of New York City's criminal underworld, entitled Bad Seeds in the Big Apple. +Following his election as President of the United States in 2016, Donald Trump hosted a party named "The Big Apple Ball", which featured themed decorations and cut-outs of New York landmarks in honor of his home city. +In his 1982 song "Human Nature", Michael Jackson refers to New York City by singing, "If this town is just an apple, then let me take a bite". +In Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, when asked why New York is called 'The Big Apple', Ron Burgundy says, "Because, there's an apple tree on every corner!" +In Blue's Big City Adventure, Josh calls New York "The Big Apple" + +References + +External links + + The Big Apple Research on the term's history by Barry Popik + Straight Dope article + +Culture of New York City +Symbols of New York City +Etymologies +Slang +American slang +City fruit nicknames +Sergeant Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett (January 29, 1832 – presumed dead ) was an English-born American soldier and milliner who shot and killed John Wilkes Booth, the man who committed the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Corbett was initially arrested for disobeying orders, but was later released on the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who referred to Corbett as "the patriot" upon dismissing him. He was largely considered a hero by the American media and public. + +Known for his devout religious beliefs and eccentric behavior, Corbett drifted around the United States before disappearing circa 1888. Circumstantial evidence suggests that he died in the Great Hinckley Fire in Minnesota in September 1894, although no period documentation has yet been found that undoubtedly identifies him as a victim of the fire. + +Early life and education + +Corbett was born in London, England on January 29, 1832, and immigrated with his family to New York City in 1840. The Corbetts moved frequently before eventually settling in Troy, New York. As a young man, Corbett began apprenticing as a milliner, a profession that he would hold intermittently throughout his life. As a milliner, Corbett was regularly exposed to the fumes of mercury(II) nitrate, then used in the treatment of fur to produce felt used on hats. Excessive exposure to the compound can lead to hallucinations, psychosis and erethism). Historians have theorized that the mental issues Corbett exhibited before and after the Civil War were caused by this exposure. + +Family and religion +After working as a milliner in Troy, Corbett returned to New York City. He later married, but his wife and child died in childbirth. Following their deaths, he moved to Boston. Corbett became despondent over the loss of his wife and began drinking heavily. He was unable to hold a job and eventually became homeless. After a night of heavy drinking, he was confronted by a street preacher whose message persuaded him to join the Methodist Episcopal Church. Corbett immediately stopped drinking and became devoutly religious. After being baptized, he subsequently changed his name to Boston, the name of the city where he was converted. He regularly attended meetings at the Fulton and Bromfield Street churches where his enthusiastic behavior earned him the nickname "The Glory to God man". In an attempt to imitate Jesus, Corbett began to wear his hair very long (he was forced to cut it upon enlisting in the Union Army). + +In 1857, Corbett began working at a hat manufacturer's shop on Washington Street in downtown Boston. He was reported to be a proficient milliner, but was known to proselytize frequently and stop work to pray and sing for co-workers who used profanity in his presence. He also began working as a street preacher and would sermonize and distribute religious literature in North Square. Corbett soon earned a reputation around Boston for being a "local eccentric" and religious fanatic. On July 16, 1858, Corbett was propositioned by two prostitutes while walking home from a church meeting. He was deeply disturbed by the encounter. Upon returning to his room at a boardinghouse, Corbett began reading chapters 18 and 19 in the Gospel of Matthew ("And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee....and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake"). In order to avoid sexual temptation and remain holy, he castrated himself with a pair of scissors. He then ate a meal and went to a prayer meeting before seeking medical treatment. + +Military career + +Enlistment in the Union Army + +In April 1861, early in the American Civil War, Corbett enlisted as a private in Company I of the Union Army's 12th New York State Militia. Corbett's eccentric behavior quickly got him into trouble. He carried a Bible with him at all times and read passages aloud from it regularly, held unauthorized prayer meetings and argued with his superior officers. Corbett also condemned officers and superiors for what he perceived as violations of God's word. In one instance, he verbally reprimanded Colonel Daniel Butterfield for using profanity and taking the Lord's name in vain. He was sent to the guardhouse for several days but refused to apologize for his insubordination. Due to his continued disruptive behavior and refusal to take orders, Corbett was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot. His sentence was eventually reduced and he was discharged in August 1863. + +Corbett re-enlisted later that month as a private in Company L, 16th New York Cavalry Regiment. On June 24, 1864, he was captured by Confederate States Army troops led by John S. Mosby in Culpeper, Virginia and held as a prisoner of war at Andersonville Prison for five months. While on the way to Andersonville, the following incident happened, told by a fellow prisoner of Corbett's named William Collins: + + +Corbett was released in a prisoner exchange in November 1864 and was admitted to a military hospital in Annapolis, Maryland where he was treated for scurvy, malnutrition and exposure. Upon Corbett's return to his company, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. Corbett later testified for the prosecution in the trial of the commandant of Andersonville Prison, Captain Henry Wirz. + +Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth +On April 24, 1865, Corbett's regiment was sent to apprehend John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, whom Booth fatally shot on April 14, 1865. On April 26, the regiment surrounded Booth and one of his accomplices, David Herold, in a tobacco barn on the Virginia farm of Richard Garrett. Herold surrendered, but Booth refused and cried out, "I will not be taken alive!". The barn was set on fire in an attempt to force him out into the open, but Booth remained inside. Corbett was positioned near a large crack in the barn wall. + +Shooting Booth +In an 1878 interview, Corbett claimed that he saw Booth aim his carbine, prompting him to shoot Booth with his Colt revolver despite Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's orders that Booth be captured alive. The bullet struck Booth in the back of the head behind his left ear, passed through his neck, and out into the barn. A low scream of pain like that produced by a sudden throttling came from the assassin, and he pitched headlong to the floor. Corbett and the other soldiers would note a sense of poetic, or cosmic, justice in that Lincoln and Booth were each shot around the same spot of the head. And the damage to Booth was no less severe than that to Lincoln: the bullet had pierced three vertebrae and partially severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him. Their conditions were different as well, as Mary Clemmer Ames summed it up, "The balls entered the skull of each at nearly the same spot, but the trifling difference made an immeasurable difference in the sufferings of the two. Mr. Lincoln was unconscious of all pain, while his assassin suffered as exquisite agony as if he had been broken on a wheel." + +Death of Booth +In a weak voice, Booth asked for water and Lt. Colonel Everton Conger and Colonel Lafayette C. Baker gave it to him. A soldier poured water into his mouth, which he immediately spat out, unable to swallow. The bullet wound prevented him from swallowing any of the liquid. Booth asked them to roll him over and turn him facedown. Conger thought it a bad idea. "Then at least turn me on my side," the assassin pleaded. They did, but Conger saw that the move did not relieve Booth's suffering. Baker noticed it, too: "He seemed to suffer extreme pain whenever he was moved...and would several times repeat, 'Kill me.'" At sunrise, Booth remained in agonizing pain. His pulse weakened as his breathing became more labored and irregular. In agony, unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face and whispered as he gazed at them, "Useless ... Useless." These were his last words. A few minutes later, Booth began gasping for air as his throat continued to swell, and there was a shiver and a gurgle and his body shuddered, before he died from asphyxia. He died two hours after Corbett shot him. + +Conger initially thought Booth had shot himself. After realizing Booth had been shot by someone else, Conger and Lt. Doherty asked which officer had shot Booth. Corbett stepped forward and admitted he was the shooter. When asked why he had violated orders, Corbett replied, "Providence directed me". + +Court-martial +He was immediately arrested and was accompanied by Lt. Doherty to the War Department in Washington, D.C. to be court-martialed. When questioned by Secretary Edwin Stanton about Booth's capture and shooting, both Doherty and Corbett himself agreed that Corbett had, in fact, disobeyed orders not to shoot. However, Corbett maintained that he believed Booth had intended to shoot his way out of the barn and that he acted in self-defense. He told Stanton, "...Booth would have killed me if I had not shot first. I think I did right." Corbett maintained that he did not intend to kill Booth, but merely wanted to inflict a disabling wound, but either his aim slipped or Booth moved at the moment Corbett pulled the trigger. Stanton paused and then stated, "The rebel is dead. The patriot lives; he has spared the country expense, continued excitement and trouble. Discharge the patriot." Upon leaving the War Department, Corbett was greeted by a cheering crowd. As he made his way to Mathew Brady's studio to have his official portrait taken, the crowd followed him asking for autographs and requesting that he tell them about shooting Booth. Corbett told the crowd: + +Contradictions +Eyewitnesses to Booth's shooting contradicted Corbett's version of events and expressed doubts that Corbett was responsible for shooting Booth. Officers who were near Corbett at the time claimed that they never saw him fire his gun (Corbett's gun was never inspected and was eventually lost). They claimed that Corbett came forward only after Lt. Colonel Conger asked who had shot Booth. Richard Garrett, the owner of the farm on which Booth was found, and his 12-year-old son Robert also contradicted Corbett's testimony that he acted in self-defense. Both maintained that Booth had never reached for his gun. + +While there was some criticism of Corbett's actions, he was largely considered a hero by the public and press. One newspaper editor declared that Corbett would, "live as one of the World's great avengers." For his part in Booth's capture, Corbett received a portion of the $100,000 reward money, amounting to $1,653.84 (). His annual salary as a U.S. sergeant was $204 (). Corbett received offers to purchase the gun he used to shoot Booth. He refused stating, "That is not mine—it belongs to the Government, and I would not sell it for any price." Corbett also declined an offer for one of Booth's pistols as he did not want a reminder of shooting Booth. + +Post-war life +After his discharge from the army in August 1865, Corbett went back to work as a milliner in Boston and frequently attended the Bromfield Street Church. When the hatting business in Boston slowed, Corbett moved to Danbury, Connecticut, to continue his work and also "preached in the country round about." By 1870, he had relocated once again to Camden, New Jersey, where he was known as a "Methodist lay preacher", while also continuing to be a milliner. Corbett's inability to hold a job was attributed to his fanatical behavior; he was routinely fired after continuing his habit of stopping work to pray for his co-workers. In an effort to earn money, Corbett capitalized on his role as "Lincoln's Avenger". He gave lectures about the shooting of Booth accompanied by illustrated lantern slides at Sunday schools, women's groups and tent meetings. Corbett was never asked back due to his increasingly erratic behavior and incoherent speeches. + +R.B. Hoover, a man who later befriended Corbett, recalled that Corbett believed "men who were high in authority at Washington at the time of the assassination" were hounding him. Corbett said the men were angry because he had deprived them of prosecuting and executing John Wilkes Booth themselves. He also believed the same men had gotten him fired from various jobs. Corbett's paranoia was furthered by hate mail he received for killing Booth. He became fearful that "Booth's Avengers" or organizations like the "Secret Order" were planning to seek revenge upon him and took to carrying a pistol with him at all times. As his paranoia increased, Corbett began brandishing his pistol at friends or strangers he deemed suspicious. + +While attending the Soldiers' Reunion of the Blue and Gray in Caldwell, Ohio, in 1875, Corbett got into an argument with several men over the death of John Wilkes Booth. The men questioned if Booth had really been killed at all which enraged Corbett. He then drew his pistol on the men but was removed from the reunion before he could fire it. In 1878, Corbett moved to Concordia, Kansas, where he acquired a plot of land through homesteading upon which he constructed a dugout home. He continued working as a preacher and attended revival meetings frequently. + +Presumed fate +Due to his fame as "Lincoln's Avenger", Corbett was appointed assistant doorkeeper of the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka in January 1887. On February 15, he became convinced that +officers of the House were discriminating against him. He jumped to his feet, brandished a revolver and began chasing the officers out of the building. No one was hurt and Corbett was arrested. The following day, a judge declared Corbett insane and sent him to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane. On May 26, 1888, he escaped from the asylum on horseback. He then rode to Neodesha, Kansas, where he briefly stayed with Richard Thatcher, a man he had met while they were prisoners of war. When Corbett left, he told Thatcher he was going to Mexico. + +Rather than going to Mexico, Corbett is believed to have settled in a cabin he built in the forests near Hinckley, in Pine County in eastern Minnesota. He is believed to have died in the Great Hinckley Fire on September 1, 1894. Although there is no proof, the name "Thomas Corbett" appears on the list of dead and missing. + +Legacy + +Imposters +In the years following Corbett's presumed death, several men came forward claiming to be "Lincoln's Avenger". A few years after Corbett was last seen in Neodesha, Kansas, a patent medicine salesman in Enid, Oklahoma, filed an application using Corbett's name to receive pension benefits. After an investigation proved that the man was not Boston Corbett, he was sent to prison. In September 1905, a man arrested in Dallas also claimed to be Corbett. He too was proven to be an imposter and was sent to prison for perjury, and then to the Government Hospital for the Insane. + +Memorials +In 1958, Boy Scout Troop 31, of Concordia, Kansas, built a roadside monument to Corbett located on Key Road. A small sign was also placed to mark the dugout where Corbett had lived for a time. + +See also + +List of people who disappeared +Jack Ruby + +Notes + +References + +External links + + Boston Corbett: The Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth + Photo on Kansas Memory website + +1832 births +1880s missing person cases +American Civil War prisoners of war held by the Confederate States of America +American escapees +Methodists from Massachusetts +Castrated people +Converts to Methodism +English emigrants to the United States +American milliners +Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church +Methodist evangelists +Military personnel from Troy, New York +Missing person cases in Minnesota +People associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln +People declared dead in absentia +People from Boston +People from Camden, New Jersey +People from Concordia, Kansas +People from Hinckley, Minnesota +Military personnel from London +People from Noble County, Ohio +People of New York (state) in the American Civil War +Union Army soldiers +Year of death unknown +Prisoners and detainees of the United States military +The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berber communities, who are indigenous to North Africa. The languages are primarily spoken and not typically written. Historically, they have been written with the ancient Libyco-Berber script, which now exists in the form of Tifinagh. Today, they may also be written in the Berber Latin alphabet or the Arabic script, with Latin being the most pervasive. + +The Berber languages have a similar level of variety to the Romance languages, although they are sometimes referred to as a single collective language, often as "Berber", "Tamazight", or "Amazigh". The languages, with a few exceptions, form a dialect continuum. There is debate as to how to best sub-categorize languages within the Berber branch. Berber languages typically follow verb–subject–object word order. Their phonological inventories are diverse. + +Millions of people in Morocco and Algeria natively speak a Berber language, as do smaller populations of Libya, Tunisia, northern Mali, western and northern Niger, northern Burkina Faso and Mauritania and the Siwa Oasis of Egypt. There are also likely a few million speakers of Berber languages in Western Europe. Tashlhiyt, Kabyle, Central Atlas Tamazight, Tarifit, and Shawiya are some of the most commonly spoken Berber languages. Exact numbers are impossible to ascertain as there are few modern North African censuses that include questions on language use, and what censuses do exist have known flaws. + +Following independence in the 20th century, the Berber languages have been suppressed and suffered from low prestige in North Africa. Recognition of the Berber languages has been growing in the 21st century, with Morocco and Algeria adding Tamazight as an official language to their constitutions in 2011 and 2016 respectively. + +Most Berber languages have a high percentage of borrowing and influence from the Arabic language, as well as from other languages. For example, Arabic loanwords represent 35% to 46% of the total vocabulary of the Kabyle language and represent 51.7% of the total vocabulary of Tarifit. Almost all Berber languages took from Arabic the pharyngeal fricatives /ʕ/ and /ħ/, the (nongeminated) uvular stop /q/, and the voiceless pharyngealized consonant /ṣ/. + +Terminology +"Tamazight" and "Berber languages" are often used interchangeably. However, "Tamazight" is sometimes used to refer to a specific subset of Berber languages, such as Central Tashlhiyt. "Tamazight" can also be used to refer to Standard Moroccan Tamazight or Standard Algerian Tamazight, as in the Moroccan and Algerian constitutions respectively. In Morocco, besides referring to all Berber languages or to Standard Moroccan Tamazight, "Tamazight" is often used in contrast to Tashelhit and Tarifit to refer to Central Atlas Tamazight. + +The use of Berber has been the subject of debate due to its historical background as an exonym and present equivalence with the Arabic word for "barbarian." One group, the Linguasphere Observatory, has attempted to introduce the neologism "Tamazic languages" to refer to the Berber languages. Amazigh people typically use "Tamazight" when speaking English. Historically, Berbers did not refer to themselves as Berbers/Amazigh but had their own terms to refer to themselves. For example, the Kabyles use the term "Leqbayel" to refer to their own people, while the Chaouis identified themselves as "Ishawiyen" instead of Berber/Amazigh. + +Origin + +Since modern Berber languages are relatively homogeneous, the date of the Proto-Berber language from which the modern group is derived was probably comparatively recent, comparable to the age of the Germanic or Romance subfamilies of the Indo-European family. In contrast, the split of the group from the other Afroasiatic sub-phyla is much earlier, and is therefore sometimes associated with the local Mesolithic Capsian culture. A number of extinct populations are believed to have spoken Afroasiatic languages of the Berber branch. According to Peter Behrens and Marianne Bechaus-Gerst, linguistic evidence suggests that the peoples of the C-Group culture in present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan spoke Berber languages. The Nilo-Saharan Nobiin language today contains a number of key loanwords related to pastoralism that are of Berber origin, including the terms for sheep and water/Nile. This in turn suggests that the C-Group population—which, along with the Kerma culture, inhabited the Nile valley immediately before the arrival of the first Nubian speakers—spoke Afroasiatic languages. + +Orthography +Berber languages are primarily oral languages without a major written component. Historically, they were written with the Libyco-Berber script. Early uses of the script have been found on rock art and in various sepulchres; the oldest known variations of the script dates to inscriptions in Dugga from 600 BC. Usage of this script, in the form of Tifinagh, has continued into the present day among the Tuareg people. Following the spread of Islam, some Berber scholars also utilized the Arabic script. The Berber Latin alphabet was developed following the introduction of the Latin script in the nineteenth century by the West. The nineteenth century also saw the development of Neo-Tifinagh, an adaptation of Tuareg Tifinagh for use with other Berber languages. + +There are now three writing systems in use for Berber languages: Tifinagh, the Arabic script, and the Berber Latin alphabet, with the Latin alphabet being the most widely used today. + +Subclassification + +With the exception of Zenaga, Tetserret, and Tuareg, the Berber languages form a dialect continuum. Different linguists take different approaches towards drawing boundaries between languages in this continuum. Maarten Kossmann notes that it is difficult to apply the classic tree model of historical linguistics towards the Berber languages:[The Berber language family]'s continuous history of convergence and differentiation along new lines makes an definition of branches arbitrary. Moreover, mutual intelligibility and mutual influence render notions such as "split" or "branching" rather difficult to apply except, maybe, in the case of Zenaga and Tuareg.Kossmann roughly groups the Berber languages into seven blocks: + + Western (Zenaga, Tetserret) + Tuareg + Western Moroccana. southwestern and central Moroccan languages (Tashelhiyt, most of Central Atlas Tamazight)b. northwestern Moroccan languages (Ghomara, Senhadja de Sraïr) +Zenatic (a dialect continuum stretching from eastern Morocco to the Siwa Oasis) +Kabyle +Ghadames +Awjila +The Zenatic block is typically divided into the Zenati and Eastern Berber branches, due to the marked difference in features at each end of the continuum. Otherwise, subclassifications by different linguists typically combine various blocks into different branches. Western Moroccan languages, Zenati languages, Kabyle, and Ghadames may be grouped under Northern Berber; Awjila is often included as an Eastern Berber language alongside Siwa, Sokna, and El Foqaha. These approaches divide the Berber languages into Northern, Southern (Tuareg), Eastern, and Western varieties. + +Population + +The vast majority of speakers of Berber languages are concentrated in Morocco and Algeria. The exact population of speakers has been historically difficult to ascertain due to lack of official recognition. + +Morocco + +Morocco is the country with the greatest number of speakers of Berber languages. As of 2022, Ethnologue estimates there to be 13.8 million speakers of Berber languages in Morocco, based on figures from 2016 and 2017. + +In 1960, the first census after Moroccan independence was held. It claimed that 32 percent of Moroccans spoke a Berber language, including bi-, tri- and quadrilingual people. The 2004 census found that 3,894,805 Moroccans over five years of age spoke Tashelhit, 2,343,937 spoke Central Atlas Tamazight, and 1,270,986 spoke Tarifit, representing 14.6%, 8.8%, and 4.8% respectively of the surveyed population, or roughly 28.2% of the surveyed population combined. The 2014 census found that 14.1% of the population spoke Tashelhit, 7.9% spoke Central Atlas Tamazight, and 4% spoke Tarifit, or about 26% of the population combined. + +These estimates, as well as the estimates from various academic sources, are summarized as follows: + +Algeria + +Algeria is the country with the second greatest number of speakers of Berber languages. In 1906, the total population speaking Berber languages in Algeria, excluding the thinly populated Sahara region, was estimated at 1,305,730 out of 4,447,149, or 29%. Secondary sources disagree on the percentage of self-declared native Berber speakers in the 1966 census, the last Algerian census containing a question about the mother tongue. Some give 17.9% while other report 19%. + +Kabyle speakers account for the vast majority of speakers of Berber languages in Algeria. Shawiya is the second most commonly spoken Berber language in Algeria. Other Berber languages spoken in Algeria include: Shenwa, with 76,300 speakers; Tashelhit, with 6,000 speakers; Ouargli, with 20,000 speakers; Tamahaq, with 71,400 speakers; Tugurt, with 8,100 speakers; Tidikelt, with 1,000 speakers; Gurara, with 11,000 speakers; and Mozabite, with 150,000 speakers. + +Population estimates are summarized as follows: + +Other countries +As of 1998, there were an estimated 450,000 Tawellemmet speakers, 250,000 Air Tamajeq speakers, and 20,000 Tamahaq speakers in Niger. + +As of 2018 and 2014 respectively, there were an estimated 420,000 speakers of Tawellemmet and 378,000 of Tamasheq in Mali. + +As of 2022, based on figures from 2020, Ethnologue estimates there to be 285,890 speakers of Berber languages in Libya: 247,000 speakers of Nafusi, 22,800 speakers of Tamahaq, 13,400 speakers of Ghadamés, and 2,690 speakers of Awjila. The number of Siwi speakers in Libya is listed as negligible, and the last Sokna speaker is thought to have died in the 1950s. + +There are an estimated 50,000 Djerbi speakers in Tunisia, based on figures from 2004. Sened is likely extinct, with the last speaker having died in the 1970s. Ghadamés, though not indigenous to Tunisia, is estimated to have 3,100 speakers throughout the country. Chenini is one of the rare remaining Berber-speaking villages in Tunisia. + +There are an estimated 20,000 Siwi speakers in Egypt, based on figures from 2013. + +As of 2018 and 2017 respectively, there were an estimated 200 speakers of Zenaga and 117,000 of Tamasheq in Mauritania. + +As of 2009, there were an estimated 122,000 Tamasheq speakers in Burkina Faso. + +There are an estimated 1.5 million speakers of various Berber languages in France. A small number of Tawellemmet speakers live in Nigeria. + +In total, there are an estimated 3.6 million speakers of Berber languages in countries outside of Morocco and Algeria, summarized as follows: + +Status +After independence, all the Maghreb countries to varying degrees pursued a policy of Arabisation, aimed partly at displacing French from its colonial position as the dominant language of education and literacy. Under this policy the use of the Berber languages was suppressed or even banned. This state of affairs has been contested by Berbers in Morocco and Algeria—especially Kabylie—and was addressed in both countries by affording the language official status and introducing it in some schools. + +Morocco + +After gaining independence from France in 1956, Morocco began a period of Arabisation through 1981, with primary and secondary school education gradually being changed to Arabic instruction, and with the aim of having administration done in Arabic, rather than French. During this time, there were riots amongst the Amazigh population, which called for the inclusion of Tamazight as an official language. + +The 2000 Charter for Education Reform marked a change in policy, with its statement of "openness to Tamazight." + +Planning for a public Tamazight-language TV network began in 2006; in 2010, the Moroccan government launched Tamazight TV. + +On July 29, 2011, Tamazight was added as an official language to the Moroccan constitution. + +Algeria + +After gaining independence from France in 1962, Algeria committed to a policy of Arabisation, which, after 1979, encompassed public education, broadcasting, and the judiciary system. While directed towards the removal of French as an official language, these policies led to dissatisfaction and unrest amongst speakers of Berber languages, who made up about one quarter of the population. + +In 2002, following riots in Kabylia the previous year, it was announced that Tamazight would be added as a national language, though not as an official one. This was done on April 8, 2003. + +Tamazight has been taught for three hours a week through the first three years of Algerian middle schools since 2005. + +On January 5, 2016, it was announced that Tamazight had been added as an official language in a draft amendment to the Algerian constitution; it was added to the constitution as an official language on February 7, 2016. + +Libya +Although regional councils in Libya's Nafusa Mountains affiliated with the National Transitional Council reportedly use the Berber language of Nafusi and have called for it to be granted co-official status with Arabic in a prospective new constitution, it does not have official status in Libya as in Morocco and Algeria. As areas of Libya south and west of Tripoli such as the Nafusa Mountains were taken from the control of Gaddafi government forces in early summer 2011, Berber workshops and exhibitions sprang up to share and spread the Berber culture and language. + +Other Countries +In Mali and Niger, some Tuareg languages have been recognized as national languages and have been part of school curriculums since the 1960s. + +Phonology + +Notation +In linguistics, the phonology of Berber languages is written with the International Phonetic Alphabet, with the following exceptions: + +Consonants +The influence of Arabic, the process of spirantization, and the absence of labialization have caused the consonant systems of Berber languages to differ significantly by region. Berber languages found north of, and in the northern half of, the Sahara have greater influence from Arabic, including that of loaned phonemes, than those in more southern regions, like Tuareg. Most Berber languages in northern regions have additionally undergone spirantization, in which historical short stops have changed into fricatives. Northern Berber languages (which is a subset of but not identical to Berber languages in geographically northern regions) commonly have labialized velars and uvulars, unlike other Berber languages.Two languages that illustrate the resulting range in consonant inventory across Berber languages are Ahaggar Tuareg and Kabyle; Kabyle has two more places of articulation and three more manners of articulation than Ahaggar Tuareg. + +There is still, however, common consonant features observed across Berber languages. Almost all Berber languages have bilabial, dental, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal, and laryngeal consonants, and almost all consonants have a long counterpart. All Berber languages, as is common in Afroasiatic languages, have pharyngealized consonants and phonemic gemination. The consonants which may undergo gemination, and the positions in a word where gemination may occur, differ by language. They have also been observed to have tense and lax consonants, although the status of tense consonants has been the subject of "considerable discussion" by linguists. + +Vowels +The vowel systems of Berber languages also vary widely, with inventories ranging from three phonemic vowels in most Northern Berber languages, to seven in some Eastern Berber and Tuareg languages. For example, Taselhiyt has vowels /i/, /a/, and /u/, while Ayer Tuareg has vowels /i/, /ə/, /u/, /e/, /ɐ/, /o/, and /a/. Contrastive vowel length is rare in Berber languages. Tuareg languages had previously been reported to have contrastive vowel length, but this is no longer the leading analysis. A complex feature of Berber vowel systems is the role of central vowels, which vary in occurrence and function across languages; there is debate as to whether schwa is a proper phoneme of Northern Berber languages. + +Suprasegmentals +Most Berber languages: + allow for any combination of CC consonant clusters. + have no lexical tones. + either have no lexical stress (Northern Berber languages) or have grammatically significant lexical stress. + +Phonetic Correspondences + +Phonetic correspondences between Berber languages are fairly regular. Some examples, of varying importance and regularity, include [g/ž/y]; [k/š]; [l/ř/r]; [l/ž, ll/ddž]; [trill/ vocalized r]; [šš/ttš]; [ss/ttš]; [w/g/b]; [q/ɣ]; [h/Ø]; and [s-š-ž/h]. Words in various Berber languages are shown to demonstrate these phonetic correspondences as follows: + +Grammar +Berber languages characteristically make frequent use of apophony in the form of ablaut. Berber apophony has been historically analyzed as functioning similarly to the Semitic root, but this analysis has fallen out of favor due to the lexical significance of vowels in Berber languages, as opposed to their primarily grammatical significance in Semitic languages. + +The lexical categories of all Berber languages are nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, and prepositions. With the exception of a handful of Arabic loanwords in most languages, Berber languages do not have proper adjectives. In Northern and Eastern Berber languages, adjectives are a subcatergory of nouns; in Tuareg, relative clauses and stative verb forms are used to modify nouns instead. + +The gender, number, and case of nouns, as well as the gender, number, and person of verbs, are typically distinguished through affixes. Arguments are described with word order and clitics. When sentences have a verb, they essentially follow verb–subject–object word order, although some linguists believe alternate descriptors would better categorize certain languages, such as Taqbaylit. + +Pronouns +Berber languages have both independent and dependent pronouns, both of which distinguish between person and number. Gender is also typically distinguished in the second and third person, and sometimes in first person plural. + +Linguist Maarten Kossmann divides pronouns in Berber languages into three morphological groups: + + Independent pronouns + Direct object clitics + Indirect object clitics; prepositional suffixes; adnominal suffixes + +When clitics precede or follow a verb, they are almost always ordered with the indirect object first, direct object second, and andative-venitive deictic clitic last. An example in Tarifit is shown as follows: + +The allowed positioning of different kinds of clitics varies by language. + +Nouns +Nouns are distinguished by gender, number, and case in most Berber languages, with gender being feminine or masculine, number being singular or plural, and case being in the construct or free state. + +Gender can be feminine or masculine, and can be lexically determined, or can be used to distinguish qualities of the noun. For humans and "higher" animals (such as mammals and large birds), gender distinguishes sex, whereas for objects and "lesser" animals (such as insects and lizards), it distinguishes size. For some nouns, often fruits and vegetables, gender can also distinguish the specificity of the noun. The ways in which gender is used to distinguish nouns is shown in as follows, with examples from Figuig: + +An example of nouns with lexically determined gender are the feminine t-lussi ("butter") and masculine a-ɣi ("buttermilk") in Figuig. Mass nouns have lexically determined gender across Berber languages. + +Most Berber languages have two cases, which distinguish the construct state from the free state. The construct state is also called the "construct case, "relative case," "annexed state" (état d'annexion), or the "nominative case"; the free state (état libre) is also called the "direct case" or "accusative case." When present, case is always expressed through nominal prefixes and initial-vowel reduction. The use of the marked nominative system and constructions similar to Split-S alignment varies by language. Eastern Berber languages do not have case. + +Number can be singular or plural, which is marked with prefixation, suffixation, and sometimes apophony. Nouns usually are made plural by one of either suffixation or apophony, with prefixation applied independently. Specifics vary by language, but prefixation typically changes singular a- and ta- to plural i- and ti- respectively. The number of mass nouns are lexically determined. For example, in multiple Berber languages, such as Figuig, a-ɣi ("buttermilk") is singular while am-an ("water") is plural. + +Nouns or pronouns — optionally extended with genitival pronominal affixes, demonstrative clitics, or pre-nominal elements, and then further modified by numerals, adjectives, possessive phrases, or relative clauses — can be built into noun phrases. Possessive phrases in noun phrases must have a genitive proposition. + +There are a limited number of pre-nominal elements, which function similarly to pronoun syntactic heads of the noun phrase, and which can be categorized into three types as follows: + + The pluralizer id- + The four pre-nominal elements roughly meaning "son(s) of" and "daughter(s) of", which commonly denote group identity and origin + Pre-nominal elements which expand on the meaning of the noun + +Verbs +Verb bases are formed by stems that are optionally extended by prefixes, with mood, aspect, and negation applied with a vocalic scheme. This form can then be conjugated with affixes to agree with person, number, and gender, which produces a word. + +Different linguists analyze and label aspects in the Berber languages very differently. Kossman roughly summarizes the basic stems which denote aspect as follows: + Aorist, also called aoriste, without a preceding particle: + imperative + unmarked (taking aspect from preceding verb) + Aorist, with the preceding article ad: + irrealis (adhortative, future) + Preterite, or accompli: + past tense, in dynamic use + states (such as "to want, to know"), in stative use + Intensive Aorist, also called habitative or inaccompli: + dynamic present + habitative and iterative + habitative imperative + negation of any imperative +Different languages may have more stems and aspects, or may distinguish within the above categories. Stem formation can be very complex, with Tuareg by some measures having over two hundred identified conjugation subtypes. + +The aspectual stems of some classes of verbs in various Berber languages are shown as follows: + +Verb phrases are built with verb morphology, pronominal and deictic clitics, pre-verbal particles, and auxiliary elements. The pre-verbal particles are ad, wər, and their variants, which correspond to the meanings of "non-realized" and "negative" respectively. + +Numerals +Many Berber languages have lost use of their original numerals from three onwards due to the influence of Arabic; Tarifit has lost all except one. Languages that may retain all their original numerals include Tashelhiyt, Tuareg, Ghadames, Ouargla, and Zenaga. + +Original Berber numerals agree in gender with the noun they describe, whereas the borrowed Arabic forms do not. + +The numerals 1–10 in Tashelhiyt and Mali Tuareg are as follows: + +Sentence Structure +Sentences in Berber languages can be divided into verbal and non-verbal sentences. The topic, which has a unique intonation in the sentence, precedes all other arguments in both types. + +Verbal sentences have a finite verb, and are commonly understood to follow verb–subject–object word order (VSO). Some linguists have proposed opposing analyses of the word order patterns in Berber languages, and there has been some support for characterizing Taqbaylit as discourse-configurational. + +Existential, attributive, and locational sentences in most Berber languages are expressed with a non-verbal sentence, which have no finite verb. In these sentences, the predicate follows the noun, with the predicative particle d sometimes in between. Two examples, one without and one with a subject, are given from Kabyle as follows: + +Non-verbal sentences may use the verb meaning "to be," which exists in all Berber languages. An example from Tarifit is given as follows: + +Lexicon +Above all in the area of basic lexicon, the Berber languages are very similar. However, the household-related vocabulary in sedentary tribes is especially different from the one found in nomadic ones, whereas Tahaggart has only two or three designations for species of palm tree, other languages may have as many as 200 similar words. In contrast, Tahaggart has a rich vocabulary for the description of camels. + +Some loanwords in the Berber languages can be traced to pre-Roman times. The Berber words te-ḇăyne "date" and a-sḇan "loose woody tissue around the palm tree stem" originate from Ancient Egyptian, likely due to the introduction of date palm cultivation into North Africa from Egypt. Around a dozen Berber words are probable Phoenician-Punic loanwords, although the overall influence of Phoenician-Punic on Berber languages is negligible. A number of loanwords could be attributed to Phoenician-Punic, Hebrew, or Aramaic. The similar vocabulary between these Semitic languages, as well as Arabic, is a complicating factor in tracing the etymology of certain words. + +Words of Latin origin have been introduced into Berber languages over time. Maarten Kossman separates Latin loanwords in Berber languages into those from during the Roman empire ("Latin loans"), from after the fall of the Roman empire ("African Romance loans"), precolonial non-African Romance loans, and colonial and post-colonial Romance loans. It can be difficult to distinguish Latin from African Romance loans. There are about 40 likely Latin or African Romance loanwords in Berber languages, which tend to be agricultural terms, religious terms, terms related to learning, or words for plants or useful objects. Use of these terms varies by language. For example, Tuareg does not retain the Latin agricultural terms, which relate to a form of agriculture not practiced by the Tuareg people. There are some Latin loans that are only known to be used in Shawiya. + +The Berber calendar uses month names derived from the Julian calendar. Not every language uses every month. For example, Figuig appears to use only eight of the months. These names may be precolonial non-African Romance loans, adopted into Berber languages through Arabic, rather than from Latin directly. + +The most influential external language on the lexicon of Berber languages is Arabic. Maarten Kossmann calculates that 0-5% of Ghadames and Awdjila's core vocabularies, and over 15% of Ghomara, Siwa, and Senhadja de Sraïr's core vocabularies, are loans from Arabic. Most other Berber languages loan from 6–15% of their core vocabulary from Arabic. Salem Chaker estimates that Arabic loanwords represent 38% of Kabyle vocabulary, 25% of Tashelhiyt vocabulary, and 5% of Tuareg vocabulary, including non-core words. + +On the one hand, the words and expressions connected to Islam were borrowed, e.g. Tashlhiyt bismillah "in the name of Allah" < Classical Arabic bi-smi-llāhi, Tuareg ta-mejjīda "mosque" (Arabic masjid); on the other, Berber adopted cultural concepts such as Kabyle ssuq "market" from Arabic as-sūq, tamdint "town" < Arabic madīna. Even expressions such as the Arabic greeting as-salāmu ʿalaikum "Peace be upon you!" were adopted (Tuareg salāmu ɣlīkum). The Berber languages often have original Berber designations besides the Arabic loans; for instance, both the inherited word ataram and the loan lɣərb (Arabic al-ġarb) coexist in Kabyle. + +Influence on other languages +The Berber languages have influenced local Arabic dialects in the Maghreb. Although Maghrebi Arabic has a predominantly Semitic and Arabic vocabulary, it contains a few Berber loanwords which represent 2–3% of the vocabulary of Libyan Arabic, 8–9% of Algerian Arabic and Tunisian Arabic, and 10–15% of Moroccan Arabic. Their influence is also seen in some languages in West Africa. F. W. H. Migeod pointed to strong resemblances between Berber and Hausa in such words and phrases as these: Berber: obanis; Hausa obansa (his father); Berber: a bat; Hausa ya bata (he was lost); Berber: eghare; Hausa ya kirra (he called). In addition he notes that the genitive in both languages is formed with n = "of". + +Extinct languages +A number of extinct populations are believed to have spoken Afro-Asiatic languages of the Berber branch. According to Peter Behrens (1981) and Marianne Bechaus-Gerst (2000), linguistic evidence suggests that the peoples of the C-Group culture in present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan spoke Berber languages. The Nilo-Saharan Nobiin language today contains a number of key pastoralism related loanwords that are of Berber origin, including the terms for sheep and water/Nile. This in turn suggests that the C-Group population—which, along with the Kerma culture, inhabited the Nile valley immediately before the arrival of the first Nubian speakers—spoke Afro-Asiatic languages. + +Additionally, historical linguistics indicate that the Guanche language, which was spoken on the Canary Islands by the ancient Guanches, likely belonged to the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. + +See also + List of Berber-language television channels + Amazigh Cultural Association in America + Shilha literature + +Notes + +References + +External links + + "What does Berber sound like?" (Thamazight poems as text & MP3) + Map of Berber language from the LL-Map Project (archived 24 June 2011) + The Berber Language Profile (archived 2 October 2010) + Etymology of "Berber" + Etymology of "Amazigh" + Early Christian history of Berbers + Tifinagh + Ancient Scripts (archived 26 August 2017) + Imyura Kabyle site about literature (archived 12 August 2013) + Amawal: The online open source Berber dictionary + + +Afroasiatic languages +Maghreb +Languages of Algeria +Languages of Morocco +Languages of Mali +Languages of Niger +Languages of Mauritania +Languages of Tunisia +Languages of Gibraltar +Languages of Sicily +Languages of Western Sahara +Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor. + +Bankrupt is not the only legal status that an insolvent person may have, and the term bankruptcy is therefore not a synonym for insolvency. + +Etymology +The word bankruptcy is derived from Italian banca rotta, literally meaning "broken bank". The term is often described as having originated in renaissance Italy, where there allegedly existed the tradition of smashing a banker's bench if he defaulted on payment so that the public could see that the banker, the owner of the bench, was no longer in a condition to continue his business, although some dismiss this as a false etymology. + +History + + +In Ancient Greece, bankruptcy did not exist. If a man owed and he could not pay, he and his wife, children or servants were forced into "debt slavery" until the creditor recouped losses through their physical labour. Many city-states in ancient Greece limited debt slavery to a period of five years; debt slaves had protection of life and limb, which regular slaves did not have. However, servants of the debtor could be retained beyond that deadline by the creditor and were often forced to serve their new lord for a lifetime, usually under significantly harsher conditions. An exception to this rule was Athens, which by the laws of Solon forbade enslavement for debt; as a consequence, most Athenian slaves were foreigners (Greek or otherwise). + +The Statute of Bankrupts of 1542 was the first statute under English law dealing with bankruptcy or insolvency. Bankruptcy is also documented in East Asia. According to al-Maqrizi, the Yassa of Genghis Khan contained a provision that mandated the death penalty for anyone who became bankrupt three times. + +A failure of a nation to meet bond repayments has been seen on many occasions. In a similar way, Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596. According to Kenneth S. Rogoff, "Although the development of international capital markets was quite limited prior to 1800, we nevertheless catalog the various defaults of France, Portugal, Prussia, Spain, and the early Italian city-states. At the edge of Europe, Egypt, Russia, and Turkey have histories of chronic default as well." + +Modern law and debt restructuring +The principal focus of modern insolvency legislation and business debt restructuring practices no longer rests on the elimination of insolvent entities, but on the remodeling of the financial and organizational structure of debtors experiencing financial distress so as to permit the rehabilitation and continuation of the business. + +For private households, it is important to assess the underlying problems and to minimize the risk of financial distress to recur. It has been stressed that debt advice, a supervised rehabilitation period, financial education and social help to find sources of income and to improve the management of household expenditures must be equally provided during this period of rehabilitation (Refiner et al., 2003; Gerhardt, 2009; Frade, 2010). In most EU member States, debt discharge is conditioned by a partial payment obligation and by a number of requirements concerning the debtor's behavior. In the United States (US), discharge is conditioned to a lesser extent. The spectrum is broad in the EU, with the UK coming closest to the US system (Reifner et al., 2003; Gerhardt, 2009; Frade, 2010). The Other Member States do not provide the option of a debt discharge. Spain, for example, passed a bankruptcy law (ley concurs) in 2003 which provides for debt settlement plans that can result in a reduction of the debt (maximally half of the amount) or an extension of the payment period of maximally five years (Gerhardt, 2009), but it does not foresee debt discharge. + +In the US, it is very difficult to discharge federal or federally guaranteed student loan debt by filing bankruptcy. Unlike most other debts, those student loans may be discharged only if the person seeking discharge establishes specific grounds for discharge under the Brunner test, under which the court evaluates three factors: + If required to repay the loan, the borrower cannot maintain a minimal standard of living; + The borrower's financial situation is likely to continue for most or all of the repayment period; and + The borrower has made a good faith effort to repay the student loans. +Even if a debtor proves all three elements, a court may permit only a partial discharge of the student loan. Student loan borrowers may benefit from restructuring their payments through a Chapter 13 bankruptcy repayment plan, but few qualify for discharge of part or all of their student loan debt. + +Fraud + +Bankruptcy fraud is a white-collar crime most typically involving concealment of assets by a debtor to avoid liquidation in bankruptcy proceedings. It may include filing of false information, multiple filings in different jurisdictions, bribery, and other acts. + +While difficult to generalize across jurisdictions, common criminal acts under bankruptcy statutes typically involve concealment of assets, concealment or destruction of documents, conflicts of interest, fraudulent claims, false statements or declarations, and fee fixing or redistribution arrangements. Falsifications on bankruptcy forms often constitute perjury. Multiple filings are not in and of themselves criminal, but they may violate provisions of bankruptcy law. In the U.S., bankruptcy fraud statutes are particularly focused on the mental state of particular actions. Bankruptcy fraud is a federal crime in the United States. + +Bankruptcy fraud should be distinguished from strategic bankruptcy, which is not a criminal act since it creates a real (not a fake) bankruptcy state. However, it may still work against the filer. + +All assets must be disclosed in bankruptcy schedules whether or not the debtor believes the asset has a net value. This is because once a bankruptcy petition is filed, it is for the creditors, not the debtor, to decide whether a particular asset has value. The future ramifications of omitting assets from schedules can be quite serious for the offending debtor. In the United States, a closed bankruptcy may be reopened by motion of a creditor or the U.S. trustee if a debtor attempts to later assert ownership of such an "unscheduled asset" after being discharged of all debt in the bankruptcy. The trustee may then seize the asset and liquidate it for the benefit of the (formerly discharged) creditors. Whether or not a concealment of such an asset should also be considered for prosecution as fraud or perjury would then be at the discretion of the judge or U.S. Trustee. + +By country +In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, bankruptcy is limited to individuals; other forms of insolvency proceedings (such as liquidation and administration) are applied to companies. In the United States, bankruptcy is applied more broadly to formal insolvency proceedings. In some countries, such as in Finland, bankruptcy is limited only to companies and individuals who are insolvent are condemned to de facto indentured servitude or minimum social benefits until their debts are paid in full, with accrued interest except when the court decides to show rare clemency by accepting a debtors application for debt restructuring, in which case an individual may have the amount of remaining debt reduced or be released from the debt. In France, the cognate French word banqueroute is used solely for cases of fraudulent bankruptcy, whereas the term faillite (cognate of "failure") is used for bankruptcy in accordance with the law. + +Argentina +In Argentina the national Act "24.522 de Concursos y Quiebras" regulates the Bankruptcy and the Reorganization of the individuals and companies, public entities are not included. + +Armenia +A person may be declared bankrupt with an application submitted to the court by the creditor or with an application to recognize his own bankruptcy. Legal and natural persons, including individual entrepreneurs, who have an indisputable payment obligation exceeding 60 days and amounting to more than one million AMD can be declared bankrupt. All creditors, including the state and municipalities, to whom the person has an obligation that meets the above-mentioned minimum criteria can submit an application to declare a person bankrupt by compulsory procedure. Basically, these obligations are derived from the legal acts of the court, transactions, the obligation of the debtor to pay taxes, duties, and other fees defined by law. + +At the same time, when being declared bankrupt with a voluntary bankruptcy application, the applicant bears the obligation to prove the fact that the value of his assets is less than his assets by one million AMD or more. + +Australia + +In Australia, bankruptcy is a status which applies to individuals and is governed by the federal Bankruptcy Act 1966. Companies do not go bankrupt but rather go into liquidation or administration, which is governed by the federal Corporations Act 2001. + +If a person commits an act of bankruptcy, then a creditor can apply to the Federal Circuit Court or the Federal Court for a sequestration order. Acts of bankruptcy are defined in the legislation, and include the failure to comply with a bankruptcy notice. A bankruptcy notice can be issued where, among other cases, a person fails to pay a judgment debt of at least $5,000. A person can also seek to have themselves declared bankrupt for any amount of debt by lodging a debtor's petition with the "Official Receiver", which is the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA). + +All bankrupts must lodge a Statement of Affairs document, also known as a Bankruptcy Form, with AFSA, which includes important information about their assets and liabilities. A bankruptcy cannot be discharged until this document has been lodged. + +Ordinarily, a bankruptcy lasts three years from the filing of the Statement of Affairs with AFSA. + +A Bankruptcy Trustee (in most cases, the Official Trustee at AFSA) is appointed to deal with all matters regarding the administration of the bankrupt estate. The Trustee's job includes notifying creditors of the estate and dealing with creditor inquiries; ensuring that the bankrupt complies with their obligations under the Bankruptcy Act; investigating the bankrupt's financial affairs; realising funds to which the estate is entitled under the Bankruptcy Act and distributing dividends to creditors if sufficient funds become available. + +For the duration of their bankruptcy, all bankrupts have certain restrictions placed upon them. For example, a bankrupt must obtain the permission of their trustee to travel overseas. Failure to do so may result in the bankrupt being stopped at the airport by the Australian Federal Police. Additionally, a bankrupt is required to provide their trustee with details of income and assets. If the bankrupt does not comply with the Trustee's request to provide details of income, the trustee may have grounds to lodge an Objection to Discharge, which has the effect of extending the bankruptcy for a further three or five years depending on the type of Objection. + +The realisation of funds usually comes from two main sources: the bankrupt's assets and the bankrupt's wages. There are certain assets that are protected, referred to as protected assets. These include household furniture and appliances, tools of the trade and vehicles up to a certain value. All other assets of value can be sold. If a house, including the main residence, or car is above a certain value, a third party can buy the interest from the estate in order for the bankrupt to utilise the asset. If this is not done, the interest vests in the estate and the trustee is able to take possession of the asset and sell it. + +The bankrupt must pay income contributions if their income is above a certain threshold. If the bankrupt fails to pay, the trustee can ask the Official Receiver to issue a notice to garnishee the bankrupt's wages. If that is not possible, the Trustee may seek to extend the bankruptcy for a further three or five years. + +Bankruptcies can be annulled, and the bankrupt released from bankruptcy, prior to the expiration of the normal three-year period if all debts are paid out in full. Sometimes a bankrupt may be able to raise enough funds to make an Offer of Composition to creditors, which would have the effect of paying the creditors some of the money they are owed. If the creditors accept the offer, the bankruptcy can be annulled after the funds are received. + +After the bankruptcy is annulled or the bankrupt has been automatically discharged, the bankrupt's credit report status is shown as "discharged bankrupt" for some years. The maximum number of years this information can be held is subject to the retention limits under the Privacy Act. How long such information is on a credit report may be shorter, depending on the issuing company, but the report must cease to record that information based on the criteria in the Privacy Act. + +Brazil +In Brazil, the Bankruptcy Law (11.101/05) governs court-ordered or out-of-court receivership and bankruptcy and only applies to public companies (publicly traded companies) with the exception of financial institutions, credit cooperatives, consortia, supplementary scheme entities, companies administering health care plans, equity companies and a few other legal entities. It does not apply to state-run companies. + +Current law covers three legal proceedings. The first one is bankruptcy itself ("Falência"). Bankruptcy is a court-ordered liquidation procedure for an insolvent business. The final goal of bankruptcy is to liquidate company assets and pay its creditors. + +The second one is Court-ordered Restructuring (Recuperação Judicial). The goal is to overcome the business crisis situation of the debtor in order to allow the continuation of the producer, the employment of workers and the interests of creditors, leading, thus, to preserving company, its corporate function and develop economic activity. It is a court procedure required by the debtor which has been in business for more than two years and requires approval by a judge. + +The Extrajudicial Restructuring (Recuperação Extrajudicial) is a private negotiation that involves creditors and debtors and, as with court-ordered restructuring, also must be approved by courts. + +Canada + +Bankruptcy, also referred to as insolvency in Canada, is governed by the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and is applicable to businesses and individuals. For example, Target Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of the Target Corporation, the second-largest discount retailer in the United States filed for bankruptcy on January 15, 2015, and closed all of its stores by April 12. The office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, a federal agency, is responsible for overseeing that bankruptcies are administered in a fair and orderly manner by all licensed Trustees in Canada. + +Trustees in bankruptcy, 1041 individuals licensed to administer insolvencies, bankruptcy and proposal estates are governed by the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act of Canada. + +Bankruptcy is filed when a person or a company becomes insolvent and cannot pay their debts as they become due and if they have at least $1,000 in debt. + +In 2011, the Superintendent of bankruptcy reported that trustees in Canada filed 127,774 insolvent estates. Consumer estates were the vast majority, with 122 999 estates. The consumer portion of the 2011 volume is divided into 77,993 bankruptcies and 45,006 consumer proposals. This represented a reduction of 8.9% from 2010. Commercial estates filed by Canadian trustees in 2011 4,775 estates, 3,643 bankruptcies and 1,132 Division 1 proposals. This represents a reduction of 8.6% over 2010. + +Duties of trustees +Some of the duties of the trustee in bankruptcy are to: + Review the file for any fraudulent preferences or reviewable transactions + Chair meetings of creditors + Sell any non-exempt assets + Object to the bankrupt's discharge + Distribute funds to creditors + +Creditors' meetings +Creditors become involved by attending creditors' meetings. The trustee calls the first meeting of creditors for the following purposes: + To consider the affairs of the bankrupt + To affirm the appointment of the trustee or substitute another in place thereof + To appoint inspectors + To give such directions to the trustee as the creditors may see fit with reference to the administration of the estate. + +Consumer proposals + +In Canada, a person can file a consumer proposal as an alternative to bankruptcy. A consumer proposal is a negotiated settlement between a debtor and their creditors. + +A typical proposal would involve a debtor making monthly payments for a maximum of five years, with the funds distributed to their creditors. Even though most proposals call for payments of less than the full amount of the debt owing, in most cases, the creditors accept the deal—because if they do not, the next alternative may be personal bankruptcy, in which the creditors get even less money. The creditors have 45 days to accept or reject the consumer proposal. Once the proposal is accepted by both the creditors and the Court, the debtor makes the payments to the Proposal Administrator each month (or as otherwise stipulated in their proposal), and the general creditors are prevented from taking any further legal or collection action. If the proposal is rejected, the debtor is returned to his prior insolvent state and may have no alternative but to declare personal bankruptcy. + +A consumer proposal can only be made by a debtor with debts to a maximum of $250,000 (not including the mortgage on their principal residence). If debts are greater than $250,000, the proposal must be filed under Division 1 of Part III of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. An Administrator is required in the Consumer Proposal, and a Trustee in the Division I Proposal (these are virtually the same although the terms are not interchangeable). A Proposal Administrator is almost always a licensed trustee in bankruptcy, although the Superintendent of Bankruptcy may appoint other people to serve as administrators. + +In 2006, there were 98,450 personal insolvency filings in Canada: 79,218 bankruptcies and 19,232 consumer proposals. + +Commercial restructuring +In Canada, bankruptcy always means liquidation. There is no way for a company to emerge from bankruptcy after restructuring, as is the case in the United States with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Canada does, however, have laws that allow for businesses to restructure and emerge later with a smaller debtload and a more positive financial future. While not technically a form of bankruptcy, businesses with $5M or more in debt may make use of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act to halt all debt recovery efforts against the company while they formulate a plan to restructure. + +China + +The People's Republic of China legalized bankruptcy in 1986, and a revised law that was more expansive and complete was enacted in 2007. + +Ireland +Bankruptcy in Ireland applies only to natural persons. Other insolvency processes including liquidation and examinership are used to deal with corporate insolvency. + +Irish bankruptcy law has been the subject of significant comment, from both government sources and the media, as being in need of reform. Part 7 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 has started this process and the government has committed to further reform. + +Israel +Bankruptcy in Israel is governed by the Insolvency and Rehabilitation Law, 2018. Insolvency proceedings below NIS 150,000 will be administered entirely by the Enforcement and Collection Authority. Insolvency proceedings above NIS 150,000 individual debtors file the documents will be conducted before the official receiver (the Insolvency Commissioner) and, if a creditor want to file against a debtor he needs to open process, before the magistrate's court that hears in the district. Company bankruptcy will be conducted before District Court. Simultaneously, with the issue of the order for the commencement of insolvency proceedings, the Insolvency Commissioner shall appoint a trustee for the debtor and an audit will be carried out, in which the debtor's economic capability and his conduct will be examined (lasting approximately 12 months). At the end of this audit a payment plan is established, at the end of which the debtor will receive a discharge. The default scenario is a payment period of three years, however, the court reserves the right to increase or decrease the period depending upon the circumstances of the case. If the debtor has no proven financial ability to pay the creditors, he may be granted an immediate discharge. Since 1996, Israeli personal bankruptcy law has shifted to a relatively debtor-friendly regime, not unlike the American model. + +India + +The Parliament of India in the first week of May 2016 passed Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (New Code). Earlier a clear law on corporate bankruptcy did not exist, even though individual bankruptcy laws have been in existence since 1874. The earlier law in force was enacted in 1920 called the Provincial Insolvency Act. + +The legal definitions of the terms bankruptcy, insolvency, liquidation and dissolution are contested in the Indian legal system. There is no regulation or statute legislated upon bankruptcy which denotes a condition of inability to meet a demand of a creditor as is common in many other jurisdictions. + +Winding up of companies was in the jurisdiction of the courts which can take a decade even after the company has actually been declared insolvent. On the other hand, supervisory restructuring at the behest of the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction is generally undertaken using receivership by a public entity. + +The Netherlands +Dutch bankruptcy law is governed by the Dutch Bankruptcy Code (Faillissementswet). The code covers three separate legal proceedings. + The first is the bankruptcy (faillissement). The goal of the bankruptcy is the liquidation of the assets of the company. The bankruptcy applies only to companies. + The second legal proceeding in the Faillissementswet is the surseance van betaling. The surseance van betaling only applies to companies. Its goal is to reach an agreement with the creditors of the company. It is comparable to filing for protection against creditors. + The third proceeding is the schuldsanering. This proceeding is designed for individuals only and is the result of a court ruling. The judge appoints a monitor. The monitor is an independent third party who monitors the individual's ongoing business and decides about financial matters during the period of the schuldsanering. The individual can travel out of the country freely after the judge's decision on the case. + +Russia + +Federal Law No. 127-FZ "On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)" dated 26 October 2002 (as amended) (the "Bankruptcy Act"), replacing the previous law in 1998, to better address the above problems and a broader failure of the action. +Russian insolvency law is intended for a wide range of borrowers: individuals and companies of all sizes, with the exception of state-owned enterprises, government agencies, political parties and religious organizations. There are also special rules for insurance companies, professional participants of the securities market, agricultural organizations and other special laws for financial institutions and companies in the natural monopolies in the energy industry. +Federal Law No. 40-FZ "On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)" dated 25 February 1999 (as amended) (the "Insolvency Law of Credit Institutions") contains special provisions in relation to the opening of insolvency proceedings in relation to the credit company. Insolvency Provisions Act, credit organizations used in conjunction with the provisions of the Bankruptcy Act. + +Bankruptcy law provides for the following stages of insolvency proceedings: +Monitoring procedure or Supervision (nablyudeniye); +The economic recovery (finansovoe ozdorovleniye); +External control (vneshneye upravleniye); +Liquidation (konkursnoye proizvodstvo) and +Amicable Agreement (mirovoye soglasheniye). + +The main face of the bankruptcy process is the insolvency officer (trustee in bankruptcy, bankruptcy manager). At various stages of bankruptcy, he must be determined: the temporary officer in Monitoring procedure, external manager in External control, the receiver or administrative officer in The economic recovery, the liquidator. During the bankruptcy trustee in bankruptcy (insolvency officer) has a decisive influence on the movement of assets (property) of the debtor - the debtor and has a key influence on the economic and legal aspects of its operations. + +South Africa + +Switzerland + +Under Swiss law, bankruptcy can be a consequence of insolvency. It is a court-ordered form of debt enforcement proceedings that applies, in general, to registered commercial entities only. In a bankruptcy, all assets of the debtor are liquidated under the administration of the creditors, although the law provides for debt restructuring options similar to those under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code. + +Sweden +In Sweden, bankruptcy (Swedish: konkurs) is a formal process that may involve a company or individual. It is not the same as insolvency, which is inability to pay debts that should have been paid. A creditor or the company itself can apply for bankruptcy. An external bankruptcy manager takes over the company or the assets of the person, and tries to sell as much as possible. A person or a company in bankruptcy can not access its assets (with some exceptions). + +The formal bankruptcy process is rarely carried out for individuals. Creditors can claim money through the Enforcement Administration anyway, and creditors do not usually benefit from the bankruptcy of individuals because there are costs of a bankruptcy manager which has priority. Unpaid debts remain after bankruptcy for individuals. People who are deeply in debt can obtain a debt arrangement procedure (Swedish: skuldsanering). On application, they obtain a payment plan under which they pay as much as they can for five years, and then all remaining debts are cancelled. Debts that derive from a ban on business operations (issued by court, commonly for tax fraud or fraudulent business practices) or owed to a crime victim as compensation for damages, are exempted from this—and, as before this process was introduced in 2006, remain lifelong. Debts that have not been claimed during a 3-10 year period are cancelled. Often crime victims stop their claims after a few years since criminals often do not have job incomes and might be hard to locate, while banks make sure their claims are not cancelled. The most common reasons for personal insolvency in Sweden are illness, unemployment, divorce or company bankruptcy. + +For companies, formal bankruptcy is a normal effect of insolvency, even if there is a reconstruction mechanism where the company can be given time to solve its situation, e.g. by finding an investor. The formal bankruptcy involves contracting a bankruptcy manager, who makes certain that assets are sold and money divided by the priority the law claims, and no other way. Banks have such a priority. After a finished bankruptcy for a company, it is terminated. The activities might continue in a new company which has bought important assets from the bankrupted company. + +United Arab Emirates + +The United Arab Emirates Bankruptcy Law came into force on 29 December 2016, and created a single law governing bankruptcy procedures, which had previously been spread across multiple sources. There are two court procedures: first, a procedure for a company that is not yet insolvent, known as a protective composition, and second, a formal bankruptcy that is split into a rescue process (similar to protective composition) or liquidation. + +Directors of a company can be held personally liable for its debts. + +The Bankruptcy Law does not apply to government bodies, or to companies trading in free zones such as the Dubai International Financial Centre or the Abu Dhabi Global Market, which have their own insolvency laws. + +United Kingdom + +Bankruptcy in the United Kingdom (in a strict legal sense) relates only to individuals (including sole proprietors) and partnerships. Companies and other corporations enter into differently named legal insolvency procedures: liquidation and administration (administration order and administrative receivership). However, the term 'bankruptcy' is often used when referring to companies in the media and in general conversation. Bankruptcy in Scotland is referred to as sequestration. To apply for bankruptcy in Scotland, an individual must have more than £1,500 of debt. + +A trustee in bankruptcy must be either an Official Receiver (a civil servant) or a licensed insolvency practitioner. Current law in England and Wales derives in large part from the Insolvency Act 1986. Following the introduction of the Enterprise Act 2002, a UK bankruptcy now normally last no longer than 12 months, and may be less if the Official Receiver files in court a certificate that investigations are complete. It was expected that the UK Government's liberalisation of the UK bankruptcy regime would increase the number of bankruptcy cases; initially, cases increased, as the Insolvency Service statistics appear to bear out. Since 2009, the introduction of the Debt Relief Order has resulted in a dramatic fall in bankruptcies, the latest estimates for year 2014/15 being significantly less than 30,000 cases. + + +Pensions +The UK bankruptcy law was changed in May 2000, effective May 29, 2000. Debtors may now retain occupational pensions while in bankruptcy, except in rare cases. + +Proposed reform +The Government have updated legislation (2016) to streamline the application process for UK bankruptcy. UK residents now need to apply online for bankruptcy - there is an upfront fee of £680. The process for residents of Northern Ireland differs - applicants must follow the older process of applying through the courts. + +United States + +Bankruptcy in the United States is a matter placed under federal jurisdiction by the United States Constitution (in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4), which empowers Congress to enact "uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States". Congress has enacted statutes governing bankruptcy, primarily in the form of the Bankruptcy Code, located at Title 11 of the United States Code. + +A debtor declares bankruptcy to obtain relief from debt, and this is normally accomplished either through a discharge of the debt or through a restructuring of the debt. When a debtor files a voluntary petition, their bankruptcy case commences. + +Debts and exemptions +While bankruptcy cases are always filed in United States Bankruptcy Court (an adjunct to the U.S. District Courts), bankruptcy cases, particularly with respect to the validity of claims and exemptions, are often dependent upon State law. A Bankruptcy Exemption defines the property a debtor may retain and preserve through bankruptcy. Certain real and personal property can be exempted on "Schedule C" of a debtor's bankruptcy forms, and effectively be taken outside the debtor's bankruptcy estate. Bankruptcy exemptions are available only to individuals filing bankruptcy. + +There are two alternative systems that can be used to "exempt" property from a bankruptcy estate, federal exemptions (available in some states but not all), and state exemptions (which vary widely between states). For example, Maryland and Virginia, which are adjoining states, have different personal exemption amounts that cannot be seized for payment of debts. This amount is the first $6,000 in property or cash in Maryland, but normally only the first $5,000 in Virginia. State law therefore plays a major role in many bankruptcy cases, such that there may be significant differences in the outcome of a bankruptcy case depending upon the state in which it is filed. + +After a bankruptcy petition is filed, the court schedules a hearing called a 341 meeting or meeting of creditors, at which the bankruptcy trustee and creditors review the petitioner's petition and supporting schedules, question the petitioner, and can challenge exemptions they believe are improper. + +Chapters +There are six types of bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy Code, located at Title 11 of the United States Code: + Chapter 7: basic liquidation for individuals and businesses; also known as straight bankruptcy; it is the simplest and quickest form of bankruptcy available + Chapter 9: municipal bankruptcy; a federal mechanism for the resolution of municipal debts + Chapter 11: rehabilitation or reorganization, used primarily by business debtors but sometimes by individuals with substantial debts and assets; known as corporate bankruptcy, it is a form of corporate financial reorganization that typically allows companies to continue to function while they follow debt repayment plans + Chapter 12: rehabilitation for family farmers and fishermen; + Chapter 13: rehabilitation with a payment plan for individuals with a regular source of income; enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts; also known as Wage Earner Bankruptcy + Chapter 15: ancillary and other international cases; provides a mechanism for dealing with bankruptcy debtors and helps foreign debtors clear debts + +An important feature applicable to all types of bankruptcy filings is the automatic stay. The automatic stay means that the mere request for bankruptcy protection automatically halts most lawsuits, repossessions, foreclosures, evictions, garnishments, attachments, utility shut-offs, and debt collection activity. + +The most common types of personal bankruptcy for individuals are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. Chapter 7, known as a "straight bankruptcy", involves the discharge of certain debts without repayment. Chapter 13 involves a plan of repayment of debts over a period of years. Whether a person qualifies for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 is in part determined by income. As many as 65% of all US consumer bankruptcy filings are Chapter 7 cases. + +Before a consumer may obtain bankruptcy relief under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, the debtor is to undertake credit counseling with approved counseling agencies prior to filing a bankruptcy petition and to undertake education in personal financial management from approved agencies prior to being granted a discharge of debts under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Some studies of the operation of the credit counseling requirement suggest that it provides little benefit to debtors who receive the counseling because the only realistic option for many is to seek relief under the Bankruptcy Code. + +Corporations and other business forms normally file under Chapters 7 or 11. + +Chapter 7 + +Often called "straight bankruptcy" or "simple bankruptcy", a Chapter 7 bankruptcy potentially allows debtors to eliminate most or all of their debts over a period of as little as three or four months. In a typical consumer bankruptcy, the only debts that survive a Chapter 7 are student loans, child support obligations, some tax bills, and criminal fines. Credit cards, pay day loans, personal loans, medical bills, and just about all other bills are discharged. + +In Chapter 7, a debtor surrenders non-exempt property to a bankruptcy trustee, who then liquidates the property and distributes the proceeds to the debtor's unsecured creditors. In exchange, the debtor is entitled to a discharge of some debt. However, the debtor is not granted a discharge if guilty of certain types of inappropriate behavior (e.g., concealing records relating to financial condition) and certain debts (e.g., spousal and child support and most student loans). Some taxes are not discharged even though the debtor is generally discharged from debt. Many individuals in financial distress own only exempt property (e.g., clothes, household goods, an older car, or the tools of their trade or profession) and do not have to surrender any property to the trustee. The amount of property that a debtor may exempt varies from state to state (as noted above, Virginia and Maryland have a $1,000 difference.) Chapter 7 relief is available only once in any eight-year period. Generally, the rights of secured creditors to their collateral continues, even though their debt is discharged. For example, absent some arrangement by a debtor to surrender a car or "reaffirm" a debt, the creditor with a security interest in the debtor's car may repossess the car even if the debt to the creditor is discharged. + +Ninety-one percent of US individuals who petition for relief under Chapter 7 hire an attorney to file their petitions. The typical cost of an attorney is $1,170.00. Alternatives to filing with an attorney are: filing pro se, hiring a non-lawyer petition preparer, or using online software to generate the petition. + +To be eligible to file a consumer bankruptcy under Chapter 7, a debtor must qualify under a statutory "means test". The means test was intended to make it more difficult for a significant number of financially distressed individual debtors whose debts are primarily consumer debts to qualify for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. The "means test" is employed in cases where an individual with primarily consumer debts has more than the average annual income for a household of equivalent size, computed over a 180-day period prior to filing. If the individual must "take" the "means test", their average monthly income over this 180-day period is reduced by a series of allowances for living expenses and secured debt payments in a very complex calculation that may or may not accurately reflect that individual's actual monthly budget. If the results of the means test show no disposable income (or in some cases a very small amount) then the individual qualifies for Chapter 7 relief. An individual who fails the means test will have their Chapter 7 case dismissed, or may have to convert the case to a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. + +If a debtor does not qualify for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code, either because of the Means Test or because Chapter 7 does not provide a permanent solution to delinquent payments for secured debts, such as mortgages or vehicle loans, the debtor may still seek relief under Chapter 13 of the Code. + +Generally, a trustee sells most of the debtor's assets to pay off creditors. However, certain debtor assets will be protected to some extent by bankruptcy exemptions. These include Social Security payments, unemployment compensation, limited equity in a home, car, or truck, household goods and appliances, trade tools, and books. However, these exemptions vary from state to state. + +Chapter 11 + +In Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the debtor retains ownership and control of assets and is re-termed a debtor in possession (DIP). The debtor in possession runs the day-to-day operations of the business while creditors and the debtor work with the Bankruptcy Court in order to negotiate and complete a plan. Upon meeting certain requirements (e.g., fairness among creditors, priority of certain creditors) creditors are permitted to vote on the proposed plan. If a plan is confirmed, the debtor continues to operate and pay debts under the terms of the confirmed plan. If a specified majority of creditors do not vote to confirm a plan, additional requirements may be imposed by the court in order to confirm the plan. Debtors filing for Chapter 11 protection a second time are known informally as "Chapter 22" filers. + +In a corporate or business bankruptcy, an indebted company is typically recapitalized so that it emerges from bankruptcy with more equity and less debt, with potential for dispute over the valuation of the reorganized business. + +Chapter 13 + +In Chapter 13, debtors retain ownership and possession of all their assets but must devote some portion of future income to repaying creditors, generally over three to five years. The amount of payment and period of the repayment plan depend upon a variety of factors, including the value of the debtor's property and the amount of a debtor's income and expenses. Under this chapter, the debtor can propose a repayment plan in which to pay creditors over three to five years. If the monthly income is less than the state's median income, the plan is for three years, unless the court finds "just cause" to extend the plan for a longer period. If the debtor's monthly income is greater than the median income for individuals in the debtor's state, the plan must generally be for five years. A plan cannot exceed the five-year limit. + +Relief under Chapter 13 is available only to individuals with regular income whose debts do not exceed prescribed limits. If the debtor is an individual or a sole proprietor, the debtor is allowed to file for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to repay all or part of the debts. Secured creditors may be entitled to greater payment than unsecured creditors. + +In contrast to Chapter 7, the debtor in Chapter 13 may keep all property, whether or not exempt. If the plan appears feasible and if the debtor complies with all the other requirements, the bankruptcy court typically confirms the plan and the debtor and creditors are bound by its terms. Creditors have no say in the formulation of the plan, other than to object to it, if appropriate, on the grounds that it does not comply with one of the Code's statutory requirements. Generally, the debtor makes payments to a trustee who disburses the funds in accordance with the terms of the confirmed plan. + +When the debtor completes payments pursuant to the terms of the plan, the court formally grant the debtor a discharge of the debts provided for in the plan. However, if the debtor fails to make the agreed upon payments or fails to seek or gain court approval of a modified plan, a bankruptcy court will normally dismiss the case on the motion of the trustee. After a dismissal, creditors may resume pursuit of state law remedies to recover the unpaid debt. + +European Union + +In 2004, the number of insolvencies reached record highs in many European countries. In France, company insolvencies rose by more than 4%, in Austria by more than 10%, and in Greece by more than 20%. The increase in the number of insolvencies, however, does not indicate the total financial impact of insolvencies in each country because there is no indication of the size of each case. An increase in the number of bankruptcy cases does not necessarily entail an increase in bad debt write-off rates for the economy as a whole. + +Bankruptcy statistics are also a trailing indicator. There is a time delay between financial difficulties and bankruptcy. In most cases, several months or even years pass between the financial problems and the start of bankruptcy proceedings. Legal, tax, and cultural issues may further distort bankruptcy figures, especially when comparing on an international basis. Two examples: + In Austria, more than half of all potential bankruptcy proceedings in 2004 were not opened, due to insufficient funding. + In Spain, it is not economically profitable to open insolvency/bankruptcy proceedings against certain types of businesses, and therefore the number of insolvencies is quite low. For comparison: In France, more than 40,000 insolvency proceedings were opened in 2004, but under 600 were opened in Spain. At the same time the average bad debt write-off rate in France was 1.3% compared to Spain with 2.6%. + +The insolvency numbers for private individuals also do not show the whole picture. Only a fraction of heavily indebted households file for insolvency. Two of the main reasons for this are the stigma of declaring themselves insolvent and the potential business disadvantage. + +Following the soar in insolvencies in the last decade, a number of European countries, such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy, began to revamp their bankruptcy laws in 2013. They modelled these new laws after the image of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Currently, the majority of insolvency cases have ended in liquidation in Europe rather than the businesses surviving the crisis. These new law models are meant to change this; lawmakers are hoping to turn bankruptcy into a chance for restructuring rather than a death sentence for the companies. + +Effective sovereign bankruptcy +Technically, states do not collapse directly due to a sovereign default event itself. However, the tumultuous events that follow may bring down the state, so in common language, states would be described as being bankrupted. + +Some examples of this are when a Korean state bankrupted Imperial China causing its destruction, or more specifically, when Chang'an's (Sui Dynasty) war with Pyongyang (Goguryeo) in 614 A.D. ended in the former's disintegration within 4 years, although the latter also seemingly entered into decline and fell some 56 years later. Another example is when the United States, with heavy financial backing from its allies (creditors), bankrupted the Soviet Union which led to the latter's demise. + +See also + + Bankruptcy Act + Bankruptcy alternatives + Creditor's rights + Debt consolidation + Debt relief + Debt restructuring + Debtor in possession + Default + DIP Financing + Distressed securities + Financial distress + Individual voluntary arrangement + Insolvency + Judicial estoppel + Liquidation + Protected trust deed + Sole Trader Insolvency (UK) + Stalking Horse Agreement + Tools of trade + Turnaround ADR + +References + +Further reading + +External links + + U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Courts + Official U.S. Bankruptcy Statistics + US Courts Bankruptcy Law + Executive Office for United States Bankruptcy Trustees + Cornell Bankruptcy Laws + National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys + Bankruptcy Research Database (WebBRD) + Website of the Insolvency Service in the UK + Bankruptcy Statistics in Hong Kong + Official Means Testing Information + + +Personal financial problems +Corporate liquidations +Debt +Blissymbols or Blissymbolics is a constructed language conceived as an ideographic writing system called Semantography consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symbols that represent new concepts. Blissymbols differ from most of the world's major writing systems in that the characters do not correspond at all to the sounds of any spoken language. + +Semantography was published by Charles K. Bliss in 1949 and found use in the education of people with communication difficulties. + +History +Semantography was invented by Charles K. Bliss (1897–1985), born Karl Kasiel Blitz to a Jewish family in Chernivtsi (then Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary), which had a mixture of different nationalities that "hated each other, mainly because they spoke and thought in different languages." + +Bliss graduated as a chemical engineer at the Vienna University of Technology, and joined an electronics company. After the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Bliss was sent to concentration camps but his German wife Claire managed to get him released, and they finally became exiles in Shanghai, where Bliss had a cousin. + +Bliss devised the symbols while a refugee at the Shanghai Ghetto and Sydney, from 1942 to 1949. He wanted to create an easy-to-learn international auxiliary language to allow communication between different linguistic communities. He was inspired by Chinese characters, with which he became familiar at Shanghai. + +Bliss published his system in Semantography (1949, exp. 2nd ed. 1965, 3rd ed. 1978.) +It had several names: + +As the "tourist explosion" took place in the 1960s, a number of researchers were looking for new standard symbols to be used at roads, stations, airports, etc. Bliss then adopted the name Blissymbolics in order that no researcher could plagiarize his system of symbols. + +Since the 1960s/1970s, Blissymbols have become popular as a method to teach disabled people to communicate. +In 1971 Shirley McNaughton started a pioneer program at the Ontario Crippled Children's Centre (OCCC), aimed at children with cerebral palsy, from the approach of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). According to Arika Okrent, Bliss used to complain about the way the teachers at the OCCC were using the symbols, in relation with the proportions of the symbols and other questions: for example, they used "fancy" terms like "nouns" and "verbs", to describe what Bliss called "things" and "actions". (2009, p. 173-4). +The ultimate objective of the OCCC program was to use Blissymbols as a practical way to teach the children to express themselves in their mother tongue, since the Blissymbols provided visual keys to understand the meaning of the English words, especially the abstract words. + +In Semantography Bliss had not provided a systematic set of definitions for his symbols (there was a provisional vocabulary index instead (1965, pp. 827–67)), so McNaughton's team might often interpret a certain symbol in a way that Bliss would later criticize as a "misinterpretation". For example, they might interpret a tomato as a vegetable —according to the English definition of tomato— even though the ideal Blissymbol of vegetable was restricted by Bliss to just vegetables growing underground. Eventually the OCCC staff modified and adapted Bliss's system in order to make it serve as a bridge to English. (2009, p. 189) Bliss' complaints about his symbols "being abused" by the OCCC became so intense that the director of the OCCC told Bliss, on his 1974 visit, never to come back. In spite of this, in 1975 Bliss granted an exclusive world license, for use with disabled children, to the new Blissymbolics Communication Foundation directed by Shirley McNaughton (later called Blissymbolics Communication International, BCI). Nevertheless, in 1977 Bliss claimed that this agreement was violated so that he was deprived of effective control of his symbol system. + +According to Okrent (2009, p. 190), there was a final period of conflict, as Bliss would make continuous criticisms to McNaughton often followed by apologies. Bliss finally brought his lawyers back to the OCCC, reaching a settlement: + +Blissymbolic Communication International now claims an exclusive license from Bliss, for the use and publication of Blissymbols for persons with communication, language, and learning difficulties. + +The Blissymbol method has been used in Canada, Sweden, and a few other countries. Practitioners of Blissymbolics (that is, speech and language therapists and users) maintain that some users who have learned to communicate with Blissymbolics find it easier to learn to read and write traditional orthography in the local spoken language than do users who did not know Blissymbolics. + +The speech question +Unlike similar constructed languages like aUI, Blissymbolics was conceived as a written language with no phonology, on the premise that "interlinguistic communication is mainly carried on by reading and writing". Nevertheless, Bliss suggested that a set of international words could be adopted, so that "a kind of spoken language could be established – as a travelling aid only". (1965, p. 89–90). + +Whether Blissymbolics constitutes an unspoken language is a controversial question, whatever its practical utility may be. Some linguists, such as John DeFrancis and J. Marshall Unger have argued that genuine ideographic writing systems with the same capacities as natural languages do not exist. + +Semantics + +Bliss' concern about semantics finds an early referent in John Locke, whose Essay Concerning Human Understanding prevented people from those "vague and insignificant forms of speech" that may give the impression of being deep learning. + +Another vital referent is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's project of an ideographic language "characteristica universalis", based on the principles of Chinese characters. It would contain small figures representing "visible things by their lines, and the invisible, by the visible which accompany them", adding "certain additional marks, suitable to make understood the flexions and the particles." Bliss stated that his own work was an attempt to take up the thread of Leibniz's project. + +Finally there is a strong influence by The Meaning of Meaning (1923) by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, which was considered a standard work on semantics. Bliss found especially useful their "triangle of reference": the physical thing or "referent" that we perceive would be represented at the right vertex; the meaning that we know by experience (our implicit definition of the thing), at the top vertex; and the physical word that we speak or symbol we write, at the left vertex. The reversed process would happen when we read or listen to words: from the words, we recall meanings, related to referents which may be real things or unreal "fictions". Bliss was particularly concerned with political propaganda, whose discourses would tend to contain words that correspond to unreal or ambiguous referents. + +Grammar +The grammar of Blissymbols is based on a certain interpretation of nature, dividing it into matter (material things), energy (actions), and human values (mental evaluations). In a natural language, these would give place respectively to nouns, verbs, and adjectives. In Blissymbols, they are marked respectively by a small square symbol, a small cone symbol, and a small V or inverted cone. These symbols may be placed above any other symbol, turning it respectively into a "thing", an "action", and an "evaluation": + +When a symbol is not marked by any of the three grammar symbols (square, cone, inverted cone), it may refer to a non-material thing, a grammatical particle, etc. + +Examples + The preceding symbol represents the expression "world language", which was a first tentative name for Blissymbols. It combines the symbol for "writing tool" or "pen" (a line inclined, as a pen being used) with the symbol for "world", which in its turn combines "ground" or "earth" (a horizontal line below) and its counterpart derivate "sky" (a horizontal line above). Thus the world would be seen as "what is among the ground and the sky", and "Blissymbols" would be seen as "the writing tool to express the world". This is clearly distinct from the symbol of "language", which is a combination of "mouth" and "ear". Thus natural languages are mainly oral, while Blissymbols is just a writing system dealing with semantics, not phonetics. + +The 900 individual symbols of the system are called "Bliss-characters"; these may be "ideographic" – representing abstract concepts, "pictographic" – a direct representation of objects, or "composite" – in which two or more existing Bliss-characters are superimposed to represent a new meaning. Size, orientation and relation to the "skyline" and "earthline" affects the meaning of each symbol. A single concept is called a "Bliss-word", which can consist of one or more Bliss-characters. In multiple-character Bliss-words, the main character is called the "classifier" which "indicates the semantic or grammatical category to which the Bliss-word belongs". To this can be added Bliss-characters as prefixes or suffixes called "modifiers" which amend the meaning of the first symbol. A further symbol called an "indicator" can be added above one of the characters in the Bliss-word (typically the classifier); these are used as "grammatical and/or semantic markers." + +Sentence on the right means "I want to go to the cinema.", showing several features of Blissymbolics: + + The pronoun "I" is formed of the Bliss-character for "person" and the number 1 (the first person). Using the number 2 would give the symbol for singular "You"; adding the plural indicator (a small cross at the top) would produce the pronouns "We" and plural "You". + The Bliss-word for "to want" contains the heart which symbolizes "feeling" (the classifier), plus the serpentine line which symbolizes "fire" (the modifier), and the verb (called "action") indicator at the top. + The Bliss-word for "to go" is composed of the Bliss-character for "leg" and the verb indicator. + The Bliss-word for "cinema" is composed of the Bliss-character for "house" (the classifier), and "film" (the modifier); "film" is a composite character composed of "camera" and the arrow indicating movement. + +Towards the international standardization of the script + +Blissymbolics was used in 1971 to help children at the Ontario Crippled Children's Centre (OCCC, now the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Since it was important that the children see consistent pictures, OCCC had a draftsman named Jim Grice draw the symbols. Both Charles K. Bliss and Margrit Beesley at the OCCC worked with Grice to ensure consistency. In 1975, a new organization named Blissymbolics Communication Foundation directed by Shirley McNaughton led this effort. Over the years, this organization changed its name to Blissymbolics Communication Institute, Easter Seal Communication Institute, and ultimately to Blissymbolics Communication International (BCI). + +BCI is an international group of people who act as an authority regarding the standardization of the Blissymbolics language. It has taken responsibility for any extensions of the Blissymbolics language as well as any maintenance needed for the language. BCI has coordinated usage of the language since 1971 for augmentative and alternative communication. BCI received a licence and copyright through legal agreements with Charles K. Bliss in 1975 and 1982. Limiting the count of Bliss-characters (there are currently about 900) is very useful in order to help the user community. It also helps when implementing Blissymbolics using technology such as computers. + +In 1991, BCI published a reference guide containing 2300 vocabulary items and detailed rules for the graphic design of additional characters, so they settled a first set of approved Bliss-words for general use. +The Standards Council of Canada then sponsored, on January 21, 1993, the registration of an encoded character set for use in ISO/IEC 2022, in the ISO-IR international registry of coded character sets. +After many years of requests, the Blissymbolic language was finally approved as an encoded language, with code , into the ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3 standards. + +A proposal was posted by Michael Everson for the Blissymbolics script to be included in the Universal Character Set (UCS) and encoded for use with the ISO/IEC 10646 and Unicode standards. BCI would cooperate with the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) and the ISO Working Group. +The proposed encoding does not use the lexical encoding model used in the existing ISO-IR/169 registered character set, but instead applies the Unicode and ISO character-glyph model to the Bliss-character model already adopted by BCI, since this would significantly reduce the number of needed characters. Bliss-characters can now be used in a creative way to create many new arbitrary concepts, by surrounding the invented words with special Bliss indicators (similar to punctuation), something which was not possible in the ISO-IR/169 encoding. + +However, by the end of 2009, the Blissymbolic script was not encoded in the UCS. Some questions are still unanswered, such as the inclusion in the BCI repertoire of some characters (currently about 24) that are already encoded in the UCS (like digits, punctuation signs, spaces and some markers), but whose unification may cause problems due to the very strict graphical layouts required by the published Bliss reference guides. In addition, the character metrics use a specific layout where the usual baseline is not used, and the ideographic em-square is not relevant for Bliss character designs that use additional "earth line" and "sky line" to define the composition square. +Some fonts supporting the BCI repertoire are available and usable with texts encoded with private-use assignments (PUA) within the UCS. But only the private BCI encoding based on ISO-IR/169 registration is available for text interchange. + +See also + Egyptian hieroglyphs + Esperanto + iConji + Isotype + Kanji + + LoCoS (language) + +References + +External links + + + Blissymbol Communication UK + An Introduction to Blissymbols (PDF file) + Standard two-byte encoded character set for Blissymbols , from the ISO-IR international registry of character sets, registration number 169 (1993-01-21). + Michael Everson's First proposed encoding into Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 of Blissymbolics characters, based on the decomposition of the ISO-IR/169 repertoire. + Preliminary proposal for encoding Blissymbols (WG2 N5228) + Radiolab program about Charles Bliss – Broadcast December 2012 – the item about Charles Bliss starts after 5 minutes and is approx 30 mins long. + +Engineered languages +Auxiliary and educational artificial scripts +International auxiliary languages +Pictograms +Augmentative and alternative communication +Writing systems introduced in 1949 +Constructed languages +Constructed languages introduced in the 1940s +Bessel functions, first defined by the mathematician Daniel Bernoulli and then generalized by Friedrich Bessel, are canonical solutions of Bessel's differential equation + +for an arbitrary complex number , which represents the order of the Bessel function. Although and produce the same differential equation, it is conventional to define different Bessel functions for these two values in such a way that the Bessel functions are mostly smooth functions of . + +The most important cases are when is an integer or half-integer. Bessel functions for integer are also known as cylinder functions or the cylindrical harmonics because they appear in the solution to Laplace's equation in cylindrical coordinates. Spherical Bessel functions with half-integer are obtained when solving the Helmholtz equation in spherical coordinates. + +Applications of Bessel functions +The Bessel function is a generalization of the sine function. It can be interpreted as the vibration of a string with variable thickness, variable tension (or both conditions simultaneously); vibrations in a medium with variable properties; vibrations of the disc membrane, etc. + +Bessel's equation arises when finding separable solutions to Laplace's equation and the Helmholtz equation in cylindrical or spherical coordinates. Bessel functions are therefore especially important for many problems of wave propagation and static potentials. In solving problems in cylindrical coordinate systems, one obtains Bessel functions of integer order (); in spherical problems, one obtains half-integer orders (). For example: + + Electromagnetic waves in a cylindrical waveguide + Pressure amplitudes of inviscid rotational flows + Heat conduction in a cylindrical object + Modes of vibration of a thin circular or annular acoustic membrane (such as a drumhead or other membranophone) or thicker plates such as sheet metal (see Kirchhoff–Love plate theory, Mindlin–Reissner plate theory) + Diffusion problems on a lattice + Solutions to the radial Schrödinger equation (in spherical and cylindrical coordinates) for a free particle + Solving for patterns of acoustical radiation + Frequency-dependent friction in circular pipelines + Dynamics of floating bodies + Angular resolution + Diffraction from helical objects, including DNA + Probability density function of product of two normally distributed random variables + Analyzing of the surface waves generated by microtremors, in geophysics and seismology. + +Bessel functions also appear in other problems, such as signal processing (e.g., see FM audio synthesis, Kaiser window, or Bessel filter). + +Definitions +Because this is a second-order linear differential equation, there must be two linearly independent solutions. Depending upon the circumstances, however, various formulations of these solutions are convenient. Different variations are summarized in the table below and described in the following sections. + +Bessel functions of the second kind and the spherical Bessel functions of the second kind are sometimes denoted by and , respectively, rather than and . + +Bessel functions of the first kind: + +Bessel functions of the first kind, denoted as , are solutions of Bessel's differential equation. For integer or positive , Bessel functions of the first kind are finite at the origin (); while for negative non-integer , Bessel functions of the first kind diverge as approaches zero. It is possible to define the function by its series expansion around , which can be found by applying the Frobenius method to Bessel's equation: + +where is the gamma function, a shifted generalization of the factorial function to non-integer values. The Bessel function of the first kind is an entire function if is an integer, otherwise it is a multivalued function with singularity at zero. The graphs of Bessel functions look roughly like oscillating sine or cosine functions that decay proportionally to (see also their asymptotic forms below), although their roots are not generally periodic, except asymptotically for large . (The series indicates that is the derivative of , much like is the derivative of ; more generally, the derivative of can be expressed in terms of by the identities below.) + +For non-integer , the functions and are linearly independent, and are therefore the two solutions of the differential equation. On the other hand, for integer order , the following relationship is valid (the gamma function has simple poles at each of the non-positive integers): + +This means that the two solutions are no longer linearly independent. In this case, the second linearly independent solution is then found to be the Bessel function of the second kind, as discussed below. + +Bessel's integrals +Another definition of the Bessel function, for integer values of , is possible using an integral representation: + +which is also called Hansen-Bessel formula. + +This was the approach that Bessel used, and from this definition he derived several properties of the function. The definition may be extended to non-integer orders by one of Schläfli's integrals, for : + +Relation to hypergeometric series +The Bessel functions can be expressed in terms of the generalized hypergeometric series as + +This expression is related to the development of Bessel functions in terms of the Bessel–Clifford function. + +Relation to Laguerre polynomials +In terms of the Laguerre polynomials and arbitrarily chosen parameter , the Bessel function can be expressed as + +Bessel functions of the second kind: +The Bessel functions of the second kind, denoted by , occasionally denoted instead by , are solutions of the Bessel differential equation that have a singularity at the origin () and are multivalued. These are sometimes called Weber functions, as they were introduced by , and also Neumann functions after Carl Neumann. + +For non-integer , is related to by + +In the case of integer order , the function is defined by taking the limit as a non-integer tends to : + +If is a nonnegative integer, we have the series + +where is the digamma function, the logarithmic derivative of the gamma function. + +There is also a corresponding integral formula (for ): + +In the case where , + + is necessary as the second linearly independent solution of the Bessel's equation when is an integer. But has more meaning than that. It can be considered as a "natural" partner of . See also the subsection on Hankel functions below. + +When is an integer, moreover, as was similarly the case for the functions of the first kind, the following relationship is valid: + +Both and are holomorphic functions of on the complex plane cut along the negative real axis. When is an integer, the Bessel functions are entire functions of . If is held fixed at a non-zero value, then the Bessel functions are entire functions of . + +The Bessel functions of the second kind when is an integer is an example of the second kind of solution in Fuchs's theorem. + +Hankel functions: , + +Another important formulation of the two linearly independent solutions to Bessel's equation are the Hankel functions of the first and second kind, and , defined as + +where is the imaginary unit. These linear combinations are also known as Bessel functions of the third kind; they are two linearly independent solutions of Bessel's differential equation. They are named after Hermann Hankel. + +These forms of linear combination satisfy numerous simple-looking properties, like asymptotic formulae or integral representations. Here, "simple" means an appearance of a factor of the form . For real where , are real-valued, the Bessel functions of the first and second kind are the real and imaginary parts, respectively, of the first Hankel function and the real and negative imaginary parts of the second Hankel function. Thus, the above formulae are analogs of Euler's formula, substituting , for and , for , , as explicitly shown in the asymptotic expansion. + +The Hankel functions are used to express outward- and inward-propagating cylindrical-wave solutions of the cylindrical wave equation, respectively (or vice versa, depending on the sign convention for the frequency). + +Using the previous relationships, they can be expressed as + +If is an integer, the limit has to be calculated. The following relationships are valid, whether is an integer or not: + +In particular, if with a nonnegative integer, the above relations imply directly that + +These are useful in developing the spherical Bessel functions (see below). + +The Hankel functions admit the following integral representations for : + +where the integration limits indicate integration along a contour that can be chosen as follows: from to 0 along the negative real axis, from 0 to along the imaginary axis, and from to along a contour parallel to the real axis. + +Modified Bessel functions: , +The Bessel functions are valid even for complex arguments , and an important special case is that of a purely imaginary argument. In this case, the solutions to the Bessel equation are called the modified Bessel functions (or occasionally the hyperbolic Bessel functions) of the first and second kind and are defined as + +when is not an integer; when is an integer, then the limit is used. These are chosen to be real-valued for real and positive arguments . The series expansion for is thus similar to that for , but without the alternating factor. + + can be expressed in terms of Hankel functions: + +Using these two formulae the result to +, commonly known as Nicholson's integral or Nicholson's formula, can be obtained to give the following + +given that the condition is met. It can also be shown that + +only when || < and but not when . + +We can express the first and second Bessel functions in terms of the modified Bessel functions (these are valid if ): + + and are the two linearly independent solutions to the modified Bessel's equation: + +Unlike the ordinary Bessel functions, which are oscillating as functions of a real argument, and are exponentially growing and decaying functions respectively. Like the ordinary Bessel function , the function goes to zero at for and is finite at for . Analogously, diverges at with the singularity being of logarithmic type for , and otherwise. + +Two integral formulas for the modified Bessel functions are (for ): + +Bessel functions can be described as Fourier transforms of powers of quadratic functions. For example (for ): + +It can be proven by showing equality to the above integral definition for . This is done by integrating a closed curve in the first quadrant of the complex plane. + +Modified Bessel functions and can be represented in terms of rapidly convergent integrals + +The modified Bessel function is useful to represent the Laplace distribution as an Exponential-scale mixture of normal distributions. + +The modified Bessel function of the second kind has also been called by the following names (now rare): + + Basset function after Alfred Barnard Basset + Modified Bessel function of the third kind + Modified Hankel function + Macdonald function after Hector Munro Macdonald + +Spherical Bessel functions: , + +When solving the Helmholtz equation in spherical coordinates by separation of variables, the radial equation has the form + +The two linearly independent solutions to this equation are called the spherical Bessel functions and , and are related to the ordinary Bessel functions and by + + is also denoted or ; some authors call these functions the spherical Neumann functions. + +From the relations to the ordinary Bessel functions it is directly seen that: + +The spherical Bessel functions can also be written as (Rayleigh's formulas) + +The zeroth spherical Bessel function is also known as the (unnormalized) sinc function. The first few spherical Bessel functions are: + +and + +Generating function +The spherical Bessel functions have the generating functions + +Differential relations +In the following, is any of , , , for + +Spherical Hankel functions: , + +There are also spherical analogues of the Hankel functions: + +In fact, there are simple closed-form expressions for the Bessel functions of half-integer order in terms of the standard trigonometric functions, and therefore for the spherical Bessel functions. In particular, for non-negative integers : + +and is the complex-conjugate of this (for real ). It follows, for example, that and , and so on. + +The spherical Hankel functions appear in problems involving spherical wave propagation, for example in the multipole expansion of the electromagnetic field. + +Riccati–Bessel functions: , , , +Riccati–Bessel functions only slightly differ from spherical Bessel functions: + +They satisfy the differential equation + +For example, this kind of differential equation appears in quantum mechanics while solving the radial component of the Schrödinger's equation with hypothetical cylindrical infinite potential barrier. This differential equation, and the Riccati–Bessel solutions, also arises in the problem of scattering of electromagnetic waves by a sphere, known as Mie scattering after the first published solution by Mie (1908). See e.g., Du (2004) for recent developments and references. + +Following Debye (1909), the notation , is sometimes used instead of , . + +Asymptotic forms +The Bessel functions have the following asymptotic forms. For small arguments , one obtains, when is not a negative integer: + +When is a negative integer, we have + +For the Bessel function of the second kind we have three cases: + +where is the Euler–Mascheroni constant (0.5772...). + +For large real arguments , one cannot write a true asymptotic form for Bessel functions of the first and second kind (unless is half-integer) because they have zeros all the way out to infinity, which would have to be matched exactly by any asymptotic expansion. However, for a given value of one can write an equation containing a term of order : + +(For the last terms in these formulas drop out completely; see the spherical Bessel functions above.) + +The asymptotic forms for the Hankel functions are: + +These can be extended to other values of using equations relating and to and . + +It is interesting that although the Bessel function of the first kind is the average of the two Hankel functions, is not asymptotic to the average of these two asymptotic forms when is negative (because one or the other will not be correct there, depending on the used). But the asymptotic forms for the Hankel functions permit us to write asymptotic forms for the Bessel functions of first and second kinds for complex (non-real) so long as goes to infinity at a constant phase angle (using the square root having positive real part): + +For the modified Bessel functions, Hankel developed asymptotic (large argument) expansions as well: + +There is also the asymptotic form (for large real ) + +When , all the terms except the first vanish, and we have + +For small arguments , we have + +Properties + +For integer order , is often defined via a Laurent series for a generating function: + +an approach used by P. A. Hansen in 1843. (This can be generalized to non-integer order by contour integration or other methods.) + +A series expansion using Bessel functions (Kapteyn series) is + + +Another important relation for integer orders is the Jacobi–Anger expansion: + +and + +which is used to expand a plane wave as a sum of cylindrical waves, or to find the Fourier series of a tone-modulated FM signal. + +More generally, a series + +is called Neumann expansion of . The coefficients for have the explicit form + +where is Neumann's polynomial. + +Selected functions admit the special representation + +with + +due to the orthogonality relation + +More generally, if has a branch-point near the origin of such a nature that + +then + +or + +where is the Laplace transform of . + +Another way to define the Bessel functions is the Poisson representation formula and the Mehler-Sonine formula: + +where and . +This formula is useful especially when working with Fourier transforms. + +Because Bessel's equation becomes Hermitian (self-adjoint) if it is divided by , the solutions must satisfy an orthogonality relationship for appropriate boundary conditions. In particular, it follows that: + +where , is the Kronecker delta, and is the th zero of . This orthogonality relation can then be used to extract the coefficients in the Fourier–Bessel series, where a function is expanded in the basis of the functions for fixed and varying . + +An analogous relationship for the spherical Bessel functions follows immediately: + +If one defines a boxcar function of that depends on a small parameter as: + +(where is the rectangle function) then the Hankel transform of it (of any given order ), , approaches as approaches zero, for any given . Conversely, the Hankel transform (of the same order) of is : + +which is zero everywhere except near 1. As approaches zero, the right-hand side approaches , where is the Dirac delta function. This admits the limit (in the distributional sense): + +A change of variables then yields the closure equation: + +for . The Hankel transform can express a fairly arbitrary function as an integral of Bessel functions of different scales. For the spherical Bessel functions the orthogonality relation is: + +for . + +Another important property of Bessel's equations, which follows from Abel's identity, involves the Wronskian of the solutions: + +where and are any two solutions of Bessel's equation, and is a constant independent of (which depends on α and on the particular Bessel functions considered). In particular, + +and + +for . + +For , the even entire function of genus 1, , has only real zeros. Let + +be all its positive zeros, then + +(There are a large number of other known integrals and identities that are not reproduced here, but which can be found in the references.) + +Recurrence relations +The functions , , , and all satisfy the recurrence relations + +and + +where denotes , , , or . These two identities are often combined, e.g. added or subtracted, to yield various other relations. In this way, for example, one can compute Bessel functions of higher orders (or higher derivatives) given the values at lower orders (or lower derivatives). In particular, it follows that + +Modified Bessel functions follow similar relations: + +and + +and + +The recurrence relation reads + +where denotes or . These recurrence relations are useful for discrete diffusion problems. + +Transcendence +In 1929, Carl Ludwig Siegel proved that , , and the quotient {{math|{{sfrac|Jν(x)|Jν(x)}}}} are transcendental numbers when ν is rational and x is algebraic and nonzero. The same proof also implies that is transcendental under the same assumptions. + +Multiplication theorem +The Bessel functions obey a multiplication theorem + +where and may be taken as arbitrary complex numbers. For , the above expression also holds if is replaced by . The analogous identities for modified Bessel functions and are + +and + +Zeros of the Bessel function + +Bourget's hypothesis +Bessel himself originally proved that for nonnegative integers , the equation has an infinite number of solutions in . When the functions are plotted on the same graph, though, none of the zeros seem to coincide for different values of except for the zero at . This phenomenon is known as Bourget's hypothesis''' after the 19th-century French mathematician who studied Bessel functions. Specifically it states that for any integers and , the functions and have no common zeros other than the one at . The hypothesis was proved by Carl Ludwig Siegel in 1929. + +Transcendence +Siegel proved in 1929 that when ν is rational, all nonzero roots of and are transcendental, as are all the roots of . It is also known that all roots of the higher derivatives for are transcendental, except for the special values and . + +Numerical approaches +For numerical studies about the zeros of the Bessel function, see , and . + +Numerical values +The first zero in J0 (i.e, j0,1, j0,2 and j0,3) occurs at arguments of approximately 2.40483, 5.52008 and 8.65373, respectively. + +Bessel Functions in Popular Culture + +Young Sheldon +In the season 5 episode "The Yips and an Oddly Hypnotic Bohemian", Young Sheldon (Young Sheldon) is attempting to complete a quantum mechanics test and runs out of time because he cannot remember the zeroes to the Bessel function. + +See also + + Anger function + Bessel polynomials + Bessel–Clifford function + Bessel–Maitland function + Fourier–Bessel series + Hahn–Exton -Bessel function + Hankel transform + Incomplete Bessel functions + Jackson -Bessel function + Kelvin functions + Kontorovich–Lebedev transform + Lentz's algorithm + Lerche–Newberger sum rule + Lommel function + Lommel polynomial + Neumann polynomial + Schlömilch's series + Sonine formula + Struve function + Vibrations of a circular membrane + Weber function (defined at Anger function) + +Notes + +References + + + Arfken, George B. and Hans J. Weber, Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 6th edition (Harcourt: San Diego, 2005). . + Bowman, Frank Introduction to Bessel Functions (Dover: New York, 1958). . + + . + . + B Spain, M. G. Smith, Functions of mathematical physics, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, London, 1970. Chapter 9 deals with Bessel functions. + N. M. Temme, Special Functions. An Introduction to the Classical Functions of Mathematical Physics, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1996. . Chapter 9 deals with Bessel functions. + Watson, G. N., A Treatise on the Theory of Bessel Functions, Second Edition'', (1995) Cambridge University Press. . + . + +External links + + . + . + . + Wolfram function pages on Bessel J and Y functions, and modified Bessel I and K functions. Pages include formulas, function evaluators, and plotting calculators. + + Bessel functions Jν, Yν, Iν and Kν in Librow Function handbook. +F. W. J. Olver, L. C. Maximon, Bessel Functions (chapter 10 of the Digital Library of Mathematical Functions). + +Special hypergeometric functions +Fourier analysis +Backpacking may refer to: + + Backpacking (travel), low-cost, independent, international travel + Backpacking (hiking), trekking and camping overnight in the wilderness + Ultralight backpacking, a style of wilderness backpacking with an emphasis on carrying as little as possible + +See also + +Hiking +Backpacking with animals, using pack animals to carry gear while hiking or camping +Backpacker (disambiguation) +Backpack (disambiguation) +Tramping (disambiguation), also called backpacking +Brahui ( ; ; also known as Brahvi or Brohi) is a Dravidian language spoken by some of the Brahui people. The language is spoken primarily in the central part of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan, with smaller communities of speakers scattered in parts of Iranian Baluchestan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan (around Merv) and by expatriate Brahui communities in Iraq, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. It is isolated from the nearest Dravidian-speaking neighbouring population of South India by a distance of more than . The Kalat, Khuzdar, Mastung, Quetta, Bolan, Nasirabad, Nushki, and Kharan districts of Balochistan Province are predominantly Brahui-speaking. + +Distribution + +Brahui is spoken in the central part of Pakistani Balochistan, mainly in Kalat, Khuzdar and Mastung districts, but also in smaller numbers in neighboring districts, as well as in Afghanistan which borders Pakistani Balochistan; however, many members of the ethnic group no longer speak Brahui. There are also a very small unknown number of expatriate Brahuis in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and Turkmenistan. + +History +There is no consensus as to whether Brahui is a relatively recent language introduced into Balochistan or the remnant of a formerly more widespread Dravidian language family. According to Josef Elfenbein (1989), the most common theory is that the Brahui were part of a Dravidian migration into north-western India in the 3rd millennium BC, but unlike other Dravidians who migrated to the south, they remained in Sarawan and Jahlawan since before 2000 BC. However, some other scholars see it as a recent migrant language to its present region. They postulate that Brahui could only have migrated to Balochistan from central India after 1000 AD. This is contradicted by genetic evidence that shows the Brahui population to be indistinguishable from neighbouring Balochi speakers, and genetically distant from central Dravidian speakers. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a Northwestern Iranian language, and moved to the area from the west only around 1000 AD. One scholar places the migration as late as the 13th or 14th century. The Brahui lexicon is believed to be of: 35% Perso-Arabic origin, 20% Balochi origin, 20% Indo-Aryan origin, 15% Dravidian origin, and 10% unknown origin. + +Franklin Southworth (2012) proposes that Brahui is not a Dravidian language, but can be linked with the remaining Dravidian languages and Elamite to form the "Zagrosian family," which originated in Southwest Asia (southern Iran) and was widely distributed in South Asia and parts of eastern West Asia before the Indo-Aryan migration. + +Dialects +There are no important dialectal differences. Jhalawani (southern, centered on Khuzdar) and Sarawani (northern, centered on Kalat) dialects are distinguished by the pronunciation of *h, which is retained only in the north (Elfenbein 1997). +Brahui has been influenced by the Iranian languages spoken in the area, including Persian, Balochi and Pashto. + +Phonology +Brahui vowels show a partial length distinction between long and diphthongs and short . Brahui does not have short /e, o/ due to influence from neighbouring Indo-Aryan and Iranic languages, the PD short *e was replaced by a, ē and i, and ∗o by ō, u and a in root syllables. + +Brahui consonants show patterns of retroflexion but lack the aspiration distinctions found in surrounding languages and include several fricatives such as the voiceless lateral fricative , a sound not otherwise found in the region. +Consonants are also very similar to those of Balochi, but Brahui has more fricatives and nasals (Elfenbein 1993). + + of north corresponds to a glottal stop of south initially and intervocalically. Before a C in word-final position it is lost. Non-phonemic glottal stop before word-initial vowels, e.g. hust (N), ʔust (S) 'heart'. + and vary freely in many cases; contrast is limited to two or three items. Conditions for the emergence of are not clear. + does not occur word-initially. → before in northern Brahui (Elfenbein 1998: 394), e.g. xūrt → xūṛt 'tiny'. + The consonants freely alternate with aspirated counterparts in the northeast. Aspirated stops word-initially occur in loanwords in the south, where they freely vary with unaspirated stops. + occurs before velar stops . + Brahui preserves the PD laryngeal * as in some words e.g. PD. *caH- ~ *ceH- > Br. kah-. + +Stress +Stress in Brahui follows a quantity-based pattern, occurring either on the first long vowel or diphthong, or on the first syllable if all vowels are short. + +Orthography + +Perso-Arabic script + +Brahui is the only Dravidian language which is not known to have been written in a Brahmi-based script; instead, it has been written in the Arabic script since the second half of the 20th century. +In Pakistan, an Urdu based Nastaʿlīq script is used in writing: + +Latin script +More recently, a Roman-based orthography named Brolikva (an abbreviation of Brahui Roman Likvar) was developed by the Brahui Language Board of the University of Balochistan in Quetta and adopted by the newspaper Talár. + +Below is the new promoted Bráhuí Báşágal Brolikva orthography: + +The letters with diacritics are the long vowels, post-alveolar and retroflex consonants, the voiced velar fricative and the voiceless lateral fricative. + +Sample text + +English +All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. + +Arabic script + +Latin script +Muccá insáńk ájo o izzat ná rid aŧ barebar vadí massuno. Ofte puhí o dalíl raseńgáne. andáde ofte asi elo ton ílumí e vaddifoí e. + +Endangerment +According to a 2009 UNESCO report, Brahui is one of the 27 languages of Pakistan that are facing the danger of extinction. It was classified as "unsafe", the least endangered level out of the five levels of concern (Unsafe, Definitely Endangered, Severely Endangered, Critically Endangered and Extinct). This status has since been renamed to "vulnerable". + +Publications +Talár is the first daily newspaper in the Brahui language. It uses the new Roman orthography and is "an attempt to standardize and develop [the] Brahui language to meet the requirements of modern political, social and scientific discourse." + +References + +Sources + +Bray, Denys. The Brahui Language, an Old Dravidian Language Spoken in Parts of Baluchistan and Sind: Grammar. Gian Publishing House, 1986. + +External links + +Online Brahui Dictionary +Handbook of the Birouhi language By Allâh Baksh (1877) +Brahui Language Board +Bráhuí Báşágal (Brahui Alphabet) +Profile of the Brahui language +Partial bibliography of scholarly works on Brahui +Britannica Brahui language + Brahui basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database + +Agglutinative languages +Dravidian languages +Languages of Afghanistan +Languages of Iran +Languages of Iraq +Languages of Turkmenistan +Languages of Qatar +Languages of Pakistan +Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan +Arabic alphabets for South Asian languages +Vulnerable languages +Berkeley DB (BDB) is an unmaintained embedded database software library for key/value data, historically significant in open source software. Berkeley DB is written in C with API bindings for many other programming languages. BDB stores arbitrary key/data pairs as byte arrays, and supports multiple data items for a single key. Berkeley DB is not a relational database, although it has database features including database transactions, multiversion concurrency control and write-ahead logging. BDB runs on a wide variety of operating systems including most Unix-like and Windows systems, and real-time operating systems. + +BDB was commercially supported and developed by Sleepycat Software from 1996 to 2006. Sleepycat Software was acquired by Oracle Corporation in February 2006, who continued to develop and sell the C Berkeley DB library. In 2013 Oracle re-licensed BDB under the AGPL license. and released new versions until May 2020. Bloomberg LP continues to develop a fork of the 2013 version of BDB within their Comdb2 database, under the original Sleepycat permissive license. + +Origin +Berkeley DB originated at the University of California, Berkeley as part of BSD, Berkeley's version of the Unix operating system. After 4.3BSD (1986), the BSD developers attempted to remove or replace all code originating in the original AT&T Unix from which BSD was derived. In doing so, they needed to rewrite the Unix database package. Seltzer and Yigit created a new database, unencumbered by any AT&T patents: an on-disk hash table that outperformed the existing dbm libraries. Berkeley DB itself was first released in 1991 and later included with 4.4BSD. In 1996 Netscape requested that the authors of Berkeley DB improve and extend the library, then at version 1.86, to suit Netscape's requirements for an LDAP server and for use in the Netscape browser. That request led to the creation of Sleepycat Software. This company was acquired by Oracle Corporation in February 2006. + +Berkeley DB 1.x releases focused on managing key/value data storage and are referred to as "Data Store" (DS). The 2.x releases added a locking system enabling concurrent access to data. This is what is known as "Concurrent Data Store" (CDS). The 3.x releases added a logging system for transactions and recovery, called "Transactional Data Store" (TDS). The 4.x releases added the ability to replicate log records and create a distributed highly available single-master multi-replica database. This is called the "High Availability" (HA) feature set. Berkeley DB's evolution has sometimes led to minor API changes or log format changes, but very rarely have database formats changed. Berkeley DB HA supports online upgrades from one version to the next by maintaining the ability to read and apply the prior release's log records. + +Starting with the 6.0.21 (Oracle 12c) release, all Berkeley DB products are licensed under the GNU AGPL. Previously, Berkeley DB was redistributed under the 4-clause BSD license (before version 2.0), and the Sleepycat Public License, which is an OSI-approved open-source license as well as an FSF-approved free software license. The product ships with complete source code, build script, test suite, and documentation. The comprehensive feature along with the licensing terms have led to its use in a multitude of free and open-source software. Those who do not wish to abide by the terms of the GNU AGPL, or use an older version with the Sleepycat Public License, have the option of purchasing another proprietary license for redistribution from Oracle Corporation. This technique is called dual licensing. + +Berkeley DB includes compatibility interfaces for some historic Unix database libraries: dbm, ndbm and hsearch (a System V and POSIX library for creating in-memory hash tables). + +Architecture +Berkeley DB has an architecture notably simpler than relational database management systems. Like SQLite and LMDB, it is not based on a server/client model, and does not provide support for network access programs access the database using in-process API calls. Oracle added support for SQL in 11g R2 release based on the popular SQLite API by including a version of SQLite in Berkeley DB (it uses Berkeley DB for storage). + +A program accessing the database is free to decide how the data is to be stored in a record. Berkeley DB puts no constraints on the record's data. The record and its key can both be up to four gigabytes long. + +Berkeley DB supports database features such as ACID transactions, fine-grained locking, hot backups and replication. + +Oracle Corporation use of name "Berkeley DB" +The name "Berkeley DB" is used by Oracle Corporation for three different products, only one of which is BDB: + + Berkeley DB, the C database library that is the subject of this article + Berkeley DB Java Edition, a pure Java library whose design is modelled after the C library but is otherwise unrelated + Berkeley DB XML, a C++ program that supports XQuery, and which includes a legacy version of the C database library + +Open source programs still using Berkeley DB +BDB was once very widespread, but usage dropped steeply from 2013 (see licensing section). Notable software that still uses Berkeley DB for data storage include: + Bogofilter – A free/open source spam filter that saves its wordlists using Berkeley DB by default + Sendmail – A free/open source MTA first released in 1983 for Linux/Unix systems and no longer widely used + Spamassassin – A free/open source anti-spam application + The Elixir Cross Referencer – A web UI source code cross-referencer for C/C++ written in Python + +Open source operating systems, and languages such as Perl and Python still support old BerkelyDB interfaces. The FreeBSD and OpenBSD operating systems ship Berkeley DB 1.8x to support the dbopen() operating system call used by password programs such as pwb_mkdb. Linux operating systems including those based on Debian and Fedora ship Berkeley DB 5.3 libraries. + +Licensing + +Berkeley DB V2.0 and higher is available under a dual license: + + Oracle commercial license + The GNU AGPL v3. + +Switching the open source license in 2013 from the Sleepycat license to the AGPL had a major effect on open source software. Since BDB is a library, any application linking to it must be under an AGPL-compatible license. Many open source applications and all closed source applications would need to be relicensed to become AGPL-compatible, which was not acceptable to many developers and open source operating systems. By 2013 there were many alternatives to BDB, and Debian Linux was typical in their decision to completely phase out Berkeley DB, with a preference for the Lightning Memory-Mapped Database (LMDB). + +References + +External links + + Oracle Berkeley DB + Oracle Berkeley DB Downloads + Oracle Berkeley DB Documentation + Oracle Berkeley DB Licensing Information + Licensing pitfalls for Oracle Technology Products + Oracle Licensing Knowledge Net + The Berkeley DB Book by Himanshu Yadava + +Database engines +Database-related software for Linux +Embedded databases +Free database management systems +Free software programmed in C +Key-value databases +NoSQL +Oracle software +Structured storage +Software using the GNU AGPL license +In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies a given Boolean formula. In other words, it asks whether the variables of a given Boolean formula can be consistently replaced by the values TRUE or FALSE in such a way that the formula evaluates to TRUE. If this is the case, the formula is called satisfiable. On the other hand, if no such assignment exists, the function expressed by the formula is FALSE for all possible variable assignments and the formula is unsatisfiable. For example, the formula "a AND NOT b" is satisfiable because one can find the values a = TRUE and b = FALSE, which make (a AND NOT b) = TRUE. In contrast, "a AND NOT a" is unsatisfiable. + +SAT is the first problem that was proven to be NP-complete; see Cook–Levin theorem. This means that all problems in the complexity class NP, which includes a wide range of natural decision and optimization problems, are at most as difficult to solve as SAT. There is no known algorithm that efficiently solves each SAT problem, and it is generally believed that no such algorithm exists; yet this belief has not been proved mathematically, and resolving the question of whether SAT has a polynomial-time algorithm is equivalent to the P versus NP problem, which is a famous open problem in the theory of computing. + +Nevertheless, as of 2007, heuristic SAT-algorithms are able to solve problem instances involving tens of thousands of variables and formulas consisting of millions of symbols, which is sufficient for many practical SAT problems from, e.g., artificial intelligence, circuit design, and automatic theorem proving. + +Definitions +A propositional logic formula, also called Boolean expression, is built from variables, operators AND (conjunction, also denoted by ∧), OR (disjunction, ∨), NOT (negation, ¬), and parentheses. +A formula is said to be satisfiable if it can be made TRUE by assigning appropriate logical values (i.e. TRUE, FALSE) to its variables. +The Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT) is, given a formula, to check whether it is satisfiable. +This decision problem is of central importance in many areas of computer science, including theoretical computer science, complexity theory, algorithmics, cryptography and artificial intelligence. + +Conjunctive normal form + +A literal is either a variable (in which case it is called a positive literal) or the negation of a variable (called a negative literal). +A clause is a disjunction of literals (or a single literal). A clause is called a Horn clause if it contains at most one positive literal. +A formula is in conjunctive normal form (CNF) if it is a conjunction of clauses (or a single clause). +For example, is a positive literal, is a negative literal, is a clause. The formula is in conjunctive normal form; its first and third clauses are Horn clauses, but its second clause is not. The formula is satisfiable, by choosing x1 = FALSE, x2 = FALSE, and x3 arbitrarily, since (FALSE ∨ ¬FALSE) ∧ (¬FALSE ∨ FALSE ∨ x3) ∧ ¬FALSE evaluates to (FALSE ∨ TRUE) ∧ (TRUE ∨ FALSE ∨ x3) ∧ TRUE, and in turn to TRUE ∧ TRUE ∧ TRUE (i.e. to TRUE). In contrast, the CNF formula a ∧ ¬a, consisting of two clauses of one literal, is unsatisfiable, since for a=TRUE or a=FALSE it evaluates to TRUE ∧ ¬TRUE (i.e., FALSE) or FALSE ∧ ¬FALSE (i.e., again FALSE), respectively. + +For some versions of the SAT problem, it is useful to define the notion of a generalized conjunctive normal form formula, viz. as a conjunction of arbitrarily many generalized clauses, the latter being of the form for some Boolean function R and (ordinary) literals . Different sets of allowed boolean functions lead to different problem versions. As an example, R(¬x,a,b) is a generalized clause, and R(¬x,a,b) ∧ R(b,y,c) ∧ R(c,d,¬z) is a generalized conjunctive normal form. This formula is used below, with R being the ternary operator that is TRUE just when exactly one of its arguments is. + +Using the laws of Boolean algebra, every propositional logic formula can be transformed into an equivalent conjunctive normal form, which may, however, be exponentially longer. For example, transforming the formula +(x1∧y1) ∨ (x2∧y2) ∨ ... ∨ (xn∧yn) +into conjunctive normal form yields + +; +while the former is a disjunction of n conjunctions of 2 variables, the latter consists of 2n clauses of n variables. + +However, with use of the Tseytin transformation, we may find an equisatisfiable conjunctive normal form formula with length linear in the size of the original propositional logic formula. + +Complexity + +SAT was the first known NP-complete problem, as proved by Stephen Cook at the University of Toronto in 1971 and independently by Leonid Levin at the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1973. Until that time, the concept of an NP-complete problem did not even exist. +The proof shows how every decision problem in the complexity class NP can be reduced to the SAT problem for CNF formulas, sometimes called CNFSAT. +A useful property of Cook's reduction is that it preserves the number of accepting answers. For example, deciding whether a given graph has a 3-coloring is another problem in NP; if a graph has 17 valid 3-colorings, the SAT formula produced by the Cook–Levin reduction will have 17 satisfying assignments. + +NP-completeness only refers to the run-time of the worst case instances. Many of the instances that occur in practical applications can be solved much more quickly. See Algorithms for solving SAT below. + +3-satisfiability + +Like the satisfiability problem for arbitrary formulas, determining the satisfiability of a formula in conjunctive normal form where each clause is limited to at most three literals is NP-complete also; this problem is called 3-SAT, 3CNFSAT, or 3-satisfiability. +To reduce the unrestricted SAT problem to 3-SAT, transform each clause to a conjunction of clauses + +where are fresh variables not occurring elsewhere. +Although the two formulas are not logically equivalent, they are equisatisfiable. The formula resulting from transforming all clauses is at most 3 times as long as its original, i.e. the length growth is polynomial. + +3-SAT is one of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems, and it is used as a starting point for proving that other problems are also NP-hard. This is done by polynomial-time reduction from 3-SAT to the other problem. An example of a problem where this method has been used is the clique problem: given a CNF formula consisting of c clauses, the corresponding graph consists of a vertex for each literal, and an edge between each two non-contradicting literals from different clauses, cf. picture. The graph has a c-clique if and only if the formula is satisfiable. + +There is a simple randomized algorithm due to Schöning (1999) that runs in time (4/3)n where n is the number of variables in the 3-SAT proposition, and succeeds with high probability to correctly decide 3-SAT. + +The exponential time hypothesis asserts that no algorithm can solve 3-SAT (or indeed k-SAT for any ) in time (i.e., fundamentally faster than exponential in n). + +Selman, Mitchell, and Levesque (1996) give empirical data on the difficulty of randomly generated 3-SAT formulas, depending on their size parameters. +Difficulty is measured in number recursive calls made by a DPLL algorithm. They identified a phase transition region from almost certainly satisfiable to almost certainly unsatisfiable formulas at the clauses-to-variables ratio at about 4.26. + +3-satisfiability can be generalized to k-satisfiability (k-SAT, also k-CNF-SAT), when formulas in CNF are considered with each clause containing up to k literals. +However, since for any k ≥ 3, this problem can neither be easier than 3-SAT nor harder than SAT, and the latter two are NP-complete, so must be k-SAT. + +Some authors restrict k-SAT to CNF formulas with exactly k literals. This doesn't lead to a different complexity class either, as each clause with j < k literals can be padded with fixed dummy variables to +. +After padding all clauses, 2k-1 extra clauses have to be appended to ensure that only can lead to a satisfying assignment. Since k doesn't depend on the formula length, the extra clauses lead to a constant increase in length. For the same reason, it does not matter whether duplicate literals are allowed in clauses, as in . + +Special cases of SAT + +Conjunctive normal form +Conjunctive normal form (in particular with 3 literals per clause) is often considered the canonical representation for SAT formulas. As shown above, the general SAT problem reduces to 3-SAT, the problem of determining satisfiability for formulas in this form. + +Disjunctive normal form +SAT is trivial if the formulas are restricted to those in disjunctive normal form, that is, they are a disjunction of conjunctions of literals. Such a formula is indeed satisfiable if and only if at least one of its conjunctions is satisfiable, and a conjunction is satisfiable if and only if it does not contain both x and NOT x for some variable x. This can be checked in linear time. Furthermore, if they are restricted to being in full disjunctive normal form, in which every variable appears exactly once in every conjunction, they can be checked in constant time (each conjunction represents one satisfying assignment). But it can take exponential time and space to convert a general SAT problem to disjunctive normal form; for an example exchange "∧" and "∨" in the above exponential blow-up example for conjunctive normal forms. + +Exactly-1 3-satisfiability + +A variant of the 3-satisfiability problem is the one-in-three 3-SAT (also known variously as 1-in-3-SAT and exactly-1 3-SAT). +Given a conjunctive normal form with three literals per clause, the problem is to determine whether there exists a truth assignment to the variables so that each clause has exactly one TRUE literal (and thus exactly two FALSE literals). In contrast, ordinary 3-SAT requires that every clause has at least one TRUE literal. +Formally, a one-in-three 3-SAT problem is given as a generalized conjunctive normal form with all generalized clauses using a ternary operator R that is TRUE just if exactly one of its arguments is. When all literals of a one-in-three 3-SAT formula are positive, the satisfiability problem is called one-in-three positive 3-SAT. + +One-in-three 3-SAT, together with its positive case, is listed as NP-complete problem "LO4" in the standard reference, Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness +by Michael R. Garey and David S. Johnson. One-in-three 3-SAT was proved to be NP-complete by Thomas Jerome Schaefer as a special case of Schaefer's dichotomy theorem, which asserts that any problem generalizing Boolean satisfiability in a certain way is either in the class P or is NP-complete. + +Schaefer gives a construction allowing an easy polynomial-time reduction from 3-SAT to one-in-three 3-SAT. Let "(x or y or z)" be a clause in a 3CNF formula. Add six fresh boolean variables a, b, c, d, e, and f, to be used to simulate this clause and no other. + +Then the formula R(x,a,d) ∧ R(y,b,d) ∧ R(a,b,e) ∧ R(c,d,f) ∧ R(z,c,FALSE) is satisfiable by some setting of the fresh variables if and only if at least one of x, y, or z is TRUE, see picture (left). Thus any 3-SAT instance with m clauses and n variables may be converted into an equisatisfiable one-in-three 3-SAT instance with 5m clauses and n+6m variables. +Another reduction involves only four fresh variables and three clauses: R(¬x,a,b) ∧ R(b,y,c) ∧ R(c,d,¬z), see picture (right). + +Not-all-equal 3-satisfiability + +Another variant is the not-all-equal 3-satisfiability problem (also called NAE3SAT). +Given a conjunctive normal form with three literals per clause, the problem is to determine if an assignment to the variables exists such that in no clause all three literals have the same truth value. This problem is NP-complete, too, even if no negation symbols are admitted, by Schaefer's dichotomy theorem. + +Linear SAT +A 3-SAT formula is Linear SAT (LSAT) if each clause (viewed as a set of literals) intersects at most one other clause, and, moreover, if two clauses intersect, then they have exactly one literal in common. An LSAT formula can be depicted as a set of disjoint semi-closed intervals on a line. Deciding whether an LSAT formula is satisfiable is NP-complete. + +2-satisfiability + +SAT is easier if the number of literals in a clause is limited to at most 2, in which case the problem is called 2-SAT. This problem can be solved in polynomial time, and in fact is complete for the complexity class NL. If additionally all OR operations in literals are changed to XOR operations, the result is called exclusive-or 2-satisfiability, which is a problem complete for the complexity class SL = L. + +Horn-satisfiability + +The problem of deciding the satisfiability of a given conjunction of Horn clauses is called Horn-satisfiability, or HORN-SAT. +It can be solved in polynomial time by a single step of the Unit propagation algorithm, which produces the single minimal model of the set of Horn clauses (w.r.t. the set of literals assigned to TRUE). +Horn-satisfiability is P-complete. It can be seen as P's version of the Boolean satisfiability problem. +Also, deciding the truth of quantified Horn formulas can be done in polynomial time. + +Horn clauses are of interest because they are able to express implication of one variable from a set of other variables. Indeed, one such clause ¬x1 ∨ ... ∨ ¬xn ∨ y can be rewritten as x1 ∧ ... ∧ xn → y, that is, if x1,...,xn are all TRUE, then y needs to be TRUE as well. + +A generalization of the class of Horn formulae is that of renameable-Horn formulae, which is the set of formulae that can be placed in Horn form by replacing some variables with their respective negation. +For example, (x1 ∨ ¬x2) ∧ (¬x1 ∨ x2 ∨ x3) ∧ ¬x1 is not a Horn formula, but can be renamed to the Horn formula (x1 ∨ ¬x2) ∧ (¬x1 ∨ x2 ∨ ¬y3) ∧ ¬x1 by introducing y3 as negation of x3. +In contrast, no renaming of (x1 ∨ ¬x2 ∨ ¬x3) ∧ (¬x1 ∨ x2 ∨ x3) ∧ ¬x1 leads to a Horn formula. +Checking the existence of such a replacement can be done in linear time; therefore, the satisfiability of such formulae is in P as it can be solved by first performing this replacement and then checking the satisfiability of the resulting Horn formula. + +XOR-satisfiability + +Another special case is the class of problems where each clause contains XOR (i.e. exclusive or) rather than (plain) OR operators. +This is in P, since an XOR-SAT formula can also be viewed as a system of linear equations mod 2, and can be solved in cubic time by Gaussian elimination; see the box for an example. This recast is based on the kinship between Boolean algebras and Boolean rings, and the fact that arithmetic modulo two forms a finite field. Since a XOR b XOR c evaluates to TRUE if and only if exactly 1 or 3 members of {a,b,c} are TRUE, each solution of the 1-in-3-SAT problem for a given CNF formula is also a solution of the XOR-3-SAT problem, and in turn each solution of XOR-3-SAT is a solution of 3-SAT, cf. picture. As a consequence, for each CNF formula, it is possible to solve the XOR-3-SAT problem defined by the formula, and based on the result infer either that the 3-SAT problem is solvable or that the 1-in-3-SAT problem is unsolvable. + +Provided that the complexity classes P and NP are not equal, neither 2-, nor Horn-, nor XOR-satisfiability is NP-complete, unlike SAT. + +Schaefer's dichotomy theorem + +The restrictions above (CNF, 2CNF, 3CNF, Horn, XOR-SAT) bound the considered formulae to be conjunctions of subformulae; each restriction states a specific form for all subformulae: for example, only binary clauses can be subformulae in 2CNF. + +Schaefer's dichotomy theorem states that, for any restriction to Boolean functions that can be used to form these subformulae, the corresponding satisfiability problem is in P or NP-complete. The membership in P of the satisfiability of 2CNF, Horn, and XOR-SAT formulae are special cases of this theorem. + +The following table summarizes some common variants of SAT. + +Extensions of SAT +An extension that has gained significant popularity since 2003 is satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) that can enrich CNF formulas with linear constraints, arrays, all-different constraints, uninterpreted functions, etc. Such extensions typically remain NP-complete, but very efficient solvers are now available that can handle many such kinds of constraints. + +The satisfiability problem becomes more difficult if both "for all" (∀) and "there exists" (∃) quantifiers are allowed to bind the Boolean variables. +An example of such an expression would be ; it is valid, since for all values of x and y, an appropriate value of z can be found, viz. z=TRUE if both x and y are FALSE, and z=FALSE else. +SAT itself (tacitly) uses only ∃ quantifiers. +If only ∀ quantifiers are allowed instead, the so-called tautology problem is obtained, which is co-NP-complete. +If both quantifiers are allowed, the problem is called the quantified Boolean formula problem (QBF), which can be shown to be PSPACE-complete. It is widely believed that PSPACE-complete problems are strictly harder than any problem in NP, although this has not yet been proved. Using highly parallel P systems, QBF-SAT problems can be solved in linear time. + +Ordinary SAT asks if there is at least one variable assignment that makes the formula true. A variety of variants deal with the number of such assignments: + MAJ-SAT asks if the majority of all assignments make the formula TRUE. It is known to be complete for PP, a probabilistic class. + #SAT, the problem of counting how many variable assignments satisfy a formula, is a counting problem, not a decision problem, and is #P-complete. + UNIQUE SAT is the problem of determining whether a formula has exactly one assignment. It is complete for US, the complexity class describing problems solvable by a non-deterministic polynomial time Turing machine that accepts when there is exactly one nondeterministic accepting path and rejects otherwise. +UNAMBIGUOUS-SAT is the name given to the satisfiability problem when the input is restricted to formulas having at most one satisfying assignment. The problem is also called USAT. A solving algorithm for UNAMBIGUOUS-SAT is allowed to exhibit any behavior, including endless looping, on a formula having several satisfying assignments. Although this problem seems easier, Valiant and Vazirani have shown that if there is a practical (i.e. randomized polynomial-time) algorithm to solve it, then all problems in NP can be solved just as easily. + MAX-SAT, the maximum satisfiability problem, is an FNP generalization of SAT. It asks for the maximum number of clauses which can be satisfied by any assignment. It has efficient approximation algorithms, but is NP-hard to solve exactly. Worse still, it is APX-complete, meaning there is no polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS) for this problem unless P=NP. +WMSAT is the problem of finding an assignment of minimum weight that satisfy a monotone Boolean formula (i.e. a formula without any negation). Weights of propositional variables are given in the input of the problem. The weight of an assignment is the sum of weights of true variables. That problem is NP-complete (see Th. 1 of ). + +Other generalizations include satisfiability for first- and second-order logic, constraint satisfaction problems, 0-1 integer programming. + +Finding a satisfying assignment +While SAT is a decision problem, the search problem of finding a satisfying assignment reduces to SAT. That is, each algorithm which correctly answers if an instance of SAT is solvable can be used to find a satisfying assignment. First, the question is asked on the given formula Φ. If the answer is "no", the formula is unsatisfiable. Otherwise, the question is asked on the partly instantiated formula Φ{x1=TRUE}, i.e. Φ with the first variable x1 replaced by TRUE, and simplified accordingly. If the answer is "yes", then x1=TRUE, otherwise x1=FALSE. Values of other variables can be found subsequently in the same way. In total, n+1 runs of the algorithm are required, where n is the number of distinct variables in Φ. + +This property is used in several theorems in complexity theory: + + NP ⊆ P/poly ⇒ PH = Σ2   (Karp–Lipton theorem) + NP ⊆ BPP ⇒ NP = RP + P = NP ⇒ FP = FNP + +Algorithms for solving SAT + +Since the SAT problem is NP-complete, only algorithms with exponential worst-case complexity are known for it. In spite of this, efficient and scalable algorithms for SAT were developed during the 2000s and have contributed to dramatic advances in our ability to automatically solve problem instances involving tens of thousands of variables and millions of constraints (i.e. clauses). Examples of such problems in electronic design automation (EDA) include formal equivalence checking, model checking, formal verification of pipelined microprocessors, automatic test pattern generation, routing of FPGAs, planning, and scheduling problems, and so on. A SAT-solving engine is also considered to be an essential component in the electronic design automation toolbox. + +Major techniques used by modern SAT solvers include the Davis–Putnam–Logemann–Loveland algorithm (or DPLL), conflict-driven clause learning (CDCL), and stochastic local search algorithms such as WalkSAT. Almost all SAT solvers include time-outs, so they will terminate in reasonable time even if they cannot find a solution. +Different SAT solvers will find different instances easy or hard, and some excel at proving unsatisfiability, and others at finding solutions. Recent attempts have been made to learn an instance's satisfiability using deep learning techniques. + +SAT solvers are developed and compared in SAT-solving contests. Modern SAT solvers are also having significant impact on the fields of software verification, constraint solving in artificial intelligence, and operations research, among others. + +See also +Unsatisfiable core +Satisfiability modulo theories +Counting SAT +Planar SAT +Karloff–Zwick algorithm +Circuit satisfiability + +Notes + +External links + + SAT Game: try solving a Boolean satisfiability problem yourself + The international SAT competition website + International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing + Journal on Satisfiability, Boolean Modeling and Computation + SAT Live, an aggregate website for research on the satisfiability problem + Yearly evaluation of MaxSAT solvers + +References + +Sources + This article includes material from https://web.archive.org/web/20070708233347/http://www.sigda.org/newsletter/2006/eNews_061201.html by Prof. Karem A. Sakallah. + +Further reading +(by date of publication) + + + + + + + + + + + +Boolean algebra +Electronic design automation +Formal methods +Logic in computer science +NP-complete problems +Satisfiability problems +Bob Jones University (BJU) is a private evangelical university in Greenville, South Carolina. It is known for its conservative cultural and religious positions. The university, with approximately 3,000 students, is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. In 2017, the university estimated the number of its graduates at 40,184. + +History + +During the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy of the 1920s, Christian evangelist Bob Jones Sr. grew increasingly concerned about what he perceived to be the secularization of higher education and the influence of religious liberalism in denominational colleges. Jones recalled that in 1924, his friend William Jennings Bryan had leaned over to him at a Bible conference service in Winona Lake, Indiana and said, "If schools and colleges do not quit teaching evolution as a fact, we are going to become a nation of atheists." Though Jones was not a college graduate, he was determined to found a college. On September 12, 1927, Jones opened Bob Jones College in Panama City, Florida, with 88 students. Jones said that although he had been averse to naming the school after himself, his friends overcame his reluctance "with the argument that the school would be called by that name because of my connection with it, and to attempt to give it any other name would confuse the people". + +Bob Jones took no salary from the college. Jones supported the school with personal savings and income from his evangelistic campaigns. Both time and place were inauspicious. The Florida land boom had peaked in 1925, and a hurricane in September 1926 further reduced land values. The Great Depression followed hard on its heels. Bob Jones College barely survived bankruptcy and its move to Cleveland, Tennessee in 1933. In the same year, the college also ended participation in intercollegiate sports. Nevertheless, Jones's move to Cleveland proved extraordinarily advantageous. Bankrupt at the nadir of the Depression, without a home and with barely enough money to move its library and office furniture, the college became the largest liberal arts college in Tennessee thirteen years later. With the enactment of the GI Bill at the end of World War II, the need for campus expansion to accommodate increased enrollment led to a relocation to South Carolina. + +Though Jones had served as acting president as early as 1934, his son, Bob Jones Jr. officially became the school's second president in 1947 before the college moved to Greenville, South Carolina, and became Bob Jones University. In Greenville, the university more than doubled in size within two years and started a radio station, film department, and art gallery—the latter of which eventually became one of the largest collections of religious art in the Western Hemisphere. + +During the late 1950s, BJU and alumnus Billy Graham, who had attended Bob Jones College for one semester and received an honorary degree from the university in 1948, engaged in a controversy about the propriety of theological conservatives cooperating with theological liberals to support evangelistic campaigns, a controversy that widened an already growing rift between separatist fundamentalists and other evangelicals. Negative publicity caused by the dispute precipitated a decline in BJU enrollment of about 10% in the years 1956–59, and seven members of the university board (of about a hundred) also resigned in support of Graham, including Graham himself and two of his staff members. When, in 1966, Graham held his only American campaign in Greenville, the university forbade any BJU dormitory student from attending under penalty of expulsion. Enrollment quickly rebounded, and by 1970, there were 3,300 students, approximately 60% more than in 1958. + +In 1971, Bob Jones III became president at age 32, though his father, with the title of Chancellor, continued to exercise considerable administrative authority into the late 1990s. At the 2005 commencement, Stephen Jones was installed as the fourth president, and Bob Jones III assumed the title of chancellor. Stephen Jones resigned in 2014 for health reasons, and evangelist Steve Pettit was named president, the first unrelated to the Jones family. + +In 2011, the university became a member of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) and reinstated intercollegiate athletics. In March 2017, the university regained its federal tax exemption after a complicated restructuring divided the organization into for-profit and non-profit entities, and in June 2017, it was granted accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. + +In March 2023, Pettit resigned, effective May 5, citing his inability to work with the chairman of the university's board of trustees. Shortly thereafter, the president of the board also resigned. + +Academics +The university comprises seven colleges and schools offering more than 60 undergraduate majors, including fourteen associate degree programs. Many of the university employees consider their positions as much ministries as jobs. It is common for retiring professors to have served the university for more than forty years, a circumstance that has contributed to the stability and conservatism of an institution of higher learning that has virtually no endowment and at which faculty salaries are "sacrificial". + +Religious education + +School of Religion +The School of Religion includes majors for both men and women, although only men train as ministerial students. Many of these students go on to a seminary after completing their undergraduate education. Others take ministry positions straight from college, and rising juniors participate in a church internship program to prepare them for pastoral ministry. In 1995, 1,290 BJU graduates were serving as senior or associate pastors in churches across the United States. In 2017 more than 100 pastors in the Upstate alone were BJU graduates. + +Position on the King James Version of the Bible +The university uses the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible in its services and classrooms, but it does not hold the KJV to be the only acceptable English translation or that it has the same authority as the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. The King-James-Only Movement—or more correctly, movements, since it has many variations—became a divisive force in fundamentalism as conservative, modern Bible translations, such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and the New International Version (NIV), began to appear in the 1970s. BJU has taken the position that orthodox Christians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (including fundamentalists) agreed that while the KJV was a substantially accurate translation, only the original manuscripts of the Bible written in Hebrew and Greek were infallible and inerrant. Bob Jones Jr. called the KJV-only position a "heresy" and "in a very definite sense, a blasphemy". + +Fine arts +The Division of Fine Arts has the largest faculty of the university's six undergraduate schools. Each year, the university presents an opera in the spring semester and Shakespearean plays in both the fall and spring semesters. The Division of Fine Arts includes an RTV department with a campus radio and television station, WBJU. More than a hundred concerts, recitals, and laboratory theater productions are also presented annually. + +Each fall, as a recruiting tool, the university sponsors a "High School Festival" in which students compete in music, art, and speech (including preaching) contests with their peers from around the country. In the spring, a similar competition sponsored by the American Association of Christian Schools, and hosted by BJU since 1977, brings thousands of national finalists to the university from around the country. In 2005, 120 of the finalists from previous years returned to BJU as freshmen. + +Science + +Bob Jones University supports young-earth creationism, all their biology faculty are young Earth creationists and the university rejects evolution, calling it "at best an unsupportable and unworkable hypothesis". + +According to the BJU website, "More than 80% of our premed graduates are accepted to medical or dental school within a year of graduation." The Department of Biology hosts two research programs on campus, one in cancer research, the other in animal behavior. Although ten of the sixteen members of the science faculty have bachelor's degrees from BJU, all earned their doctorates from accredited, non-religious institutions of higher learning. + +The university's nursing major is approved by the South Carolina State Board of Nursing, and a BJU graduate with a BSN is eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination to become a registered nurse. The BJU engineering program is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). + +Accreditation and rankings +Bob Jones Sr. was leery of academic accreditation almost from the founding of the college, and by the early 1930s, he had publicly stated his opposition to holding regional accreditation. Jones and the college were criticized for this stance, and academic recognition, as well as student and faculty recruitment, were hindered. + +In 1944, Jones wrote to John Walvoord of Dallas Theological Seminary that while the university had "no objection to educational work highly standardized…. We, however, cannot conscientiously let some group of educational experts or some committee of experts who may have a behavioristic or atheistic slant on education control or even influence the administrative policies of our college." Five years later, Jones reflected that "it cost us something to stay out of an association, but we stayed out. We have lived up to our convictions." In any case, lack of accreditation seems to have made little difference during the post-war period, when the university more than doubled in size. + +Because graduates did not benefit from accredited degrees, the faculty felt an increased responsibility to prepare their students. Early in the history of the college, there had been some hesitancy on the part of other institutions to accept BJU credits at face value, but by the 1960s, BJU alumni were being accepted by most of the major graduate and professional schools in the United States. Undoubtedly helpful was that some of the university's strongest programs were in the areas of music, speech, and art, disciplines in which ability could be measured by audition or portfolio rather than through paper qualifications. + +Nevertheless, by the early 2000s, the university quietly reexamined its position on accreditation as degree mills proliferated, and some government agencies, such as local police departments, began excluding BJU graduates because the university did not appear on appropriate federal lists. In 2004, the university began the process of joining the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. Candidate status—effectively, accreditation—was obtained in April 2005, and full membership in the Association was conferred in November 2006. In December 2011, BJU announced its intention to apply for regional accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC), and it received that accreditation in 2017. + +In 2017, US News ranked BJU as #61 (tie) in Regional Universities South +and #7 in Best Value Schools. + +Political involvement +As a twelve-year-old, Bob Jones Sr. made a twenty-minute speech in defense of the Populist Party. Jones was a friend and admirer of William Jennings Bryan but also campaigned throughout the South for Herbert Hoover (and against Al Smith) during the 1928 presidential election. Even the authorized history of BJU notes that both Bob Jones Sr. and Bob Jones Jr. "played political hardball" when dealing with the three municipalities in which the school was successively located. For instance, in 1962, Bob Jones Sr. warned the Greenville City Council that he had "four hundred votes in his pocket and in any election he would have control over who would be elected." + +Bob Jones Sr.'s April 17, 1960, Easter Sunday sermon, broadcast on the radio, entitled "Is Segregation Scriptural?" served as the university position paper on race in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The transcript was sent in pamphlet form in fund-raising letters and sold in the university bookstore. In the sermon, Jones states, "If you are against segregation and against racial separation, then you are against God Almighty." The school began a long history of supporting politicians who were considered aligned with racial segregation. + +Republican Party ties + +From nearly the inception of Bob Jones College, a majority of students and faculty were from the northern United States, where there was a larger ratio of Republicans to Democrats than in the South (which was solidly Democratic). Therefore, almost from its founding year, BJU had a larger portion of Republicans than the surrounding community. After South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond switched his allegiance to the Republican Party in 1964, BJU faculty members became increasingly influential in the new state Republican party. BJU alumni were elected to local political and party offices. In 1976, candidates supported by BJU faculty and alumni captured the local Republican party with unfortunate short-term political consequences, but by 1980 the religious right and the "country club" Republicans had joined forces. From then on, most Republican candidates for local and statewide offices sought the endorsement of Bob Jones III and greeted faculty/staff voters at the University Dining Common. + +National Republicans soon followed. Ronald Reagan spoke at the school in 1980, although the Joneses supported his opponent, John Connally, in the South Carolina primary. Later, Bob Jones III denounced Reagan as "a traitor to God's people" for choosing George H. W. Bush—whom Jones called a "devil"—as his vice president. Even later, Jones III shook Bush's hand and thanked him for being a good president. In the 1990s, other Republicans such as Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan, Phil Gramm, Bob Dole, and Alan Keyes also spoke at BJU. Democrats were rarely invited to speak at the university, in part because they took political and social positions (especially support for abortion rights) opposed by the Religious Right. + +2000 election +On February 2, 2000, then Texas Governor George W. Bush, as a candidate for president, spoke during school's chapel hour. Bush gave a standard stump speech, making no specific reference to the university. His political opponents quickly noted his non-mention of the university's ban on interracial dating. During the Michigan primary, Bush was also criticized for not stating his opposition to the university's anti-Catholicism. The McCain campaign targeted Catholics with "Catholic Voter Alert" phone calls, reminding voters of Bush's visit to BJU. New York Republican Representative Peter King, who was supporting John McCain in the presidential primary, called Bush a tool of "anti-Catholic bigoted forces", after the visit. King described BJU as "an institution that is notorious in Ireland for awarding an honorary doctorate to Northern Ireland's tempestuous Protestant leader, Ian Paisley." Bush denied that he either knew of or approved what he regarded as BJU's intolerant policies. On February 26, Bush issued a formal letter of apology to Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor of New York for failing to denounce Bob Jones University's history of anti-Catholic statements. Bush said at a news conference following the letter's release, "I make no excuses. I had an opportunity and I missed it. I regret that....I wish I had gotten up then and seized the moment to set a tone, a tone that I had set in Texas, a positive and inclusive tone." Also during the 2000 Republican primary campaign in South Carolina, Richard Hand, a BJU professor, spread a false e-mail rumor that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate child. The McCains have an adopted daughter from Bangladesh, and later push polling also implied that the child was biracial. + +Withdrawal from politics +Although the March 2007 issue of Foreign Policy listed BJU as one of "The World's Most Controversial Religious Sites" because of its past influence on American politics, BJU has seen little political controversy since Stephen Jones became president. When asked by a Newsweek reporter if he wished to play a political role, Stephen Jones replied, "It would not be my choice." Further, when asked if he felt ideologically closer to his father's engagement with politics or to other evangelicals who have tried to avoid civic involvement, Jones answered, "The gospel is for individuals. The main message we have is to individuals. We're not here to save the culture." In a 2005 Washington Post interview, Jones dodged political questions and even admitted that he was embarrassed by "some of the more vitriolic comments" made by his predecessors. "I don't want to get specific," Jones said, "But there were things said back then that I wouldn't say today." In October 2007, when Bob Jones III, as "a private citizen," endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president, Stephen Jones made it clear that he wished "to stay out of politics" and that neither he nor the university had endorsed anyone. Despite a hotly contested South Carolina primary, none of the candidates appeared on the platform of BJU's Founders' Memorial Amphitorium during the 2008 election cycle. In April 2008, Stephen Jones told a reporter, "I don't think I have a political bone in my body." + +Renewed political engagement +In 2015 BJU reemerged as a campaign stop for conservative Republicans. Ben Carson and Ted Cruz held large on-campus rallies on two successive days in November. BJU president Steve Pettit met with Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee, and Scott Walker. Jeb Bush, Carson, Cruz, and Rubio also appeared at a 2016 Republican presidential forum at BJU. Chip Felkel, a Greenville Republican consultant, noted that some candidates closely identified "with the folks at Bob Jones. So it makes sense for them to want to be there." Nevertheless, unlike BJU's earlier periods of political involvement, Pettit did not endorse a candidate. + +According to Furman University political science professor Jim Guth, because Greenville has grown so much recently, it is unlikely BJU will ever again have the same political influence it had between the 1960s and the 1980s. Nevertheless, about a quarter of all BJU graduates continue to live in the Upstate, and as long-time mayor Knox White has said, "The alumni have had a big impact on every profession and walk of life in Greenville." + +Campus +The university occupies 205 acres at the eastern city limit of Greenville. The institution moved into its initial 25 buildings during the 1947–48 school year, and later buildings were also faced with the light yellow brick chosen for the originals. + +Museum and gallery + +Bob Jones Jr. was a connoisseur of European art from his teen years and began collecting after World War II on about $30,000 a year authorized by the University Board of Directors. Jones first concentrated on the Italian Baroque, a style then out of favor and relatively inexpensive in the years immediately following the war. The museum's collection currently includes more than 400 European paintings from the 14th through the 19th centuries, period furniture, and a notable collection of Russian icons. The museum also includes a variety of Holy Land antiquities. +The gallery is strong in Baroque paintings and includes notable works by Rubens, Tintoretto, Veronese, Cranach, Gerard David, Murillo, Mattia Preti, Ribera, van Dyck, and Gustave Doré. Included in the Museum & Gallery collection are seven large canvases, part of a series by Benjamin West painted for George III, called "The Progress of Revealed Religion", which are displayed in the War Memorial Chapel. The museum also includes a variety of Holy Land antiquities collected in the early 20th century by missionaries Frank and Barbara Bowen. + +Every Easter, the university and the Museum & Gallery present the Living Gallery, a series of tableaux vivants recreating noted works of religious art using live models disguised as part of two-dimensional paintings. + +BJU has been criticized by some fundamentalists for promoting "false Catholic doctrine" through its art gallery because much of Baroque art was created for the Counter-Reformation. + +A painting by Lucas van Leyden that had been displayed in the gallery's collection for more than ten years and had been consigned to Sotheby's for sale was recognized by Interpol as art that had been stolen by the Nazis from the Mittelrhein-Museum in Koblenz. The painting was eventually returned to Germany after months of negotiations between the Mittelrhein-Museum and Julius H. Weitzner (1896–1986), a noted dealer in Old Master paintings. + +After the death of Bob Jones Jr., Erin Jones, the wife of BJU president Stephen Jones, became director. According to David Steel, curator of European art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Erin Jones "brought that museum into the modern era", employing "a top-notch curator, John Nolan", and following "best practices in conservation and restoration". The museum cooperates with other institutions, lending works for outside shows such as a Rembrandt exhibit in 2011. + +In 2008, the BJU Museum & Gallery opened a satellite location, the Museum & Gallery at Heritage Green near downtown Greenville, which featured rotating exhibitions from the main museum and interactive children's activities. In February 2017, the Museum & Gallery closed both locations permanently. In 2018, the museum announced that a new home would be built at a yet undetermined located off the BJU campus. In 2021, Erin Jones said the museum was exploring a permanent home near the proposed downtown conference center. + +Library + +The Mack Library (named for John Sephus Mack) holds a collection of more than 300,000 books and includes seating for 1,200 as well as a computer lab and a computer classroom. (Its ancillary, a music library, is included in the Gustafson Fine Arts Center.) Mack Library's Special Collections includes an American Hymnody Collection of about 700 titles. The "Jerusalem Chamber" is a replica of the room in Westminster Abbey in which work on the King James Version of the Bible was conducted, and it displays a collection of rare Bibles. An adjoining Memorabilia Room commemorates the life of Bob Jones Sr. and the history of the university. + +The library's Fundamentalism File collects periodical articles and ephemera about social and religious matters of interest to evangelicals and fundamentalists. The University Archives holds copies of all university publications, oral histories of faculty and staff members, surviving remnants of university correspondence, and pictures and artifacts related to the Jones family and the history of the university. + +Ancillary ministries + +Unusual Films +Both Bob Jones Sr. and Bob Jones Jr. believed that film could be an excellent medium for mass evangelism, and in 1950, the university established Unusual Films within the School of Fine Arts. (The studio name derives from a former BJU promotional slogan, "The World's Most Unusual University".) Bob Jones Jr. selected a speech teacher, Katherine Stenholm, as the first director. Although she had no experience in cinema, she took summer courses at the University of Southern California and received personal instruction from Hollywood specialists, such as Rudolph Sternad. + +Unusual Films has produced seven feature-length films, each with an evangelistic emphasis: Wine of Morning, Red Runs the River, Flame in the Wind, Sheffey, Beyond the Night, The Printing, and Milltown Pride. Wine of Morning (1955), based on a novel by Bob Jones Jr., represented the United States at the Cannes Film Festival. The first four films are historical dramas set, respectively, in the time of Christ, the U.S. Civil War, 16th-century Spain, and the late 19th-century South—the latter a fictionalized treatment of the life of Methodist evangelist, Robert Sayers Sheffey. Beyond the Night closely follows an actual 20th-century missionary saga in Central Africa, and The Printing uses composite characters to portray the persecution of believers in the former Soviet Union. According to The Dove Foundation, The Printing "no doubt will urge Christian believers everywhere to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy. It is inspiring!" In 1999, Unusual Films began producing feature films for children, including The Treasure Map, Project Dinosaur, and Appalachian Trial. They also released a short animated film for children, The Golden Rom. Unusual Films returned to their customary format in 2011 with their release of Milltown Pride, a historical film set in 1920s upstate South Carolina. + +Unusual Films also maintains a student film production program. The Film and Digital Storytelling program provides professional training in motion picture production. This training combines classroom instruction with hands-on experience in various areas, including directing, editing, and cinematography. Before graduation, seniors produce high-definition short films which they write, direct, and edit. + +BJU Press + +BJU Press originated from the need for textbooks for the burgeoning Christian school movement. The press publishes a full range of K–12 textbooks. More than a million pre-college students worldwide use BJU textbooks, and the press has about 2,500 titles in print. + +BJU Press also offers distance learning courses online, via DVD and hard drive. Another ancillary, the Academy of Home Education, is a "service organization for homeschooling families" that maintains student records, administers achievement testing, and issues high school diplomas. The press sold its music division, SoundForth, to Lorenz Publishing on October 1, 2012. + +Pre-college programs + +The university operates Bob Jones Academy, which enrolls students from preschool through 12th grade. With about 1100 students, the school's demographic makeup leans heavily white (90.3%), with non-Black minorities making up the bulk of other ethnicities. Black students make up 0.5% of enrollment. + +Controversies + +Sexual abuse reports +In December 2011, in response to accusations of mishandling of student reports of sexual abuse (most of which had occurred in their home churches when the students were minors) and a concurrent reporting issue at a church pastored by a university board member, the BJU board of trustees hired an independent ombudsman, GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), to investigate. Released in December 2014, the GRACE report suggested that BJU had discouraged students from reporting past sexual abuse, and though the university declined to implement many of the report's recommendations, President Steve Pettit formally apologized "to those who felt they did not receive from us genuine love, compassion, understanding, and support after suffering sexual abuse or assault". The university's mishandling of sexual abuse in the past came into light again in August 2020 when a student filed a lawsuit against Bob Jones University and Furman University alleging both administrations ignored the sexual assault report and expelled the student for consuming alcohol, which is against the Student Code of Conduct handbook. + +Racial policies and ban on interracial dating +Although BJU had admitted Asian students and other ethnic groups from its inception, it did not enroll African or African-American students until 1971. From 1971 to 1975, BJU admitted only married Black people. However, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had already determined in 1970 that "private schools with racially discriminatory admissions policies" were not entitled to federal tax exemption. In 1975, the University Board of Trustees authorized a policy change to admit Black students, a move that occurred shortly before the announcement of the Supreme Court decision in Runyon v. McCrary (427 U.S. 160 [1976]), which prohibited racial exclusion in private schools. In May 1975, BJU expanded rules against interracial dating and marriage. + +In 1976, the Internal Revenue Service revoked the university's tax exemption retroactively to December 1, 1970, because it practiced racial discrimination. The case eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982. After BJU lost the decision in Bob Jones University v. United States (461 U.S. 574)[1983], the university chose to maintain its interracial dating policy and pay a million dollars in back taxes. The year following the Court decision, contributions to the university declined by 13 percent. In 2000, following a media uproar prompted by the visit of presidential candidate George W. Bush to the university, Bob Jones III dropped the university's interracial dating rule, announcing the change on CNN's Larry King Live. In the same year, Bob Jones III drew criticism after reposting a letter on the university's web page referring to Mormons and Catholics as being members of "cults which call themselves Christian". + +In 2005, Stephen Jones, great-grandson of the founder, became BJU's president on the same day that he received his PhD from the school. Bob Jones III then took the title Chancellor. In 2008, the university declared itself "profoundly sorry" for having allowed "institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful". That year, BJU enrolled students from fifty states and nearly fifty countries, representing diverse ethnicities and cultures, and the BJU administration declared itself "committed to maintaining on the campus the racial and cultural diversity and harmony characteristic of the true Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world". + +In his first meeting with the university cabinet in 2014, the fifth president Steve Pettit said it was appropriate for BJU to regain its tax-exempt status because BJU no longer held its earlier positions about race. "The Bible is clear," said Pettit, "We are made of one blood." By February 17, 2017, the IRS website had listed the university as a 501(c)(3) organization, and by May 2017, BJU had forged a working relationship with Greenville's Phillis Wheatley Center. In 2017, 9% of the student body was "from the American minority population". + +Student life + +Religious atmosphere + +Religion is a major aspect of life and curriculum at BJU. The BJU Creed, written in 1927 by journalist and prohibitionist Sam Small, is recited by students and faculty four days a week at chapel services. + +The university also encourages church planting in areas of the United States "in great need of fundamental churches", and it has provided financial and logistical assistance to ministerial graduates in starting more than a hundred new churches. Bob Jones III has also encouraged non-ministerial students to put their career plans on hold for two or three years to provide lay leadership for small churches. Students of various majors participate in Missions Advance (formerly Mission Prayer Band), an organization that prays for missionaries and attempts to stimulate campus interest in world evangelism. During summers and Christmas breaks, about 150 students participate in teams that use their musical, language, trade, and aviation skills to promote Christian missions around the world. Although a separate nonprofit corporation, Gospel Fellowship Association, an organization founded by Bob Jones Sr. and associated with BJU, is one of the largest fundamentalist mission boards in the country. Through its "Timothy Fund", the university also sponsors international students who are training for the ministry. + +The university requires the use of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible in its services and classrooms, but it does not hold that the KJV is the only acceptable English translation or that it has the same authority as the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. The university's position has been criticized by some other fundamentalists, including fellow conservative university Pensacola Christian College, which in 1998 produced a widely distributed videotape which argued that this "defiling leaven in fundamentalism" was passed from the 19th-century Princeton theologian Benjamin B. Warfield (1851–1921) through Charles Brokenshire (1885–1954) to current BJU faculty members and graduates. + +Rules of conduct +Strict rules govern student life at BJU. Some of these are based directly on the university's interpretation of the Bible. For instance, the 2015–16 Student Handbook states, "Students are to avoid any types of entertainment that could be considered immodest or that contain profanity, scatological realism, sexual perversion, erotic realism, lurid violence, occultism and false philosophical or religious assumptions." Grounds for immediate dismissal include stealing, immorality (including sexual relations between unmarried students), possession of hard-core pornography, use of alcohol or drugs, and participating in a public demonstration for a cause the university opposes. Similar "moral failures" are grounds for terminating the employment of faculty and staff. In 1998, a homosexual alumnus was threatened with arrest if he visited the campus. + +For years, male students were required to wear slacks, dress shirts, and ties on campus during the day. This requirement has since been loosened; men are allowed to wear polo shirts or dress shirts on weekdays until 17:00 and are no longer required to wear ties. Effective in 2018, women are no longer required to wear skirts or dresses and can now wear pants. They are also required to attend chapel four days a week, as well as at least two services per week at an approved "local fundamental church". + +Other rules are not based on a specific biblical passage. For instance, the Handbook notes that "there is no specific Bible command that says, 'Thou shalt not be late to class', but a student who wishes to display orderliness and concern for others will not come in late to the distraction of the teacher and other students." In 2008 a campus spokesperson also said that one goal of the dress code was "to teach our young people to dress professionally" on campus while giving them "the ability to...choose within the biblically accepted options of dress" when they were off campus. + +Additional rules include requiring resident hall students to abide by a campus curfew of 11:00 pm, with lights out at midnight. Students are forbidden to go to movie theaters while in residence, however, they may watch movies rated G or PG while in the residence halls. Students may not listen to popular contemporary music. Male students with upper-level privileges and graduate students may have facial hair that is fully grown before the start of the semester, neatly trimmed, and well maintained at approximately ½ inch or less. Women are expected to dress modestly and wear dresses or skirts that come to the knee to class and religious services. + +Extracurriculars + +After BJU abandoned intercollegiate sports in 1933, its intramural sports program included competition in soccer, basketball, softball, volleyball, tennis, badminton, flag football, table tennis, racquetball, and water polo. The university also competed in intercollegiate debate within the National Educational Debate Association, in intercollegiate mock trial and computer science competitions, and participated at South Carolina Student Legislature. In 2012, BJU joined Division I of National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) and in 2014 participated in intercollegiate soccer, basketball, cross-country, and golf. The teams are known as the Bruins. + +The university requires all unmarried incoming first-year students under 23 to join one of 45 "societies". Societies meet most Fridays for entertainment and fellowship and hold weekly prayer meetings. Societies compete with one another in intramural sports, debate, and Scholastic Bowl. The university also has a student-staffed newspaper (The Collegian), and yearbook (Vintage). + +Early in December, thousands of students, faculty, and visitors gather around the front campus fountain for an annual Christmas carol singing and lighting ceremony, illuminating tens of thousands of Christmas lights. On December 3, 2004, the ceremony broke the Guinness World Record for Christmas caroling with 7,514 carolers. + +Before 2015, the university required students and faculty to attend a six-day Bible Conference instead of a traditional Spring Break. However, the university announced that beginning in 2016, it would hold the Bible Conference in February and give students a week of Spring Break in March. The Conference typically attracts fundamentalist preachers and laypeople from around the country, and some BJU class reunions are held during the week. + +Athletics + +The Bob Jones (BJU) athletic teams are called the Bruins. The university is a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA), primarily competing in the South Region of the Division II level. + +The Bruins previously competed as a member of the NCAA Division III ranks, primarily competing as an NCAA D-III Independent from 2020–21 to 2022–23. + +BJU competes in 12 intercollegiate varsity sports. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, and track & field, while women's sports include basketball, beach volleyball, cross-country, soccer, track & field, and volleyball. + +History +In 2012, the university inaugurated intercollegiate athletics with four teams: men's soccer, men's basketball, women's soccer, and women's basketball. The university added intercollegiate golf and cross-country teams during the 2013–2014 school year. Men's and women's shooting sports were added in 2016. Men's baseball began in the spring of 2021, and women's beach volleyball started in the spring of 2022. On January 31, 2023, director of athletics Neal Ring announced his resignation. Ring had overseen Bruins Athletics since inception. + +Through its first 11 seasons, the athletic department amassed 22 NCCAA National Championships, nearly 100 All-Americans, and over 200 Scholar-Athletes. Bruins Athletics also received 6 straight Presidential Awards for Excellence, honoring the most successful NCCAA DII athletics program. + +Move to NCAA Division III +In 2018, BJU explored National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) membership and applied for it in January 2020. The Bruins were accepted as Division III provisional members in June for three years, making it the only Division III school in the state. The school has been searching for a conference. + +Notable people + +Alumni + +A number of BJU graduates have become influential within fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity, including Ken Hay (founder of "The Wilds" Christian camps) Ron "Patch" Hamilton (composer and president of Majesty Music) Billy Kim (former president of Baptist World Alliance), and Moisés Silva (president of the Evangelical Theological Society). BJU alumni also include the third pastor (1968–1976) of Riverside Church (Ernest T. Campbell), the former president of Northland Baptist Bible College (Les Ollila), late president of Baptist Bible College (Ernest Pickering), and the former president of Clearwater Christian College (Richard Stratton). + +One BJU alumnus, Asa Hutchinson, served as the governor of Arkansas and also served in the U.S. Congress; his brother Tim Hutchinson served in the U.S. Senate. Others have served in state government: Michigan state senator Alan Cropsey, Pennsylvania state representative Gordon Denlinger, Pennsylvania state representative Mark M. Gillen, former Speaker Pro Tempore of the South Carolina House of Representatives Terry Haskins, member of the South Carolina House of Representatives Wendy Nanney, Pennsylvania state representative Sam Rohrer, member of the Missouri House of Representatives Ryan Silvey, Maryland state senator Bryan Simonaire and his daughter, state delegate Meagan Simonaire, and South Carolina state senator Danny Verdin. + +References + +Bibliography + +External links + + + Official athletics website + + +Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools +Anti-Catholicism in the United States +Universities and colleges established in 1927 +Fundamentalist Christian universities and colleges +Education in Greenville, South Carolina +History of racial segregation in the United States +Buildings and structures in Greenville, South Carolina +1927 establishments in South Carolina +Evangelicalism in South Carolina +Conservatism in the United States +NCAA Division III independents +Evangelical universities and colleges in the United States +The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. +At its height in the 19th and early 20th century, it was the largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its constitutional, legal, linguistic, and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was described as "the empire on which the sun never sets", as the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. + +During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (Britain, following the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland) the dominant colonial power in North America. Britain became the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent after the East India Company's conquest of Mughal Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. + +The American War of Independence resulted in Britain losing some of its oldest and most populous colonies in North America by 1783. While retaining control of British North America (now Canada) and territories in and near the Caribbean in the British West Indies, British colonial expansion turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. After the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century and expanded its imperial holdings. It pursued trade concessions in China and Japan, and territory in Southeast Asia. The "Great Game" and "Scramble for Africa" also ensued. The period of relative peace (1815–1914) during which the British Empire became the global hegemon was later described as (Latin for "British Peace"). Alongside the formal control that Britain exerted over its colonies, its dominance of much of world trade, and of its oceans, meant that it effectively controlled the economies of, and readily enforced its interests in, many regions, such as Asia and Latin America. It also came to dominate the Middle East. Increasing degrees of autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies, some of which were formally reclassified as Dominions by the 1920s. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britain's economic lead. Military, economic and colonial tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily on its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on its military, financial, and manpower resources. Although the empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after the First World War, Britain was no longer the world's preeminent industrial or military power. + +In the Second World War, Britain's colonies in East Asia and Southeast Asia were occupied by the Empire of Japan. Despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige and economy helped accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britain's most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence in 1947 as part of a larger decolonisation movement, in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The Suez Crisis of 1956 confirmed Britain's decline as a global power, and the transfer of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997 symbolised for many the end of the British Empire, though fourteen overseas territories that are remnants of the empire remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies, along with most of the dominions, joined the Commonwealth of Nations, a free association of independent states. Fifteen of these, including the United Kingdom, retain a common monarch, currently King Charles III. + +Origins (1497–1583) + +The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, commissioned John Cabot to lead an expedition to discover a northwest passage to Asia via the North Atlantic. Cabot sailed in 1497, five years after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, and made landfall on the coast of Newfoundland. He believed he had reached Asia, and there was no attempt to found a colony. Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but did not return; it is unknown what happened to his ships. + +No further attempts to establish English colonies in the Americas were made until well into the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, during the last decades of the 16th century. In the meantime, Henry VIII's 1533 Statute in Restraint of Appeals had declared "that this realm of England is an Empire". The Protestant Reformation turned England and Catholic Spain into implacable enemies. In 1562, Elizabeth I encouraged the privateers John Hawkins and Francis Drake to engage in slave-raiding attacks against Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa with the aim of establishing an Atlantic slave trade. This effort was rebuffed and later, as the Anglo-Spanish Wars intensified, Elizabeth I gave her blessing to further privateering raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and shipping that was returning across the Atlantic, laden with treasure from the New World. At the same time, influential writers such as Richard Hakluyt and John Dee (who was the first to use the term "British Empire") were beginning to press for the establishment of England's own empire. By this time, Spain had become the dominant power in the Americas and was exploring the Pacific Ocean, Portugal had established trading posts and forts from the coasts of Africa and Brazil to China, and France had begun to settle the Saint Lawrence River area, later to become New France. + +Although England tended to trail behind Portugal, Spain, and France in establishing overseas colonies, it carried out its first modern colonisation, referred to as the Munster Plantations, in 16th century Ireland by settling it with English and welsh protestant settlers. England had already colonised part of the country following the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. Several people who helped establish the Munster plantations later played a part in the early colonisation of North America, particularly a group known as the West Country Men. + +English overseas possessions (1583–1707) + +In 1578, Elizabeth I granted a patent to Humphrey Gilbert for discovery and overseas exploration. That year, Gilbert sailed for the Caribbean with the intention of engaging in piracy and establishing a colony in North America, but the expedition was aborted before it had crossed the Atlantic. In 1583, he embarked on a second attempt. On this occasion, he formally claimed the harbour of the island of Newfoundland, although no settlers were left behind. Gilbert did not survive the return journey to England and was succeeded by his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, who was granted his own patent by Elizabeth in 1584. Later that year, Raleigh founded the Roanoke Colony on the coast of present-day North Carolina, but lack of supplies caused the colony to fail. + +In 1603, James VI of Scotland ascended (as James I) to the English throne and in 1604 negotiated the Treaty of London, ending hostilities with Spain. Now at peace with its main rival, English attention shifted from preying on other nations' colonial infrastructures to the business of establishing its own overseas colonies. The British Empire began to take shape during the early 17th century, with the English settlement of North America and the smaller islands of the Caribbean, and the establishment of joint-stock companies, most notably the East India Company, to administer colonies and overseas trade. This period, until the loss of the Thirteen Colonies after the American War of Independence towards the end of the 18th century, has been referred to by some historians as the "First British Empire". + +Americas, Africa and the slave trade + +England's early efforts at colonisation in the Americas met with mixed success. An attempt to establish a colony in Guiana in 1604 lasted only two years and failed in its main objective to find gold deposits. Colonies on the Caribbean islands of St Lucia (1605) and Grenada (1609) rapidly folded. The first permanent English settlement in the Americas was founded in 1607 in Jamestown by Captain John Smith, and managed by the Virginia Company; the Crown took direct control of the venture in 1624, thereby founding the Colony of Virginia. Bermuda was settled and claimed by England as a result of the 1609 shipwreck of the Virginia Company's flagship, while attempts to settle Newfoundland were largely unsuccessful. In 1620, Plymouth was founded as a haven by Puritan religious separatists, later known as the Pilgrims. Fleeing from religious persecution would become the motive for many English would-be colonists to risk the arduous trans-Atlantic voyage: Maryland was established by English Roman Catholics (1634), Rhode Island (1636) as a colony tolerant of all religions and Connecticut (1639) for Congregationalists. England's North American holdings were further expanded by the annexation of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1664, following the capture of New Amsterdam, which was renamed New York. Although less financially successful than colonies in the Caribbean, these territories had large areas of good agricultural land and attracted far greater numbers of English emigrants, who preferred their temperate climates. + +The British West Indies initially provided England's most important and lucrative colonies. Settlements were successfully established in St. Kitts (1624), Barbados (1627) and Nevis (1628), but struggled until the "Sugar Revolution" transformed the Caribbean economy in the mid-17th century. Large sugarcane plantations were first established in the 1640s on Barbados, with assistance from Dutch merchants and Sephardic Jews fleeing Portuguese Brazil. At first, sugar was grown primarily using white indentured labour, but rising costs soon led English traders to embrace the use of imported African slaves. The enormous wealth generated by slave-produced sugar made Barbados the most successful colony in the Americas, and one of the most densely populated places in the world. This boom led to the spread of sugar cultivation across the Caribbean, financed the development of non-plantation colonies in North America, and accelerated the growth of the Atlantic slave trade, particularly the triangular trade of slaves, sugar and provisions between Africa, the West Indies and Europe. + +To ensure that the increasingly healthy profits of colonial trade remained in English hands, Parliament decreed in 1651 that only English ships would be able to ply their trade in English colonies. This led to hostilities with the United Dutch Provinces—a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars—which would eventually strengthen England's position in the Americas at the expense of the Dutch. In 1655, England annexed the island of Jamaica from the Spanish, and in 1666 succeeded in colonising the Bahamas. +In 1670, Charles II incorporated by royal charter the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), granting it a monopoly on the fur trade in the area known as Rupert's Land, which would later form a large proportion of the Dominion of Canada. Forts and trading posts established by the HBC were frequently the subject of attacks by the French, who had established their own fur trading colony in adjacent New France. + +Two years later, the Royal African Company was granted a monopoly on the supply of slaves to the British colonies in the Caribbean. The company would transport more slaves across the Atlantic than any other, and significantly grew England's share of the trade, from 33 per cent in 1673 to 74 per cent in 1683. The removal of this monopoly between 1688 and 1712 allowed independent British slave traders to thrive, leading to a rapid escalation in the number of slaves transported. British ships carried a third of all slaves shipped across the Atlantic—approximately 3.5 million Africans—until the abolition of the trade by Parliament in 1807 (see ). To facilitate the shipment of slaves, forts were established on the coast of West Africa, such as James Island, Accra and Bunce Island. In the British Caribbean, the percentage of the population of African descent rose from 25 per cent in 1650 to around 80 per cent in 1780, and in the Thirteen Colonies from 10 per cent to 40 per cent over the same period (the majority in the southern colonies). The transatlantic slave trade played a pervasive role in British economic life, and became a major economic mainstay for western port cities. Ships registered in Bristol, Liverpool and London were responsible for the bulk of British slave trading. For the transported, harsh and unhygienic conditions on the slaving ships and poor diets meant that the average mortality rate during the Middle Passage was one in seven. + +Rivalry with other European empires + +At the end of the 16th century, England and the Dutch Empire began to challenge the Portuguese Empire's monopoly of trade with Asia, forming private joint-stock companies to finance the voyages—the English, later British, East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, chartered in 1600 and 1602 respectively. The primary aim of these companies was to tap into the lucrative spice trade, an effort focused mainly on two regions: the East Indies archipelago, and an important hub in the trade network, India. There, they competed for trade supremacy with Portugal and with each other. Although England eclipsed the Netherlands as a colonial power, in the short term the Netherlands' more advanced financial system and the three Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century left it with a stronger position in Asia. Hostilities ceased after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the Dutch William of Orange ascended the English throne, bringing peace between the Dutch Republic and England. A deal between the two nations left the spice trade of the East Indies archipelago to the Netherlands and the textiles industry of India to England, but textiles soon overtook spices in terms of profitability. + +Peace between England and the Netherlands in 1688 meant the two countries entered the Nine Years' War as allies, but the conflict—waged in Europe and overseas between France, Spain and the Anglo-Dutch alliance—left the English a stronger colonial power than the Dutch, who were forced to devote a larger proportion of their military budget to the costly land war in Europe. The death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and his bequeathal of Spain and its colonial empire to Philip V of Spain, a grandson of the King of France, raised the prospect of the unification of France, Spain and their respective colonies, an unacceptable state of affairs for England and the other powers of Europe. In 1701, England, Portugal and the Netherlands sided with the Holy Roman Empire against Spain and France in the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted for thirteen years. + +Scottish attempt to expand overseas + +In 1695, the Parliament of Scotland granted a charter to the Company of Scotland, which established a settlement in 1698 on the Isthmus of Panama. Besieged by neighbouring Spanish colonists of New Granada, and affected by malaria, the colony was abandoned two years later. The Darien scheme was a financial disaster for Scotland: a quarter of Scottish capital was lost in the enterprise. The episode had major political consequences, helping to persuade the government of the Kingdom of Scotland of the merits of turning the personal union with England into a political and economic one under the Kingdom of Great Britain established by the Acts of Union 1707. + +"First" British Empire (1707–1783) + +The 18th century saw the newly united Great Britain rise to be the world's dominant colonial power, with France becoming its main rival on the imperial stage. Great Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire continued the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted until 1714 and was concluded by the Treaty of Utrecht. Philip V of Spain renounced his and his descendants' claim to the French throne, and Spain lost its empire in Europe. The British Empire was territorially enlarged: from France, Britain gained Newfoundland and Acadia, and from Spain Gibraltar and Menorca. Gibraltar became a critical naval base and allowed Britain to control the Atlantic entry and exit point to the Mediterranean. Spain ceded the rights to the lucrative asiento (permission to sell African slaves in Spanish America) to Britain. With the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739, Spanish privateers attacked British merchant shipping along the Triangle Trade routes. In 1746, the Spanish and British began peace talks, with the King of Spain agreeing to stop all attacks on British shipping; however, in the 1750 Treaty of Madrid Britain lost its slave-trading rights in Latin America. + +In the East Indies, British and Dutch merchants continued to compete in spices and textiles. With textiles becoming the larger trade, by 1720, in terms of sales, the British company had overtaken the Dutch. During the middle decades of the 18th century, there were several outbreaks of military conflict on the Indian subcontinent, as the English East India Company and its French counterpart, struggled alongside local rulers to fill the vacuum that had been left by the decline of the Mughal Empire. The Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which the British defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, left the British East India Company in control of Bengal and as the major military and political power in India. France was left control of its enclaves but with military restrictions and an obligation to support British client states, ending French hopes of controlling India. In the following decades the British East India Company gradually increased the size of the territories under its control, either ruling directly or via local rulers under the threat of force from the Presidency Armies, the vast majority of which was composed of Indian sepoys, led by British officers. The British and French struggles in India became but one theatre of the global Seven Years' War (1756–1763) involving France, Britain, and the other major European powers. + +The signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 had important consequences for the future of the British Empire. In North America, France's future as a colonial power effectively ended with the recognition of British claims to Rupert's Land, and the ceding of New France to Britain (leaving a sizeable French-speaking population under British control) and Louisiana to Spain. Spain ceded Florida to Britain. Along with its victory over France in India, the Seven Years' War therefore left Britain as the world's most powerful maritime power. + +Loss of the Thirteen American Colonies + + +During the 1760s and early 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's attempts to govern and tax American colonists without their consent. This was summarised at the time by the colonists' slogan "No taxation without representation", a perceived violation of the guaranteed Rights of Englishmen. The American Revolution began with a rejection of Parliamentary authority and moves towards self-government. In response, Britain sent troops to reimpose direct rule, leading to the outbreak of war in 1775. The following year, in 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence proclaiming the colonies' sovereignty from the British Empire as the new United States of America. The entry of French and Spanish forces into the war tipped the military balance in the Americans' favour and after a decisive defeat at Yorktown in 1781, Britain began negotiating peace terms. American independence was acknowledged at the Peace of Paris in 1783. + +The loss of such a large portion of British America, at the time Britain's most populous overseas possession, is seen by some historians as the event defining the transition between the "first" and "second" empires, in which Britain shifted its attention away from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, had argued that colonies were redundant, and that free trade should replace the old mercantilist policies that had characterised the first period of colonial expansion, dating back to the protectionism of Spain and Portugal. The growth of trade between the newly independent United States and Britain after 1783 seemed to confirm Smith's view that political control was not necessary for economic success. + +The war to the south influenced British policy in Canada, where between 40,000 and 100,000 defeated Loyalists had migrated from the new United States following independence. The 14,000 Loyalists who went to the Saint John and Saint Croix river valleys, then part of Nova Scotia, felt too far removed from the provincial government in Halifax, so London split off New Brunswick as a separate colony in 1784. The Constitutional Act of 1791 created the provinces of Upper Canada (mainly English speaking) and Lower Canada (mainly French-speaking) to defuse tensions between the French and British communities, and implemented governmental systems similar to those employed in Britain, with the intention of asserting imperial authority and not allowing the sort of popular control of government that was perceived to have led to the American Revolution. + +Tensions between Britain and the United States escalated again during the Napoleonic Wars, as Britain tried to cut off American trade with France and boarded American ships to impress men into the Royal Navy. The United States Congress declared war, the War of 1812, and invaded Canadian territory. In response, Britain invaded the US, but the pre-war boundaries were reaffirmed by the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, ensuring Canada's future would be separate from that of the United States. + +Rise of the "Second" British Empire (1783–1815) + +Exploration of the Pacific + +Since 1718, transportation to the American colonies had been a penalty for various offences in Britain, with approximately one thousand convicts transported per year. Forced to find an alternative location after the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in 1783, the British government turned to Australia. The coast of Australia had been discovered for Europeans by the Dutch in 1606, but there was no attempt to colonise it. In 1770 James Cook charted the eastern coast while on a scientific voyage, claimed the continent for Britain, and named it New South Wales. In 1778, Joseph Banks, Cook's botanist on the voyage, presented evidence to the government on the suitability of Botany Bay for the establishment of a penal settlement, and in 1787 the first shipment of convicts set sail, arriving in 1788. Unusually, Australia was claimed through proclamation. Indigenous Australians were considered too uncivilised to require treaties, and colonisation brought disease and violence that together with the deliberate dispossession of land and culture were devastating to these peoples. Britain continued to transport convicts to New South Wales until 1840, to Tasmania until 1853 and to Western Australia until 1868. The Australian colonies became profitable exporters of wool and gold, mainly because of the Victorian gold rush, making its capital Melbourne for a time the richest city in the world. + +During his voyage, Cook visited New Zealand, known to Europeans due to the 1642 voyage of the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman. Cook claimed both the North and the South islands for the British crown in 1769 and 1770 respectively. Initially, interaction between the indigenous Maori population and European settlers was limited to the trading of goods. European settlement increased through the early decades of the 19th century, with many trading stations being established, especially in the North. In 1839, the New Zealand Company announced plans to buy large tracts of land and establish colonies in New Zealand. On 6 February 1840, Captain William Hobson and around 40 Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi which is considered to be New Zealand's founding document, despite differing interpretations of the Maori and English versions of the text being the cause of ongoing dispute. + +The British also expanded their mercantile interests in the North Pacific. Spain and Britain had become rivals in the area, culminating in the Nootka Crisis in 1789. Both sides mobilised for war, but when France refused to support Spain it was forced to back down, leading to the Nootka Convention. The outcome was a humiliation for Spain, which practically renounced all sovereignty on the North Pacific coast. This opened the way to British expansion in the area, and a number of expeditions took place; firstly a naval expedition led by George Vancouver which explored the inlets around the Pacific North West, particularly around Vancouver Island. On land, expeditions sought to discover a river route to the Pacific for the extension of the North American fur trade. Alexander Mackenzie of the North West Company led the first, starting out in 1792, and a year later he became the first European to reach the Pacific overland north of the Rio Grande, reaching the ocean near present-day Bella Coola. This preceded the Lewis and Clark Expedition by twelve years. Shortly thereafter, Mackenzie's companion, John Finlay, founded the first permanent European settlement in British Columbia, Fort St. John. The North West Company sought further exploration and backed expeditions by David Thompson, starting in 1797, and later by Simon Fraser. These pushed into the wilderness territories of the Rocky Mountains and Interior Plateau to the Strait of Georgia on the Pacific Coast, expanding British North America westward. + +Wars with France + +Britain was challenged again by France under Napoleon, in a struggle that, unlike previous wars, represented a contest of ideologies between the two nations. It was not only Britain's position on the world stage that was at risk: Napoleon threatened to invade Britain itself, just as his armies had overrun many countries of continental Europe. + +The Napoleonic Wars were therefore ones in which Britain invested large amounts of capital and resources to win. French ports were blockaded by the Royal Navy, which won a decisive victory over a French Imperial Navy-Spanish Navy fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Overseas colonies were attacked and occupied, including those of the Netherlands, which was annexed by Napoleon in 1810. France was finally defeated by a coalition of European armies in 1815. Britain was again the beneficiary of peace treaties: France ceded the Ionian Islands, Malta (which it had occupied in 1798), Mauritius, St Lucia, the Seychelles, and Tobago; Spain ceded Trinidad; the Netherlands ceded Guyana, Ceylon and the Cape Colony, while the Danish ceded Heligoland. Britain returned Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Réunion to France; Menorca to Spain; Danish West Indies to Denmark and Java and Suriname to the Netherlands. + +Abolition of slavery + +With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, goods produced by slavery became less important to the British economy. Added to this was the cost of suppressing regular slave rebellions. With support from the British abolitionist movement, Parliament enacted the Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the empire. In 1808, Sierra Leone Colony was designated an official British colony for freed slaves. Parliamentary reform in 1832 saw the influence of the West India Committee decline. The Slavery Abolition Act, passed the following year, abolished slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834, finally bringing the empire into line with the law in the UK (with the exception of the territories administered by the East India Company and Ceylon, where slavery was ended in 1844). Under the Act, slaves were granted full emancipation after a period of four to six years of "apprenticeship". Facing further opposition from abolitionists, the apprenticeship system was abolished in 1838. The British government compensated slave-owners. + +Britain's imperial century (1815–1914) + +Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain's "imperial century" by some historians, around of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire. Victory over Napoleon left Britain without any serious international rival, other than Russia in Central Asia. Unchallenged at sea, Britain adopted the role of global policeman, a state of affairs later known as the Pax Britannica, and a foreign policy of "splendid isolation". Alongside the formal control it exerted over its own colonies, Britain's dominant position in world trade meant that it effectively controlled the economies of many countries, such as China, Argentina and Siam, which has been described by some historians as an "Informal Empire". + +British imperial strength was underpinned by the steamship and the telegraph, new technologies invented in the second half of the 19th century, allowing it to control and defend the empire. By 1902, the British Empire was linked together by a network of telegraph cables, called the All Red Line. + +East India Company rule and the British Raj in India + +The East India Company drove the expansion of the British Empire in Asia. The company's army had first joined forces with the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War, and the two continued to co-operate in arenas outside India: the eviction of the French from Egypt (1799), the capture of Java from the Netherlands (1811), the acquisition of Penang Island (1786), Singapore (1819) and Malacca (1824), and the defeat of Burma (1826). + +From its base in India, the company had been engaged in an increasingly profitable opium export trade to Qing China since the 1730s. This trade, illegal since it was outlawed by China in 1729, helped reverse the trade imbalances resulting from the British imports of tea, which saw large outflows of silver from Britain to China. In 1839, the confiscation by the Chinese authorities at Canton of 20,000 chests of opium led Britain to attack China in the First Opium War, and resulted in the seizure by Britain of Hong Kong Island, at that time a minor settlement, and other Treaty Ports including Shanghai. + +During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the British Crown began to assume an increasingly large role in the affairs of the company. A series of Acts of Parliament were passed, including the Regulating Act of 1773, Pitt's India Act of 1784 and the Charter Act of 1813 which regulated the company's affairs and established the sovereignty of the Crown over the territories that it had acquired. The company's eventual end was precipitated by the Indian Rebellion in 1857, a conflict that had begun with the mutiny of sepoys, Indian troops under British officers and discipline. The rebellion took six months to suppress, with heavy loss of life on both sides. The following year the British government dissolved the company and assumed direct control over India through the Government of India Act 1858, establishing the British Raj, where an appointed governor-general administered India and Queen Victoria was crowned the Empress of India. India became the empire's most valuable possession, "the Jewel in the Crown", and was the most important source of Britain's strength. + +A series of serious crop failures in the late 19th century led to widespread famines on the subcontinent in which it is estimated that over 15 million people died. The East India Company had failed to implement any coordinated policy to deal with the famines during its period of rule. Later, under direct British rule, commissions were set up after each famine to investigate the causes and implement new policies, which took until the early 1900s to have an effect. + +Rivalry with Russia + +During the 19th century, Britain and the Russian Empire vied to fill the power vacuums that had been left by the declining Ottoman Empire, Qajar dynasty and Qing dynasty. This rivalry in Central Asia came to be known as the "Great Game". As far as Britain was concerned, defeats inflicted by Russia on Persia and Turkey demonstrated its imperial ambitions and capabilities and stoked fears in Britain of an overland invasion of India. In 1839, Britain moved to pre-empt this by invading Afghanistan, but the First Anglo-Afghan War was a disaster for Britain. + +When Russia invaded the Ottoman Balkans in 1853, fears of Russian dominance in the Mediterranean and the Middle East led Britain and France to enter the war in support of the Ottoman Empire and invade the Crimean Peninsula to destroy Russian naval capabilities. The ensuing Crimean War (1854–1856), which involved new techniques of modern warfare, was the only global war fought between Britain and another imperial power during the Pax Britannica and was a resounding defeat for Russia. The situation remained unresolved in Central Asia for two more decades, with Britain annexing Baluchistan in 1876 and Russia annexing Kirghizia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. For a while, it appeared that another war would be inevitable, but the two countries reached an agreement on their respective spheres of influence in the region in 1878 and on all outstanding matters in 1907 with the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente. The destruction of the Imperial Russian Navy by the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 limited its threat to the British. + +Cape to Cairo + +The Dutch East India Company had founded the Dutch Cape Colony on the southern tip of Africa in 1652 as a way station for its ships travelling to and from its colonies in the East Indies. Britain formally acquired the colony, and its large Afrikaner (or Boer) population in 1806, having occupied it in 1795 to prevent its falling into French hands during the Flanders Campaign. British immigration to the Cape Colony began to rise after 1820, and pushed thousands of Boers, resentful of British rule, northwards to found their own—mostly short-lived—independent republics, during the Great Trek of the late 1830s and early 1840s. In the process the Voortrekkers clashed repeatedly with the British, who had their own agenda with regard to colonial expansion in South Africa and to the various native African polities, including those of the Sotho people and the Zulu Kingdom. Eventually, the Boers established two republics that had a longer lifespan: the South African Republic or Transvaal Republic (1852–1877; 1881–1902) and the Orange Free State (1854–1902). In 1902 Britain occupied both republics, concluding a treaty with the two Boer Republics following the Second Boer War (1899–1902). + +In 1869 the Suez Canal opened under Napoleon III, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. Initially the Canal was opposed by the British; but once opened, its strategic value was quickly recognised and became the "jugular vein of the Empire". In 1875, the Conservative government of Benjamin Disraeli bought the indebted Egyptian ruler Isma'il Pasha's 44 per cent shareholding in the Suez Canal for £4 million (equivalent to £ in ). Although this did not grant outright control of the strategic waterway, it did give Britain leverage. Joint Anglo-French financial control over Egypt ended in outright British occupation in 1882. Although Britain controlled the Khedivate of Egypt into the 20th century, it was officially a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire and not part of the British Empire. The French were still majority shareholders and attempted to weaken the British position, but a compromise was reached with the 1888 Convention of Constantinople, which made the Canal officially neutral territory. + +With competitive French, Belgian and Portuguese activity in the lower Congo River region undermining orderly colonisation of tropical Africa, the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 was held to regulate the competition between the European powers in what was called the "Scramble for Africa" by defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of territorial claims. The scramble continued into the 1890s, and caused Britain to reconsider its decision in 1885 to withdraw from Sudan. A joint force of British and Egyptian troops defeated the Mahdist Army in 1896 and rebuffed an attempted French invasion at Fashoda in 1898. Sudan was nominally made an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, but a British colony in reality. + +British gains in Southern and East Africa prompted Cecil Rhodes, pioneer of British expansion in Southern Africa, to urge a "Cape to Cairo" railway linking the strategically important Suez Canal to the mineral-rich south of the continent. During the 1880s and 1890s, Rhodes, with his privately owned British South Africa Company, occupied and annexed territories named after him, Rhodesia. + +Changing status of the white colonies + +The path to independence for the white colonies of the British Empire began with the 1839 Durham Report, which proposed unification and self-government for Upper and Lower Canada, as a solution to political unrest which had erupted in armed rebellions in 1837. This began with the passing of the Act of Union in 1840, which created the Province of Canada. Responsible government was first granted to Nova Scotia in 1848, and was soon extended to the other British North American colonies. With the passage of the British North America Act, 1867 by the British Parliament, the Province of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were formed into Canada, a confederation enjoying full self-government with the exception of international relations. Australia and New Zealand achieved similar levels of self-government after 1900, with the Australian colonies federating in 1901. The term "dominion status" was officially introduced at the 1907 Imperial Conference. + +The last decades of the 19th century saw concerted political campaigns for Irish home rule. Ireland had been united with Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the Act of Union 1800 after the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and had suffered a severe famine between 1845 and 1852. Home rule was supported by the British Prime minister, William Gladstone, who hoped that Ireland might follow in Canada's footsteps as a Dominion within the empire, but his 1886 Home Rule bill was defeated in Parliament. Although the bill, if passed, would have granted Ireland less autonomy within the UK than the Canadian provinces had within their own federation, many MPs feared that a partially independent Ireland might pose a security threat to Great Britain or mark the beginning of the break-up of the empire. A second Home Rule bill was defeated for similar reasons. A third bill was passed by Parliament in 1914, but not implemented because of the outbreak of the First World War leading to the 1916 Easter Rising. + +World wars (1914–1945) + +By the turn of the 20th century, fears had begun to grow in Britain that it would no longer be able to defend the metropole and the entirety of the empire while at the same time maintaining the policy of "splendid isolation". Germany was rapidly rising as a military and industrial power and was now seen as the most likely opponent in any future war. Recognising that it was overstretched in the Pacific and threatened at home by the Imperial German Navy, Britain formed an alliance with Japan in 1902 and with its old enemies France and Russia in 1904 and 1907, respectively. + +First World War + +Britain's fears of war with Germany were realised in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War. Britain quickly invaded and occupied most of Germany's overseas colonies in Africa. In the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand occupied German New Guinea and German Samoa respectively. Plans for a post-war division of the Ottoman Empire, which had joined the war on Germany's side, were secretly drawn up by Britain and France under the 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement. This agreement was not divulged to the Sharif of Mecca, who the British had been encouraging to launch an Arab revolt against their Ottoman rulers, giving the impression that Britain was supporting the creation of an independent Arab state. + +The British declaration of war on Germany and its allies committed the colonies and Dominions, which provided invaluable military, financial and material support. Over 2.5 million men served in the armies of the Dominions, as well as many thousands of volunteers from the Crown colonies. The contributions of Australian and New Zealand troops during the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire had a great impact on the national consciousness at home and marked a watershed in the transition of Australia and New Zealand from colonies to nations in their own right. The countries continue to commemorate this occasion on Anzac Day. Canadians viewed the Battle of Vimy Ridge in a similar light. The important contribution of the Dominions to the war effort was recognised in 1917 by the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George when he invited each of the Dominion Prime Ministers to join an Imperial War Cabinet to co-ordinate imperial policy. + +Under the terms of the concluding Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919, the empire reached its greatest extent with the addition of and 13 million new subjects. The colonies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire were distributed to the Allied powers as League of Nations mandates. Britain gained control of Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, parts of Cameroon and Togoland, and Tanganyika. The Dominions themselves acquired mandates of their own: the Union of South Africa gained South West Africa (modern-day Namibia), Australia gained New Guinea, and New Zealand Western Samoa. Nauru was made a combined mandate of Britain and the two Pacific Dominions. + +Inter-war period + +The changing world order that the war had brought about, in particular the growth of the United States and Japan as naval powers, and the rise of independence movements in India and Ireland, caused a major reassessment of British imperial policy. Forced to choose between alignment with the United States or Japan, Britain opted not to renew its Anglo-Japanese Alliance and instead signed the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, where Britain accepted naval parity with the United States. This decision was the source of much debate in Britain during the 1930s as militaristic governments took hold in Germany and Japan helped in part by the Great Depression, for it was feared that the empire could not survive a simultaneous attack by both nations. The issue of the empire's security was a serious concern in Britain, as it was vital to the British economy. + +In 1919, the frustrations caused by delays to Irish home rule led the MPs of Sinn Féin, a pro-independence party that had won a majority of the Irish seats in the 1918 British general election, to establish an independent parliament in Dublin, at which Irish independence was declared. The Irish Republican Army simultaneously began a guerrilla war against the British administration. The Irish War of Independence ended in 1921 with a stalemate and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, creating the Irish Free State, a Dominion within the British Empire, with effective internal independence but still constitutionally linked with the British Crown. Northern Ireland, consisting of six of the 32 Irish counties which had been established as a devolved region under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, immediately exercised its option under the treaty to retain its existing status within the United Kingdom. + +A similar struggle began in India when the Government of India Act 1919 failed to satisfy the demand for independence. Concerns over communist and foreign plots following the Ghadar conspiracy ensured that war-time strictures were renewed by the Rowlatt Acts. This led to tension, particularly in the Punjab region, where repressive measures culminated in the Amritsar Massacre. In Britain, public opinion was divided over the morality of the massacre, between those who saw it as having saved India from anarchy, and those who viewed it with revulsion. The non-cooperation movement was called off in March 1922 following the Chauri Chaura incident, and discontent continued to simmer for the next 25 years. + +In 1922, Egypt, which had been declared a British protectorate at the outbreak of the First World War, was granted formal independence, though it continued to be a British client state until 1954. British troops remained stationed in Egypt until the signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty in 1936, under which it was agreed that the troops would withdraw but continue to occupy and defend the Suez Canal zone. In return, Egypt was assisted in joining the League of Nations. Iraq, a British mandate since 1920, gained membership of the League in its own right after achieving independence from Britain in 1932. In Palestine, Britain was presented with the problem of mediating between the Arabs and increasing numbers of Jews. The Balfour Declaration, which had been incorporated into the terms of the mandate, stated that a national home for the Jewish people would be established in Palestine, and Jewish immigration allowed up to a limit that would be determined by the mandatory power. This led to increasing conflict with the Arab population, who openly revolted in 1936. As the threat of war with Germany increased during the 1930s, Britain judged the support of Arabs as more important than the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and shifted to a pro-Arab stance, limiting Jewish immigration and in turn triggering a Jewish insurgency. + +The right of the Dominions to set their own foreign policy, independent of Britain, was recognised at the 1923 Imperial Conference. Britain's request for military assistance from the Dominions at the outbreak of the Chanak Crisis the previous year had been turned down by Canada and South Africa, and Canada had refused to be bound by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. After pressure from the Irish Free State and South Africa, the 1926 Imperial Conference issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926, declaring the Dominions to be "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another" within a "British Commonwealth of Nations". This declaration was given legal substance under the 1931 Statute of Westminster. The parliaments of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State and Newfoundland were now independent of British legislative control, they could nullify British laws and Britain could no longer pass laws for them without their consent. Newfoundland reverted to colonial status in 1933, suffering from financial difficulties during the Great Depression. In 1937 the Irish Free State introduced a republican constitution renaming itself Ireland. + +Second World War + +Britain's declaration of war against Nazi Germany in September 1939 included the Crown colonies and India but did not automatically commit the Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland and South Africa. All soon declared war on Germany. While Britain continued to regard Ireland as still within the British Commonwealth, Ireland chose to remain legally neutral throughout the war. + +After the Fall of France in June 1940, Britain and the empire stood alone against Germany, until the German invasion of Greece on 7 April 1941. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill successfully lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt for military aid from the United States, but Roosevelt was not yet ready to ask Congress to commit the country to war. In August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met and signed the Atlantic Charter, which included the statement that "the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they live" should be respected. This wording was ambiguous as to whether it referred to European countries invaded by Germany and Italy, or the peoples colonised by European nations, and would later be interpreted differently by the British, Americans, and nationalist movements. + +For Churchill, the entry of the United States into the war was the "greatest joy". He felt that Britain was now assured of victory, but failed to recognise that the "many disasters, immeasurable costs and tribulations [which he knew] lay ahead" in December 1941 would have permanent consequences for the future of the empire. The manner in which British forces were rapidly defeated in the Far East irreversibly harmed Britain's standing and prestige as an imperial power, including, particularly, the Fall of Singapore, which had previously been hailed as an impregnable fortress and the eastern equivalent of Gibraltar. The realisation that Britain could not defend its entire empire pushed Australia and New Zealand, which now appeared threatened by Japanese forces, into closer ties with the United States and, ultimately, the 1951 ANZUS Pact. The war weakened the empire in other ways: undermining Britain's control of politics in India, inflicting long-term economic damage, and irrevocably changing geopolitics by pushing the Soviet Union and the United States to the centre of the global stage. + +Decolonisation and decline (1945–1997) + +Though Britain and the empire emerged victorious from the Second World War, the effects of the conflict were profound, both at home and abroad. Much of Europe, a continent that had dominated the world for several centuries, was in ruins, and host to the armies of the United States and the Soviet Union, who now held the balance of global power. Britain was left essentially bankrupt, with insolvency only averted in 1946 after the negotiation of a US$4.33 billion loan from the United States, the last installment of which was repaid in 2006. At the same time, anti-colonial movements were on the rise in the colonies of European nations. The situation was complicated further by the increasing Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union. In principle, both nations were opposed to European colonialism. In practice, American anti-communism prevailed over anti-imperialism, and therefore the United States supported the continued existence of the British Empire to keep Communist expansion in check. At first, British politicians believed it would be possible to maintain Britain's role as a world power at the head of a re-imagined Commonwealth, but by 1960 they were forced to recognise that there was an irresistible "wind of change" blowing. Their priorities changed to maintaining an extensive zone of British influence and ensuring that stable, non-Communist governments were established in former colonies. In this context, while other European powers such as France and Portugal waged costly and unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact, Britain generally adopted a policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies, although violence occurred in Malaya, Kenya and Palestine. Between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to 5 million, 3 million of whom were in Hong Kong. + +Initial disengagement + +The pro-decolonisation Labour government, elected at the 1945 general election and led by Clement Attlee, moved quickly to tackle the most pressing issue facing the empire: Indian independence. India's two major political parties—the Indian National Congress (led by Mahatma Gandhi) and the Muslim League (led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah)—had been campaigning for independence for decades, but disagreed as to how it should be implemented. Congress favoured a unified secular Indian state, whereas the League, fearing domination by the Hindu majority, desired a separate Islamic state for Muslim-majority regions. Increasing civil unrest and the mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy during 1946 led Attlee to promise independence no later than 30 June 1948. When the urgency of the situation and risk of civil war became apparent, the newly appointed (and last) Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, hastily brought forward the date to 15 August 1947. The borders drawn by the British to broadly partition India into Hindu and Muslim areas left tens of millions as minorities in the newly independent states of India and Pakistan. Millions of Muslims crossed from India to Pakistan and Hindus vice versa, and violence between the two communities cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Burma, which had been administered as part of British India until 1937, and Sri Lanka gained their independence the following year in 1948. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka became members of the Commonwealth, while Burma chose not to join. + +The British Mandate in Palestine, where an Arab majority lived alongside a Jewish minority, presented the British with a similar problem to that of India. The matter was complicated by large numbers of Jewish refugees seeking to be admitted to Palestine following the Holocaust, while Arabs were opposed to the creation of a Jewish state. Frustrated by the intractability of the problem, attacks by Jewish paramilitary organisations and the increasing cost of maintaining its military presence, Britain announced in 1947 that it would withdraw in 1948 and leave the matter to the United Nations to solve. The UN General Assembly subsequently voted for a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. It was immediately followed by the outbreak of a civil war between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine, and British forces withdrew amid the fighting. The British Mandate for Palestine officially terminated at midnight on 15 May 1948 as the State of Israel declared independence and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War broke out, during which the territory of the former Mandate was partitioned between Israel and the surrounding Arab states. Amid the fighting, British forces continued to withdraw from Israel, with the last British troops departing from Haifa on 30 June 1948. + +Following the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, anti-Japanese resistance movements in Malaya turned their attention towards the British, who had moved to quickly retake control of the colony, valuing it as a source of rubber and tin. The fact that the guerrillas were primarily Malaysian Chinese Communists meant that the British attempt to quell the uprising was supported by the Muslim Malay majority, on the understanding that once the insurgency had been quelled, independence would be granted. The Malayan Emergency, as it was called, began in 1948 and lasted until 1960, but by 1957, Britain felt confident enough to grant independence to the Federation of Malaya within the Commonwealth. In 1963, the 11 states of the federation together with Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo joined to form Malaysia, but in 1965 Chinese-majority Singapore was expelled from the union following tensions between the Malay and Chinese populations and became an independent city-state. Brunei, which had been a British protectorate since 1888, declined to join the union. + +Suez and its aftermath + +In the 1951 general election, the Conservative Party returned to power in Britain under the leadership of Winston Churchill. Churchill and the Conservatives believed that Britain's position as a world power relied on the continued existence of the empire, with the base at the Suez Canal allowing Britain to maintain its pre-eminent position in the Middle East in spite of the loss of India. Churchill could not ignore Gamal Abdul Nasser's new revolutionary government of Egypt that had taken power in 1952, and the following year it was agreed that British troops would withdraw from the Suez Canal zone and that Sudan would be granted self-determination by 1955, with independence to follow. Sudan was granted independence on 1 January 1956. + +In July 1956, Nasser unilaterally nationalised the Suez Canal. The response of Anthony Eden, who had succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister, was to collude with France to engineer an Israeli attack on Egypt that would give Britain and France an excuse to intervene militarily and retake the canal. Eden infuriated US President Dwight D. Eisenhower by his lack of consultation, and Eisenhower refused to back the invasion. Another of Eisenhower's concerns was the possibility of a wider war with the Soviet Union after it threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Eisenhower applied financial leverage by threatening to sell US reserves of the British pound and thereby precipitate a collapse of the British currency. Though the invasion force was militarily successful in its objectives, UN intervention and US pressure forced Britain into a humiliating withdrawal of its forces, and Eden resigned. + +The Suez Crisis very publicly exposed Britain's limitations to the world and confirmed Britain's decline on the world stage and its end as a first-rate power, demonstrating that henceforth it could no longer act without at least the acquiescence, if not the full support, of the United States. The events at Suez wounded British national pride, leading one Member of Parliament (MP) to describe it as "Britain's Waterloo" and another to suggest that the country had become an "American satellite". Margaret Thatcher later described the mindset she believed had befallen Britain's political leaders after Suez where they "went from believing that Britain could do anything to an almost neurotic belief that Britain could do nothing", from which Britain did not recover until the successful recapture of the Falkland Islands from Argentina in 1982. + +While the Suez Crisis caused British power in the Middle East to weaken, it did not collapse. Britain again deployed its armed forces to the region, intervening in Oman (1957), Jordan (1958) and Kuwait (1961), though on these occasions with American approval, as the new Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's foreign policy was to remain firmly aligned with the United States. Although Britain granted Kuwait independence in 1961, it continued to maintain a military presence in the Middle East for another decade. On 16 January 1968, a few weeks after the devaluation of the pound, Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Defence Secretary Denis Healey announced that British Armed Forces troops would be withdrawn from major military bases East of Suez, which included the ones in the Middle East, and primarily from Malaysia and Singapore by the end of 1971, instead of 1975 as earlier planned. By that time over 50,000 British military personnel were still stationed in the Far East, including 30,000 in Singapore. The British granted independence to the Maldives in 1965 but continued to station a garrison there until 1976, withdrew from Aden in 1967, and granted independence to Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in 1971. + +Wind of change + +Macmillan gave a speech in Cape Town, South Africa in February 1960 where he spoke of "the wind of change blowing through this continent". Macmillan wished to avoid the same kind of colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria, and under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly. To the three colonies that had been granted independence in the 1950s—Sudan, the Gold Coast and Malaya—were added nearly ten times that number during the 1960s. Owing to the rapid pace of decolonisation during this period, the cabinet post of Secretary of State for the Colonies was abolished in 1966, along with the Colonial Office, which merged with the Commonwealth Relations Office to form the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) in October 1968. + +Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for self-governing Southern Rhodesia, were all granted independence by 1968. British withdrawal from the southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a peaceful process. Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight-year Mau Mau uprising, in which tens of thousands of suspected rebels were interned by the colonial government in detention camps. Throughout the 1960s, the British government took a "No independence until majority rule" policy towards decolonising the empire, leading the white minority government of Southern Rhodesia to enact the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain, resulting in a civil war that lasted until the British-mediated Lancaster House Agreement of 1979. The agreement saw the British Empire temporarily re-establish the Colony of Southern Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980 as a transitionary government to a majority-rule Republic of Zimbabwe. This was the last British possession in Africa. + +In Cyprus, a guerrilla war waged by the Greek Cypriot organisation EOKA against British rule, was ended in 1959 by the London and Zürich Agreements, which resulted in Cyprus being granted independence in 1960. The UK retained the military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia as sovereign base areas. The Mediterranean colony of Malta was amicably granted independence from the UK in 1964 and became the country of Malta, though the idea had been raised in 1955 of integration with Britain. + +Most of the UK's Caribbean territories achieved independence after the departure in 1961 and 1962 of Jamaica and Trinidad from the West Indies Federation, established in 1958 in an attempt to unite the British Caribbean colonies under one government, but which collapsed following the loss of its two largest members. Jamaica attained independence in 1962, as did Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados achieved independence in 1966 and the remainder of the eastern Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas, in the 1970s and 1980s, but Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands opted to revert to British rule after they had already started on the path to independence. The British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands and Montserrat opted to retain ties with Britain, while Guyana achieved independence in 1966. Britain's last colony on the American mainland, British Honduras, became a self-governing colony in 1964 and was renamed Belize in 1973, achieving full independence in 1981. A dispute with Guatemala over claims to Belize was left unresolved. + +British Overseas Territories in the Pacific acquired independence in the 1970s beginning with Fiji in 1970 and ending with Vanuatu in 1980. Vanuatu's independence was delayed because of political conflict between English and French-speaking communities, as the islands had been jointly administered as a condominium with France. Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu became Commonwealth realms. + +End of empire + +By 1981, aside from a scattering of islands and outposts, the process of decolonisation that had begun after the Second World War was largely complete. In 1982, Britain's resolve in defending its remaining overseas territories was tested when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, acting on a long-standing claim that dated back to the Spanish Empire. Britain's successful military response to retake the Falkland Islands during the ensuing Falklands War contributed to reversing the downward trend in Britain's status as a world power. + +The 1980s saw Canada, Australia, and New Zealand sever their final constitutional links with Britain. Although granted legislative independence by the Statute of Westminster 1931, vestigial constitutional links had remained in place. The British Parliament retained the power to amend key Canadian constitutional statutes, meaning that effectively an act of the British Parliament was required to make certain changes to the Canadian Constitution. The British Parliament had the power to pass laws extending to Canada at Canadian request. Although no longer able to pass any laws that would apply as Australian Commonwealth law, the British Parliament retained the power to legislate for the individual Australian states. With regard to New Zealand, the British Parliament retained the power to pass legislation applying to New Zealand with the New Zealand Parliament's consent. In 1982, the last legal link between Canada and Britain was severed by the Canada Act 1982, which was passed by the British parliament, formally patriating the Canadian Constitution. The act ended the need for British involvement in changes to the Canadian constitution. Similarly, the Australia Act 1986 (effective 3 March 1986) severed the constitutional link between Britain and the Australian states, while New Zealand's Constitution Act 1986 (effective 1 January 1987) reformed the constitution of New Zealand to sever its constitutional link with Britain. + +On 1 January 1984, Brunei, Britain's last remaining Asian protectorate, was granted independence. Independence had been delayed due to the opposition of the Sultan, who had preferred British protection. + +In September 1982 the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, travelled to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese Communist government, on the future of Britain's last major and most populous overseas territory, Hong Kong. Under the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1860 Convention of Peking, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula had been respectively ceded to Britain in perpetuity, but the majority of the colony consisted of the New Territories, which had been acquired under a 99-year lease in 1898, due to expire in 1997. Thatcher, seeing parallels with the Falkland Islands, initially wished to hold Hong Kong and proposed British administration with Chinese sovereignty, though this was rejected by China. A deal was reached in 1984—under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong would become a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. The handover ceremony in 1997 marked for many, including King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, who was in attendance, "the end of Empire", though many British territories that are remnants of the empire still remain. + +Legacy + +Britain retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles. In 1983, the British Nationality Act 1981 renamed the existing Crown Colonies as "British Dependent Territories", and in 2002 they were renamed the British Overseas Territories. Most former British colonies and protectorates are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people. The United Kingdom and 14 other countries, all collectively known as the Commonwealth realms, voluntarily continue to share the same person—King Charles III—as their respective head of state. These 15 nations are distinct and equal legal entities: the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. + +Decades, and in some cases centuries, of British rule and emigration have left their mark on the independent nations that rose from the British Empire. The empire established the use of the English language in regions around the world. Today it is the primary language of up to 460 million people and is spoken by about 1.5 billion as a first, second or foreign language. Individual and team sports developed in Britain, particularly football, cricket, lawn tennis, and golf were exported. British missionaries who travelled around the globe often in advance of soldiers and civil servants spread Protestantism (including Anglicanism) to all continents. The British Empire provided refuge for religiously persecuted continental Europeans for hundreds of years. + +Political boundaries drawn by the British did not always reflect homogeneous ethnicities or religions, contributing to conflicts in formerly colonised areas. The British Empire was responsible for large migrations of peoples. Millions left the British Isles, with the founding settler colonist populations of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand coming mainly from Britain and Ireland. Tensions remain between the white settler populations of these countries and their indigenous minorities, and between white settler minorities and indigenous majorities in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Settlers in Ireland from Great Britain have left their mark in the form of divided nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland. Millions of people moved to and from British colonies, with large numbers of Overseas Indian people emigrating to other parts of the empire, such as Malaysia and Fiji, and Overseas Chinese people to Malaysia, Singapore and the Caribbean. The demographics of the United Kingdom itself were changed after the Second World War owing to immigration to Britain from its former colonies. + +In the 19th century, innovation in Britain led to revolutionary changes in manufacturing, the development of factory systems, and the growth of transportation by railway and steamship. British colonial architecture, such as in churches, railway stations and government buildings, can be seen in many cities that were once part of the British Empire. The British choice of system of measurement, the imperial system, continues to be used in some countries in various ways. The convention of driving on the left-hand side of the road has been retained in much of the former empire. + +The Westminster system of parliamentary democracy has served as the template for the governments for many former colonies, and English common law for legal systems. International commercial contracts are often based on English common law. The British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council still serves as the highest court of appeal for twelve former colonies. + +Historians' approaches to understanding the British Empire are diverse and evolving. Two key sites of debate over recent decades have been the impact of post-colonial studies, which seek to critically re-evaluate the history of imperialism, and the continued relevance of historians Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher, whose work greatly influenced imperial historiography during the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, differing assessments of the empire's legacy remain relevant to debates over recent history and politics, such as the Anglo-American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Britain's role and identity in the contemporary world. + +Historians such as Caroline Elkins have argued against perceptions of the British Empire as a primarily liberalising and modernising enterprise, criticising its widespread use of violence and emergency laws to maintain power. Common criticisms of the empire include the use of detention camps in its colonies, massacres of indigenous peoples, and famine-response policies. Some scholars, including Amartya Sen, assert that British policies worsened the famines in India that killed millions during British rule. Conversely, historians such as Niall Ferguson say that the economic and institutional development the British Empire brought resulted in a net benefit to its colonies. Other historians treat its legacy as varied and ambiguous. Public attitudes towards the empire within Britain remain somewhat positive. + +See also + + List of British Empire-related topics + Historiography of the British Empire + Demographics of the British Empire + Economy of the British Empire + Territorial evolution of the British Empire + History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom + Historical flags of the British Empire and the overseas territories + List of countries that gained independence from the United Kingdom + +Notes + +References + +Works cited + +External links + + Collection: "British Empire" from the University of Michigan Museum of Art + + +Former empires +Imperialism +Victorian era +1583 establishments in the British Empire +States and territories established in 1583 +States and territories disestablished in 1997 +Overseas empires +History of the United Kingdom +Former countries in Ireland +Historical transcontinental empires +Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Directed by Tim Burton, it is the first installment of Warner Bros.' initial Batman film series. The film was produced by Jon Peters and Peter Guber and stars Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, and Jack Palance. The film takes place early in the title character's war on crime and depicts his conflict with his archenemy The Joker. + +After Burton was hired as director in 1986, Steve Englehart and Julie Hickson wrote film treatments before Sam Hamm wrote the first screenplay. Batman was not greenlit until after the success of Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). The tone and themes of the film were partly influenced by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The film primarily adapts and then diverges from the "Red Hood" origin story for the Joker, having Batman inadvertently cause gangster Jack Napier to fall into Axis Chemical acid, triggering his transformation into the psychotic Joker. Additionally, Batman creator Bob Kane worked as a consultant for the film. + +Numerous leading men were considered for the role of Batman before Keaton was cast. Keaton's casting was controversial since, by 1988, he had become typecast as a comedic actor and many observers doubted he could portray a serious role. Nicholson accepted the role of the Joker under strict conditions that dictated top billing, a portion of the film's earnings (including associated merchandise), and his own shooting schedule. + +Filming took place at Pinewood Studios from October 1988 to January 1989. The budget escalated from $30 million to $48 million, while the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike forced Hamm to drop out. Warren Skaaren did rewrites, with additional uncredited drafts done by Charles McKeown and Jonathan Gems. + +Batman was both critically and financially successful, earning over $400 million in box office totals. Critics and audiences particularly praised Nicholson and Keaton's performances, Burton's direction, the production design, and Elfman's score. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release. The film received several Saturn Award nominations and a Golden Globe nomination for Nicholson's performance, and won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. It also led to the development of the equally successful Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), which in turn began the DC Animated Universe of spin-off media, and has influenced Hollywood's modern marketing and development techniques of the superhero film genre. The film was followed by three sequels: Batman Returns (1992), with both Burton and Keaton returning; Batman Forever (1995), which featured Val Kilmer in the lead role; and Batman & Robin (1997), which featured George Clooney in the role. + +Plot +Reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale investigate sightings of the "Batman", a masked vigilante targeting Gotham City's criminals. Both attend a fundraiser hosted by billionaire Bruce Wayne, who is secretly Batman, having chosen this path after witnessing a mugger murder his parents when he was a child. During the event, Wayne becomes infatuated with Vale. + +Meanwhile, mob boss Carl Grissom sends his sociopathic second-in-command Jack Napier to raid Axis Chemicals and retrieve incriminating evidence. However, this is secretly a ploy to have Napier murdered for sleeping with Grissom's mistress Alicia Hunt. Corrupt lieutenant Max Eckhardt arranges the hit on Napier by conducting an unauthorized police operation. However, Commissioner James Gordon arrives, takes command, and orders the officers to capture Napier alive. Batman also appears, while Napier kills Eckhardt as revenge for the double-crossing. During a scuffle with Batman, Napier topples off a catwalk and falls into a vat of chemicals. Although presumed dead, Napier survives with various disfigurements including chalk white skin and emerald green hair and nails. He undergoes surgery to repair the damage, but ends up with a rictus grin. Driven insane by his new appearance, Napier, now calling himself "the Joker", kills Grissom, massacres Grissom's associates, and takes over his operations. + +He then starts terrorizing Gotham by lacing hygiene products with "Smylex" – a deadly chemical that causes victims to die laughing. The Joker soon becomes obsessed with Vicki and lures her to the Flugelheim Museum, which his henchmen start vandalizing. Batman rescues Vicki, takes her to the Batcave, and provides her with all of his research on Smylex, which will allow Gotham's residents to escape the toxin. Conflicted with his love for her, Wayne visits her apartment intending to reveal his secret identity, only for the Joker to interrupt the meeting. Joker asks Wayne, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?", which Wayne recognizes as the catchphrase used by the mugger who killed his parents, realizing the killer to have been Joker (as Napier) all along. He shoots Wayne, who survives thanks to a serving tray hidden underneath his shirt. + +Vicki is taken to the Batcave by Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, who had been coaxing the relationship between the pair. After exposing his secret to Vicki, Wayne reveals he cannot focus on their relationship with the Joker on the loose. He then departs to destroy the Axis plant used to create Smylex. Meanwhile, the Joker lures Gotham's citizens to a parade honoring Gotham's bicentennial with the promise of free money. This turns out to be a trap designed to dose them with Smylex gas held within giant parade balloons. Batman foils his plan by using his Batwing to remove the balloons, but Joker shoots him down. The Batwing crashes in front of a cathedral, which Joker uses to take Vicki hostage. Batman pursues the Joker, and in the ensuing fight, he explains that Napier killed his parents and thus, indirectly created Batman. This leads Joker to realize Batman is Bruce Wayne. Joker eventually pulls Batman and Vicki over the cathedral's roof, leaving them hanging while he calls in a helicopter. The helicopter is piloted by his goons, who throw down a ladder for him to climb. Batman uses a grappling hook to attach Joker's leg to a crumbling gargoyle that eventually falls off the roof. Unable to bear the statue's immense weight, Joker falls to his death while Batman and Vicki make it to safety. + +Sometime later, Gordon announces that the police have arrested all of Joker's men, effectively dismantled of what remained of Carl Grissom's mafia organizations, and unveils the Bat-Signal. Batman leaves the police a note, promising to defend Gotham should crime strike again, and asking them to use the Bat-Signal to summon him in times of need. Alfred takes Vicki to Wayne Manor, explaining that Wayne will be a little late. She responds that she is not surprised, as Batman looks at the signal's projection from a rooftop, standing watch over the city. + +Cast + + Jack Nicholson as Jack Napier/The Joker + Hugo E. Blick as Young Jack Napier + Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman + Charles Roskilly as Young Bruce Wayne + Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale + Robert Wuhl as Alexander Knox + Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon + Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent + Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth + Jack Palance as Carl Grissom + Jerry Hall as Alicia Hunt + Tracey Walter as Bob the Goon + Lee Wallace as Mayor Borg + William Hootkins as Lt. Max Eckhardt + David Baxt as Thomas Wayne + Sharon Holm as Martha Wayne + Garrick Hagon as Tourist Dad + Liza Ross as Tourist Mom + Adrian Meyers as Tourist Son + +Production + +Development + +In the late 1970s, Batman's popularity was waning. CBS was interested in producing a Batman in Outer Space film. Producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan purchased the film rights of Batman from DC Comics on October 3, 1979. It was Uslan's wish "to make the definitive, dark, serious version of Batman, the way Bob Kane and Bill Finger had envisioned him in 1939. A creature of the night; stalking criminals in the shadows." Richard Maibaum was approached to write a script with Guy Hamilton to direct, but the two turned down the offer. Uslan was unsuccessful with pitching Batman to various movie studios because they wanted the film to be similar to the campy 1960s television series. Columbia Pictures and United Artists were among those to turn down the film. + +A disappointed Uslan then wrote a script titled Return of the Batman to give the film industry a better idea of his vision for the film. Uslan later compared its dark tone to that of the successful four-part comic book The Dark Knight Returns, which his script predated by six years. In November 1979, producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber joined the project. Melniker and Uslan became executive producers. The four felt it was best to pattern the film's development after that of Superman (1978). Uslan, Melniker and Guber pitched Batman to Universal Pictures, but the studio turned it down. Though no movie studios were yet involved, the project was publicly announced with a budget of $15 million in July 1980 at the Comic Art Convention in New York. Warner Bros., the studio behind the successful Superman film franchise, decided to also accept and produce Batman. + +Tom Mankiewicz completed a script titled The Batman in June 1983, focusing on Batman and Dick Grayson's origins, with the Joker and Rupert Thorne as villains and Silver St. Cloud as the romantic interest. Mankiewicz took inspiration from the limited series Batman: Strange Apparitions, written by Steve Englehart. Comic book artist Marshall Rogers, who worked with Englehart on Strange Apparitions, was hired for concept art. The Batman was then announced in late 1983 for a mid-1985 release date on a budget of $20 million. Originally, Mankiewicz had wanted an unknown actor for Batman, William Holden for James Gordon, David Niven as Alfred Pennyworth, and Peter O'Toole as the Penguin, whom Mankiewicz wanted to portray as a mobster with low body temperature. Holden died in 1981 and Niven in 1983, so this would never come to pass. A number of filmmakers were attached to Mankiewicz' script, including Ivan Reitman and Joe Dante. Reitman wanted to cast Bill Murray as Batman and Eddie Murphy as Robin. Nine rewrites were performed by nine separate writers. Most of them were based on Strange Apparitions. However, it was Mankiewicz's script that was still being used to guide the project. Due to the work they did together with the film Swamp Thing (1982), Wes Craven was among the directors that Melniker and Uslan considered while looking for a director. + +After the financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Warner Bros. hired Tim Burton to direct Batman. Burton had then-girlfriend Julie Hickson write a new 30-page film treatment, feeling the previous script by Mankiewicz was campy. The success of The Dark Knight Returns and the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke rekindled Warner Bros.' interest in a film adaptation. Burton was initially not a comic book fan, but he was impressed by the dark and serious tone found in both The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke. Warner Bros. enlisted the aid of Englehart to write a new treatment in March 1986. Like Mankiewicz's script, it was based on his own Strange Apparitions and included Silver St. Cloud, Dick Grayson, the Joker, and Rupert Thorne, as well as a cameo appearance by the Penguin. Warner Bros. was impressed, but Englehart felt there were too many characters. He removed the Penguin and Dick Grayson in his second treatment, finishing in May 1986. + +Burton approached Sam Hamm, a comic book fan, to write the screenplay. Hamm decided not to use an origin story, feeling that flashbacks would be more suitable and that "unlocking the mystery" would become part of the storyline. He reasoned, "You totally destroy your credibility if you show the literal process by which Bruce Wayne becomes Batman." Hamm replaced Silver St. Cloud with Vicki Vale and Rupert Thorne with his own creation, Carl Grissom. He completed his script in October 1986, which demoted Dick Grayson to a cameo rather than a supporting character. One scene in Hamm's script had a young James Gordon on duty the night of the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. When Hamm's script was rewritten, the scene was deleted, reducing it to a photo in the Gotham Globe newspaper seen in the film. + +Warner Bros. was less willing to move forward on development, despite their enthusiasm for Hamm's script, which Kane greeted with positive feedback. Hamm's script was then bootlegged at various comic book stores in the United States. Batman was finally given the greenlight to commence pre-production in April 1988, after the success of Burton's Beetlejuice the same year. When comic book fans found out about Burton directing the film with Michael Keaton starring in the lead role, controversy arose over the tone and direction Batman was going in. Hamm explained, "They hear Tim Burton's name and they think of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. They hear Keaton's name and they think of any number of Michael Keaton comedies. You think of the 1960s version of Batman, and it was the complete opposite of our film. We tried to market it with a typical dark and serious tone, but the fans didn't believe us." To combat negative reports on the film's production, Kane was hired as creative consultant. Batman's co-creator, Bill Finger, was uncredited at the time of the film's release and his name was not added to any Batman-related media until 2016. + +Casting + +Parallel to the Superman casting, a variety of Hollywood A-listers were considered for the role of Batman, including Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Charlie Sheen, Tom Selleck, Bill Murray, Harrison Ford and Dennis Quaid. Burton was pressured by Warner Bros. to cast an obvious action movie star, and had approached Pierce Brosnan, but he had no interest in playing a comic book character. Burton was originally interested in casting an unknown actor, Willem Dafoe, who was falsely reported to be considered for the Joker but had actually been considered for Batman early in development. Producer Jon Peters suggested Michael Keaton, arguing he had the right "edgy, tormented quality" after having seen his dramatic performance in Clean and Sober. Having directed Keaton in Beetlejuice, Burton agreed. + +Keaton's casting caused a controversy among comic book fans, with 50,000 protest letters sent to Warner Bros. offices. Kane, Hamm, and Uslan also heavily questioned the casting. "Obviously there was a negative response from the comic book people. I think they thought we were going to make it like the 1960s TV series, and make it campy, because they thought of Michael Keaton from Mr. Mom and Night Shift and stuff like that." Keaton studied The Dark Knight Returns for inspiration. + +Tim Curry, David Bowie, John Lithgow, Brad Dourif, Ray Liotta, and James Woods were considered for the Joker. Lithgow, during his audition, attempted to talk Burton out of casting him, a decision he would later publicly regret, stating, "I didn't realize it was such a big deal." Burton wanted to cast John Glover, but the studio insisted on using a movie star. Robin Williams lobbied hard for the part. Jack Nicholson had been the studio's top choice since 1980. Peters approached Nicholson as far back as 1986, during filming of The Witches of Eastwick; unlike Keaton, he was a popular choice for his role. Nicholson had what was known as an "off-the-clock" agreement. His contract specified the number of hours he was entitled to have off each day, from the time he left the set to the time he reported back for filming, as well as being off for Los Angeles Lakers home games. Nicholson demanded that all of his scenes be shot in a three-week block, but the schedule lapsed into 106 days. He reduced his standard $10 million fee to $6 million in exchange for a cut of the film's earnings (including associated merchandise), which led to remuneration in excess of $50 million—biographer Marc Eliot reports that Nicholson may have received as much as $90 million. He also demanded top billing on promotional materials. + +Sean Young was originally cast as Vicki Vale, but was injured in a horse-riding accident prior to commencement of filming. Young's departure necessitated an urgent search for an actress who, besides being right for the part, could commit to the film at very short notice. Peters suggested Kim Basinger: she was able to join the production immediately and was cast. As a fan of Michael Gough's work in various Hammer Film Productions, Burton cast Gough as Bruce Wayne's mysterious butler, Alfred. Robert Wuhl was cast as reporter Alexander Knox. His character was originally supposed to die by the Joker's poison gas in the climax, but the filmmakers "liked [my] character so much," Wuhl said, "that they decided to let me live." Burton chose Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent because he wanted to include the villain Two-Face in a future film using the concept of an African-American Two-Face for the black and white concept, but Tommy Lee Jones was later cast in the role for Batman Forever, which disappointed Williams. Nicholson convinced the filmmakers to cast his close friend Tracey Walter as the Joker's henchman Bob. Irish child actor Ricky Addison Reed was cast as Dick Grayson before the character was removed by Warren Skarren for the revised shooting script. The rest of the cast included Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon, Jerry Hall as Alicia, Lee Wallace as Mayor Borg, William Hootkins as Lt. Eckhardt, and Jack Palance as crime boss Carl Grissom. + +Design + +Burton had been impressed with the design of Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984), but was unable to hire its production designer Anton Furst for Beetlejuice as Furst had instead committed to Jordan's London-filmed ghost comedy High Spirits (1988), a choice he later regretted. A year later Burton successfully hired Furst for Batman, and they enjoyed working with each other. "I don't think I've ever felt so naturally in tune with a director," Furst said. "Conceptually, spiritually, visually, or artistically. There was never any problem because we never fought over anything. Texture, attitude and feelings are what Burton is a master at." + +Furst and the art department deliberately mixed clashing architectural styles to "make Gotham City the ugliest and bleakest metropolis imaginable". Furst continued, "[W]e imagined what New York City might have become without a planning commission. A city run by crime, with a riot of architectural styles. An essay in ugliness. As if hell erupted through the pavement and kept on going". The 1985 film Brazil by Terry Gilliam was also a notable influence upon the film's production design, as both Burton and Furst studied it as a reference. Black and white charcoal drawings of key locations and sets were created by Furst's longtime draftsman, Nigel Phelps. Derek Meddings served as the visual effects supervisor, overseeing the miniatures and animation. Conceptual illustrator Julian Caldow designed the Batmobile, Batwing and assorted bat-gadgets that were later constructed by prop builder John Evans. Keith Short sculpted the final body of the 1989 Batmobile, adding two Browning machine guns. On designing the Batmobile, Furst explained, "We looked at jet aircraft components, we looked at war machines, we looked at all sorts of things. In the end, we went into pure expressionism, taking the Salt Flat Racers of the 30s and the Sting Ray macho machines of the 50s". The car was built upon a Chevrolet Impala when previous development with a Jaguar and Ford Mustang failed. The car itself was later purchased by standup comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, who had it outfitted with a Corvette engine to make it street legal. + +Costume designer Bob Ringwood turned down the chance to work on Licence to Kill in favor of Batman. Ringwood found it difficult designing the Batsuit because "the image of Batman in the comics is this huge, big six-foot-four hunk with a dimpled chin. Michael Keaton is a guy with average build", he stated. "The problem was to make somebody who was average-sized and ordinary-looking into this bigger-than-life creature." Burton commented, "Michael is a bit claustrophobic, which made it worse for him. The costume put him in a dark, Batman-like mood though, so he was able to use it to his advantage". Burton's idea was to use an all-black suit, and was met with positive feedback by Bob Kane. Vin Burnham was tasked with sculpting the Batsuit, in association with Alli Eynon. Jon Peters wanted to use a Nike product placement with the Batsuit. Ringwood studied over 200 comic book issues for inspiration. 28 sculpted latex designs were created; 25 different cape looks and 6 different heads were made, accumulating a total cost of $250,000. Comic book fans initially expressed negative feedback against the Batsuit. Burton opted not to use tights, spandex, or underpants as seen in the comic book, feeling it was not intimidating. Prosthetic makeup designer Nick Dudman used acrylic-based makeup paint called PAX for Nicholson's chalk-white face. Part of Nicholson's contract was approval over the makeup designer. + +Filming +The filmmakers considered filming Batman entirely on the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, but media interest in the film made them change the location. It was shot at Pinewood Studios in England from October 10, 1988 to February 14, 1989, with 80 days of main shooting and 86 days of second unit shooting. 18 sound stages were used, with seven stages occupied, including the 51 acre backlot for the Gotham City set, one of the biggest ever built at the studio. Locations included Knebworth House and Hatfield House doubling for Wayne Manor, plus Acton Lane Power Station and Little Barford Power Station. The original production budget escalated from $30 million to $48 million. Filming was highly secretive. The unit publicist was offered and refused £10,000 for the first pictures of Jack Nicholson as the Joker. The police were later called in when two reels of footage (about 20 minutes' worth) were stolen. With various problems during filming, Burton called it "Torture. The worst period of my life!" + +Hamm was not allowed to perform rewrites during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike. Warren Skaaren, who had also worked on Burton's Beetlejuice, did rewrites. Jonathan Gems and Charles McKeown rewrote the script during filming. Only Skaaren received screenplay credit with Hamm. Hamm criticized the rewrites, but blamed the changes on Warner Bros. Burton explained, "I don't understand why that became such a problem. We started out with a script that everyone liked, although we recognized it needed a little work." Dick Grayson appeared in the shooting script but was deleted because the filmmakers felt he was irrelevant to the plot; Kane supported this decision. + +Keaton used his comedic experience for scenes such as Bruce and Vicki's Wayne Manor dinner. He called himself a "logic freak" and was concerned that Batman's secret identity would in reality be fairly easy to uncover. Keaton discussed ideas with Burton to better disguise the character, including the use of contact lenses. Ultimately, Keaton decided to perform Batman's voice at a lower register than when he was portraying Bruce Wayne, which became a hallmark of the film version of the character, with Christian Bale later using the same technique. + +Originally in the climax, the Joker was meant to kill Vicki Vale, sending Batman into a vengeful fury. Jon Peters reworked the climax without telling Burton and commissioned production designer Anton Furst to create a model of the cathedral. This cost $100,000 when the film was already well over budget. Burton disliked the idea, having no clue how the scene would end: "Here were Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger walking up this cathedral, and halfway up Jack turns around and says, 'Why am I walking up all these stairs? Where am I going?' 'We'll talk about it when you get to the top!' I had to tell him that I didn't know." + +Music + +Burton hired Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo, his collaborator on Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, to compose the music score. For inspiration, Elfman was given The Dark Knight Returns. Elfman was worried, as he had never worked on a production this large in budget and scale. In addition, producer Jon Peters was skeptical of hiring Elfman, but was later convinced when he heard the opening number. Peters and Peter Guber wanted Prince to write music for the Joker and Michael Jackson to do the romance songs. Elfman would then combine the style of Prince and Jackson's songs together for the entire film score. At the encouragement of Prince's then-manager Albert Magnoli, it was also agreed that Prince himself would write and sing the film's songs. + +Burton protested the ideas, citing "my movies aren't commercial like Top Gun." Elfman enlisted the help of composer Shirley Walker and Oingo Boingo lead guitarist Steve Bartek to arrange the compositions for the orchestra. Elfman was later displeased with the audio mixing of his film score. "Batman was done in England by technicians who didn't care, and the non-caring showed," he stated. "I'm not putting down England because they've done gorgeous dubs there, but this particular crew elected not to." Batman was one of the first films to spawn two soundtracks. One of them featured songs written by Prince while the other showcased Elfman's score. Both were successful, and compilations of Elfman's opening credits were used in the title sequence theme for Batman: The Animated Series, also composed by Shirley Walker. + +Themes +When discussing the central theme of Batman, director Tim Burton explained, "the whole film and mythology of the character is a complete duel of the freaks. It's a fight between two disturbed people", adding, "The Joker is such a great character because there's a complete freedom to him. Any character who operates on the outside of society and is deemed a freak and an outcast then has the freedom to do what they want... They are the darker sides of freedom. Insanity is in some scary way the most freedom you can have, because you're not bound by the laws of society". + +Burton saw Bruce Wayne as the bearer of a double identity, exposing one while hiding the reality from the world. Burton biographer Ken Hanke wrote that Bruce Wayne, struggling with his alter-ego as Batman, is depicted as an antihero. Hanke felt that Batman has to push the boundaries of civil justice to deal with certain criminals, such as the Joker. Kim Newman theorized that "Burton and the writers saw Batman and the Joker as a dramatic antithesis, and the film deals with their intertwined origins and fates to an even greater extent". + +Batman conveys trademarks found in 1930s pulp magazines, notably the design of Gotham City stylized with Art Deco design. Richard Corliss, writing for Time, observed that Gotham's design was a reference to films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Metropolis (1927). "Gotham City, despite being shot on a studio backlot", he continued, "is literally another character in the script. It has the demeaning presence of German Expressionism and fascist architecture, staring down at the citizens." Hanke further addressed the notions of Batman being a period piece, in that "The citizens, cops, people and the black-and-white television looks like it takes place in 1939"; but later said: "Had the filmmakers made Vicki Vale a femme fatale rather than a damsel in distress, this could have made Batman as a homage and tribute to classic film noir." Portions of the climax pay homage to Vertigo (1958). + +Marketing +The B.D. Fox ad agency created hundreds of unused logos and posters for promotion, many by John Alvin. In the end Burton and producers decided on only using a gold and black logo designed by Anton Furst and airbrushed by Bill Garland, with no other key art variation, to keep an air of mystery about the film. The logo is also an ambiguous image, which can be read either as Batman's symbol or as a gaping mouth. Earlier designs "had the word 'Batman' spelled in RoboCop or Conan the Barbarian-type font". Jon Peters unified all the film's tie-ins, even turning down $6 million from General Motors to build the Batmobile because the car company would not relinquish creative control. + +During production, Peters read in The Wall Street Journal that comic book fans were unsatisfied with the casting of Michael Keaton. In response, Peters rushed the first film trailer that played in thousands of theaters during Christmas. It was simply an assemblage of scenes without music, but created enormous anticipation for the film, with audiences clapping and cheering. DC Comics allowed screenwriter Sam Hamm to write his own comic book miniseries. Hamm's stories were collected in the graphic novel Batman: Blind Justice (). Denys Cowan and Dick Giordano illustrated the artwork. Blind Justice tells the story of Bruce Wayne trying to solve a series of murders connected to Wayne Enterprises. It also marks the first appearance of Henri Ducard, who was later used in the rebooted Batman Begins, albeit as an alias for the more notable Ra's al Ghul. + +In the months before Batmans release in June 1989, a popular culture phenomenon known as "Batmania" began. Over $750 million worth of merchandise was sold. Cult filmmaker and comic book writer Kevin Smith remembered: "That summer was huge. You couldn't turn around without seeing the Bat-Signal somewhere. People were cutting it into their fucking heads. It was just the summer of Batman and if you were a comic book fan it was pretty hot." Hachette Book Group USA published a novelization, Batman, written by Craig Shaw Gardner. It remained on The New York Times Best Seller list throughout June 1989. Burton admitted he was annoyed by the publicity. David Handelman of The New York Observer categorized Batman as a high concept film. He believed "it is less movie than a corporate behemoth". + +Reception + +Box office +Batman grossed $2.2 million in late night previews on June 22, 1989, on 1,215 screens and grossed $40.49 million in 2,194 theaters during its opening weekend. This broke the opening weekend records held by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (which had a 4-day Memorial Day weekend gross of $37.0 million the previous month) and Ghostbusters II (which had a $29.4 million 3-day weekend the previous weekend). Upon opening, the film would go on to reach the number one spot above Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Additionally, it had the largest opening weekend for a Jack Nicholson film for 14 years until it was dethroned by Anger Management in 2003. Batman also set a record for a second weekend gross with $30 million (also the second biggest 3-day weekend of all-time) and became the fastest film to earn $100 million, reaching it in 11 days (10 days plus late night previews). The film closed on December 14, 1989, with a final gross of $251.2 million in North America and $160.15 million internationally, totaling $411.35 million. The film would hold the record for being the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film until 1996 when Twister surpassed it. It was the highest-grossing film based on a DC comic book until 2008's The Dark Knight. Furthermore, Batman held the record for being the highest-grossing superhero film of all time until it was taken by Spider-Man in 2002. The film's gross is the 143rd highest ever in North American ranks. Although Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade made the most money worldwide in 1989, Batman was able to beat The Last Crusade in North America, and made a further $150 million in home video sales. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold more than 60 million tickets in the US. + +Despite the film's box office – over $400 million against a budget of no more than $48 million – Warner Bros. claimed it ended up losing $35.8 million and "not likely to ever show a profit," which has been attributed to a case of Hollywood accounting. + +Critical response +Batman was criticized by some for being too dark, but nonetheless received a generally positive response from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 76% based on 138 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An eerie, haunting spectacle, Batman succeeds as dark entertainment, even if Jack Nicholson's Joker too often overshadows the title character." On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 69 based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. + +Many observed that Burton was more interested in the Joker and the art and set production design than Batman or anything else in terms of characterization and screentime. Comic book fans reacted negatively over the Joker murdering Thomas and Martha Wayne; in the comic book, Joe Chill is responsible. Writer Sam Hamm said it was Burton's idea to have the Joker murder Wayne's parents. "The Writer's Strike was going on, and Tim had the other writers do that. I also hold innocent to Alfred letting Vicki Vale into the Batcave. Fans were ticked off with that, and I agree. That would have been Alfred's last day of employment at Wayne Manor," Hamm said. + +The songs written by Prince were criticized for being "too out of place". While Burton has stated he had no problem with the Prince songs, he was less enthusiastic with their use in the film. On the film, Burton remarked, "I liked parts of it, but the whole movie is mainly boring to me. It's OK, but it was more of a cultural phenomenon than a great movie." + +Despite initial negative reactions from comics fans prior to the film's release, Keaton's portrayal of Batman was generally praised. James Berardinelli called the film entertaining, with the highlight being the production design. However, he concluded, "the best thing that can be said about Batman is that it led to Batman Returns, which was a far superior effort." Variety felt "Jack Nicholson stole every scene" but still greeted the film with positive feedback. Roger Ebert was highly impressed with the production design, but claimed "Batman is a triumph of design over story, style over substance, a great-looking movie with a plot you can't care much about." He also called the film "a depressing experience". On the syndicated television series Siskel & Ebert, his reviewing partner Gene Siskel disagreed, describing the film as having a "refreshingly adult" approach with performances, direction and set design that "draws you into a psychological world." + +Legacy +Anton Furst and Peter Young won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, while Nicholson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (Musical or Comedy). The British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominated Batman in six categories (Production Design, Visual Effects, Costume Design, Makeup, Sound and Actor in a Supporting Role for Nicholson), but it won none of the categories. Nicholson, Basinger, the makeup department, and costume designer Bob Ringwood all received nominations at the Saturn Awards. The film was also nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. + +The success of Batman prompted Warner Bros. Animation to create the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, as a result beginning the long-running DC Animated Universe and helped establish the modern day superhero film genre. Series co-creator Bruce Timm stated the television show's Art Deco design was inspired from the film. Timm commented, "our show would never have gotten made if it hadn't been for that first Batman movie." Burton joked, "ever since I did Batman, it was like the first dark comic book movie. Now everyone wants to do a dark and serious superhero movie. I guess I'm the one responsible for that trend." + +Batman initiated the original Batman film series and spawned three sequels: Batman Returns (1992), Batman Forever (1995), and Batman & Robin (1997), the latter two of which were directed by Joel Schumacher instead of Burton and replaced Keaton as Batman with Val Kilmer and George Clooney, respectively. + +Executive producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on March 26, 1992. Melniker and Uslan claimed to be "the victims of a sinister campaign of fraud and coercion that has cheated them out of continuing involvement in the production of Batman and its sequels. We were denied proper credits, and deprived of any financial rewards for our indispensable creative contribution to the success of Batman." A superior court judge rejected the lawsuit. Total revenues of Batman have topped $2 billion, with Uslan claiming to have "not seen a penny more than that since our net profit participation has proved worthless." Warner Bros. offered the pair an out-of-court settlement, a sum described by Melniker and Uslan's attorney as "two popcorns and two Cokes". + +Reflecting on the twentieth anniversary of its release in a retrospective article on Salon.com, film commentator Scott Mendelson noted the continuing impact that Batman has had on the motion film industry, including the increasing importance of opening weekend box office receipts; the narrowing window between a film's debut and its video release that caused the demise of second-run movie theaters; the accelerated acquisition of pre-existing, pre-sold properties for film adaptations that can be readily leveraged for merchandizing tie-ins; the primacy of the MPAA PG-13 as the target rating for film producers; and more off-beat, non-traditional casting opportunities for genre films. The film was responsible for the British Board of Film Classification introducing its "12" age rating, as its content fell between what was expected for a "PG" or "15" certificate. + +The American Film Institute anointed Batman the 46th greatest movie hero and the Joker the 45th greatest movie villain on AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. + +American Film Institute lists + AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated + AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated + AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains: + The Joker – #45 Villain + Batman – #46 Hero + AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: + "Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?" – Nominated + AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated + AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Fantasy Film + +Robert Wuhl reprises his role as Alexander Knox in The CW's Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths. The event also retroactively established that the world of the film and its sequel, Batman Returns, takes place on Earth-89; which is one of the worlds destroyed by the Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) during the Crisis. Michael Keaton reprises his role as Batman in The Flash set in the DC Extended Universe. + +Video games +Several video games based on the film were released: By Ocean Software in 1989, by Sunsoft in 1990 and 1991, and by Atari Games in 1990. Konami was also in talks of releasing an arcade game around the same time as Atari. + +Comic book continuation + +In March 2016, artist Joe Quinones revealed several art designs he and Kate Leth had created to pitch a comic book continuation set in the Batman '89 universe to DC Comics. The pitch, which was rejected, would have included the story of Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent turning into Two-Face as well as the inclusion of characters such as Batgirl in a story that took place following the events of Batman Returns. In 2021, DC announced it would be releasing a comic book continuation of the Batman '89 film. The series would be written by Sam Hamm and illustrated by Joe Quinones. The comic's synopsis revealed that it would include the return of Selina Kyle/Catwoman, an introduction of a new Robin, and the transformation of Williams' Harvey Dent into Two-Face. + +Home media +Batman has been released on various formats, including VHS, LaserDisc, DVD and Blu-ray. In an unprecedented move at the time, it was made available to buy on VHS in the United States on November 15, less than six months after its theatrical release, at a suggested retail price of only $24.95 although most sellers sold it for less. It was first released on DVD on March 25, 1997, as a double sided disc containing both Widescreen (1.85:1) and Full Screen (1.33:1) versions of the film. The 2005 Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989–1997 included 2-disc special edition DVDs of the film and all three of its sequels. The anthology was also released as a 4-disc Blu-ray set in 2009, with each film and its previous extras contained on a single disc. Other Blu-ray reissues include a "30th Anniversary" Digibook with 50-page booklet, and a steelcase edition; both also include a Digital Copy. Most recently the "25th Anniversary" Diamond Luxe reissue contained the same disc as before and on a second disc, a new 25-minute featurette: "Batman: The Birth of the Modern Blockbuster". + +The film was also included in The Tim Burton Collection DVD and Blu-ray set in 2012, alongside its first sequel, Batman Returns. + +Batman was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 4, 2019. + +Notes + +References + +Further reading + +External links + + + + + Batman (1989) Official website at Warner Bros. + Batman (1989) Official website at DC Comics + +1989 action films +1980s American films +1980s British films +1980s English-language films +1980s superhero films +1989 films +American action films +American films about revenge +American superhero films +Batman (1989 film series) +British action films +British superhero films +Casting controversies in film +Films adapted into comics +Films directed by Tim Burton +Films produced by Jon Peters +Films produced by Peter Guber +Films scored by Danny Elfman +Films shot at Pinewood Studios +Films shot in Bedfordshire +Films shot in Hertfordshire +Films shot in London +Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award +Films with screenplays by Sam Hamm +Films with screenplays by Warren Skaaren +PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films +Warner Bros. films +Batman (also known as Batman: The Movie) is a 1966 American superhero film directed by Leslie H. Martinson. Based on the television series, and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comics character of the same name, the film stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. The film hit theaters two months after the last episode of the first season of the television series. The film includes most members of the original TV cast, with the exception of Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman in the first two seasons; for the movie, she was replaced by Lee Meriwether. + +Plot +When Batman and Robin get a tip that Commodore Schmidlapp, owner of the Big Ben Distillery, is in danger aboard his yacht, they launch a rescue mission using the Batcopter. As Batman descends on the bat-ladder to land on the yacht, it suddenly vanishes beneath him. He rises out of the sea with a shark attacking his leg. After Batman dislodges it with bat-shark repellent, the shark explodes. Batman and Robin head back to Commissioner Gordon's office, where they deduce that the tip was a set-up by the United Underworld, a gathering of four of the most powerful villains in Gotham City: the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, and the Catwoman. + +The four criminals equip themselves with a dehydrator that can turn humans into dust (an invention of Schmidlapp's, who is unaware that he has been kidnapped), escape in a war-surplus, pre-atomic submarine made to resemble a penguin, and recruit three pirate-themed henchmen (Bluebeard, Morgan and Quetch). Batman and Robin learn that the yacht was really a holographic projection and return via Batboat to a buoy concealing a projector, where they are trapped on the buoy by a magnet and targeted by torpedoes. They use a radio-detonator to destroy two of the missiles, and a porpoise sacrifices itself to intercept the last one. Catwoman, disguised as Soviet journalist "Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff" (acronymed as Kitka), helps the group kidnap Bruce Wayne and pretends to be kidnapped with him, as part of a plot to lure Batman and finish him off with another of Penguin's explosive animals (not knowing that Bruce Wayne is Batman's alter-ego). + +After Bruce Wayne fights his way out of captivity, he again disguises himself as Batman, and the Dynamic Duo returns to the United Underworld's HQ, only to find a smoking bomb. Batman is met with frustration rushing all over the docks in hopes of locating a safe place to dispose of the bomb but does so in the nick of time. The Penguin disguises himself as the Commodore and schemes his way into the Batcave along with five dehydrated henchmen. This plan fails when the henchmen unexpectedly disappear into antimatter once struck: the Penguin mistakenly rehydrated them with toxic heavy water used to recharge the Batcave's atomic pile, leaving them highly unstable. Ultimately, Batman and Robin are unable to prevent the kidnapping of the dehydrated United World Organization's Security Council, consisting of ambassadors from Japan, the U.S, the U.S.S.R., Israel, France, Spain, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria. Giving chase in the Batboat to retrieve them (and Miss Kitka, presumed by the duo as still captive), Robin uses a sonic charge weapon to disable The Penguin's submarine and force it to surface, where a fist fight ensues. + +Although Batman and Robin come out on top, Batman is heartbroken to discover that his "true love" Miss Kitka is actually Catwoman when her mask falls off. Commodore Schmidlapp accidentally breaks the powdered Council members' vials and sneezes on them, scattering the dust. Batman sets to work, constructing an elaborate Super Molecular Dust Separator to filter the mingled dust. Robin asks him whether it might be in the world's best interests for them to alter the dust samples so that humans can no longer harm one another. In response, Batman says that they cannot do so, reminding Robin of the fate of the Penguin's henchmen and their tainted rehydration, and can only hope for people, in general, to learn to live together peacefully on their own. + +With the world watching, the Security Council is re-hydrated. All members are restored alive and well, but continue to squabble amongst themselves, totally oblivious of their surroundings; however, each of them now speaks the language and displays the stereotypical mannerisms of a nation other than their own. Batman quietly expresses his sincere hope to Robin that this "strange mixing of minds" does more good than harm. The duo quietly leaves United World Headquarters by climbing out of the window and descending on their bat-ropes. + +Cast + + Adam West as Bruce Wayne / Batman + Burt Ward as Dick Grayson / Robin + Lee Meriwether as The Catwoman, Kitka + Cesar Romero as The Joker + Burgess Meredith as The Penguin + Frank Gorshin as The Riddler + Alan Napier as Alfred + Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon + Stafford Repp as Chief O'Hara + Madge Blake as Aunt Harriet + Reginald Denny as Commodore Schmidlapp + Milton Frome as Vice Admiral Fangschleister + Gil Perkins as Bluebeard + Dick Crockett as Morgan + George Sawaya as Quetch + Teru Shimada as Japanese Delegate + Maurice Dallimore as United Kingdom Delegate + Gregory Gaye as Russian Delegate + Albert Carrier as French Delegate + Van Williams (uncredited voice) as President Lyndon B. Johnson + +Production + +Development +William Dozier wanted to make a big-screen film to generate interest in his proposed Batman television series by having the feature in theaters while the first season of the series was rolling before the cameras. The studio, 20th Century-Fox, refused because it would have to cover the entire cost of a movie, while it would only have to share the cost of a TV series (a much less risky proposition). + +The studio acquiesced after a 1965 screening of Columbia Pictures' 1943 The Batman serial in New York City renewed interest in the character and after the television series became phenomenally successful. The project was announced in a March 26, 1966, issue of Variety magazine. + +The film features many characters from the show. It was written by series writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. and directed by Leslie H. Martinson, who had directed a pair of the television series season one episodes: "The Penguin Goes Straight" and "Not Yet, He Ain't". Semple Jr. completed the screenplay in 10 days. Principal photography began on April 28, 1966, and concluded within 28 days, with a further three days to complete second-unit photography. + +Casting + +The film includes most members of the original TV cast: the actors for Batman, Robin, Alfred, Gordon, O'Hara, Aunt Harriet, the Joker, the Penguin, and the Riddler all reprised their roles. Though Julie Newmar had at this point played Catwoman in two episodes of season one in the TV series, she had other commitments at that time and was replaced by Lee Meriwether in the film. According to the Biography special Catwoman: Her Many Lives aired on July 20, 2004, Newmar was unable to reprise her role because of a back injury. Catwoman was nonetheless played by Newmar once again in the following eleven episodes of season two of the series; Eartha Kitt would then play Catwoman in three episodes of season three. + +Jack LaLanne has a cameo as a man on a rooftop with bikini-clad women. + +Tone and themes +Even though it is often described (like many contemporary shows) as a parody of a popular comic-book character, some commentators believe that its comedy is not so tightly confined. They felt the film's depiction of the Caped Crusader "captured the feel of the contemporary comics perfectly". The film was made at a time when "the Batman of the Golden Age comics was already essentially neutered". + +Certain elements verge into direct parody of the history of Batman. The movie, like the TV series, is strongly influenced by the comparatively obscure 1940s serials of Batman, such as the escapes done almost out of luck. The penchant for giving devices a "Bat-" prefix and the dramatic use of stylized title cards during fight scenes acknowledge some of the conventions that the character had accumulated in various media. However, the majority of Batman's campier moments can be read as a broader parody on contemporary mid-1960s culture in general. + +Furthermore, the movie represented Batman's first major foray into Cold War issues, paying heavy attention to Polaris Missiles, war surplus submarines and taking a poke at the Pentagon. The inclusion of a glory-hunting presidential character and the unfavorable portrayal of Security Council Members marked Batman's first attempts to poke fun at domestic and international politics. + +Vehicles + +Besides the Batmobile, other vehicles used by The Dynamic Duo include: + Batcycle with side car + Batboat, provided by Glastron + Batcopter + +Of the three new Batvehicles which first appeared in the Batman film, only the Batcycle properly crossed over into the TV series as the budgetary limits of the TV series precluded the full use of the others. While the Batcopter and Batboat from the movie appeared briefly in episodes (including a use of the Batboat in the conclusion of the first post-film two-parter: "Walk the Straight and Narrow"), they primarily did so in the form of stock-footage scenes from the film intercut into the series. + +Music +Nelson Riddle's original score to Batman the Movie was released in 2010 by La-La Land Records and Fox Music. The album contains the entire score as heard in the film in chronological order as well as an unreleased cue. This limited edition includes a lavishly illustrated color booklet which features exclusive liner notes by Brian Baterwhite. This Limited Edition was of 2000 units. + +It was newly re-issued in 2016. While the program and master of this release is identical to the 2010 release, this reissue features all-new exclusive liner notes by John Takis and art design by Jim Titus. This new Limited Edition is of 2500 units. + +Release + +Theatrical +Batman premiered at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, on July 30, 1966 (between the first and second seasons of the TV series); it was moderately successful at the box office. The Batboat featured in the film was created by Austin-based company Glastron, whose payment was in having the film premiere in their hometown. In conjunction with the premiere, Jean Boone of Austin CBS affiliate station KTBC interviewed the film's cast, including Lee Meriwether, Cesar Romero, and Adam West. + +Television +ABC, the network which previously aired the Batman television series, first broadcast the film on the July 4, 1971, edition of The ABC Sunday Night Movie; the film was quickly rebroadcast on ABC September 4 of that year. + +Home media +The film debuted on home video via formats VHS and Betamax release in 1985 by Playhouse Video, in 1989 by CBS/Fox Video, and in 1994 by Fox Video. + +The film was released on DVD in 2001, and re-released July 1, 2008, on DVD and on Blu-ray by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. + +Reception + +Box office +According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $3.2 million in rentals to break even and made $3.9 million (equivalent to $ million in ). + +Critical response + +Bill Gibron of Filmcritic.com gave the film 3 out of 5 stars: "Unlike other attempts at bringing these characters to life...the TV cast really captures the inherent insanity of the roles". Variety stated in their review that "the intense innocent enthusiasm of Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith and Frank Gorshin as the three criminals is balanced against the innocent calm of Adam West and Burt Ward, Batman and Robin respectively". + +Sequels + +West and Ward reprised their roles in Batman animated movies for the show's 50th anniversary along with Julie Newmar returning. + +Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders was released on Digital HD and digital media on October 11, 2016, and on DVD and Blu-ray November 1. + +A sequel to Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders called Batman vs. Two-Face was released on October 10, 2017. The film starred William Shatner voicing Two-Face as the main antagonist. Adam West died before it was released. West completed his voiceover work; it was one of his final performances before he died from leukemia. + +See also + List of American films of 1966 + +References + +External links + + + + Batman The Movie at BYTB: Batman Yesterday, Today and Beyond (archived 2006) + BATMAN (1966, U.S.) at kiddiematinee.com (archived 2010) + Jean Boone – Interview with the cast of Batman: The Movie (1966) (archived 2008) + +Batman (TV series) +1966 films +1960s action comedy films +1960s American films +1960s buddy comedy films +1960s superhero films +1960s English-language films +1960s fantasy action films +1960s fantasy comedy films +20th Century Fox films +American action comedy films +American buddy comedy films +American fantasy action films +American fantasy comedy films +American superhero comedy films +Batman films +Cold War submarine films +Films about violence +Films based on adaptations +Films based on television series +Films directed by Leslie H. Martinson +Films produced by William Dozier +Films scored by Nelson Riddle +Films shot in California +Films with screenplays by Lorenzo Semple Jr. +Sequel films to television series +Live-action films based on DC Comics +Batman Returns is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Waters. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to Batman (1989) and the second installment in the 1989–1997 Batman series. In the film, the superhero vigilante Batman comes into conflict with wealthy industrialist Max Shreck and deformed crime boss Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin, who seek power, influence, and respect regardless of the cost to Gotham City. Their plans are complicated by Selina Kyle, Shreck's formerly-meek secretary, who seeks vengeance against Shreck as Catwoman. The cast includes Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, and Michael Murphy. + +Burton had no interest in making a sequel to the successful Batman, believing that he was creatively restricted by the expectations of Warner Bros. He agreed to return in exchange for significant creative control, including replacing original writer Sam Hamm with Daniel Waters and hiring many of his previous creative collaborators. Waters' script focused more on characterization than on overarching plot, and Wesley Strick was hired to complete an uncredited re-write which (among other elements) provided a master plan for the Penguin. Filming was done from September 1991 to February 1992, on a $50–80million budget, on sets and sound stages at Warner Bros. Studios and the Universal Studios Lot in California. Special effects primarily involved practical applications and makeup, with some animatronics and computer-generated imagery. + +The film's marketing campaign was substantial, including brand collaborations and a variety of merchandise to replicate Batman success. Released on June 19, 1992, Batman Returns broke several box-office records and earned about $266.8million worldwide. It failed to replicate the success or longevity of Batman ($411.6million), however; this was blamed on its darker tone and violent (or sexual) elements, which alienated family audiences and led to a backlash against marketing partnerssuch as McDonald'sfor promoting the film to young children. Reviews were critical of its tone and narrative but more favorable towards the cast, giving near-unanimous praise to Pfeiffer's performance. + +After the relative failure of Batman Returns, Burton was replaced as director of the third film, Batman Forever (1995), with Joel Schumacher, to take the series in a family-friendly direction. Keaton chose not to reprise his role, disagreeing with Schumacher's vision. Batman Forever and its sequel, Batman & Robin (1997), were financial successes but fared less well critically. Batman Returns has been reassessed as one of the best Batman films in the decades since its release, and its incarnations of Catwoman and Penguin are considered iconic. A comic book, Batman '89 (2021), continued the narrative of the original two Burton films, and Keaton reprised his version of Batman in the DC Extended Universe film The Flash (2023). + +Plot + +In Gotham City, two wealthy socialites, dismayed at the birth of their malformed and feral son Oswald, discard the infant in the sewers, where he is adopted by a family of penguins. Thirty-three years later, during the Christmas season, wealthy industrialist Max Shreck is abducted by the Red Triangle gang (a group of former circus workers connected to child disappearances across the country) and brought to their hideout in the Arctic exhibit at the derelict Gotham Zoo. Red Triangle's leader, Oswald – now named Penguin – blackmails Shreck with evidence of his corruption and murderous acts to compel his assistance in reintegrating Oswald into Gotham's elite. Shreck orchestrates a staged attempted kidnapping of the mayor's infant child, allowing Oswald to rescue it and become a public hero. In exchange, Oswald requests access to the city's birth records (ostensibly to learn his true identity) and identifies Gotham's first-born sons. + +Shreck attempts to kill his meek secretary, Selina Kyle, by pushing her out a window after she inadvertently uncovers his plot to build a power plant which would covertly siphon and hoard electricity from Gotham. Selina survives, returns home, angrily crafts a costume and adopts the name Catwoman. She returns to work confident and aggressive, catching the attention of visiting billionaire Bruce Wayne. As his alter ego (the vigilante Batman), Wayne investigates Oswald, suspecting that he is connected to Red Triangle. To eliminate opposition to his plant, Shreck convinces Oswald to run for mayor and discredit the incumbent by having Red Triangle wreak havoc throughout Gotham. Batman's efforts to stop the gang eventually bring him into conflict with Catwoman. Selina and Wayne begin dating, while Catwoman allies with Oswald to disgrace Batman. + +On the night of the city's Christmas-tree lighting, Oswald and Catwoman kidnap the Ice Princess (Gotham's beauty queen) and lure Batman to the roof above the ceremony. Oswald pushes the Ice Princess to her death with a swarm of bats, framing Batman. When Catwoman objects to the murder and rejects his romantic advances, Oswald attacks her and she falls through a glasshouse. Batman escapes in the Batmobile, unaware that Red Triangle has modified it; this allows Oswald to take it on a remote-controlled rampage. Before regaining control, Batman records Oswald's derogatory tirade against Gotham's citizens. He plays the audio at Oswald's mayoral rally the following day, ruining his image and forcing him to retreat to Gotham Zoo. Oswald forsakes his humanity and embraces the name Penguin, initiating his plan to abduct and kill Gotham's firstborn sons to avenge his own abandonment. + +Selina tries to kill Shreck at his charity ball, but Wayne intervenes and they inadvertently discover each other's secret identities. Penguin crashes the event to kidnap Shreck's son, Chip, but Shreck offers himself instead. Batman neutralizes Red Triangle and stops the kidnapping, forcing Penguin to deploy his missile-equipped penguin army to destroy Gotham. Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, overrides the penguins' control signal and redirects them back to Gotham Zoo. As the missiles destroy the zoo, Batman unleashes a swarm of bats which makes Penguin fall into the contaminated waters of the Arctic exhibit. Catwoman arrives to kill Shreck, rejecting Batman's plea to abandon her vengeance and leave with him. She is shot four times by Shreck, seemingly without effect, because she claims to have two of her nine lives remaining. Catwoman electrocutes Shreck, causing a power surge which apparently kills them both; however, Batman finds only Shreck's charred remains. Penguin returns, but dies of his injuries before he can attack Batman and is laid to rest in the water by his penguins. Sometime later, while Alfred drives him home, Wayne sees Selina's silhouette but finds only a cat (which he takes with him). The Bat-Signal shines above the city, as Catwoman looks on. + +Cast + + Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman: A billionaire businessman who operates as Gotham's vigilante protector + Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin: A deformed crime boss + Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle / Catwoman: A meek assistant turned vengeful villain + Christopher Walken as Max Shreck: A ruthless industrialist + Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth: Wayne's butler and surrogate father + Pat Hingle as James Gordon: The Gotham City police commissioner and Batman's ally + Michael Murphy as the Mayor: The city's incumbent mayor + +The cast of Batman Returns includes Andrew Bryniarski as Max's son Charles "Chip" Schreck and Cristi Conaway as the Ice Princess, Gotham's beauty queen-elect. Paul Reubens and Diane Salinger appear as Tucker and Esther Cobblepot, Oswald's wealthy, elite parents. Sean Whalen appears as a paperboy; Jan Hooks and Steve Witting play Jen and Josh, Oswald's mayoral image consultants. The Red Triangle gang includes the monkey-toting Organ Grinder (Vincent Schiavelli), the Poodle Lady (Anna Katarina), the Tattooed Strongman (Rick Zumwalt), the Sword Swallower (John Strong), the Knifethrower Dame (Erika Andersch), the Acrobatic Thug (Gregory Scott Cummins), the Terrifying Clown (Branscombe Richmond), the Fat Clown (Travis Mckenna), and the Thin Clown (Doug Jones). + +Production + +Development + +After the success of Batman (1989), the fifth-highest-grossing of its time, a sequel was considered inevitable. Warner Bros. Pictures had confidence in its potential and was discussing sequel ideas by late 1989, intending to begin filming the following May; the studio had purchased the $2million Gotham City sets at Pinewood Studios in England for at least two sequels. It kept the sets under 24-hour guard because it was cheaper to maintain the existing sets than build new ones. Robin Williams and Danny DeVito were considered to play rogues Riddler and Penguin, respectively. Despite pressure from Warner Bros. to finalize a script and begin filming, Batman director Tim Burton remained uncertain about directing a sequel. He described it as a "dumbfounded idea", especially before Batmans performance was analyzed, and was generally opposed to sequels: "Sequels are only worthwhile if they give you the opportunity to do something new and interesting. It has to go beyond that, really, because you do the first for the thrill of the unknown. A sequel wipes all that out, so you must explore the next level." Batman writer Sam Hamm's initial story idea expanded the character of district attorney Harvey Dent, played in Batman by Billy Dee Williams, and his descent into the supervillain Two-Face. Warner Bros. wanted the main villain to be the Penguin, however, and Hamm believed that the studio saw the character as Batman's most prominent enemy after the Joker. Catwoman was added because Burton and Hamm were interested in the character. Hamm's drafts continued directly from Batman, focusing on the relationship between Wayne and Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) and their engagement. The Penguin was written as an avian-themed criminal who uses birds as weapons; Catwoman was more overtly sexualised, wore "bondage" gear, and nonchalantly murdered groups of men. The main narrative teamed Penguin and Catwoman to frame Batman for the murders of Gotham's wealthiest citizens in their pursuit of a secret treasure. Their quest leads them to Wayne Manor, and reveals the Waynes' secret history. Among other things, Hamm originated the Christmastime setting and introduced Robin, Batman's sidekick, although his idea for assault rifle-wielding Santas was abandoned. Hamm ensured that Batman did not kill anyone, and focused on protecting Gotham's homeless. He produced two drafts which failed to renew Burton's interest, and the director concentrated on directing Edward Scissorhands (1990) and writing The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). + +Burton was confirmed to direct the sequel in January 1991, with filming scheduled to begin later that year for a 1992 release date. He agreed to return if he received creative control of the sequel; Burton considered Batman the least favorite of his films, describing it as a "little boring at times." According to Denise Di Novi, his long-time producer, "Only about 50% of Batman was [Burton]"; the studio wanted Batman Returns to be "more of a Tim Burton movie... [a] weirder movie but also more hip and fun." + +Burton replaced key Batman crew with some of his former collaborators, including cinematographer Stefan Czapsky, production designer Bo Welch, creature-effects supervisor Stan Winston, makeup artist Ve Neill, and art directors Tom Duffield and Rick Henrichs. Daniel Waters was hired to replace Hamm; Burton wanted someone with no emotional attachment to Batman and liked Waters' script for the dark comedy Heathers (1988), which matched Burton's intended tone and creative direction. Burton reportedly disliked Batman producer Jon Peters, demoted him to executive producer of Batman Returns, and effectively barred him from the set. Warner Bros. was the production company and distributor, with production assistance from executive producer Peter Guber's and Peters' Polygram Pictures. + +Writing + +Waters began writing his first draft in mid-1990. Burton's only instructions were that Catwoman had to be more than a "sexy vixen", and the script's only connection to Batman was a reference to Vale as Wayne's ex-girlfriend. Waters said that he did not like Batman, and had no interest in following its narrative threads or acknowledging the comic-book histories of Batman Returns characters: "[Burton] and I never had a conversation about 'what are fans of the comic books going to think?'... we never thought about them. We were really just about the art." He also had no interest in preventing Batman from killing people; the character should reflect contemporary, "darker" times, and the idea of a hero leaving captured villains for the authorities was outdated. Waters only had Batman kill when necessary, however, believing that it should be meaningful; he was unhappy with some of the added on-screen deaths, such as Batman blowing up a Red Triangle member with a bomb. + +Much of Waters' "bitter and cynical" dialogue for Batman (such as Gotham City not deserving protection) was removed because Keaton believed that Batman should rarely speak in costume and Burton wanted Batman to be a "wounded soul", not nihilistic. As a result, the script focused on villains. Burton said that he initially struggled to understand the appeal of the Penguin's comic-book counterpart; Batman, Catwoman, and the Joker had clear psychological profiles, but the Penguin was "just this guy with a cigarette and a top hat." The initial draft made the character resemble a stereotypical DeVito character (an abrasive gangster), but Waters and Burton agreed to make him more "animalistic". They decided to make the Penguin a tragic figure, abandoned as an infant by his parentsa reflection of Batman's childhood trauma of losing his parents. Political and social satire was added, influenced by two episodes of the 1960s television series Batman ("Hizzoner the Penguin" and "Dizhonner the Penguin") in which the Penguin runs for mayor. + +Waters changed Hamm's Catwoman from a "fetishy sexual fantasy" femme fatale to a working-class, disenchanted secretary, writing her as an allegory of contemporary feminism. Although the character is influenced by feline mythology (such as cats having nine lives), Waters and Burton never intended the belief to be taken literally and planned for Catwoman to die with Shreck during the electrical explosion in the film's denouement. Waters created Max Shreck as an original character, named in honor of actor Max Schreck, to replace the Dent-Two-Face character. The character was written satirically as an evil industrialist who orchestrates the Penguin's mayoral run because Waters wanted to say "that the true villains of our world don't necessarily wear costumes." In one version of the script, Shreck was the Penguin's more-favored brother. The number of central characters led to the removal of Robin, a garage mechanic who helps Batman after Penguin crashes the Batmobile. Burton and Waters were not particularly interested in retaining the character, whom Waters called "the most worthless character in the world". The Red Triangle gang, initially conceived as a troupe of performance artists, were changed to circus clowns at Burton's request. Waters said that his 160-page first draft was too outlandish and would have cost $400million to produce, and he became more restrained. His fifth (and final draft) focused more on characterization and interaction than on plot. + +Burton and Waters eventually fell out, disagreeing about the script and with Waters refusing to implement requested changes. Burton hired Wesley Strick to refine Waters' work, streamline dialogue, and lighten the tone. Warner Bros. executives mandated that Strick introduce a master plan for the Penguin, resulting in the addition of the plot to kidnap Gotham's first-born sons and threaten the city with missiles. Waters said that the changes to his work were relatively minor, and he was baffled by the Penguin's plot: "What the fuck is this shit?" He made a final revision to the shooting screenplay and, although Strick was on set for four months of filming and agreed-upon rewriting, Waters was the only screenwriter credited. + +Casting + +Keaton reprised his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman for $10 million, double his salary for Batman. Burton wanted to cast Marlon Brando as the Penguin, but Warner Bros. preferred Dustin Hoffman. Christopher Lloyd and Robert De Niro were also considered, but Danny DeVito became the frontrunner when Waters re-envisioned the character as a deformed human-bird hybrid. DeVito was initially reluctant to accept the role until he was convinced by his close friend, Jack Nicholson, who played the Joker in Batman. To convey his vision, Burton gave DeVito a picture he had painted of a diminutive character sitting on a red-and-white striped ball with the caption, "my name is Jimmy, but my friends call me the hideous penguin boy." + +Casting Selina Kyle / Catwoman was difficult. Annette Bening initially secured the role, but had to drop out after becoming pregnant. Actresses lobbying for the part then included Ellen Barkin, Cher, Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Madonna, Julie Newmar, Lena Olin, Susan Sarandon, Raquel Welch, and Basinger. The most prominent candidate, however, was Sean Young (who was cast as Vale in Batman before she was injured). Young went to the Warner Bros. lot in a homemade Catwoman costume for an impromptu audition for Burton, who reportedly hid under his desk (although Keaton and producer Mark Canton briefly met with her). She shared video of her efforts with Entertainment Tonight, and Warner Bros. said that Young did not fit their vision for Catwoman. + +The role went to Pfeiffer who was described as a proven actress who got along with Burton (although some publications said that it would stretch her acting abilities). Pfeiffer had also been considered for Vale, but Keaton vetoed the casting because they had been romantically involved and he believed that her presence would interfere with attempts to reconcile with his wife. She received a $3million salary ($2million more than Bening), plus a percentage of the gross profits. Pfeiffer trained for months in kickboxing with her stunt double, Kathy Long; she mastered the whip, becoming proficient enough to perform her own stunts with the weapon. + +Shreck's appearance was modeled on Vincent Price in an (unnamed) older film, and Walken based his performance on moguls such as Sol Hurok and Samuel Goldwyn. He said, "I tend to play mostly villains and twisted people. Unsavory guys. I think it's my face, the way I look. If you do something effective, producers want you to do it again and again." Burgess Meredith (who played the Penguin in the 1960s TV series) was scheduled to make a cameo appearance as Penguin's father, Tucker Cobblepot, but became ill during filming. He was replaced by Paul Reubens; Diane Salinger played his wife, Esther. Both had starred in Burton's feature-film debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985). + +Although Robin was removed from the screenplay, the character's development was far enough along that Marlon Wayans was cast in the role (Burton had specifically wanted an African-American Robin) and costumes, sets, and action figures were made. In a 1998 interview, Wayans said that he still received residual checks as part of the two-film contract he signed. Early reports suggested that Nicholson had been asked to return as the Joker, but refused to film in England because of the salary tax on foreign talent. Nicholson denied being asked, however, believing that Warner Bros. would not want to replicate his generous compensation for Batman. + +Filming + +Principal photography began on September 3, 1991. Burton wanted to film in the United States with American actors because he believed that Batman "suffered from a British subtext." The economics of filming Batman in the United Kingdom had also changed, making it more cost-effective to remain in the U.S. This meant abandoning the English Batman sets in favor of Burton's new design. Batman Returns was filmed entirely on seven or eight soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California, including Stage 16 (which housed the expansive Gotham Plaza set). An additional soundstage, Stage 12 at the Universal Studios Lot, was used for the Penguin's Arctic-exhibit lair. + +Some sets were kept very cold for the live Emperor, black-footed, and King penguins. The birds were flown in on a refrigerated airplane for filming, and had a refrigerated waiting area with a swimming pool stocked with half a ton of ice daily and fresh fish. DeVito said that he generally liked being on set but disliked the cold conditions, and was the only person somewhat comfortable because of his costume's heavy padding. To create the penguin army, the live penguins were supplemented with puppets, forty Emperor-penguin suits worn by little people, and Computer-generated imagery (CGI). People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) protested the use of real penguins, objecting to the birds' being moved from their natural environment. Although the organization had reportedly said that the penguins were not mistreated during filming, it later said that the birds did not get fresh drinking waterjust a small, chlorinated pool. PETA also objected to the penguins being fitted with appliances representing weapons and gadgets, which Warner Bros. said were lightweight plastic. Burton said that he did not like using real animals because he had an affinity for them, and ensured that the penguins were treated with care. + +Walken described the filming as very collaborative, recalling that his suggestion to add a blueprint for Shreck's power plant resulted in a model built within a few hours. The scene of Catwoman putting a live bird in her mouth was real, with no CGI. Pfeiffer said that, in retrospect, she would not have done the stunt; she had not considered the risks of injury or disease involved. For a scene in the sewers, monkey handlers positioned above and below managed the organ grinder monkey as it descended a set of stairs with a note for Penguin. When it saw DeVito in full costume and makeup, it leapt at his testicles. DeVito said, "The monkey looked at me, froze, and then leapt right at my balls...Thank god it was a padded costume." A scene of Shreck's superstore exploding caused minor injuries to four stuntmen. Principal photography ended on February 20, 1992, after 170 days. + +Post-production +Chris Lebenzon edited Batman Returns 126-minute theatrical cut. The final scene of Catwoman looking up at the Bat Signal was filmed during post-production, only two weeks before the film's release. Warner Bros. mandated the scene (depicting that the character survived) after test audiences responded positively to Pfeiffer's performance. Pfeiffer was unavailable to film the scene, and a stand-in was used. A scene of Penguin's gang destroying a store filled with Batman merchandise was removed. Warner Bros. provided a final budget for Batman Returns of $55million, although it has been reported (or estimated) as $50, $65, $75, or 80million. + +Music + +Danny Elfman was initially reluctant to score Batman Returns because he was unhappy that his Batman score was supplemented with pop music by Prince. Elfman built on many of his Batman themes, and said that he enjoyed working on the Penguin's themes the most because of the character's sympathetic aspects (such as his abandonment and death): "I'm a huge sucker for that kind of sentimentality." Recorded with a studio orchestra on the Sony Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, Elfman's score includes vocals, harps, bells, xylophones, flutes, pianos, and chimes. The song "Face to Face", played during the costume-ball scene, was co-written and performed by the British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. Burton and Elfman fell out during production due to the stress of finishing Batman Returns on time, but reconciled shortly afterward. + +Design and effects +Batman production designer Anton Furst was replaced by Bo Welch, who understood Burton's visual intentions after previous collaborations on Beetlejuice (1988) and Edward Scissorhands (1990). Furst, already occupied on another project, committed suicide in November 1991. Warner Bros. maintained a high level of security for Batman Returns, requiring the art department to keep their window blinds closed. Cast and crew had to wear ID badges with the film's working title, Dictel, a word coined by Welch and Burton meaning "dictatorial"; they were unhappy with the studio's "ridiculous gestapo" measures. Welch designed the Batboat vehicle, a programmable batarang, and the Penguin's weaponized umbrellas. He added features to the Batmobile, such as detaching much of its exterior to fit through tighter spaces; this version was called the "Batmissile". + +Sets +The sets were redesigned in Welch's style, including the Batcave and Wayne Manor. They were spread across seven soundstages on the Warner Bros. lot (the largest of which had ceilings) and the largest set owned by Universal Pictures. Batman Returns was filmed on sets, although some panoramic shots (such as the camera traveling from the base of Shreck's department store to its cat-head-shaped office) were created with detailed miniatures. + +Welch found it difficult to create something new without deviating from Furst's award-winning work. The designs were intended to appear as a separate district of Gotham; if Batman took place on the East Side, Batman Returns was set on the West Side. Welch was influenced by German Expressionism, neo-fascist architecture (including Nazi Germany-era styles), American precisionism painters, and photos of the homeless living on the streets in affluent areas. He incorporated Burton's rough sketch of Catwoman, which had a "very S&M kind of look", by adding chains and steel elements which would appear to hold together a city on the verge of collapse. The key element for Welch came early in design, when he realized that he wanted to manipulate spaces to convey specific emotions (emphasizing vertical buildings to convey a "huge, overwhelmingly corrupt, decaying city" filled with small people): "The film is about this alienating, disparate world we live in." The wintertime setting took advantage of the contrast between black and white scene elements, influenced by Citizen Kane (1941) and The Third Man (1949). + +Welch's concept designs began by carving out building shapes from cardboard with images of fascist sculptures and depression era machine-age art. The resulting -tall rough model represented Gotham Plaza, described as a futuristic, oppressive, and "demented caricature" of Rockefeller Center. It was designed overbuilt, emphasizing the generic-but-oppressive heart of Gotham's corruption. Despite complaints from the film's financiers about its necessity, Burton insisted on the location with a detailed church overshadowed by plain surroundings. + +Designs attempted to create the illusion of space; the Wayne Manor set was partially built (consisting primarily of a large staircase and fireplace) with a scale which implied that the rest of the structure was massive. Penguin's base was initially scheduled to be built in a standard tall Warner Bros. soundstage, but Welch thought that it lacked "majesty" and did not create enough contrast between itself and the "evil, filthy, little bug of a man". A -tall Universal stage was acquired for the production, its raised ceilings making it seem more realistic and less like a set. Minor modifications were made to the set throughout the film to make it appear to be gradually deteriorating. The location featured a water tank filled with of water surrounding a faux-ice island. Selina Kyle's apartment had a large steel beam running through its center to appear as if it had been built around a steel girder, which Welch said made it depressing and ironic. The wood used to build the sets was donated to Habitat for Humanity to help build low-cost homes for the poor. + +Costumes and makeup + +Bob Ringwood and Mary E. Vogt were the costume designers. They refined the Batsuit to create the illusion of mechanical parts built into the torso, intending Batman to resemble Darth Vader. Forty-eight foam-rubber Batsuits were made for Batman Returns. They had a mechanical system of bolts and spikes beneath the breast plate to secure the cowl and cape because "otherwise, if [Keaton] turned around quickly the cape would stay where it was", due to its weight. Costumer Paul Barrett-Brown said that the suit had a "generous codpiece" for comfort, and initially included a zippered fly to allow Keaton to use the bathroom; the actor declined, however, because it could be seen by the camera from some angles. As with the Batman costume, Keaton could not turn his head; he compensated by making bolder, more powerful movements with his lower body. + +The Catwoman outfit was made from latex because it was designed to be "black and sexy and tight and shiny". The material was chosen because of its association with "erotic and sexual" situations, reflecting the character's transition from a repressed secretary to an extroverted, erotic female. Padding was added because Pfeiffer was less physically endowed than Bening; this worked to Pfeiffer's advantage, however, since Barrett-Brown said that if it was too tight it "would reveal the genital area so thoroughly that you'd get an X certificate." Ringwood and Vogt thought that if the latex material tore it would not be difficult to repair; forty to seventy backup Catwoman suits were made by Western Costume, the Warner Bros. costume department, and Los Angeles-based clothing manufacturer Syren at a cost of $1,000 each. Other versions, made for Pfeiffer from a cast of her body, were so tight that she had to be covered in baby powder to wear them. Barrett-Brown said that because of the material, it was possible to get into the suit when dry; they could not re-use them, however, because of sweat and body oils. Vin Burnham constructed Catwoman's headpiece and mask. + +Burton was influenced to add stitching by calico cats, but the stitching came apart. Ringwood and Vogt struggled with adding stitching to latex. They tried to sculpt stitching and glue it on, but did not like the look and went over the suit with liquid silicon while it was worn (which added a shine to everything). Pfeiffer said that the suit was like a second skin, but when worn for long periods it was uncomfortable; there was no way to use the restroom and it would stick to her skin, occasionally causing a rash. She found the mask similarly confining, describing it as choking her or "smashing my face", and would catch the claws on nearby objects. + +Stan Winston Studio created an "over-the-top Burtonesque" visual for the Penguin, without obscuring DeVito's face. Concept artist Mark McCreery drew a number of sketches for the look, from which Legacy Effects built noses on a lifecast of DeVito's face. Winston was unhappy with the "pointy nose" shapes and began sculpting ideas with clay, influenced by his work on The Wiz (1978) (which involved a forehead and brow prosthetic appliance for large-beaked creatures). The final makeup included a T-shaped appliance which went over DeVito's noise, lip and brow as well as crooked teeth, whitened skin and dark circles under his eyes. Ve Neill applied the makeup, made by John Rosengrant and Shane Mahan. The several pounds of facial prosthetics, body padding, and prosthetic hands took four-and-a-half hours to apply to DeVito, but was reduced to three hours by the end of filming. An air bladder was added to the costume to help reduce its weight. DeVito helped create the Penguin's black saliva with the makeup and effects teams, using a mild mouthwash and food coloring which he squirted into his mouth before filming, and said its taste was acceptable. Burton described DeVito as completely in-character in costume, and he "scared everybody". While re-dubbing some of his dialogue, DeVito struggled to get into character without the makeup and had it applied to improve his performance. Because of the secrecy surrounding his character's appearance before marketing, DeVito was not allowed to discuss it with others (including his family). A photo leaked to the press, and Warner Bros. employed a firm of private investigators in a failed attempt to track down the source. + +Penguins +Stan Winston Studio provided animatronic penguins and costumes to supplement Penguin's army. Thirty animatronic versions were made: ten each of the black-footed, King, and Emperor penguins. Costumes worn by little people were slightly larger than the animatronics; the actors controlled walking, the mechanized heads were remote-controlled and the wings were puppeteered. Dyed black chicken feathers were used for the penguin bodies. McCreery's designs for the penguin army initially included a flamethrower, which was replaced with a rocket launcher. Mechanical-effects designers Richard Landon and Craig Caton-Largent supervised the manufacture of the animatronics, which required nearly 200 different mechanical parts to control the head, neck, eyes, beak, and wings. Boss Film Studios produced the CGI penguins. + +Release + +Context + +By the theatrical summer of 1992 (beginning the last week of May), the film industry was struggling. Ticket sales were their lowest in fifteen years; rising film-production costs and several box-office failures the previous year meant that many independent and some major film studios were struggling financially. Eighty-nine films were scheduled for release during the summer season, including A League of Their Own, Alien 3, Encino Man, Far and Away, Patriot Games, and Sister Act. Studios had to carefully schedule their releases to avoid competition from anticipated blockbusters, which included Lethal Weapon 3, Batman Returns, and the 1992 Summer Olympics. Batman Returns was predicted to be the summer's biggest success, and other studios were reportedly concerned about releasing their films within a few weeks of its premiere. Paramount Pictures increased the budget of Patriot Games from $29million to $43million to make it more competitive with Batman Returns and Lethal Weapon 3. + +Marketing +Franchising had not been considered an important aspect of Batmans release. However, after merchandise contributed about $500million to its $1.5billion total earnings, it was prioritized for Batman Returns. Warner Bros. delayed major promotion until February 1992, to avoid over-saturation and the risk of driving away audiences. A 12-minute promotional reel which debuted at WorldCon in September 1991 with a black-and-white poster of a silhouetted Batman was called "mundane" and uninspiring. A trailer was released in 5,000 theaters in February 1992 with a new poster of a snow-swept Batman logo. The campaign focused on the three central characters (Batman, Penguin, and Catwoman), which Warner Bros. believed would offset the loss of the popular Nicholson. Over two-thirds of the 300 posters Warner Bros. installed in public places were stolen. Warner Bros. eventually offered 200 limited-edition posters for $250; they were signed by Keaton, who donated his earnings to charity. + +Over $100million was expected to be spent on marketing, including $20million by Warner Bros. for commercials and trailers and $60million by merchandising partners. The partners, which included McDonald's, Ralston Purina, Kmart, Target Corporation, Venture Stores, and Sears, planned to host about 300 Batman shops in its stores. McDonald's converted 9,000 outlets into Gotham City restaurants, offering Batman-themed packaging and a cup lid which doubled as a flying disc. CBS aired a television special, The Bat, The Cat, The Penguin... Batman Returns, and Choice Hotels sponsored the hour-long The Making of Batman Returns. Television advertisements featured Batman and Catwoman fighting over a can of Diet Coke, and the Penguin (and his penguins) promoted Choice Hotels. Advertisements also appeared on billboards and in print (three consecutive pages in some newspapers), targeted at older audiences. + +Box office +Batman Returns premiered on June 16, 1992, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Two blocks of Hollywood Boulevard were closed for over 3,000 fans, 33 TV film crews, and 100 photographers. A party was held afterwards on the Soundstage 16 Gotham Plaza set for guests who included Keaton, Pfeiffer, DeVito, Burton, DiNovi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Faye Dunaway, James Caan, Mickey Rooney, Harvey Keitel, Christian Slater, James Woods, and Reubens. + +The film had a limited, preview release in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday, June 18, earning $2million. It had a wide release the following day, and was shown on an above-average 3,000 screens in 2,644 theaters. Batman Returns earned $45.7million during its opening weekend (an average of $17,729 per theater), and was the number-one filmahead of Sister Act fourth weekend ($7.8million) and Patriot Games third ($7.7million). This figure broke the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend, set by Batman ($42.7million); Batman Returns had the highest-grossing opening weekend of the year, surpassing Lethal Weapon 3 ($33.2million). The film held the all-time record for the biggest opening weekend until it was surpassed by Jurassic Park ($50.1million) the next year. Performance analysis suggested that Batman Returns could become one of the all-time highest-grossing films; Warner Bros. executive Robert Friedman said, "We opened it the first real weekend when kids are out of school. The audience is everybody, but the engine that drives the charge are kids under 20." According to Patriot Games producer Mace Neufeld, other films benefited from overflow audiences for Batman Returns who did not want to wait in long lines or were turned away from sold-out screenings. + +Batman Returns earned $25.4million in its second weekend (a 44.3-percent drop) and was the number-one film again, ahead of the premiering Unlawful Entry ($10.1million) and Sister Act ($7.2million). By the film's third weekend, it was the second=fastest film to gross $100million (11 days), behind Batman (10 days). It remained the number-one film with a gross of $13.8million (a 45.6-percent drop), ahead of the premiering A League of Their Own ($13.7million) and Boomerang ($13.6million). The Washington Post called its week-over-week drops "troublesome", and industry analysis suggested that Batman Returns would not replicate the longevity of Batmans theatrical run. It never regained the number-one position, falling to numberfour over its fourth weekend and leaving the top-ten highest-grossing films by its seventh. The film left theaters in late October after 18 weeks, with a total gross of $162.8million. It was the third-highest-grossing film of 1992, behind Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ($173.6million) and Aladdin ($217.3million). + +Batman Returns earned an estimated $104million outside the U.S. and Canada, including a record-setting £2.8million opening weekend in the United Kingdom. This broke the record set by Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), making it the first film to gross more than £1million in a single day. Worldwide, Batman Returns grossed $266.8million. It was the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1992, behind Lethal Weapon 3 ($321.7million), Basic Instinct ($352.9million), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ($359million), The Bodyguard ($410.9million), and Aladdin ($504.1million). + +Reception + +Critical response + +Batman Returns had a polarized reception from professional critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B on an A+-to-F scale. + +Several reviewers compared Batman Returns and Batman; some suggested that the sequel had faster pacing and more comedy and depth, avoiding Batman "dourness" and "tedium". Critics generally agreed that Burton's creative control made Batman Returns a more personal work than Batman, something "fearlessly" different which could be judged on its own merits. Critics such as Kenneth Turan, however, said that Burton's innovative, impressive visuals made Batman Returns feel cheerless, claustrophobic and unexciting, and were often emphasized at the expense of the plot. According to Owen Gleiberman, Burton's fantastic elements were undermined because he did not establish a base of normality. + +The plot had a mixed response. Some reviewers praised the first and second acts and interesting characters who could evoke audience emotion. Others said that it lacked suspense, thrills, or clever writing, overwhelmed by too many characters and near-constant banter. The ending was criticized for lackluster action and failing to bring the separate character threads to a satisfactory conclusion. According to Janet Maslin, Burton cared mainly about visuals and plot was a secondary consideration. Gene Siskel said that the emphasis on characterization was detrimental; the sympathetic villains left him hoping that Batman would not win, and each character would find emotional peace. + +Reviewers generally agreed that despite Keaton's abilities, his character was ignored by the script in favor of the villains; scenes without him were among the best. Todd McCarthy described Batman as a symbol of good rather than a psychologically-complete character, and Ebert wrote that Batman Returns depicts being Batman as a curse instead of a heroic power fantasy. Peter Travers, however, said that Keaton's "manic depressive hero" was a deep, realized character in spite of the film's faster pace. DeVito was praised for his energy, unique characterization, and ability to convey his character's tragedy despite the costumes and prosthetics. Desson Howe said that Burton's focus on the Penguin indicated his sympathy for the character. Some reviewers considered DeVito an inferior followup to Nicholson's Joker, who evoked sympathy without instilling fear. + +Pfeiffer received near-unanimous praise for the film's standout performance as a passionate, sexy, ambitious, intelligent, intimidating, and fierce embodiment of feminism who offered the only respite from the otherwise-dark tone. Jonathan Rosenbaum, however, said that she did not live up to Nicholson's villain. Turan called the scenes shared by Batman and Catwoman the film's most interesting, and Travers said that when they take off their masks at the end they look "lost and touchingly human". Burr described the ballroom scene (in which they realize each other's secret identities) as more emotional than anything in Batman. Ebert noted that their sexual tension seemed to have been undercut for a younger audience. Walken's performance was described as "wonderfully debonair", funny and engaging, a villain who could have carried Batman Returns alone. + +Welch's production design was generally praised, offering a sleeker, brighter, more authoritarian visual style than Furst's "brooding", oppressive aesthetic. McCarthy described Welch's ability to realize Burton's imaginative universe as an achievement, although Gene Siskel described Welch as a "toy shop window decorator" compared to Furst. The costumes and makeup effects were also praised, with Maslin saying that those images would linger in the imagination long after the narrative was forgotten. Czapsky's cinematography was well-received, even giving a "lively" aesthetic to the subterranean sets. The film's violent, mature, sexual content, such as kidnappings and implied child murder, was criticized as inappropriate for younger audiences. + +Accolades +At the 46th British Academy Film Awards, Batman Returns was nominated for Best Makeup (Ve Neill and Stan Winston) and Best Special Visual Effects (Michael Fink, Craig Barron, John Bruno, and Dennis Skotak). For the 65th Academy Awards, Batman Returns received two nomations: Best Makeup (Neill, Ronnie Specter, and Winston) and Best Visual Effects (Fink, Barron, Bruno, and Skotak), but lost both awards to Bram Stoker's Dracula and Death Becomes Her simultaneously. Neill and Winston received the Best Make-up award at the 19th Saturn Awards. The film received four Saturn Award nominations for Best Fantasy Film, Best Supporting Actor (DeVito), Best Director (Burton), and Best Costume Design (Bob Ringwood, Mary Vogt, and Vin Burnham). DeVito was nominated for Worst Supporting Actor at the 13th Golden Raspberry Awards, and Pfeiffer for Most Desirable Female at the 1993 MTV Movie Awards. Batman Returns was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. + +After release + +Performance analysis and aftermath +The U.S. and Canadian box offices underperformed in 1992, with admissions down by up to five percent and about 290million tickets sold (compared to over 300million in each of the preceding four years). Industry professionals blamed the drop on the lack of quality of the films being released, considering them too derivative or dull to attract audiences. Even films considered successful had significant box-office drops week over week from what apparently-negative word of mouth. Industry executive Frank Price said that the releases were not attracting the younger audiences and children which were vital to a film's success. Rising ticket prices, competition from the Olympics, and an economic recession were also considered contributing factors to the declining figures. Batman Returns and Lethal Weapon 3 contributed to Warner Bros. best first half-year in its history, and were expected to return over $200million to the studio from the box office. Batman Returns was considered a disappointment as a sequel to the fifth-highest-grossing film ever made, however, and fell about $114.8million short of Batmans $411.6million theatrical gross. By July 1992, anonymous Warner Bros. executives reportedly said about the film, "It's too dark. It's not a lot of fun." + +Despite its PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association, warning parents that a film may contain strong content unsuitable for children, some audiences (particularly parents) disliked Batman Returns violent and sexualized content; the studio received thousands of complaint letters. Waters recalled the aftermath of one screening: "It's like kids crying, people acting like they've been punched in the stomach and like they've been mugged." He had anticipated some backlash and "relished that reaction", but part of him was "like, 'oops'." McDonald's was criticized for its child-centered promotion and toys, and discontinued its Batman Returns campaign in September 1992. According to Burton, "I like [Batman Returns] better than the first one. There was this big backlash that it was too dark, but I found this movie much less dark." Although much of Hamm's work was replaced, he defended Burton and Waters and said that except from the merchandise, Batman Returns was never presented as child-friendly. + +Warner Bros. decided to continue the series without Burton (described as "too dark and odd for them"), replacing him with Joel Schumacher. A rival studio executive said, "If you bring back Burton and Keaton, you're stuck with their vision. You can't expect Honey, I Shrunk the Batman" (referring to the 1989 science-fiction comedy, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids). Warner Bros. was sued by executive producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan, who alleged that they had originally purchased the film-adaptation rights to the Batman character but were denied their share of the profits from Batman and Batman Returns by the studio's Hollywood accounting: a method used by studios to artificially inflate a film's production costs, making it appear unprofitable and limiting royalty (or tax) payments. The court decided in the studio's favor, citing a lack of evidence. + +Home media +Batman Returns was released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 21, 1992. Its VHS version had a lower-than-average price, to encourage sales and rentals. The film was expected to sell millions of copies and be a well-performing rental, but its success would be restricted by mature, violent content which would appeal less to children (the main audience driving purchases). Batman Returns was released on DVD in 1997, with no additional features. An anthology DVD box set was released in October 2005, with all the films in the Burton-Schumacher Batman film series. The Batman Returns segment had commentary by Burton, The Bat, The Cat, and The Penguin special about the making of the film, part four of the documentary Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight, notes on the development of costumes, make-up and special effects, and the music video for "Face to Face". + +The same anthology was released on Blu-ray in 2009 with a standalone Batman Returns Blu-ray release. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released in 2019; restored from the original 35mm negative, it included the anthology's special features. A 4K collector's edition was released in 2022 with a SteelBook case (with original cover art), character cards, a double-sided poster, and previously-released special features. Elfman's score was released in 1992 on compact disc (CD), and an expanded soundtrack was released in 2010. + +Other media + +About 120 products were marketed with Batman Returns; they included action figures and toys by Kenner Products, Catwoman-themed clothing, toothbrushes, roller skates, T-shirts, underwear, sunglasses, towels, beanbags, mugs, weightlifting gloves, throw pillows, cookie cutters, commemorative coins, playing cards, costume jewelry, cereal, a radio-controlled Batmobile, and tortilla chips shaped like the Batman logo. Although there were about the same number of products marketed for Batman, there were fewer licensees and Warner Bros. could have more oversight. The release of Batman: The Animated Series later in 1992 was anticipated to extend merchandising success long after Batman Returns had left theaters. Warner Bros. used holographic labels developed by American Bank Note Holographics to detect counterfeit products. + +The film's novelization, by Craig Shaw Gardner, was published in July 1992. A roller coaster (Batman: The Ride) was built at Six Flags Great America at a cost of $8million, and was later replicated at other Six Flags parks with a Batman stunt show. Several video-game adaptations entitled Batman Returns were released by a number of developers on a number of platforms, including Game Gear, Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Amiga, MS-DOS, and Atari Lynx; the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version was the most successful. + +Batman '89, a comic-book series released in 2022, continues the narrative of Burton's original two films and ignores the Schumacher sequels. Set a few years after the events of Batman Returns, Batman '89 depicts the transformation of district attorney Harvey Dent into Two-Face and introduces Robin. The series was written by Hamm, with art by Joe Quinones. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Penguin's first comic-book appearance, DeVito wrote "Bird Cat Love" a 2021 comic book story about the Penguin and Catwoman falling in love and ending the COVID-19 pandemic. The Red Triangle Gang made their first appearance outside Batman Returns in the 2022 comic book Robin #15. + +A holiday book was released in 2022, Batman Returns: One Dark Christmas Eve: The Illustrated Holiday Classic, by Ivan Cohen. + +Thematic analysis + +Duality + +Critic David Crow called duality a major aspect of Batman Returns, and Catwoman, Penguin, and Shreck represent warped, reflected aspects of Batman. Like Wayne (Batman), Selina (Catwoman) is driven by trauma and conflicted about her principles and desires; unlike Batman (who seeks justice), however, she seeks vengeance. Although Catwoman agrees with Batman's appeal that they are "the same, split right down the center", they still differ too much to be together. Critics Darren Mooney and Betsy Sharkey suggested that Penguin reflects Batman's origin; each lost their parents at an early age. Shreck says that if not for his abandonment, Cobblepot and Wayne might have traveled in the same social circles. Batman is content in his loneliness, however; the Penguin wants acceptance, love and respect, despite his quest for revenge. To Mooney, Batman Returns hints that Batman's issues with Penguin are personal rather than moral; Batman is quietly proud of being a "freak" (unique), and resents Penguin for displaying his "freakishness". Shreck represents Wayne's public persona if it was driven by greed, vanity, and self-interest: a populist industrialist who wins favor with cheap presents tossed into a crowd. + +Commercialism and loneliness +Crow saw Batman Returns as a denouncement of Batman's real-world cultural popularity and merchandising (especially in the wake of the previous film), and noted that a scene of a store filled with Batman merchandise being destroyed was removed from the film. Crow and Mooney wrote that Batman Returns is "saturated with Christmas energy"; it rejects the season's conventional norms and becomes an anti-Christmas film, however, critquing its over-commercialism and lack of true goodwill. Shreck cynically exploits Christmas tropes for his own ends (falsely portraying himself as selfless and benevolent), and the perversions of Penguin's Red Triangle gang are a more overt rejection of the holiday. + +The film focuses on loneliness and isolation during Christmastime; Wayne is introduced sitting alone in his vast mansion, inert until the Bat-Signal shines in the sky. He makes a connection with Kyle, but what they share cannot overcome their differences and he ends the film as he began italone. Critic Todd McCarthy identified isolation as a theme common to much of Burton's work, which is emphasized in the three main characters. + +Rebecca Roiphe and Daniel Cooper wrote that Batman Returns was not antisemitic, but had antisemitic imagery. The Penguin, they believed, embodied Jewish stereotypes such as "... his hooked nose, pale face and lust for herring" and was "unathletic and seemingly unthreatening but who, in fact, wants to murder every firstborn child of the gentile community." The character joins forces with Shreck (who has a Jewish-sounding name) to disrupt and taint Christmas and Christian traditions. + +Sexuality and misogyny +Batman Returns has overtly sexual elements. Critic Tom Breihan described Catwoman's vinyl catsuit as "pure BDSM", including the whip she wields as a weapon. The dialogue is replete with double entendres, particularly by Penguin and Catwoman; in her fights with Batman, she sensuously licks his face. Selina / Catwoman is marginalized by the central male characters, however; Shreck pushes her out of a window, the Penguin tries to kill her when she spurns his advances, and Batman attempts to capture her. She fashions a catsuit to regain order, sanity, and power, but it is gradually damaged over the course of the film and her sanity decays with it. Catwoman's final choice is to reject Batman's offer of a happy ending by +abandoning her revenge against Shreck; to surrender herself to Batman's will would allow another man to control her. + +Power and politics +Power is a central theme for several characters; Shreck says, "There's no such thing as too much power; if my life has a meaning that's the meaning." He uses his money to gain power, and Batman uses his fortune to fund his war against crime (unlike Penguin, who was abandoned because he did not fit the image expected by his wealthy parents). Kyle gains power by donning the Catwoman costume and embracing her anger and sexuality. + +Shreck convinces Penguin to run for mayor to further his own goals, and the Penguin seeks out the acceptance and respect it would give him. Critic Caryn James wrote that Batman Returns has "sharp political jabs" which implies that money and image are more important than anything else. In Batman, the Joker buys citizen support by throwing them piles of money; in the sequel, Shreck and Penguin gain the support of the populace with spectacle, pandering, and corporate showmanship. The Penguin describes how he and Shreck are both seen as monsters, but Shreck is a "well-respected monster and I, to date, am not." James said that the Penguin wants to change the superficial perception of himself because he wants to be accepted, but has no interest in being lovable. Only when the fickle voters turn on him, however, does he resort to his plan to kill infants who had the chances he never had. Crow believed that Burton was the most sympathetic to Penguin, and spent the most time on the character. + +Legacy + +Cultural influence + +Retrospectives in the 2010s and 2020s noted that Batman Returns had developed an enduring legacy since its release, with Comic Book Resources describing it as the most iconic comic-book film ever made. Although initially criticized for its mix of the superhero and film noir genres, the film established trends toward dark tones and complex characters which have since become an expectation of many blockbusters. Some writers said that its "disturbing imagery", exploration of morality, and satire of corporate politics seemed even more relevant in the present day, as did the themes of prejudice and feminism explored in Catwoman. Burton said that he believed Batman Returns was exploring new territory at the time, but it might be considered "tame" by modern standards. According to the Ringer, Burton's "weird and unsettling" sequel enabled future auteurs such as Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson, and Sam Raimi to move into mainstream films. + +Collider described the film as the first "anti-blockbuster", defying expectations and delivering a superhero film with little action set during Christmas (despite its July release). Some publications have identified it as part of Burton's unofficial Christmas trilogy, bookended by Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and it has become an alternative-holiday film along with films such as Die Hard (1988). The film's performances, score, and visual aesthetic are considered iconic, influencing Batman-related media and incarnations of the characters for decades (such as the Batman Arkham video games). The Batman (2022) director Matt Reeves and Batman actor Robert Pattinson called Batman Returns their favorite Batman film, with Reeves ranking it alongside The Dark Knight (2008). + +Pfeiffer's Catwoman is considered iconic, a feat of characterization and performance which influenced subsequent female-superhero-led films. Her performance is generally regarded as the best cinematic adaptation of the character (influencing future portrayals such as Zoë Kravitz's in The Batman), one of the best comic book film characters, and among the greatest cinematic villains. In 2022, Variety ranked Pfeiffer's Catwoman as the second-best superhero performance of the preceding fifty years, behind Heath Ledger. DeVito's performance as the Penguin is also considered iconic, and has been listed by some publications as one of the best cinematic Batman villains. + +Modern reception +In the years since its release, Batman Returns has been positively reappraised. It is now regarded as among the best superhero films ever made, the best sequels, and the best Batman films made. Screen Rant called it the best Batman film of the 20th century and, in 2018, GamesRadar+ named it the best Batman film. Batman Returns was number401 on Empires 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. + +The film's writer Daniel Waters recalled being told that Batman Returns was a "great movie for people who don't like Batman". Although the film was criticized for depicting Batman killing people, Waters said, "To me, Batman not killing [the Joker (played by Heath Ledger)] at the end of The Dark Knight after proving he can get out of any prison, it's like 'Come on. Kill Heath Ledger. He believed that the reception to Batman Returns was improving with time, especially after the release of The Batman in 2022. + +Critic Brian Tallerico said that the elements which originally upset critics and audiences are what makes it still "revelatory... It's one of the best and strangest movies of its kind ever made." Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has a approval rating from reviews by critics, with an average score of . According to the website's critical consensus, "Director Tim Burton's dark, brooding atmosphere, Michael Keaton's work as the tormented hero, and the flawless casting of Danny DeVito as The Penguin and Christopher Walken as, well, Christopher Walken make the sequel better than the first." The film has a score of 68 out of 100 on Metacritic (based on 23 critics), indicating "generally favorable reviews". + +Sequels + +Following the reception of Batman Returns, Warner Bros. intended to continue the series without Burton. Burton recalled, "I remember toying with the idea of doing another one. And I remember going into Warner Bros. and having a meeting. And I'm going, 'I could do this or we could do that.' And they go like, 'Tim, don't you want to do a smaller movie now? Just something that's more [you]?' About half an hour into the meeting, I go, 'You don't want me to make another one, do you?'... so, we just stopped it right there." The movie had reportedly been titled Batman Continues. The studio eventually replaced Tim Burton with Joel Schumacher, who could make something more family- and merchandise-friendly. Although Burton and Keaton were supportive of the new director, Keaton also left the series because "[the film] just wasn't any good, man." Industry press suggested that Keaton had also asked for a $15million salary and a percentage of the profits, although his producing partner Harry Colomby said that money was not an issue. + +Burton was an executive producer for the third film, Batman Forever (1995), which had a more mixed reception than Batman Returns but was a financial success. The fourth and final film, Batman & Robin (1997), was a financial and critical failure and is regarded as one of the worst blockbuster films ever made. It stalled the Batman film series for eight years until the reboot, Batman Begins (2005). + +By the mid-1990s, Burton and Waters were signed to direct a Catwoman-centered film starring Pfeiffer. Waters' plot depicted Catwoman as an amnesiac after her injuries at the end of Batman Returns, who ends up in the Las Vegas-like Oasisburg and confronts publicly-virtuous male superheroes who are secretly corrupt. Burton and Pfeiffer took on other projects in the interim, and lost interest in the film. Warner Bros. eventually developed Catwoman (2004), starring Halle Berry, which was critically panned and is considered one of the worst comic-book films ever made. + +Keaton was scheduled to reprise his version of Batman in Batgirl, a film scheduled for release in 2022 before its cancellation by Warner Bros. parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. He appeared as Batman in The Flash (2023). + +References + +Notes + +Citations + +Works cited + +External links + (Warner Bros.) + (DC Comics) + + + + + + +1992 films +1990s Christmas films +1990s superhero films + +Batman (1989 film series) + +American Christmas films +American films about revenge +American neo-noir films +American sequel films +American superhero films + +Films about elections +Films adapted into comics +Films directed by Tim Burton +Films produced by Denise Di Novi +Films produced by Tim Burton +Films scored by Danny Elfman +Films set in zoos +Films shot at Pinewood Studios +Films shot in Los Angeles +Films with screenplays by Daniel Waters (screenwriter) +Films with screenplays by Sam Hamm + +PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films +Warner Bros. films +1990s English-language films +1990s American films +Rating controversies in film +Batman & Robin is a 1997 American superhero film based on the DC Comics characters Batman and Robin by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. It is the fourth and final installment of Warner Bros.'s initial Batman film series, a sequel to Batman Forever and the only film in the series made without the involvement of Tim Burton in any capacity. Directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Akiva Goldsman, it stars George Clooney as Bruce Wayne / Batman, replacing Val Kilmer, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze, and Chris O'Donnell reprising his role as Dick Grayson / Robin, alongside Uma Thurman and Alicia Silverstone. The film follows the eponymous characters as they attempt to prevent Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy from taking over the world, while at the same time struggling to keep their partnership together. + +Warner Bros. fast-tracked development for Batman & Robin following the box office success of Batman Forever. Schumacher and Goldsman conceived the storyline during pre-production on A Time to Kill; Schumacher was given a mandate to make the film more toyetic than its predecessor. After Val Kilmer decided not to reprise the role of Batman, Schumacher was interested in casting William Baldwin before George Clooney won the role. Principal photography began in September 1996 and wrapped in January 1997, two weeks ahead of the shooting schedule. + +Batman & Robin premiered in Los Angeles on June 12, 1997, and went into general release on June 20. It grossed $238 million worldwide against a production budget of $125–160 million, and was considered a commercial disappointment at the time. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and is considered to be one of the worst films ever made. One of the songs recorded for the film, "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" by The Smashing Pumpkins, won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. Due to the film's poor reception, Warner Bros. cancelled future Batman films, including Schumacher's planned Batman Unchained. + +Plot + +Batman and his partner, Robin, encounter a new foe, Mr. Freeze, who has left a string of diamond robberies in his wake. During a confrontation in the natural history museum, Freeze steals a bigger diamond and flees, freezing Robin and leaving Batman unable to pursue him. Later, Batman and Robin learn that Freeze was originally Dr. Victor Fries, a scientist working to develop a cure for MacGregor's Syndrome, hoping to heal his terminally ill wife, Nora. After a lab accident, Fries was rendered unable to live at average temperatures and forced to wear a cryogenic suit powered by diamonds for survival. + +At a Wayne Enterprises lab in Brazil, botanist Dr. Pamela Isley is working under the deranged Dr. Jason Woodrue, who has turned her research on plants into the supersoldier drug Venom. After witnessing Woodrue use the formula to turn serial killer Antonio Diego into the hulking Bane, she threatens to expose Woodrue's experiments. Woodrue attempts to kill her by overturning a shelf of various toxins; instead, Isley is mutated by the toxins into Poison Ivy. Ivy kills Woodrue with a poisonous kiss, destroys the lab, and escapes to Gotham City with Bane, concocting a plan to use Wayne's money to support her research. Meanwhile, Alfred Pennyworth's niece, Barbara Wilson, makes a surprise visit and is invited by Bruce to stay at Wayne Manor until she goes back to school. + +Wayne Enterprises presents a new telescope for Gotham Observatory at a press conference interrupted by Isley. She proposes a project that could help the environment, but Bruce declines her offer, which would kill millions of people. Batman and Robin decide to lure Freeze out using the Wayne Family diamonds and present them at a Wayne Enterprises charity event. Ivy attends the event and decides to use her abilities to seduce Batman and Robin. Freeze crashes the party but is defeated and detained in Arkham Asylum. Ivy takes an interest in Freeze and frees him from Arkham. Dick discovers that Barbara has been participating in drag races to raise money for Alfred, who is dying of MacGregor's Syndrome; a fact he kept from Bruce and Dick, but former secretly aware of his situation and is trying to find treatment for him. + +Batman, Robin, and the police arrive at Freeze's lair in response to his escape, discovering Nora preserved in a cryogenic chamber and that Freeze has developed a cure for the early stages of MacGregor's Syndrome. Freeze, Ivy, and Bane secretly arrive to recover Freeze's diamonds and Nora. Wanting Freeze for herself, Ivy unplugs Nora's chamber, steals the diamonds, and seduces Robin, escalating tensions between him and Batman. At Ivy's hideout, Ivy convinces Freeze that Batman has killed Nora. Freeze swears to freeze all of humanity in revenge, with Ivy planning to repopulate the earth using her mutant plants afterward. Freeze and Bane commandeer Gotham Observatory and convert the new telescope into a giant freeze ray, while Ivy uses the Bat-Signal to contact Robin. Robin attempts to go after Ivy alone, but Batman convinces him not to fall for Ivy's seduction. Barbara discovers the Batcave, where an AI version of Alfred reveals he has made Barbara her own suit. Barbara dons the suit and becomes Batgirl, arriving at Ivy's lair in time to help Batman and Robin subdue her. + +Freeze begins to encase Gotham in ice, and Batman, Robin, and Batgirl head to Gotham Observatory together to stop him. Batman defeats Freeze in combat, while Batgirl and Robin incapacitate Bane and thaw the city. Freeze accuses Batman of killing Nora, only to be shown a recording of Ivy admitting to the crime. Batman reveals that Nora is still alive and offers Freeze the chance to continue his research on MacGregor's Syndrome in exchange for his cure. Freeze accepts and returns to Arkham, where he is imprisoned in the same cell as Ivy, whom he promises to exact revenge on. Alfred receives the cure, and Bruce and Dick agree to let Barbara join them in fighting crime. + +Cast + + Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dr. Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze:A molecular biologist who suffers an accident while trying to cryogenically preserve his terminally ill wife. As a result, he is forced to live in a sub-zero suit powered by diamonds. + George Clooney as Bruce Wayne / Batman:A billionaire businessman who fights crime as Batman, Gotham City's vigilante protector. + Eric Lloyd as Young Bruce Wayne. + Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson / Robin:The crime-fighting partner to Batman and legal ward to Bruce Wayne. He has begun to chafe against Batman's authority, which is amplified even further by Poison Ivy's influence. + Uma Thurman as Dr. Pamela Isley / Poison Ivy:A botanist-turned-ecoterrorist as a result of being pushed into vials of chemicals, poisons, and toxins. She uses pheromone dust to make men fall for her and venom-laced lips to kill her victims with a kiss. + Alicia Silverstone as Barbara Wilson / Batgirl:The niece of Alfred Pennyworth who, after losing her parents, joins the superhero duo. + Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth:The trusted butler for Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. + Jon Simmons as Young Alfred Pennyworth. + Pat Hingle as Commissioner James Gordon:The police commissioner of Gotham City. He is close to Batman and informs him of numerous crimes. + Elle Macpherson as Julie Madison:Bruce Wayne's girlfriend. She proposes to Bruce, but he does not respond, fearing for her safety. + +John Glover portrays Dr. Jason Woodrue, a deranged scientist with a desire for world domination via his Venom-powered "supersoldiers", of whom Bane, portrayed by Robert Swenson, becomes Poison Ivy's bodyguard and muscle. Michael Reid MacKay plays Bane before he is injected with Venom. Vivica A. Fox and Vendela Kirsebom play Mr. Freeze's assistant and cryogenically frozen wife, respectively. Elizabeth Sanders appears as Gossip Gerty, Gotham's top gossip columnist. Michael Paul Chan and Kimberly Scott both appear as telescope scientists. Coolio makes a cameo appearance, later stating that he was to reprise his role as Scarecrow in the ultimately cancelled sequel Batman Unchained. + +Production + +Development +With the box office success of Batman Forever in June 1995, Warner Bros. immediately commissioned a sequel. They hired director Joel Schumacher and writer Akiva Goldsman to reprise their duties the following August and decided it was best to fast-track production for a June 1997 target release date, which is a break from the usual three-year gap between films. Schumacher wanted to pay homage to the work of the classic Batman comic books of his childhood. The storyline of Batman & Robin was conceived by Schumacher and Goldsman during pre-production on A Time to Kill. Portions of Mr. Freeze's backstory were based on the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice", written by Paul Dini. Goldsman, however, expressed concerns about the script during pre-production discussions with Schumacher. Schumacher stated that he was given the mandate by the studio to make the film more toyetic, even when compared to Batman Forever. The studio reportedly included toy companies in pre-production meetings; Mr. Freeze's blaster was specifically designed by toy manufacturers. Batman creator Bob Kane acted as an official consultant and was heavily involved in the production, giving input on the film's script as well as on set. + +While Chris O'Donnell reprises the role of Robin, Val Kilmer decided not to reprise the role of Batman from Batman Forever. Schumacher admitted that he had difficulty working with Kilmer on Forever. "He sort of quit," Schumacher said, "and we sort of fired him." Schumacher would later go on to say that Kilmer wanted to work on The Island of Dr. Moreau because Marlon Brando was cast in the film. Kilmer said that he was not aware of the fast-track production and was already committed to The Saint. David Duchovny stated he was considered for the role of Batman, joking that the reason why he was not chosen was because his nose was too big. George Clooney's casting as Batman was suggested by Warner Bros. executive Bob Daly. Schumacher originally had interest in casting William Baldwin in Kilmer's place, but chose Clooney after seeing his performance in From Dusk till Dawn. Schumacher felt that Clooney "brought a real humanity and humor to the piece, an accessibility that I don't think anybody else has been able to offer" and that he strongly resembled the character from the comic books. Schumacher also believed that Clooney could provide a lighter interpretation of the character than Kilmer and Michael Keaton. As a consequence of time constraints, the costume department repurposed the costume worn by Val Kilmer in Batman Forever for the third act of the film. + +Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins, and Patrick Stewart were considered for the role of Mr. Freeze, before the script was rewritten to accommodate Arnold Schwarzenegger's casting. Schumacher later denied that Stewart was ever considered. Schumacher decided that Mr. Freeze had to be "big and strong like he was chiseled out of a glacier". Mr. Freeze's armor was made by armorer Terry English, who estimated that the costume cost some $1.5 million to develop and make. To prepare for the role, Schwarzenegger wore a bald cap after declining to shave his head, wore a blue LED in his mouth, and had acrylic paint applied. The blue LEDs had to be wrapped in balloons after battery acid started leaking into Schwarzenegger's mouth. His prosthetic makeup and wardrobe took six hours to apply each day. The extensive time spent on Schwarzenegger's costume significantly restricted his shooting time as his contract was limited to 12 work hours a day. Schwarzenegger was paid a $25 million salary for the role. Beside Uma Thurman, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, and Julia Roberts were considered for the role of Poison Ivy. Schumacher first became aware of Thurman through an earlier role as Venus in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Thurman ultimately took the role of Poison Ivy because she liked the femme fatale characterization of the character. Alicia Silverstone was the only choice for the role of Batgirl. Prior to filming, she was reported to have lost at least 10 pounds for the role. Silverstone would later recount the body shaming she encountered during promotion of the film. + +Filming + +Principal photography was set to commence in August 1996, but did not begin until September 12, 1996. Batman & Robin finished filming in late January 1997, two weeks ahead of the shooting schedule. The shooting schedule allowed Clooney to simultaneously work on the television series ER without any scheduling conflicts. O'Donnell said that despite spending a lot of time with Schwarzenegger off of set and during promotion for the film, they did not work a single day together during production; this was achieved by using stand-ins when one of the actors was unavailable. Stunt coordinator Alex Field taught Silverstone to ride a motorcycle so that she could play Batgirl. Filming was temporarily halted in the fall of 1996 when Mr. Freeze's blaster prop disappeared from the film set; a police investigation was subsequently opened, culminating in the raid of a film memorabilia collector's home. High public interest in the film caused security issues on set; according to producer Peter MacGregor-Scott, paparazzi regularly disrupted the set, and photographs of Schwarzenegger taken during filming sold for $10,000. + +When comparing work on Batman Forever, O'Donnell explained that "things felt much sharper and more focused, and it just felt like everything got a little softer on the second one. The first one, I felt like I was making a movie. The second one, I felt like I was making a toy commercial." He also complained about the Robin costume, saying that it was more involved and less comfortable than the one that he wore in Batman Forever, with a glued-on mask that caused sweat to pool on his face. According to John Glover, who played Dr. Jason Woodrue, "Joel [Schumacher] would sit on a crane with a megaphone and yell before each take, 'Remember, everyone, this is a cartoon'. It was hard to act because that kind of set the tone for the film." Several different stunt doubles were used for the roles of Batman, Robin, and Mr. Freeze, some specialized in ice skating, aerial gymnastics, and driving. + +The film was mostly shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The grounds of Greystone Mansion were used for scenes taking place at Wayne Manor. Part of the film was also shot in Vienna, Austria, Montreal, Quebec, and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Production designer Barbara Ling stated that her influences for the design of Gotham City came from "neon-ridden Tokyo and the Machine Age. Gotham is like a World's fair on ecstasy." Although miniatures and computer-generated elements were used for some scenes, large full-scale sets were constructed, including Gotham City covered in ice. For scenes featuring people frozen by Mr. Freeze's ice-ray, life-sized mannequins covered in fake ice were created. Several different materials were tested for the faux ice before settling on a combination of fiber resin. According to Ling, the ice effects alone took half a year to create. Rhythm and Hues and Pacific Data Images created the visual effects sequences, with John Dykstra and Andrew Adamson credited as the visual effects supervisors. Batman & Robin featured 450 individual visual effects shots, 150 more than Batman Forever. Motion capture was used to animate digital stunt doubles; for a scene featuring skysurfing, the department recorded the motion of a skyboarder in a wind tunnel at a military base in North Carolina. + +Music + +Elliot Goldenthal returned to score Batman & Robin after collaborating with Schumacher on Batman Forever. The soundtrack features a variety of genres by various bands and performers, showcasing alternative rock on the lead single "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" by The Smashing Pumpkins, and with the songs "Lazy Eye" by Goo Goo Dolls and R.E.M.'s "Revolution". R&B singer R. Kelly wrote "Gotham City" for the soundtrack, which was featured in the end credits and was chosen as one of the singles, reaching the top 10 in the United States and the United Kingdom. Eric Benét and Meshell Ndegeocello also contributed R&B songs. Also included was the single, "Look into My Eyes" by the hip hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, which reached the top 5. Other songs featured included electronic dance elements, including those by Moloko and Arkarna. The soundtrack was released on May 27, 1997, two weeks and three days ahead of the film's premiere in the United States. The orchestral score for the film was never commercially released. + +Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the soundtrack a "C" and called it "as incoherent as the Batman films themselves". Retrospectively, Nicole Drum of ComicBook.com described the soundtrack as a "colorful sampling of popular music at the time that feels messy, complicated, and comforting all at the same time". Filmtracks.com deemed the orchestral score an improvement over that of its predecessor Batman Forever, noting that, while borrowing several themes from the previous film, Goldenthal successfully "expands upon the statements of his title theme and action material so that they are fleshed out into more accessibly enjoyable music". Nevertheless, the website compared Goldenthal's work negatively to Danny Elfman's scores for Batman and Batman Returns. In an interview with IGN, composer Hans Zimmer, who contributed the score to Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman films, called Goldenthal's theme "the most glorious statement of Batman I'd ever heard". "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" by The Smashing Pumpkins won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. + +Release +Batman & Robin had its premiere on June 12, 1997, in Westwood, Los Angeles. The film marked the United Kingdom's then-"biggest and most expensive" movie premiere. The event was held at Battersea Power Station in London, with the building decorated to look like Gotham City and Wayne Manor. Expected to be among the tent poles of the summer movie season, the film opened in the United States on June 20, 1997, in 2,934 theaters, where it remained for an average of approximately 6.2 weeks. The film was released on DVD four months later on October 22, 1997. A special edition DVD was released in 2005 that included a documentary series about the production of the film series, Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight. + +Marketing +The theatrical trailer for Batman & Robin debuted on the February 19, 1997, episode of Entertainment Tonight. Warner Bros. spent $125 million to market and promote the film, in addition to its $160 million production budget. Several Six Flags amusement parks introduced new roller coasters themed to the film. Batman & Robin: The Chiller opened at Six Flags Great Adventure in 1997, and a Mr. Freeze-themed roller coaster opened at both Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St. Louis in 1998. Taco Bell launched a $20 million promotional campaign for the film, selling Batman-themed cups, collector toys, and figurines. Themed trading cards produced by Fleer and SkyBox International were also sold, some signed by Clooney, Schwarzenegger, Thurman, Silverstone, O'Donnell, and Schumacher. An eponymous tie-in video game developed by Probe Entertainment was released for the PlayStation on August 5, 1998, to mixed reviews. + +Reception + +Box office +Batman & Robin was released on June 20, 1997 in the United States and Canada, grossing $42,872,605 in its opening weekend, making it the third-highest opening weekend gross of 1997, behind Men in Black and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and the seventh-highest non-holiday opening weekend of all time as of its release. It reached the number one spot at the box office during its opening weekend, beating out My Best Friend's Wedding and Speed 2: Cruise Control. The film would hold the record for the highest opening weekend for an Arnold Schwarzenegger film until it was surpassed by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003. Its opening weekend gross also remained George Clooney's highest until the release of Gravity in 2013. Batman & Robin declined by 63% in its second week, which was credited to poor word of mouth and early competition with Face/Off, Hercules, and Men in Black. In the UK, it had the second-highest opening ever behind Independence Day with a gross of £4,940,566 ($8.2 million) for the weekend. + +The film went on to gross $107.3 million in the United States and Canada and $130.9 million internationally, coming to a worldwide total of $238.2 million. It grossed substantially less than the previous film in the series, and finished outside of the top ten films of 1997. With a production budget of $125–160 million, the film was considered to have under-performed at the box-office, although it was estimated to have at least broken even. Schumacher criticized "prejudicial prerelease buzz" online and false news reports as a cause for the film's poor commercial performance. Warner Bros. acknowledged Batman & Robins shortcomings in the domestic market but pointed out its success in other markets. In his book Batman: the Complete History, Les Daniels analyzed the film's relatively strong performance outside of the United States, speculating that "nuances of languages or personality were likely to be lost in translation and admittedly eye-popping spectacle seemed sufficient." + +Critical response + Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. + +Jay Boyar of Orlando Sentinel believed Batman & Robin to be the least distinctive chapter in the series, calling it a "bat-smorgasbord of action, camp, pathos, spectacle and whatever" and blaming its blandness on the studio's increased involvement in its production. In his "thumbs down" review, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times found the film to be "wonderful to look at" although it had "nothing authentic at its core", criticizing its toyetic approach. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel, who gave positive reviews to the previous Batman films, also gave Batman & Robin a "thumbs down" rating, calling it a "sniggering, exhausting, overproduced extravaganza". While commending the film's visuals, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called the film "indifferently acted" and "far too slick for even a toehold's worth of connection", believing that it "killed" the Batman film series. Desson Howe of The Washington Post disapproved of Schumacher's direction and Akiva Goldsman's script, calling it an "emptily flashy, meandering fashion show of a summer flick" and also believing that it should mark the end to the series. Andrew Johnston, writing in Time Out, remarked, "It's hard to tell who B&R is intended for. Anyone who knows the character from the comics or the superb animated show on Fox will be alienated. And though Schumacher treats the Adam West version as gospel, that show's campy humor is completely incompatible with these production values." James Berardinelli questioned the "random amount of rubber nipples and camera angle close-ups of the Dynamic Duo's butts and Bat-crotches". + +In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle said that the film failed to "convincingly inhabit the grandeur of its art direction and special effects", criticizing George Clooney as "the big zero of the film", who "should go down in history as the George Lazenby of the series". While deeming Clooney "the most ideal Batman to date" in a physical sense, Todd McCarthy of Variety found the character uninteresting and Clooney "unable to compensate onscreen for the lack of dimension on paper". Conversely, he described Thurman and Schwarzenegger's performances as the villainous duo as the "highlights of the film", pointing out Thurman's "comic wit conspicuously lacking elsewhere in the picture". Writing for Star Tribune, Jeff Strickler criticized its "almost embarrassingly mundane" dialogue and called Schwarzenegger "wasted" in the role of Mr. Freeze and his character "drably written". Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave a more positive review and praised Thurman's performance as "perfect", comparing it to Mae West's "[mix of] true femininity with the winking womanliness of a drag queen", but criticizing Silverstone and Clooney's performances. Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer found Thurman at times "amusing" and similarly described her performance as "Mae West with moss". + +Legacy +Batman & Robin is considered to be one of the worst superhero films and among the worst films ever made. In 2009, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that Batman & Robin may be the most important comic book film ever made in that it was "so bad that it demanded a new way of doing things" and created the opportunity to make X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002) in a way that respected the source material to a higher degree. In an interview with Vice 20 years after its release, director Joel Schumacher apologized for the film while taking full responsibility for its poor reputation, stating, "I want to apologize to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that. A lot of it was my choice. No one is responsible for my mistakes but me." He added, "I was scum. It was like I had murdered a baby", recounting his initial reaction to the overwhelmingly negative public response. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman also apologized, saying, "we didn't mean for it to be bad. I swear, nobody was like, 'This will be bad.'" and elaborating that the film was initially intended to be darker in tone. + +Retrospectively, George Clooney has spoken critically of and apologized for his involvement in the film, saying in 2005, "I think we might have killed the franchise", and calling it "a waste of money". In 2015, while promoting Disney's Tomorrowland at New York Comic Con, Clooney said that he had met former Batman actor Adam West and apologized to him for the film. Furthermore, when asked during a 2015 interview on The Graham Norton Show about whether he had ever had to apologize for Batman & Robin, Clooney responded, "I always apologize for Batman & Robin". In late 2020, he told Howard Stern that it was "physically" painful to watch his work in the role: “The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it. Akiva Goldsman — who’s won the Oscar for writing since then — he wrote the screenplay. And it’s a terrible screenplay, he’ll tell you. I’m terrible in it, I’ll tell you. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he’d say, ‘Yeah, it didn’t work.’ We all whiffed on that one.” Conversely, in an interview with Empire in 2012, Arnold Schwarzenegger stated that, despite its poor reception, he did not regret making the film, commenting about his role as Mr. Freeze and his involvement with the studio, "I felt that the character was interesting and two movies before that one Joel Schumacher was at his height. So the decision-making process was not off. At the same time I was doing Eraser over there and Warner Bros. begged me to do the movie." Similarly, 25 years after its theatrical release, Uma Thurman described her work on the film as a "fantastic experience". + +The nipples seen on the character's costumes, first appearing in Batman Forever and accentuated for Batman & Robin at Schumacher's request, remain among the most defining aspects of the film. Recounting his involvement with the film, costume designer Jose Fernandez stated that he was opposed to "sharpening" the nipples, calling them "ridiculous". In 2022, Tim Burton commented about Warner Bros.' decision to replace him as director with Schumacher after Batman Returns, "You complain about me, I'm too weird, I'm too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go fuck yourself." George Clooney's screen-worn suit was put up for auction by Heritage Auctions in 2022 with a starting bid of $40,000. A previous owner had estimated it to be worth $100,000 in 2006 when Clooney was at the height of his career. The suit would go on to sell for $57,500. + +In the 2009 film Watchmen, director Zack Snyder and comic book artist Dave Gibbons chose to parody the molded muscle and nipple Batsuit design from Batman & Robin for the Ozymandias costume. The film is referenced in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite!", when Bat-Mite briefly uses his powers to transform Batman's costume into the same suit shown in Schumacher's Batman films, before declaring it "too icky". 26 years after the release of Batman & Robin, Clooney made a cameo appearance as Bruce Wayne in the 2023 DC Studios superhero film The Flash. Clooney was asked to reprise the role when the film was already in post-production, agreeing to join after seeing a cut of the film; filming took place in secret six months before release and lasted half a day. + +Accolades + +Canceled sequel + +During the filming of Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. was impressed with the dailies, prompting them to immediately hire Joel Schumacher to return as director for a fifth film. However, writer Akiva Goldsman turned down an offer to write the script. In late 1996, Warner Bros. and Schumacher hired Mark Protosevich to write the script for a fifth Batman film. A projected mid-1999 release date was announced. Los Angeles Times described their film as "continuing in the same vein with multiple villains and more silliness". Titled Batman Unchained, Protosevich's script featured the Scarecrow as the main villain, who, through the use of his fear toxin, resurrects the Joker as a hallucination in Batman's mind. Harley Quinn would appear as a supporting character, written as the Joker's daughter. Schumacher approached Nicolas Cage to portray the Scarecrow while he was filming Face/Off and Courtney Love was considered for Harley Quinn. + +Clooney, O'Donnell, Silverstone, and Coolio were set to reprise the roles of Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and Scarecrow. It was hoped that the villains from previous films would make cameo appearances in the hallucinations caused by Scarecrow, culminating with Jack Nicholson reprising the role of the Joker. Following the poor critical and financial reception of Batman & Robin, Clooney vowed never to reprise his role, and Warner Bros. cancelled any future Batman films, including Schumacher's planned Batman Unchained. + +In a 2012 interview with Access Hollywood, Chris O'Donnell claimed that a spin-off centered around the character of Robin was planned, but eventually scrapped due to Batman & Robins poor commercial performance. + +See also + + Homosexuality in the Batman franchise + List of films featuring powered exoskeletons + List of films considered the worst + +Notes + +References + +External links + + (Warner Bros.) + (DC Comics) + + + + + +1997 films +1990s English-language films +1990s superhero films +1990s action films +Batman (1989 film series) +Robin (character) films +American superhero films +American action films +American sequel films +Films set in psychiatric hospitals +Films shot in Vienna +Films shot in Dallas +Films shot in Los Angeles +Films shot in Montreal +Films shot in Ottawa +Films shot in Vermont +Golden Raspberry Award winning films +Films about suspended animation +Eco-terrorism in fiction +American films about revenge +Films directed by Joel Schumacher +Human experimentation in fiction +Films adapted into comics +Films with screenplays by Akiva Goldsman +Films scored by Elliot Goldenthal +Films set in Brazil +PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films +Warner Bros. films +Mad scientist films +Films produced by Peter MacGregor-Scott +1990s American films +Batman Forever is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton, based on the DC Comics character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The third installment of Warner Bros.' initial Batman film series, it is a stand-alone sequel to Batman Returns starring Val Kilmer, replacing Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman, alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, and Chris O'Donnell, while Michael Gough, and Pat Hingle reprise their roles. The film's story focuses on Batman trying to stop Two-Face and the Riddler in their scheme to extract information from all the minds in Gotham City while adopting an orphaned acrobat named Dick Grayson—who becomes his sidekick, Robin—and developing feelings for psychologist Dr. Chase Meridian. + +Schumacher mostly eschewed the dark, dystopian atmosphere of Burton's films by drawing inspiration from the Batman comic books of the Dick Sprang era, as well as the 1960s television series. After Keaton chose not to reprise his role, William Baldwin and Ethan Hawke were considered as a replacement, before Val Kilmer joined the cast. + +Batman Forever was released on June 16, 1995, to mixed reviews from critics, who praised the visuals, action sequences, soundtrack, and performances of Carrey and Jones, but criticized the screenplay, characterizations, Kilmer's performance, and tonal departure from previous films. The film was a box office success, grossing over $336 million worldwide and becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1995. It was followed by Batman & Robin in 1997, with Schumacher returning as the director, Chris O'Donnell returning as Robin, and George Clooney replacing Kilmer as Batman. + +Plot + +In Gotham City, local vigilante/superhero Batman defuses a hostage situation orchestrated by a criminal known as "Two-Face", formerly district attorney Harvey Dent. Flashbacks reveal that Two-Face was disfigured with acid by mobster Sal Maroni, which Batman failed to prevent, causing Dent to develop a split personality. + +Edward Nygma, an eccentric researcher at Wayne Enterprises, approaches his employer Bruce Wayne, Batman's civilian identity, with an invention that can beam television signals directly into a person's brain. Bruce rejects the device, concerned the technology could manipulate minds. After killing his abusive supervisor and staging it as a suicide, Nygma resigns and plots revenge against Bruce, sending him riddles. Criminal psychologist Chase Meridian diagnoses Nygma as psychotic. + +That night, Bruce attends a Haly's Circus event with Chase. Two-Face hijacks the event and threatens to detonate a bomb unless Batman reveals his identity. Acrobat Richard “Dick” Grayson, the youngest member of the Flying Graysons, manages to throw the bomb into a river, but Two-Face kills his family in the process. Bruce persuades the orphaned Dick to live at Wayne Manor as his ward, where he discovers that Bruce is Batman. Determined to avenge his family, Dick demands to join Batman in crime-fighting, hoping to kill Two-Face, but Bruce refuses. + +Meanwhile, Nygma adopts a criminal persona, the Riddler, and allies with Two-Face. They commit a series of robberies to finance Nygma's new company and mass-produce his brainwave device, the "Box", which steals information from users' minds and transfers it to Nygma's, which makes him smarter in the process. At a party hosted by Nygma, Batman pursues Two-Face and is almost killed until Dick saves him. + +Batman visits Chase, who explains that she has fallen in love with Bruce, and reveals to her his secret identity. The Riddler and Two-Face, having discovered Bruce's secret through the Box, destroy the Batcave, shooting Bruce and kidnapping Chase. As Bruce recovers, he and his butler, Alfred, deduce that Nygma is the Riddler. Bruce finally accepts Dick as Batman's partner, Robin. + +At the Riddler's lair, Robin almost kills Two-Face, but spares him, allowing the latter to hold the former at gunpoint. The Riddler reveals that Chase and Robin are bound and gagged in tubes above a deadly drop, giving Batman the chance to save only one. Batman distracts the Riddler with a riddle, before destroying the Riddler's brainwave receiver with a Batarang, draining the Riddler's mind, and allowing Batman to rescue both. Two-Face corners them and determines their fate by flipping a coin, but Batman throws a handful of identical coins in the air, causing Two-Face to stumble in confusion and fall to his death. + +Committed to Arkham Asylum, Nygma now exclaims that he is Batman, flapping the arms of his straitjacket, now completely delusional. Bruce resumes his crusade as Batman, with Robin as his partner. + +Cast + Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne / Batman: After coming across the journal of his father, Bruce Wayne starts questioning his act of vengeance. He struggles with his dual identity as a crime fighter, becoming romantically involved with Dr. Chase Meridian. + Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent / Two-Face: Formerly the good district attorney of Gotham City. Half of Harvey's face is scarred and his brain is also damaged with acid during the conviction of a crime boss. Driven insane, he becomes the criminal Two-Face. + Jim Carrey as Edward Nygma / The Riddler: A former Wayne Enterprises employee, Edward resigns after his newest invention is personally rejected by Bruce. He becomes the villainous Riddler, leaving riddles and puzzles at scenes of crime. + Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian: A psychologist and love interest of Bruce. Chase is fascinated by the dual nature of Batman. She's held as a damsel in distress in the climax. + Chris O'Donnell as Richard "Dick" Grayson: Once a circus acrobat, Dick is taken in by Bruce after Two-Face murders his parents and brother at a circus event. Bruce is reminded when his parents were murdered when he sees the same vengeance in Dick, and decides to take him in as his ward. He eventually discovers the Batcave and learns Bruce's secret identity. In his wake, he becomes the crime fighting partner, Robin. + Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth: The Wayne family's faithful butler and Bruce's confidant. Alfred also befriends the young Dick Grayson. + Pat Hingle as James Gordon: The police commissioner of Gotham City. + George Wallace as The Mayor: The mayor of Gotham City. + Drew Barrymore as Sugar: Two-Face's "good" angelic-like assistant. Has short curly blonde hair. She wears a white corset bodysuit with stockings and a fluffy white robe. She shows more of a sweet attitude and tone than a sinister one. + Debi Mazar as Spice: Two-Face's "bad" gothic-like assistant/girlfriend. She is clad in a black leather corset with fishnet stockings on her legs with shiny black latex heels and long black leather gloves and appears as of a dominatrix. She wears most of her brunette hair up with red highlights. She speaks in a seductive malevolent tone. Spice has a twisted sense of humor and vile nature. + Ed Begley Jr. as Fred Stickley: Edward Nygma's ill-tempered supervisor at Wayne Enterprises. After Stickley discovers the true nature of Nygma's invention, Nygma kills him and makes it look like suicide. Begley was uncredited for this role. + Ofer Samra as Harvey's Thug + Elizabeth Sanders as Gossip Gerty: Gotham's top gossip columnist. + René Auberjonois as Dr. Burton: Head Doctor of Arkham Asylum. + Larry A. Lee as John Grayson: Dick Grayson's father and leader of the Flying Graysons + Glory Fioramonti as Mary Grayson: Dick Grayson's mother + En Vogue as girls on the corner who are hoping to see Batman. + Joe Grifasi as Hawkins: A bank guard and Two-Face's hostage during the opening scene. + Michael Paul Chan as Assistant #1 + Jon Favreau as Assistant #2 + +Additionally, President pro tempore of the United States Senate and Batman fan Patrick Leahy makes an uncredited appearance as himself. + +Production + +Development + +Batman Returns was released in 1992 with financial success and generally favorable reviews from critics, but Warner Bros. was disappointed with its box office run, having made $150 million less than the first film. After Batman Returns was deemed too dark and inappropriate for children, with McDonald's even recalling their Happy Meal tie-in, Warner Bros. decided that this was the primary cause of the film's financial results. After the film's release, Warner Bros. was not interested in Tim Burton's return as director. Burton noted he was unsure about returning to direct, writing: "I don't think Warner Bros. wanted me to direct a third Batman. I even said that to them." Burton and Warner Bros. mutually agreed to part ways, though Burton would stay on as executive producer. In June 1993, Joel Schumacher was selected by Warner Bros. while he was filming The Client and with Burton's approval. + +Husband-and-wife screenwriting duo Lee and Janet Scott-Batchler were hired to write the script. Warner Bros. had lost a bidding war for their spec script for an earlier project titled Smoke and Mirrors to Disney's Hollywood Pictures. The project ultimately fell through, and Warner Bros. offered the Batchlers several of their film properties to write. Being familiar with the Batman comics from their childhood, the Batchlers chose to work on the next Batman film as their next project. In a meeting with Burton, they agreed that "the key element to Batman is his duality. And it's not just that Batman is Bruce Wayne." + +Their original script introduced a psychotic Riddler, real name Lyle Heckendorf, with a pet rat accompanying him. A scene cut from the final film included Heckendorf obtaining his costume from a fortune-telling leprechaun at the circus. Instead of NygmaTech, the company would have been named HeckTech. The story elements and much of the dialogue still remained in the finished film, though Schumacher felt it could be "lighte[ne]d down". Keaton initially approved the selection of Schumacher as director and planned on reprising his role as Batman from the first two films. Schumacher claims he originally had in mind an adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and Keaton claimed that he was enthusiastic about the idea. Warner Bros. rejected the idea as they wanted a sequel, not a prequel, though Schumacher was able to include very brief events in Bruce Wayne's childhood with some events of the comic The Dark Knight Returns. Akiva Goldsman, who worked with Schumacher on The Client, was brought in to rewrite the script, deleting the initial idea of bringing in the Scarecrow as a villain with Riddler, and the return of Catwoman. Burton, who now was more interested in directing Ed Wood, later reflected he was taken aback by some of the focus group meetings for Batman Forever, a title he hated. Producer Peter MacGregor-Scott represented the studio's aim in making a film for the MTV Generation with full merchandising appeal. + +Casting +Production went on fast track with Rene Russo cast as Chase Meridian but Keaton decided not to reprise Batman because he did not like the direction the series was headed in and rejected the script. Keaton also wanted to pursue "more interesting roles", turning down $15 million. A decision was made to go with a younger actor for Bruce Wayne, and an offer was made to Ethan Hawke, who turned it down but eventually regretted the decision; he would eventually voice the character in the preschool animated series Batwheels in 2022. Schumacher had seen Val Kilmer in Tombstone, but was also interested in Keanu Reeves (who would later voice Bruce Wayne / Batman in DC League of Super-Pets in 2022), Alec and William Baldwin, Dean Cain, Tom Hanks, Kurt Russell, Ralph Fiennes (who would later voice Alfred Pennyworth in The Lego Batman Movie in 2017), Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Depp. Cain was scrapped as he was well known for starring in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Burton pushed Depp to get the role. Kilmer, who as a child visited the studios where the 1960s series was recorded and shortly before had visited a bat cave in Africa, was contacted by his agent for the role. Kilmer signed on without reading the script or knowing who the director was. + +With Kilmer's casting, Warner Bros. dropped Russo, considering her too old to be paired with Kilmer. Sandra Bullock, Robin Wright, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Linda Hamilton were all considered for the role, which was eventually recast with Nicole Kidman. Billy Dee Williams took the role of Harvey Dent in Batman on the possibility of portraying Two-Face in a sequel, but Schumacher cast Tommy Lee Jones in the role, although Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Martin Sheen and Robert De Niro were considered, after working with him on The Client. Jones was reluctant to accept the role, but did so at his son's insistence. + +Robin Williams was in discussions to be the Riddler at one point, and was reportedly in competition for the role with John Malkovich. In June 1994, the role was given to Jim Carrey after Williams had reportedly turned it down. In a 2003 interview, Schumacher stated Michael Jackson had lobbied hard for the role, but was turned down before Carrey was cast. Brad Dourif (who was Burton's original choice to portray the Joker and Scarecrow after), Kelsey Grammer, Micky Dolenz, Matthew Broderick, Phil Hartman, and Steve Martin were said to have been considered. + +Robin had appeared in the shooting script for Batman Returns but was deleted due to having too many characters. Marlon Wayans had been cast in the role and signed on for a potential sequel, but when Schumacher took over, he decided to open up casting to other actors. Leonardo DiCaprio was considered, but decided not to pursue the role after a meeting with Schumacher. Matt Damon, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Worth, Danny Dyer, Toby Stephens, Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Alan Cumming and Scott Speedman were considered also. Chris O'Donnell was cast and Mitch Gaylord served as his stunt double, and also portrayed Mitch Grayson, Dick's older brother, created for the film. Schumacher attempted to create a cameo role for Bono as his MacPhisto character, but both came to agree it was not suitable for the film. + +Filming +Principal photography began on September 24, 1994, and wrapped on March 5, 1995. Schumacher hired Barbara Ling for production design, claiming that the film needed a "force" and good design. Ling could "advance on it". Schumacher wanted a design in no way connected to the previous films, and instead inspired by the images from the Batman comic books seen in the 1940s/early 1950s and New York City architecture in the 1930s, with a combination of modern Tokyo. He also wanted a "city with personality," with more statues, as well as various amounts of neon. + +Difficulties and clashes +Schumacher and Kilmer clashed during the making of the film; Schumacher described Kilmer as "childish and impossible," reporting that he fought with various crewmen, and refused to speak to Schumacher for two weeks after the director told him to stop being rude. Schumacher also mentioned Tommy Lee Jones as a source of trouble: "Jim Carrey was a gentleman, and Tommy Lee was threatened by him. I'm tired of defending overpaid, overprivileged actors. I pray I don't work with them again." In a 2014 interview, Carrey acknowledged Jones was not friendly to him, and recounted an incident wherein Jones found him off-set during the production and told him, "I hate you. I really don't like you ... I cannot sanction your buffoonery." + +Design and effects +Rick Baker designed the prosthetic makeup. John Dykstra, Andrew Adamson, and Jim Rygiel served as visual effects supervisors, with Pacific Data Images also contributing to visual effects work. PDI provided a computer-generated Batman for complicated stunts. For the costume design, producer Peter MacGregor-Scott claimed that 146 workers were at one point working together. Batman's costume was redesigned along the lines of a more "MTV organic, and edgier feel" to the suit. Sound editing and mixing was supervised by Bruce Stambler and John Levesque, which included trips to caves to record bat sounds. A new Batmobile was designed for Batman Forever, with two cars being constructed, one for stunt purposes and one for close-ups. Chris O'Donnell has his eyes painted black and then the Robin mask glued on him. Swiss surrealist painter H. R. Giger provided his version for the Batmobile but it was considered too sinister for the film. Nygma's brainwave device and lair resemble rejected concept artwork of Columbus Lighthouse by Russian avant-garde architect Konstantin Melnikov from 1929. + +The film used some motion capture for certain special effects. Warner Bros had acquired motion capture technology from arcade video game company Acclaim Entertainment for use in the film's production. + +Music + +Elliot Goldenthal was hired by Schumacher to compose the film score before the screenplay was written. In discussions with Schumacher, the director wanted Goldenthal to avoid taking inspiration from Danny Elfman, and requested an original composition. The film's promotional teaser trailer however used the main title theme from Elfman's score of 1989's Batman. + +The soundtrack was commercially successful, selling almost as many copies as Prince's soundtrack to the 1989 Batman film. Only five of the songs on the soundtrack are actually featured in the movie. Hit singles from the soundtrack include "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2 and "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, both of which were nominated for MTV Movie Awards. "Kiss from a Rose" (whose music video was also directed by Joel Schumacher) reached No. 1 in the U.S. charts as well. The soundtrack itself, featuring additional songs by The Flaming Lips, Brandy (both songs also included in the film), Method Man, Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence (of INXS), PJ Harvey, and Massive Attack, was an attempt to (in producer Peter MacGregor-Scott's words) make the film more "pop". + +Release + +Marketing + +In addition to a large line of toys, video games and action figures from Kenner, the McDonald's food chain released several collectibles and mugs to coincide with the release of the film. Peter David and Alan Grant wrote separate novelizations of the film. Dennis O'Neil authored a comic book adaptation, with art by Michal Dutkiewicz. + +Six Flags Great Adventure theme park re-themed their "Axis Chemical" arena, home of the Batman stunt show, to resemble Batman Forever, and the new show featured props from the film. Six Flags Over Texas featured a one-time fireworks show to promote the movie, and replica busts of Batman, Robin, Two-Face, and the Riddler can still be found in the Justice League store in the Looney Tunes U.S.A. section. Batman: The Ride opened at Six Flags St. Louis to promote the movie. At Six Flags Over Georgia, The Mind Bender roller coaster was redesigned to look as though it were the creation of The Riddler and some images and props were used in the design of the roller coaster and its queue. + +Video games +Video games based on the film were released. A video game of the same name, was released in 1995 for Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Game Gear, R-Zone and MS-DOS, it was followed by Batman & Robin for the PlayStation, to promote the release of the film. Two arcade versions, Batman Forever: The Arcade Game, was released in 1996 and was ported to the three consoles, and a pinball machine based on the film was released in 1995 by Sega Pinball. + +Home media +Batman Forever was released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 31, 1995. Over 3 million VHS copies were sold during the first week of release. The film was then released on DVD on May 20, 1997. This release was a double sided disc containing both widescreen (1.85:1) and full screen (1.33:1) versions of the film. Batman Forever made its Blu-ray debut on April 20, 2010. This was followed by an Ultra HD Blu-ray release on June 4, 2019. + +Deleted scenes +Batman Forever went through a few major edits before its release. Originally darker than the final product, the film's original length was closer to two hours and forty minutes, according to Schumacher. There was talk of an extended cut being released to DVD for the film's tenth anniversary in 2005. While all four previous Batman films were given special-edition DVD releases on the same day as the Batman Begins DVD release, none of them were given extended cuts, although some scenes were in a deleted scenes section in the special features. + +Reception + +Box office +Batman Forever opened in a record 2,842 theaters and 4,300 screens in the United States and Canada on June 16, 1995, grossing $52.8 million in its opening weekend, breaking Jurassic Parks record for highest opening-weekend gross of all time (it was surpassed two years later by The Lost World: Jurassic Parks $72.1 million). For six years, it had the largest opening weekend for a Warner Bros. film until 2001 when it was surpassed by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The film also achieved the highest June opening weekend, holding that record until it was beaten by Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999, followed by Hulk four years later in 2003. It was the first film to gross $20 million in one day, on its opening day on Friday. The film also beat out Congo to reach the number one spot. It grossed $77.4 million in its first week, which was below the record $81.7 million set by Jurassic Park. + +Additionally, the film held the record for having the highest opening weekend for a superhero film until it was taken by X-Men in 2000. That year, How the Grinch Stole Christmas took Batman Forevers record for scoring the biggest opening weekend for any film starring Jim Carrey. While the film was overtaken by Pocahontas during its second weekend, it still made $29.2 million. It then became the first film of 1995 to reach $100 million domestically. The film started its international roll out in Japan on June 17, 1995, and grossed $2.2 million in 5 days from 167 screens, which was only 80% of the gross of its predecessor Batman Returns. + +The film went on to gross $184 million in the United States and Canada, and $152.5 million in other countries, totaling $336.53 million. The film grossed more than Batman Returns, and is the second-highest-grossing film from 1995 in the United States, behind Toy Story, as well as the sixth-highest-grossing film of that year worldwide. + +Critical response + +On Rotten Tomatoes, Batman Forever has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Loud, excessively busy, and often boring, Batman Forever nonetheless has the charisma of Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones to offer mild relief." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. + +Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Batman Forever still gets in its licks. There's no fun machine this summer that packs more surprises." Travers criticized the film's excessive commercialism and felt that "the script misses the pain Tim Burton caught in a man tormented by the long-ago murder of his parents", but praised Kilmer's performance as having a "deftly understated [...] comic edge". James Berardinelli of ReelViews enjoyed the film, writing: "It's lighter, brighter, funnier, faster-paced, and a whole lot more colorful than before." + +On the television program Siskel & Ebert, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times both gave the film mixed reviews, but with the former giving it a thumbs up and the latter a thumbs down. In his written review, Ebert wrote: "Is the movie better entertainment? Well, it's great bubblegum for the eyes. Younger children will be able to process it more easily; some kids were led bawling from Batman Returns where the PG-13 rating was a joke." + +Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle had a mixed reaction, concluding: "a shot of Kilmer's rubber buns at one point is guaranteed to bring squeals from the audience." Brian Lowry of Variety believed: "One does have to question the logic behind adding nipples to the hard-rubber batsuit. Whose idea was that supposed to be anyway, Alfred's? Some of the computer-generated Gotham cityscapes appear too obviously fake. Elliot Goldenthal's score, while serviceable, also isn't as stirring as Danny Elfman's work in the first two films." + +Some observers thought Schumacher, a gay man, added possible homoerotic innuendo in the storyline. Regarding the costume design, Schumacher stated: "I had no idea that putting nipples on the Batsuit and Robin suit were going to spark international headlines. The bodies of the suits come from Ancient Greek statues, which display perfect bodies. They are anatomically correct." O'Donnell felt: "it wasn't so much the nipples that bothered me. It was the codpiece. The press obviously played it up and made it a big deal, especially with Joel directing. I didn't think twice about the controversy, but going back and looking and seeing some of the pictures, it was very unusual." + +Accolades + +At the 68th Academy Awards, Batman Forever was nominated for Cinematography (lost to Braveheart), Sound (Donald O. Mitchell, Frank A. Montaño, Michael Herbick and Petur Hliddal; lost to Apollo 13) and Sound Effects Editing (John Leveque and Bruce Stambler) (also lost to Braveheart). + +"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2 was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song (lost to "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas), but was also nominated for the Worst Original Song Golden Raspberry Award (lost to "Walk into the Wind" from Showgirls). + +At the Saturn Awards, the film was nominated for Best Fantasy Film (lost to Babe), Make-up (lost to Seven), Special Effects (lost to Jumanji) and Costume Design (lost to 12 Monkeys). + +Composer Elliot Goldenthal was given a Grammy Award nomination. + +Batman Forever received six nominations at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards, four of which were divided between two categories (Carrey and Lee Jones for Best Villain; and Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" and U2's "Hold Me" in Best Song from a Movie). However, it won in just one category—Best Song from a Movie for Seal's "Kiss from a Rose". + +Legacy + +Potential director's cut +Cuts were made to the film based on audience reactions during test screenings, like the rest of the Batman film franchise entries. Photographs from these scenes have always been available since the film's release, shown in magazines such as Starlog. Some excerpts from these scenes appear in the music video for Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me. In 2005, Batman Forever was the only film in the franchise to include a dedicated deleted scenes selection among its bonus content on the special edition DVD. + +After Joel Schumacher died on June 22, 2020, media outlets started reporting the possible existence of an extended cut, with the first rumors being thrown in by American journalist Marc Bernardin. Bernardin claimed it to be darker and contain less camp than the theatrical cut. Some of the differences include Bruce having a vision of a human-sized bat, less of an emphasis on Dick Grayson, and a focus on Bruce's psychological issues with Chase. The cut uses about 50 minutes of additional footage. Warner Bros. confirmed that alternative test screening cuts existed after an interview with Variety, although they have no plans to release it and are unsure about what, if any, footage remains. Later on August 7, Kilmer's appearance at DC FanDome fueled fan speculation about the release of a so-called "Schumacher Cut". Batman Forever screenwriter Akiva Goldsman revealed in a YouTube interview in April 2021 that he had recently seen the original cut of the film (dubbed "Preview Cut: One") and that he expects a rebirth coming up, suggesting all the footage needed to make the Schumacher cut still exists and that the release of a director's cut might be possible. + +In July 2023, following a private screening of a workprint version by director Kevin Smith, Goldsman confirmed that the original cut does exist and even though Warner Bros. currently has no plans to release it, he said he was hopeful for a possible distribution in the future. Some of the aforementioned deleted scenes make up a portion of this footage. + +Batman '89 + +An alternate six-issue comic book continuation of Batman Returns titled Batman '89, which ignores the events of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin and brings back Keaton's Batman along with Burton's dark setting seen in his first two Batman films, along with elements of his failed third Batman film (particularly, the return of Billy Dee Williams' Harvey Dent and transformation into Two-Face, the introductions of new versions of Robin and Barbara Gordon, and the return of Catwoman), was launched on August 10, 2021, with its issues releasing monthly before ending in January 2022. + +In response to a question as to whether Schumacher's Batman films are canon to the world of Batman '89, the first two films' screenwriter Sam Hamm, who also serves as the comics' writer, confirmed that the latter two films take place in a diverging timeline and they are not building toward that fate. + +Notes + +References + +Bibliography + +External links + + (Warner Bros.) + (DC Comics) + + + + +1995 films +1990s action films +1990s superhero films + +Batman (1989 film series) + +American action films + +American sequel films +American superhero films + +PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films +Warner Bros. films + +American films about revenge +Casting controversies in film +Films produced by Tim Burton +Films directed by Joel Schumacher +Films set in psychiatric hospitals +Films about stalking +Films adapted into comics +Films shot in Los Angeles +Films shot in New York City +Films shot in Oregon +Films shot in San Francisco +Films with screenplays by Akiva Goldsman +Films scored by Elliot Goldenthal +Mad scientist films +Films produced by Peter MacGregor-Scott +1990s English-language films +1990s American films +Batman: Year One is an American comic book story arc written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli. Year One was originally published by DC Comics in Batman #404–407 in 1987. There have been several reprints of the story: a hardcover, multiple trade paperbacks, several deluxe editions in hardcover and paperback format, and an absolute edition. Year One was also adapted into an animated feature in 2011, after efforts to adapt it into a live-action film were cancelled following the failure of 1997's Batman & Robin. + +The story recounts Batman's first year as a crime-fighter as well as exploring the life of recently transferred Gotham police detective James Gordon – eventually building towards their first encounter and their eventual alliance against Gotham's criminal underworld. + +Publication history + +Development +In an effort to resolve continuity errors in the DC Universe, Marv Wolfman and George Pérez produced the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths. Wolfman's plans for the DC Universe after Crisis on Infinite Earths included relaunching every DC comic with a new first issue. + +During the production of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Frank Miller was the writer of Marvel Comics' Daredevil. He collaborated with artist David Mazzucchelli to produce Daredevil: Born Again together which was critically acclaimed. Miller also worked for DC and produced the influential four-issue limited series Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986). By 1986, editor Dennis O'Neil moved on from Marvel to work for DC again. + +The contract Miller signed to produce Dark Knight Returns also required him to write a revamped Batman origin story. Miller's past projects overwhelmed him since he had to handle both writing and illustration duties simultaneously. For Year One, he simply wrote the story and the script, with Mazzucchelli signed on to illustrate the artwork. The team also consisted of Mazzucchelli's wife Richmond Lewis who was in charge of coloring, Todd Klein as the story's letterer, and O'Neil editing the overall story. According to O'Neil, the contract Miller and Mazzucchelli signed to produce Year One in the ongoing Batman series guaranteed publication within 6 months. + +Year One was originally conceived as a graphic novel. O'Neil, who had been asked to edit several issues of Batman, was friends with Miller and was able to learn of the story. Reflecting on poor sales of Batman, O'Neil caught Miller one day while on a walk in Los Angeles and convinced him and Mazzucchelli to serialize the story in the ongoing series. Miller was initially reluctant; he felt this would be hard because he had to ensure the story stayed canonical to the DC Universe, something he did not have to worry about when writing Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In addition, Miller's pacing would have to be altered because of ongoing series' relatively small page counts. O'Neil reasoned that Crisis on Infinite Earths had completely remade the DC Universe, so Miller would be able to have the same creative freedom that Dark Knight Returns provided. He also reassured Miller that he and Mazzucchelli "weren't going to lose anything" by serializing it. + +Miller has said he kept Bob Kane and Bill Finger's basic story for Year One but expanded it. In writing the story, Miller looked for parts of Batman's origin that were never explored. He left the core elements, such as the murder of Bruce's parents, intact, but reduced them to brief flashbacks. Bruce's globe-trotting adventures were removed, as Miller found them uninteresting. Rather than portraying Batman as a larger-than-life icon as he had in The Dark Knight Returns, Miller chose to characterize Batman in Year One as an average, inexperienced man trying to make a change in society because Miller believed a superhero is least interesting when most effective. Examples of this include Batman underestimating his opponents, getting shot by police, and his costume being too big. The story's violence was kept street-level and gritty, emphasizing noir and realism. + +In illustrating, Mazzucchelli sought to make Year One look grimy, dark, and muted. His interpretation of Gotham City was designed to symbolize corruption, featuring muddy colors that gave the impression of the city being dirty and needing a hero. The newsprint paper used in Batman was unable to reproduce the bright coloring and visual effects of Dark Knight Returns, so Mazzucchelli took on Year One with a more grounded and darker approach. + +Publication +In accordance with Wolfman's plans, O'Neil initially saw "Year One" as the start of the second volume of Batman and expected the first part to be its first issue. However, Miller rejected this idea. He explained: "I don't need to slash through continuity with a sharp blade as I thought. Doing The Dark Knight Returns has shown me there's been enough good material... I didn't feel that fleshing out an unknown part of Batman's history justified wiping out 50 years of [adventures]." Thus, the four "Year One" issues bear no continuity to past issues of Batman. + +Collected editions + +According to Mazzucchelli, Year One was designed to be a graphic novel without advertisement pages. In 1988, DC finally gave the approval to publish Year One as a graphic novel in trade paperback () and hardcover (), containing 96 pages. Both Warner Books () and Titan Books () also published trade paperbacks in 1988. The Year One monthly issues were originally printed on newsprint paper. For the graphic novel, Mazzucchelli specifically wanted to use matt stock paper for printing, so the original artworks were slightly tweaked with Lewis utilizing a new set of color palettes to recolor the entire story in order to accommodate the visual changes. + +In 1989, Longmeadow Press published "The Complete Frank Miller Batman" (), collecting Year One, Wanted: Santa Claus - Dead or Alive!, and The Dark Knight Returns. + +In April 2005, DC released the "Deluxe Edition" of Year One in hardcover () and trade paperback () to coincide with the release of Batman Begins. This edition reuses the story pages from the 1988 graphic novel with Mazzucchelli supplying the promotional and unseen Batman art, Lewis' color samples, some of the original penciled artwork, and some pages of the original script as bonus materials. The cover was designed by Mazzucchelli and Chip Kidd. + +The hardcover deluxe edition was re-released in 2012 (). Mazzucchelli clarified that he was not contacted by DC to get involved with this edition. Having been sent a copy of the book by DC, Mazzucchelli was unhappy with the quality and opined that "Anybody who's already paid for [the book] should send it back to DC and demand a refund.". He described the re-release as having "thrown all [his] work [on the 2005 release] in the garbage", citing the redesigned cover, recolored artwork, the "shiny paper" used, and the printing of the color "from corrupted, out-of-focus digital files" as points of contention. + +In November 2014, to celebrate Batman's 75th anniversary, DC released a sample of Year One as a part of its DC Comics Essentials line of promotional comics. + +In 2015, DC released a hardcover of Year One () which included its 2011 animated film adaptation on both DVD and Blu-ray. + +In November 2016, DC released a 288-page Absolute Edition of Year One (). This edition comes in a slipcase with two hardcover books. Book One features a whole new scanning from the original artworks by Mazzucchelli and remastered coloring by Lewis, while Book Two features scanning pages from the Year One monthly issues. Over 60 pages of bonus materials are also included, including Miller's complete scripts in Book Two. + +In 2017, the hardcover deluxe edition was re-released again (), this time with the same paper quality and coloring as Book One of the 2016 Absolute Edition. + +In March 2022, to coincide with the release of The Batman, DC released The Batman Box Set (), collecting trade paperbacks of Year One, The Long Halloween, and Ego and Other Tails in a slipcase with art by Jim Lee. Director Matt Reeves cited the three graphic novels as the major influences for the film. + +In May 2023, IDW Publishing announced that Year One will be getting the Artist's Edition treatment, the publishing date is tentatively sometime in 2024. Mazzucchelli personally supplies the artworks for scanning with Chip Kidd serves as the designer of the book. + +Plot +Billionaire Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City after 12 years abroad, training for his eventual one-man war against crime. James Gordon moves to Gotham City with his wife, Barbara Gordon, after a transfer from Chicago. Both are swiftly acquainted with the corruption and violent atmosphere of the city. Gordon tries to focus on purging corruption from the Gotham City Police Department after witnessing his partner, Detective Arnold John Flass, abuse his power as a cop. Unfortunately, several officers led by Flass beat him on orders from his corrupt superior, Commissioner Gillian Loeb. In revenge, Gordon tracks Flass down, beats him, and leaves him naked and handcuffed in the snow. + +Bruce believes he is still unprepared to fight against crime despite having the skills he learned abroad. He goes in disguise on a surveillance mission in Gotham's red-light district, but is reluctantly drawn into a brawl with several prostitutes, Holly Robinson and Selina Kyle. Two police officers shoot Bruce on sight and take him away in their patrol car. Bruce breaks free, flees from the scene, and returns to Wayne Manor barely alive. He sits before his father's bust, requesting guidance in his war against crime. A bat suddenly crashes through a window and settles on the bust, inspiring him to save Gotham as Batman. + +Crimes significantly decline after weeks of Bruce striking as Batman. He even goes after Flass, who is in the middle of accepting a bribe from Jefferson Skeevers, a drug dealer of Carmine Falcone. Batman interrupts a dinner party held at the mansion of Gotham's mayor and announces that everyone in the party shall be brought to justice for their crimes someday. Infuriated by Batman's threats, Loeb orders Gordon and GCPD Sergeant Sarah Essen to arrest him. The two cops later come across a runaway truck that nearly hits an old lady. Batman manages to save the lady's life while Gordon stops the truck. Batman then flees into an abandoned building which Loeb orders a bomb dropped on. He also sends in a SWAT team led by a trigger-happy commander, Branden, to kill any survivors left in the building. Batman uses a signal device to attract a swarm of bats from the Batcave as his only route to escape. After witnessing Batman in action, Selina is inspired to don a costume of her own and begin a life of crime. + +Gordon and Essen have a brief affair together and spend two months dating. She, however, chooses to leave Gotham upon learning he is going to be the father of Barbara's child. Gordon is left alone to investigate Bruce's connection to Batman. He travels to Wayne Manor with Barbara to interrogate Bruce, who uses his playboy charms to divert suspicion. While leaving the manor, Gordon confesses his affair with Essen to Barbara. Skeevers gets bailed with the help of a hired lawyer but is attacked by Batman shortly after who convinces him to testify against Flass. Skeevers is drugged with rat poison in an assassination attempt, so that he remains silent about the ties between the police force and the mafia, although Skeevers survives after all. + +Bruce sneaks into Falcone's manor as Batman and overhears the private conversation between the Roman and his nephew, Johnny Viti. He predicts their intentions to target Gordon's family, so he disguises himself as a motorcyclist to help Gordon. Gordon leaves home on Loeb's orders, but becomes suspicious and turns back only to discover Viti and his men already holding his family hostage. Viti flees the scene with Gordon's infant son. Gordon chases after him on Bruce's motorcycle. The two men end up fighting on a bridge until the baby falls. Bruce catches up in time and leaps over the bridge's railing to save the baby. Gordon thanks Bruce for saving his infant son's life and lets him go. Flass supplies Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent with the evidence and testimony needed to implicate Loeb, who resigns in disgrace. Gordon is promoted to captain and prepares to meet with Batman to investigate a potential plot orchestrated by a criminal calling himself the Joker. + +Reception + +Popularity +DC's post-Crisis on Infinite Earths revamp was a major success, raising sales 22% in the first year, and DC beat Marvel in direct market sales for the first time in August and September 1987. The four "Year One" issues were no exception to this. Two years before the relaunch, Batman had all-time low sales of 75,000 copies per month; "Year One" sold an average of 193,000 copies an issue, numbers not seen since the early 1970s. Despite this, it did not outsell other books like Uncanny X-Men, and the collected edition sold well but never matched the sales of The Dark Knight Returns. The story, with the noir-inspired narrative and ultra-violent tone, quickly caught the attention of readers. The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Year One" offered an interesting and entertaining update to the origin of Batman. + +Critical response +Year One's characterization of Batman and Gordon, has been praised. Hilary Goldstein (IGN) compared their journey to friendship to the plot of the film Serpico; they found that the two characters' respective story arcs—with Gordon's "illustrat[ing] the corruption in Gotham" and Batman's detailing "the transformation from man to myth"—offered an exploration of Batman's world like no other. Glenn Matchett (ComicsVerse) wrote that, unlike The Dark Knight Returns, Batman in Year One is more vulnerable and inexperienced, which made the story more memorable. Nick Roberts (Geek Syndicate) thought the characters seemed believable, and comics historian Matthew K. Manning called the characterization realistic and grounded. + +The story's depiction of Gotham and darker, realistic, mature and more grittier tone and direction, compared to other contemporary Batman comics at the time, has also been acclaimed. Journalist James Lovegrove described "Year One" as a "noir-inflected pulp tale of vigilantism and integrity, focused on a good man doing the right thing in a dirty world" and noted the brutality of the fight sequences. Jason Serafino (Complex) wrote that by ignoring many of Batman's trademark gadgets and villains and focusing in the core essentials of the titular character, Miller managed to present Batman in a relatable and thrilling way, which felt both fresh, unique and reinvigorating, while still being faithful to the spirit of the character. Goldstein found every moment memorable, writing "Miller does not waste a single panel" in presenting a gritty and dark story. Matchett agreed; he offered particular praise for the scenes depicting Batman clashing with the police, calling them the moment Batman began to become a legend. + +Mazzucchelli's art was noted as a standout by many, praising the minimalistic, noir-influenced and realistic art-work. + +Continuity +Before The New 52 in 2011, Batman: Year One existed in the mainstream DC continuity, and in the same continuity as the other storylines in Miller's "Dark Knight Universe", consisting of The Dark Knight Returns, its sequel The Dark Knight Strikes Again, The Dark Knight III: The Master Race, The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade, Spawn/Batman, and All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. Following The New 52 reboot, Batman: Zero Year replaced Year One as the official origin for Batman and Year One was relegated to the continuity of the other Frank Miller storylines. However, following the DC Rebirth initiative, elements of "Year One" were gradually returned to the mainstream DC continuity. + +After Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC rebooted many of its titles. Year One was followed by Batman: Year Two, but the 1994 Zero Hour: Crisis in Time crossover erased Year Two from continuity. In another continuity re-arrangement, Catwoman: Year One (Catwoman Annual #2, 1995) posited that Selina Kyle had not actually been a prostitute, but, rather, a thief posing as one in order to commit crimes. + +Launched in 1989, following the success of the film Batman, the title Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight examines crime-fighting exploits primarily, not exclusively, from the first four to five years of Batman's career. This title rotated in creative teams and time placement, but several stories directly relate to the events of Year One, especially the first arc "Batman: Shaman". In 1996 and 1999, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale created Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory, two 13-issue maxiseries that recount Batman's early years as a crime-fighter following the events of Miller's original story and retold the origins of Two-Face and Dick Grayson. The Year One story was continued in the 2005 graphic novel Batman: The Man Who Laughs, following up on Gordon informing Batman about the Joker, and thus recounting their first official encounter. Two other stories, Batman and the Monster Men and Batman and the Mad Monk tie into the same time period of Batman's career, filling in the gap between Year One and the Man Who Laughs. The comics Robin: Year One and Batgirl: Year One describe his sidekicks' origin stories. + +Sequels +Two sequels, titled Batman: Year Two and Batman: Year Three, were released in 1987 and 1989. + +Adaptations +Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever, although set during another timespan, adopts some elements directly from the graphic novel. Schumacher claims he originally had in mind an adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. The studio rejected the idea as they wanted a sequel, not a prequel, though Schumacher was able to include very brief events in Batman's past. + +The DC Animated Universe film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, adopted elements of the storyline, depicting flashbacks of how Bruce Wayne became Batman and also combines it with elements of Batman: Year Two and shows Batman's personal connection with original character Phantasm inspired by the Reaper, another character in the comics with a connection to Batman. + +After the critical failure of Batman & Robin, several attempts were made to reboot the Batman film franchise with an adaptation of Year One. Joss Whedon and Joel Schumacher both pitched their own takes. In 2000, Warner Bros. hired Darren Aronofsky to write and direct Batman: Year One. The film was to be written by Miller, who finished an early draft of the script. The script, however, was a loose adaptation, as it kept most of the themes and elements from the graphic novel but shunned other conventions that were otherwise integral to the character. It was shelved by the studio in 2001, after an individual who claimed to have read Miller's script published a negative review on Ain't It Cool News. In 2016, Miller explained that the film was canceled because of creative differences between him, Aronofsky, and Warner Bros: + +In 2005, Christopher Nolan began his series with the reboot film Batman Begins, which draws inspiration from "Year One" and other stories. Batman Begins and its sequel The Dark Knight are set during the same timespan and adopt several elements directly from the graphic novel. Major characters like Commissioner Loeb, Detective Flass and Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone are featured prominently in Batman Begins. Film critic Michael Dodd argued that with each major motion picture focused on the Dark Knight's origins, the odes and references to the Year One comic increased. Comparing Mask of the Phantasm with Batman Begins he noted that "...Phantasm was a Batman story with Year One elements, while Batman Begins was a Year One story with added features". The film's end scene, with Gordon revealing the Joker's arrival in Gotham, mirrors the end of Year One. + +In 2011, an animated adaptation was released as a DC Universe Animated Original Movie. It was produced by Bruce Timm, co-directed by Lauren Montgomery and Sam Liu. It features the voices of Benjamin McKenzie as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Bryan Cranston as James Gordon, Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Essen, Grey DeLisle as Barbara Gordon, Jon Polito as Commissioner Loeb, Alex Rocco as Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone, and Jeff Bennett as Alfred Pennyworth. The movie premiered at Comic-Con, with a Catwoman short shown in October. + +While not a direct adaptation, the video game Batman: Arkham Origins takes some inspiration from Batman: Year One and features a younger, less-experienced Batman in his second year of crimefighting. Set eight years before Batman: Arkham Aslyum, the prequel follows Batman encountering eight of the world's greatest assassins as they attempt to claim Black Mask's $50-million bounty on his head, all while being hunted by the Gotham City Police Department for his vigilantism. + +The second half of the fourth season of the Batman-based television series Gotham is inspired by Batman: Year One. + +Director Matt Reeves cited Year One as one of the inspirations for The Batman, with Robert Pattinson portraying a younger Bruce Wayne who is in his second year as a crime-fighter. + +References + +External links + Batman: Year One movie official site + Batman: Year One @ The World's Finest + Current edition at DC Comics + Deluxe Hardcover edition at DC Comics + +Batman storylines +Neo-noir comics +Prequel comics +Adultery in comics +Gotham City Police Department +Comics by Frank Miller (comics) +DC Comics adapted into films +A bidirectional text contains two text directionalities, right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR). It generally involves text containing different types of alphabets, but may also refer to boustrophedon, which is changing text direction in each row. + +Many computer programs fail to display bidirectional text correctly. For example, this page is mostly LTR English script, and here is the RTL Hebrew name Sarah: , spelled sin () on the right, resh () in the middle, and heh () on the left. + +Some so-called right-to-left scripts such as the Persian script and Arabic are mostly, but not exclusively, right-to-left—mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right. That also happens if text from a left-to-right language such as English is embedded in them; or vice versa, if Arabic is embedded in a left-to-right script such as English. + +Bidirectional script support + +Bidirectional script support is the capability of a computer system to correctly display bidirectional text. The term is often shortened to "BiDi" or "bidi". + +Early computer installations were designed only to support a single writing system, typically for left-to-right scripts based on the Latin alphabet only. Adding new character sets and character encodings enabled a number of other left-to-right scripts to be supported, but did not easily support right-to-left scripts such as Arabic or Hebrew, and mixing the two was not practical. Right-to-left scripts were introduced through encodings like ISO/IEC 8859-6 and ISO/IEC 8859-8, storing the letters (usually) in writing and reading order. It is possible to simply flip the left-to-right display order to a right-to-left display order, but doing this sacrifices the ability to correctly display left-to-right scripts. With bidirectional script support, it is possible to mix characters from different scripts on the same page, regardless of writing direction. + +In particular, the Unicode standard provides foundations for complete BiDi support, with detailed rules as to how mixtures of left-to-right and right-to-left scripts are to be encoded and displayed. + +Unicode bidi support + +The Unicode standard calls for characters to be ordered 'logically', i.e. in the sequence they are intended to be interpreted, as opposed to 'visually', the sequence they appear. This distinction is relevant for bidi support because at any bidi transition, the visual presentation ceases to be the 'logical' one. Thus, in order to offer bidi support, Unicode prescribes an algorithm for how to convert the logical sequence of characters into the correct visual presentation. For this purpose, the Unicode encoding standard divides all its characters into one of four types: 'strong', 'weak', 'neutral', and 'explicit formatting'. + +Strong characters +Strong characters are those with a definite direction. Examples of this type of character include most alphabetic characters, syllabic characters, Han ideographs, non-European or non-Arabic digits, and punctuation characters that are specific to only those scripts. + +Weak characters +Weak characters are those with vague direction. Examples of this type of character include European digits, Eastern Arabic-Indic digits, arithmetic symbols, and currency symbols. + +Neutral characters +Neutral characters have direction indeterminable without context. Examples include paragraph separators, tabs, and most other whitespace characters. Punctuation symbols that are common to many scripts, such as the colon, comma, full-stop, and the no-break-space also fall within this category. + +Explicit formatting +Explicit formatting characters, also referred to as "directional formatting characters", are special Unicode sequences that direct the algorithm to modify its default behavior. These characters are subdivided into "marks", "embeddings", "isolates", and "overrides". Their effects continue until the occurrence of either a paragraph separator, or a "pop" character. + +Marks + +If a "weak" character is followed by another "weak" character, the algorithm will look at the first neighbouring "strong" character. Sometimes this leads to unintentional display errors. These errors are corrected or prevented with "pseudo-strong" characters. Such Unicode control characters are called marks. The mark ( or ) is to be inserted into a location to make an enclosed weak character inherit its writing direction. + +For example, to correctly display the for an English name brand (LTR) in an Arabic (RTL) passage, an LRM mark is inserted after the trademark symbol if the symbol is not followed by LTR text (e.g. ""). If the LRM mark is not added, the weak character ™ will be neighbored by a strong LTR character and a strong RTL character. Hence, in an RTL context, it will be considered to be RTL, and displayed in an incorrect order (e.g. ""). + +Embeddings +The "embedding" directional formatting characters are the classical Unicode method of explicit formatting, and as of Unicode 6.3, are being discouraged in favor of "isolates". An "embedding" signals that a piece of text is to be treated as directionally distinct. The text within the scope of the embedding formatting characters is not independent of the surrounding text. Also, characters within an embedding can affect the ordering of characters outside. Unicode 6.3 recognized that directional embeddings usually have too strong an effect on their surroundings and are thus unnecessarily difficult to use. + +Isolates +The "isolate" directional formatting characters signal that a piece of text is to be treated as directionally isolated from its surroundings. As of Unicode 6.3, these are the formatting characters that are being encouraged in new documents – once target platforms are known to support them. These formatting characters were introduced after it became apparent that directional embeddings usually have too strong an effect on their surroundings and are thus unnecessarily difficult to use. Unlike the legacy 'embedding' directional formatting characters, 'isolate' characters have no effect on the ordering of the text outside their scope. Isolates can be nested, and may be placed within embeddings and overrides. + +Overrides +The "override" directional formatting characters allow for special cases, such as for part numbers (e.g. to force a part number made of mixed English, digits and Hebrew letters to be written from right to left), and are recommended to be avoided wherever possible. As is true of the other directional formatting characters, "overrides" can be nested one inside another, and in embeddings and isolates. + +Pops +The "pop" directional formatting characters terminate the scope of the most recent "embedding", "override", or "isolate". + +Runs +In the algorithm, each sequence of concatenated strong characters is called a "run". A "weak" character that is located between two "strong" characters with the same orientation will inherit their orientation. A "weak" character that is located between two "strong" characters with a different writing direction will inherit the main context's writing direction (in an LTR document the character will become LTR, in an RTL document, it will become RTL). + +Table of possible BiDi character types + +Security +Unicode bidirectional characters are used in the Trojan Source vulnerability. + +Visual Studio Code highlights BiDi control characters since version 1.62 released in October 2021. + +Visual Studio highlights BiDi control characters since version 17.0.3 released on December 14, 2021. + +Scripts using bidirectional text + +Egyptian hieroglyphs +Egyptian hieroglyphs were written bidirectionally, where the signs that had a distinct "head" or "tail" faced the beginning of the line. + +Chinese characters and other CJK scripts +Chinese characters can be written in either direction as well as vertically (top to bottom then right to left), especially in signs (such as plaques), but the orientation of the individual characters does not change. This can often be seen on tour buses in China, where the company name customarily runs from the front of the vehicle to its rear — that is, from right to left on the right side of the bus, and from left to right on the left side of the bus. English texts on the right side of the vehicle are also quite commonly written in reverse order. (See pictures of tour bus and post vehicle below.) + +Likewise, other CJK scripts made up of the same square characters, such as the Japanese writing system and Korean writing system, can also be written in any direction, although horizontally left-to-right, top-to-bottom and vertically top-to-bottom right-to-left are the two most common forms. + +Boustrophedon +Boustrophedon is a writing style found in ancient Greek inscriptions, in Old Sabaic (an Old South Arabian language) and in Hungarian runes. This method of writing alternates direction, and usually reverses the individual characters, on each successive line. + +Moon type +Moon type is an embossed adaptation of the Latin alphabet invented as a tactile alphabet for the blind. +Initially the text changed direction (but not character orientation) at the end of the lines. +Special embossed lines connected the end of a line and the beginning of the next. +Around 1990, it changed to a left-to-right orientation. + +See also + Internationalization and localization + Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts + + Combining Cyrillic Millions + Right-to-left mark + Transformation of text + Boustrophedon + +References + +External links + Unicode Standards Annex #9 The Bidirectional Algorithm + W3C guidelines on authoring techniques for bi-directional text - includes examples and good explanations + ICU International Components for Unicode contains an implementation of the bi-directional algorithm — along with other internationalization services + +Character encoding +Unicode algorithms +Internationalization and localization +Writing direction +In mathematics, Bernoulli's inequality (named after Jacob Bernoulli) is an inequality that approximates exponentiations of . It is often employed in real analysis. It has several useful variants: + +Integer exponent + Case 1: for every integer and real number . The inequality is strict if and . + Case 2: for every integer and every real number . + Case 3: for every even integer and every real number . + +Real exponent + for every real number and . The inequality is strict if and . + for every real number and . + +History +Jacob Bernoulli first published the inequality in his treatise "Positiones Arithmeticae de Seriebus Infinitis" (Basel, 1689), where he used the inequality often. + +According to Joseph E. Hofmann, Über die Exercitatio Geometrica des M. A. Ricci (1963), p. 177, the inequality is actually due to Sluse in his Mesolabum (1668 edition), Chapter IV "De maximis & minimis". + +Proof for integer exponent + +The first case has a simple inductive proof: + +Suppose the statement is true for : + +Then it follows that + +Bernoulli's inequality can be proved for case 2, in which is a non-negative integer and , using mathematical induction in the following form: + we prove the inequality for , + from validity for some r we deduce validity for . + +For , + +is equivalent to which is true. + +Similarly, for we have + +Now suppose the statement is true for : + +Then it follows that + +since as well as . By the modified induction we conclude the statement is true for every non-negative integer . + +By noting that if , then is negative gives case 3. + +Generalizations + +Generalization of exponent +The exponent can be generalized to an arbitrary real number as follows: if , then + +for or , and + +for . + +This generalization can be proved by comparing derivatives. The strict versions of these inequalities require and . + +Generalization of base +Instead of the inequality holds also in the form where are real numbers, all greater than , all with the same sign. Bernoulli's inequality is a special case when . This generalized inequality can be proved by mathematical induction. + +In the first step we take . In this case the inequality is obviously true. + +In the second step we assume validity of the inequality for numbers and deduce validity for numbers. + +We assume thatis valid. After multiplying both sides with a positive number we get: + +As all have the same sign, the products are all positive numbers. So the quantity on the right-hand side can be bounded as follows:what was to be shown. + +Related inequalities +The following inequality estimates the -th power of from the other side. For any real numbers and with , one has + +where 2.718.... This may be proved using the inequality . + +Alternative form +An alternative form of Bernoulli's inequality for and is: + +This can be proved (for any integer ) by using the formula for geometric series: (using ) + +or equivalently + +Alternative proofs + +Arithmetic and geometric means +An elementary proof for and x ≥ -1 can be given using weighted AM-GM. + +Let be two non-negative real constants. By weighted AM-GM on with weights respectively, we get + +Note that + +and + +so our inequality is equivalent to + +After substituting (bearing in mind that this implies ) our inequality turns into + +which is Bernoulli's inequality. + +Geometric series +Bernoulli's inequality + + + +is equivalent to + +and by the formula for geometric series (using y = 1 + x) we get + +which leads to + +Now if then by monotony of the powers each summand , and therefore their sum is greater and hence the product on the LHS of (). + +If then by the same arguments and thus +all addends are non-positive and hence so is their sum. Since the product of two non-positive numbers is non-negative, we get again +(). + +Binomial theorem +One can prove Bernoulli's inequality for x ≥ 0 using the binomial theorem. It is true trivially for r = 0, so suppose r is a positive integer. Then Clearly and hence as required. + +Using convexity +For the function is strictly convex. Therefore for holds + +and the reversed inequality is valid for and . + +Notes + +References + +External links + + Bernoulli Inequality by Chris Boucher, Wolfram Demonstrations Project. + + +Inequalities +The Benjamin Franklin-class submarine''' was a group of US ballistic missile submarines that were in Navy service from the 1960s–2000s. The class was an evolutionary development from the earlier of fleet ballistic missile submarine. Having quieter machinery and other improvements, it is considered a separate class. A subset of this class is the re-engineered 640 class starting with . The primary difference was that they were built under the new SUBSAFE rules after the loss of , earlier boats of the class had to be retrofitted to meet SUBSAFE requirements. The Benjamin Franklin class, together with the , , , and classes, comprised the "41 for Freedom" that was the Navy's primary contribution to the nuclear deterrent force through the late 1980s. This class and the James Madison class are combined with the Lafayettes in some references. + +Design + +The Benjamin Franklin-class submarines were built with the Polaris A-3 ballistic missile, and in the early 1970s were converted to carry the Poseidon C-3 missile. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, six boats were further modified to carry the Trident I (C-4) missile, along with six James Madison-class boats. These were Benjamin Franklin, Simon Bolivar, George Bancroft, Henry L. Stimson, Francis Scott Key, and Mariano G. Vallejo. + +Due to the loss of in April 1963, this class was designed to SUBSAFE standards and its equipment was similar to the fast attack submarines (SSNs). Previous US SSBNs except the George Washington class had equipment similar to the SSNs. + +This class can be distinguished by the fairwater planes' location halfway up the sail; the Lafayettes and James Madisons had the fairwater planes in the upper front portion of the sail. + +Two submarines of this class were converted for delivery of up to 66 SEALs or other Special Operations Forces each. In the early 1990s, to make room for the ballistic missile submarines within the limits set by the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty, the ballistic missile tubes of and were disabled. Those boats were redesignated special operations attack submarines and given attack submarine (SSN) hull classification symbols. They were equipped with dry deck shelters to accommodate SEAL Delivery Vehicles or other equipment. + +Fate +The Benjamin Franklins were decommissioned between 1992 and 2002 due to a combination of SALT II treaty limitations as the SSBNs entered service, age, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. USS Kamehameha was decommissioned on 2 April 2002, the last ship of the Benjamin Franklin class to be decommissioned. + +The sail of George Bancroft is preserved at the Naval Submarine Base King's Bay, Georgia. James K. Polks sail is on display at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mariano G. Vallejos sail is preserved at Mare Island, California, where she was built. The sail of Lewis and Clark is on display at the Patriot's Point Maritime Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. + + Boats in class +Submarines of the Benjamin Franklin class: +(Submarines marked with * indicate Trident C-4 ballistic missile conversions.) + + See also + + 41 for Freedom Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines + Fleet Ballistic Missile + List of submarines of the United States Navy + List of submarine classes of the United States Navy + +References + +Citations + +Sources +Gardiner, Robert and Chumbley, Stephen (editors). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995. Annapolis, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. . +Polmar, Norman. The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet: Twelfth Edition''. London:Arms and Armour Press, 1981. . +US Naval Vessel Register - List of SSBN BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINE (NUCLEAR-POWERED) Class vessels + +External links + NavSource.org SSBN photo gallery index + +Submarine classes + + Benjamin Franklin class +The Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH) is a fictional rogue computer operator created by Simon Travaglia, who takes out his anger on users (who are "lusers" to him) and others who pester him with their computer problems, uses his expertise against his enemies and manipulates his employer. + +Several people have written stories about BOFHs, but only those by Simon Travaglia are considered canonical. +The BOFH stories were originally posted in 1992 to Usenet by Travaglia, with some being reprinted in Datamation. Since 2000 they have been published regularly in The Register (UK). Several collections of the stories have been published as books. + +By extension, the term is also used to refer to any system administrator who displays the qualities of the original. + +The early accounts of the BOFH took place in a university; later the scenes were set in an office workplace. In 2000 (BOFH 2k), the BOFH and his pimply-faced youth (PFY) assistant moved to a new company. + +Other characters + The PFY (Pimply-Faced Youth, the assistant to the BOFH. Real name is Stephen) Possesses a temperament similar to the BOFH, and often either teams up with or plots against him. + The Boss (often portrayed as having no IT knowledge but believing otherwise; identity changes as successive bosses are sacked, leave, are committed, or have nasty "accidents") + CEO of the company – The PFY's uncle Brian from 1996 until 2000, when the BOFH and PFY moved to a new company. + The help desk operators, referred to as the "Helldesk" and often scolded for giving out the BOFH's personal number. + The Boss's secretary, Sharon. + The security department + George, the cleaner (an invaluable source of information to the BOFH and PFY) + +Books + +Games + +BOFH is a text adventure game written by Howard A. Sherman and published in 2002. It is available via Malinche. + +References in other media + +The protagonist in Charles Stross's The Laundry Files series of novels named himself Bob Oliver Francis Howard in reference to the BOFH. As Bob Howard is a self-chosen pseudonym, and Bob is a network manager when not working as a computational demonologist, the name is all too appropriate. In the novella Pimpf, he acquires a pimply-faced young assistant by the name of Peter-Fred Young. + +Authorship + +Simon Travaglia (born 1964) graduated from the University of Waikato, New Zealand in 1985. He worked as the IT infrastructure manager (2004–2008) and computer operator (1985–1992) at the University of Waikato and the infrastructure manager at the Waikato Innovation Park, Hamilton, New Zealand (since 2008). Since 1999 he is a freelance writer for The Register. He lives in Hautapu, New Zealand. + +References + +Further reading + +External links + + + + +Computer humor +Internet culture +Internet slang +System administration +Fictional characters introduced in 1992 +Fictional people in information technology +Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. + +Life and career +McGhee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee. At about the age of four he contracted polio, which incapacitated his right leg. His brother Granville "Stick" McGhee, who also later became a musician and composed the famous song "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee," was nicknamed for pushing young Brownie around in a cart. Their father, George McGhee, was a factory worker, known around University Avenue for playing guitar and singing. Brownie's uncle made him a guitar from a tin marshmallow box and a piece of board. + +McGhee spent much of his youth immersed in music, singing with a local harmony group, the Golden Voices Gospel Quartet, and teaching himself to play guitar. He also played the five-string banjo and ukulele and studied piano. Surgery funded by the March of Dimes enabled McGhee to walk. + +At the age of 22, McGhee became a traveling musician, working in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and befriending Blind Boy Fuller, whose guitar playing influenced him greatly. After Fuller's death in 1941, J. B. Long of Columbia Records promoted McGhee as "Blind Boy Fuller No. 2". By that time, McGhee was recording for Columbia's subsidiary Okeh Records in Chicago, but his real success came after he moved to New York in 1942, when he teamed up with Sonny Terry, whom he had known since 1939, when Terry was Fuller's harmonica player. The pairing was an overnight success. They recorded and toured together until around 1980. As a duo, Terry and McGhee did most of their work from 1958 until 1980, spending 11 months of each year touring and recording dozens of albums. + +Despite their later fame as "pure" folk artists playing for white audiences, in the 1940s Terry and McGhee had attempted to be successful recording artists, fronting a jump blues combo with honking saxophone and rolling piano, variously calling themselves "Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers" or "Sonny Terry and his Buckshot Five", often with Champion Jack Dupree and Big Chief Ellis. They also appeared in the original Broadway productions of Finian's Rainbow and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. + +During the blues revival of the 1960s, Terry and McGhee were popular on the concert and music festival circuits, occasionally adding new material but usually remaining faithful to their roots and playing to the tastes of their audiences. + +Late in his life, McGhee appeared in small roles in films and on television. He and Terry appeared in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy The Jerk. In 1987, McGhee gave a small but memorable performance as the ill-fated blues singer Toots Sweet in the supernatural thriller movie Angel Heart. In his review of Angel Heart, the critic Roger Ebert singled out McGhee for praise, declaring that he delivered a "performance that proves [saxophonist] Dexter Gordon isn't the only old musician who can act." McGhee appeared in the television series Family Ties, in a 1988 episode entitled "The Blues, Brother", in which he played the fictional blues musician Eddie Dupre. He also appeared in the television series Matlock, in a 1989 episode entitled "The Blues Singer", playing a friend of an old blues musician (Joe Seneca) who is accused of murder. In the episode, McGhee, Seneca and star Andy Griffith perform a duet of "The Midnight Special". + +Happy Traum, a former guitar student of McGhee's, edited a blues guitar instruction guide and songbook, Guitar Styles of Brownie McGhee, published in 1971, in which McGhee, between lessons, talked about his life and the blues. The autobiographical section features McGhee talking about growing up, his musical beginnings, and a history of the blues from the 1930s onward. + +McGhee and Terry were both recipients of a 1982 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. That year's fellowships were the first bestowed by the NEA. + +One of McGhee's last concert appearances was at the 1995 Chicago Blues Festival. + +He died of stomach cancer on February 16, 1996, in Oakland, California, at the age of 80. + +Discography + +Solo albums + Traditional Blues, Vol. 1 (Folkways Records, 1951) + Brownie McGhee Blues (Folkways, 1955) + Brownie McGhee Sings the Blues (Folkways, 1959) + Traditional Blues, Vol. 2 (Folkways, 1960) + Brownie's Blues (Bluesville, 1962) + Blues Is Truth (Blues Alliance, 1976) + Facts of Life (Blues Rock'It, 1985) with the Ford Blues Band + +Compilation + The Folkways Years, 1945–1959 (Smithsonian Folkways, 1991) + +With Sonny Terry + Brownie McGhee Blues (Folkways, 1955) + Washboard Band: Country Dance Music (Folkways, 1956) + Folk Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Roulette, 1958) + Blues with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Folkways, 1959) + Down South Summit Meetin' (World Pacific, 1960), with Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Williams + Down Home Blues (Bluesville, 1960) + Blues Hoot (Horizon, 1961 [1963]), with Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Williams + Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry at the 2nd Fret (Prestige, 1962) + Sonny Is King (Bluesville, 1963) + A Long Way from Home (BluesWay, 1969) + I Couldn't Believe My Eyes (BluesWay, 1969 [1973]) + Sonny & Brownie (A&M Records, 1973) + Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing (Smithsonian Folkways, 1990) + Back Country Blues (Southern Routes, 2016) + +Other + Songs for Victory: Music for Political Action, with the Union Boys (1944) + +See also +American folk music +Woody Guthrie +List of blues musicians +List of folk musicians +List of people from Tennessee +Union Boys + +References + +External links +Center for Southern African American Music - Brownie McGhee — McGhee bio and audio samples + + + Series of taped interviews with Brownie McGhee + +1915 births +1996 deaths +20th-century African-American male singers +20th-century American guitarists +20th-century American pianists +A&M Records artists +African-American guitarists +African-American pianists +American blues guitarists +American blues pianists +American blues singers +American folk singers +American male guitarists +American male pianists +Blues revival musicians +Country blues musicians +Deaths from cancer in California +Deaths from stomach cancer +East Coast blues musicians +Folkways Records artists +Guitarists from Tennessee +National Heritage Fellowship winners +People from Kingsport, Tennessee +Musicians from Knoxville, Tennessee +Piedmont blues musicians +Prestige Records artists +Roulette Records artists +Singers from Tennessee +Southland Records artists +The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (, BIPM) is an intergovernmental organisation, through which its 59 member-states act on measurement standards in four areas: chemistry, ionising radiation, physical metrology, as well as Coordinated Universal Time. It is based in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, France. The organisation has been referred to as IBWM (from its name in English) in older literature. + +Structure +The BIPM is overseen by the International Committee for Weights and Measures (), a committee of eighteen members that meet normally in two sessions per year, which is in turn overseen by the General Conference on Weights and Measures () that meets in Paris usually once every four years, consisting of delegates of the governments of the Member States and observers from the Associates of the CGPM. These organs are also commonly referred to by their French initialisms. + +History +The BIPM was created on 20 May 1875, following the signing of the Metre Convention, a treaty among 17 Member States ( there are now 59 members). + +It is based at the Pavillon de Breteuil in Saint-Cloud, France, a site (originally ) granted to the Bureau by the French Government in 1876. Since 1969 the site has been considered international territory, and the BIPM has all the rights and privileges accorded an intergovernmental organisation. This status was further clarified by the French decree No 70-820 of 9 September 1970. + +Function +The BIPM has the mandate to provide the basis for a single, coherent system of measurements throughout the world, traceable to the International System of Units (SI). This task takes many forms, from direct dissemination of units to coordination through international comparisons of national measurement standards (as in electricity and ionising radiation). + +Following consultation, a draft version of the BIPM Work Programme is presented at each meeting of the General Conference for consideration with the BIPM budget. The final programme of work is determined by the CIPM in accordance with the budget agreed to by the CGPM. + +Currently, the BIPM's main work includes: + + Scientific and technical activities carried out in its four departments: chemistry, ionising radiation, physical metrology, and time + Liaison and coordination work, including providing the secretariat for the CIPM Consultative Committees and some of their Working Groups and for the CIPM MRA, and providing institutional liaison with the other bodies supporting the international quality infrastructure and other international bodies + Capacity building and knowledge transfer programs to increase the effectiveness within the worldwide metrology community of those Member State and Associates with emerging metrology systems + A resource centre providing a database and publications for international metrology + +The BIPM is one of the twelve member organisations of the International Network on Quality Infrastructure (INetQI), which promotes and implements QI activities in metrology, accreditation, standardisation and conformity assessment. + +The BIPM has an important role in maintaining accurate worldwide time of day. It combines, analyses, and averages the official atomic time standards of member nations around the world to create a single, official Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). + +Directors + +Since its establishment, the directors of the BIPM have been: + +See also + History of the metre + Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements + International Organization for Standardization + Metrologia + National Institute of Standards and Technology + Seconds pendulum + World Metrology Day + Versailles project on advanced materials and standards + +Notes + +References + +External links + + + +Intergovernmental organizations established by treaty +Metric system +Metrology organizations +Organizations based in Paris +Organizations established in 1875 +Standards organizations in France +Bayonne (; ; ; ) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. + +Bayonne is located at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers in the northern part of the cultural region of the Basque Country. It is the seat of the Communauté d'agglomération du Pays Basque which roughly encompasses the western half of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, including the coastal city of Biarritz. This area also constitutes the southern part of Gascony, where the Aquitaine Basin joins the beginning of the Pre-Pyrenees. + +Together with nearby Anglet, Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, as well as several smaller communes, Bayonne forms an urban area with 273,137 inhabitants at the 2018 census; 51,411 residents lived in the commune of Bayonne proper. It is also a part of Basque Eurocity Bayonne-San Sebastián. + +The site on the left bank of the Nive and the Adour was probably occupied before ancient times; a fortified enclosure was attested in the 1st century at the time when the Tarbelli occupied the territory. Archaeological studies have confirmed the presence of a Roman castrum, a stronghold in Novempopulania at the end of the 4th century, before the city was populated by the Vascones. + +In 1023, Bayonne was the capital of Labourd. In the 12th century, it extended to the confluence and beyond of the Nive River. At that time the first bridge was built over the Adour. The city came under the domination of the English in 1152 through the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine: it became militarily and, above all, commercially important thanks to maritime trade. In 1177, Richard the Lion Heart of England took control of it, separating it from the Viscount of Labourd. + +In 1451, the city was taken by the Crown of France after the Hundred Years' War. The loss of trade with the English was followed by the river gradually filling with silt and becoming impassable to ships. As the city developed to the north, its position was weakened compared to earlier times. The district of Saint-Esprit developed initially from settlement by Sephardic Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish expulsions dictated by the Alhambra Decree. This community brought skill in chocolate making, and Bayonne gained a reputation for chocolate. + +The course of the Adour was changed in 1578 by dredging under the direction of Louis de Foix, and the river returned to its former mouth. Bayonne flourished after regaining the maritime trade that it had lost for more than a hundred years. In the 17th century the city was fortified by Vauban, whose works were followed as models of defense for 100 years. In 1814, Bayonne and its surroundings were the scene of fighting between the Napoleonic troops and the Spanish-Anglo-Portuguese coalition led by the Duke of Wellington. It was the last time the city was under siege. + +In 1951, the Lacq gas field was discovered in the region; its extracted sulphur and associated oil are shipped from the port of Bayonne. During the second half of the 20th century, many housing estates were built, forming new districts on the periphery. The city developed to form a conurbation with Anglet and Biarritz: this agglomeration became the heart of a vast Basque-Landes urban area. + +In 2014, Bayonne was a commune with more than 45,000 inhabitants, the heart of the urban area of Bayonne and of the Agglomeration Côte Basque-Adour. This includes Anglet and Biarritz. It is an important part of the Basque Bayonne-San Sebastián Eurocity and it plays the role of economic capital of the Adour basin. Modern industry—metallurgy and chemicals—have been established to take advantage of procurement opportunities and sea shipments through the harbour. Business services today represent the largest source of employment. Bayonne is also a cultural capital, a city with strong Basque and Gascon influences, and a rich historical past. Its heritage is expressed in its architecture, the diversity of collections in museums, its gastronomic specialties, and traditional events such as the noted Fêtes de Bayonne. + +The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bayonnais or Bayonnaises. + +Toponymy + +Etymology +While the modern Basque spelling is Baiona and the same in Gascon Occitan, "the name Bayonne poses a number of problems both historical and linguistic which have still not been clarified". There are different interpretations of its meaning. + +The termination -onne in Bayonne can come from many in hydronyms -onne or toponyms derived from that. In certain cases the element -onne follows an Indo-European theme: *ud-r/n (Greek húdōr giving hydro, Gothic watt meaning "water") hence *udnā meaning "water" giving unna then onno in the glossary of Vienne. Unna therefore would refer to the Adour. This toponymic type evoking a river traversing a locality is common. The appellative unna seems to be found in the name of the Garonne (Garunna 1st century; Garonna 4th century). However it is possible to see a pre-Celtic suffix -ona in the name of the Charente (Karantona in 875) or the Charentonne (Carentona in 1050). + +It could also be an augmentative Gascon from the original Latin radical Baia- with the suffix -ona in the sense of "vast expanse of water" or a name derived from the Basque bai meaning "river" and ona meaning "good", hence "good river". + +The proposal by Eugene Goyheneche repeated by Manex Goyhenetche and supported by Jean-Baptiste Orpustan is bai una, "the place of the river" or bai ona "hill by the river"—Ibai means "river" in Basque and muinoa means "hill". + +"It has perhaps been lost from sight that many urban place names in France, from north to south, came from the element Bay- or Bayon- such as: Bayons, Bayonville, Bayonvillers and pose the unusual problem of whether they are Basque or Gascon" adds Pierre Hourmat. However, the most ancient form of Bayonne: Baiona, clearly indicates a feminine or a theme of -a whereas this is not the case for Béon or Bayon. In addition, the Bayon- in Bayonville or Bayonvillers in northern France is clearly the personal Germanic name Baio. + +Old attestations +The names of the Basque province of Labourd and the locality of Bayonne have been attested from an early period with the place name Bayonne appearing in the Latin form Lapurdum after a period during which the two names could in turn designate a Viscounty or Bishopric. + +Labourd and Bayonne were synonymous and used interchangeably until the 12th century before being differentiated: Labord for the province and Bayonne for the city. The attribution of Bayonne as Civitas Boatium, a place mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary and by Paul Raymond in his 1863 dictionary, has been abandoned. The city of the Boïates may possibly be La Teste-de-Buch but is certainly not Bayonne. + +The following table details the origins of Labord, Bayonne, and other names in the commune. + +Sources: +Raymond: Topographic Dictionary of the Department of Basses-Pyrenees, 1863, on the page numbers indicated in the table. +Goyheneche: according to the Notitia Dignitatum Imperii dating from 340 to 420 +Guiart: Guillaume Guiart, around 1864 +Lhande: Basque-French Dictionary by Pierre Lhande, 1926. +Cassini 1750: 1750 Cassini Map +Cassini 1790: 1790 Cassini Map + +Origins: +Chapter: Titles of the Chapter of Bayonne +Cartulary: Cartulary of Bayonne or Livre d'Or (Book of Gold) +Camara: Chapters of the Camara de Comptos. + +History + +Prehistory +In the absence of accurate objective data there is some credence to the probable existence of a fishing village on the site in a period prior to ancient times. Numerous traces of human occupation have been found in the Bayonne region from the Middle Paleolithic especially in the discoveries at Saint-Pierre-d'Irube, a neighbouring locality. On the other hand, the presence of a mound about high has been detected in the current Cathedral Quarter overlooking the Nive which formed a natural protection and a usable port on the left bank of the Nive. At the time the mound was surrounded north and west by the Adour swamps. At its foot lies the famous "Bayonne Sea"—the junction of the two rivers—which may have been about wide between Saint-Esprit and the Grand Bayonne and totally covered the current location of Bourg-Neuf (in the district of Petit Bayonne). To the south the last bend of the Nive widens near the Saint-Léon hills. Despite this, the narrowing of the Adour valley allows easier crossing than anywhere else along the entire length of the estuary. + +In conclusion, the strategic importance of this height was so obvious it must be presumed that it has always been inhabited. + +Ancient times + +The oldest documented human occupation site is located on a hill overlooking the Nive and its confluence with the Adour. + +In the 1st century AD, during the Roman occupation, Bayonne already seems to have been of some importance since the Romans surrounded the city with a wall to keep out the Tarbelli, Aquitani, or the proto-Basque who then occupied a territory that extended south of modern-day Landes, to the modern French Basque country, the Chalosse, the valleys of the Adour, the mountain streams of Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and to the Gave d'Oloron. + +The archaeological discoveries of October and November 1995 provided a shred of evidence to support this projection. In the four layers of sub-soil along the foundation of the Gothic cathedral (in the "apse of the cathedral" area) a 2-metre depth was found of old objects from the end of the 1st century—in particular sigillated Gallic ceramics from Montans imitating Italian styles, thin-walled bowls, and fragments of amphorae. In the "southern sector" near the cloister door there were objects from the second half of the 1st century as well as coins from the first half of the 3rd century. + +A very high probability of human presence, not solely military, seems to provisionally confirm the occupation of the site at least around the third century. + +A Roman castrum dating to the end of the 4th century has been proven as a fortified place of Novempopulania. Named Lapurdum, the name became the name of the province of Labourd. According to Eugene Goyheneche the name Baiona designated the city, the port, and the cathedral while that of Lapurdum was only a territorial designation. This Roman settlement was strategic as it allowed the monitoring of the trans-Pyrenean roads and of local people rebellious to the Roman power. The construction covered 6 to 10 hectares according to several authors. + +Middle Ages +The geographical location of the locality at the crossroads of a river system oriented from east to west and the road network connecting Europe to the Iberian Peninsula from north to south predisposed the site to the double role of fortress and port. The city, after being Roman, alternated between the Vascones and the English for three centuries from the 12th to the 15th century. + +The Romans left the city in the 4th century and the Basques, who had always been present, dominated the former Novempopulania province between the Garonne, the Ocean, and the Pyrénées. Novempopulania was renamed Vasconia and then Gascony after a Germanic deformation (resulting from the Visigoth and Frankish invasions). Basquisation of the plains region was too weak against the advance of romanization. From the mixture between the Basque and Latin language Gascon was created. + +Documentation on Bayonne for the period from the High Middle Ages are virtually nonexistent. with the exception of two Norman intrusions: one questionable in 844 and a second attested in 892. + +When Labourd was created in 1023 Bayonne was the capital and the Viscount resided there. The history of Bayonne proper started in 1056 when Raymond II the Younger, Bishop of Bazas, had the mission to build the Church of Bayonne + +The construction was under the authority of Raymond III of Martres, Bishop of Bayonne from 1122 to 1125, combined with Viscount Bertrand for the Romanesque cathedral, the rear of which can still be seen today, and the first wooden bridge across the Adour extending the Mayou bridge over the Nive, which inaugurated the heyday of Bayonne. From 1120 new districts were created under population pressure. The development of areas between the old Roman city of Grand Bayonne and the Nive also developed during this period, then between the Nive and the Adour at the place that became Petit Bayonne. A Dominican Order Convent was located there in 1225 then that of the Cordeliers in 1247. Construction of and modifications to the defences of the city also developed to protect the new districts. + +In 1130, the King of Aragon Alfonso the Battler besieged the city without success. Bayonne came under English rule when Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry II of England in 1152. This alliance gave Bayonne many commercial privileges. The Bayonnaises became carriers of Bordeaux wines and other south-western products like resin, ham, and woad to England. Bayonne was then an important military base. In 1177, King Richard separated the Viscounty of Labourd whose capital then became Ustaritz. Like many cities at the time, in 1215 Bayonne obtained the award of a municipal charter and was emancipated from feudal powers. + +The official publication in 1273 of a Coutume unique to the city, remained in force for five centuries until the separation of Bayonne from Labourd. + +Bayonnaise industry at that time was dominated by shipbuilding: wood (oak, beech, chestnut from the Pyrenees, and pine from Landes) being overabundant. There was also maritime activity in providing crews for whaling, commercial marine or, and it was often so at a time when it was easy to turn any merchant ship into a warship, the English Royal Navy. + +Renaissance and modern times + +Jean de Dunois – a former companion at arms of Joan of Arc—captured the city on 20 August 1451 and annexed it to the Crown "without making too many victims", but at the cost of a war indemnity of 40,000 gold Écus payable in a year,—thanks to the opportunism of the bishop who claimed to have seen "a large white cross surmounted by a crown which turns into a fleur-de-lis in the sky" to dissuade Bayonne from fighting against the royal troops. + +The city continued to be fortified by the kings of France to protect it from danger from the Spanish border. In 1454, Charles VII created a separate judicial district: the Seneschal of Lannes a "single subdivision of Guyenne during the English period" which had jurisdiction over a wide area including Bayonne, Dax and Saint-Sever and which exercised civil justice, criminal jurisdiction within the competence of the district councilors. Over time, the "Seneschal of the Sword" which was at Dax lost any role other than protocol and Bayonne, along with Dax and Saint-Sever, became the de facto seat of a separate Seneschal under the authority of a "lieutenant-general of the Seneschal". + +In May 1462 King Louis XI authorized the holding of two annual fairs by letters patent after signing the Treaty of Bayonne after which it was confirmed by the coutoumes of the inhabitants in July 1472 following the death of Charles de Valois, Duke de Berry, the king's brother. + +At the time the Spanish Inquisition raged in the Iberian Peninsula Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled Spain and also later, Portugal, then settled in Southern France, including in Saint-Esprit (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), a northern district of Bayonne located along the northern bank of the Adour river. They brought with them chocolate and the recipe for its preparation. In 1750, the Jewish population in Saint-Esprit (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is estimated to have reached about 3,500 people. + +The golden age of the city ended in the 15th century with the loss of trade with England and the silting of the port of Bayonne created by the movement of the course of the Adour to the north. + +At the beginning of the 16th century Labourd suffered the emergence of the plague. Its path can be tracked by reading the Registers. In July 1515 the city of Bayonne was "prohibited to welcome people from plague-stricken places" and on 21 October, "we inhibit and prohibit all peasants and residents of this city [...] to go Parish Bidart [...] because of the contagion of the plague". On 11 April 1518 the plague raged in Saint-Jean-de-Luz and the city of Bayonne "inhibited and prohibited for all peasants and city inhabitants and other foreigners to maintain relationships at the location and Parish of Saint-Jean-de-Luz where people have died of the plague". On 11 November 1518 plague was present in Bayonne to the point that in 1519 the city council moved to the district of Brindos (Berindos at the time) in Anglet. + +In 1523, Marshal Odet of Foix, Viscount of Lautrec resisted the Spaniards under Philibert of Chalon in the service of Charles V and lifted the siege of Bayonne. It was at Château-Vieux that the ransom demand for the release of Francis I, taken prisoner after his defeat at the Battle of Pavia, was gathered. + +The meeting in 1565 between Catherine de Medici and the envoy of Philip II: the Duke of Alba, is known as the Interview of Bayonne. At the time that Catholics and Protestants tore each other apart in parts of the kingdom of France, Bayonne seemed relatively untouched by these troubles. An iron fist from the city leaders did not appear to be unknown. In fact they never hesitated to use violence and criminal sanctions for keeping order in the name of the "public good". Two brothers, Saubat and Johannes Sorhaindo who were both lieutenants of the mayor of Bayonne in the second half of the 16th century, perfectly embody this period. They often wavered between Catholicism and Protestantism but always wanted to ensure the unity and prestige of the city. + +In the 16th century the king's engineers, under the direction of Louis de Foix, were dispatched to rearrange the course of the Adour by creating an estuary to maintain the river bed. The river discharged in the right place to the Ocean on 28 October 1578. The port of Bayonne then attained a greater level of activity. Fishing for cod and whale ensured the wealth of fishermen and shipowners. + +From 1611 to 1612 the college Principal of Bayonne was a man of 26 years old with a future: Cornelius Jansen known as Jansénius, the future Bishop of Ypres. Bayonne became the birthplace of Jansenism, an austere science which strongly disrupted the monarchy of Louis XIV. + +During the sporadic conflicts that troubled the French countryside from the mid 17th century, Bayonne peasants were short of powder and projectiles. They attached the long hunting knives in the barrels of their muskets and that way they fashioned makeshift spears later called bayonets. In that same century, Vauban was charged by Louis XIV to fortify the city. He added a citadel built on a hill overlooking the district of San Espirit Cap deou do Punt. + +French Revolution and Empire +Activity in Bayonne peaked in the 18th century. The Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1726. Trade with Spain, the Netherlands, the Antilles, the cod fishery off the shores of Newfoundland, and construction sites maintained a high level of activity in the port. + +In 1792, the district of Saint-Esprit (that revolutionaries renamed Port-de-la-Montagne) located on the right bank of the Adour, was separated from the city and renamed Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It was reunited with Bayonne on 1 June 1857. For 65 years the autonomous commune was part of the department of Landes. + +In 1808, at the Château of Marracq the act of abdication of the Spanish king Charles IV in favour of Napoleon was signed under the "friendly pressure" of the Emperor. In the process the Bayonne Statute was initialed as the first Spanish constitution. + +Also in 1808 the French Empire imposed on the Duchy of Warsaw the Convention of Bayonne to buy from France the debts owed to it by Prussia. The debt, amounting to more than 43 million francs in gold, was bought at a discounted rate of 21 million francs. However, although the duchy made its payments in installments to France over a four-year period, Prussia was unable to pay it (due to a very large indemnity it owed to France resulting from Treaties of Tilsit), causing the Polish economy to suffer heavily. + +Trade was the wealth of the city in the 18th century but suffered greatly in the 19th century, severely sanctioned by conflict with Spain, its historic trading partner in the region. The Siege of Bayonne marked the end of the period with the surrender of the Napoleonic troops of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult who were defeated by the coalition led by Wellington on 5 May 1814. + +19th and 20th Centuries +In 1854, the railway arrived from Paris bringing many tourists eager to enjoy the beaches of Biarritz. Bayonne turned instead to the steel industry with the forges of the Adour. The Port took on an industrial look but its slow decline seemed inexorable in the 19th century. The discovery of the Lacq gas field restored a certain dynamism. + +The Treaty of Bayonne was concluded on 2 December 1856. It overcame the disputes in fixing the Franco-Spanish border in the area extending from the mouth of the Bidassoa to the border between Navarre and Aragon.The city built three light railway lines to connect to Biarritz at the beginning of the 20th century. The most direct line, that of the Tramway Bayonne-Lycée–Biarritz was operated from 1888 to 1948. In addition a line further north served Anglet, operated by the Chemin de fer Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz company from 1877 to 1953. Finally a line following the Adour to its mouth and to the Atlantic Ocean by the bar in Anglet, was operated by VFDM réseau basque from 1919 to 1948. + +On the morning of 23 December 1933, sub-prefect Anthelme received Gustave Tissier, the director of the Crédit Municipal de Bayonne. He responded well, with some astonishment, to his persistent interview. It did not surprise him to see the man unpacking what became the scam of the century. + +"Tissier, director of the Crédit Municipal, was arrested and imprisoned under suspicion of forgery and misappropriation of public funds. He had issued thousands of false bonds in the name of Crédit Municipal [...]" + +This was the beginning of the Stavisky Affair which, together with other scandals and political crises, led to the Paris riots of 6 February 1934. + +The World Wars +The 249th Infantry Regiment, created from the 49th Infantry Regiment, was engaged in operations in the First World War, including action at Chemin des Dames, especially on the plateau of Craonne. 700 Bayonnaises perished in the conflict. A centre for engagement of foreign volunteers was established in August 1914 in Bayonne. Many nationalities were represented, particularly the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Czechs, and the Poles. + +During the Second World War, Bayonne was occupied by the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf from 27 June 1940 to 23 August 1944. + +On 5 April 1942 the Allies made a landing attempt in Bayonne but after a barge penetrated the Adour with great difficulty, the operation was canceled. + +On 21 August 1944, after blowing up twenty ships in port, German troops withdrew. On the 22nd a final convoy of five vehicles passed through the city. It transported Gestapo Customs agents and some elements of the Feldgendarmerie. One or more Germans opened fire with machine guns killing three people. On the 23rd there was an informal and immediate installation of a "special municipal delegation" by the young deputy prefect Guy Lamassoure representing the Provisional Government of the French Republic which had been established in Algiers since 27 June. + +Policy and administration + +List of mayors under the Ancien Régime +The Gramont family provided captains and governors in Bayonne from 1472 to 1789 as well as mayors, a post which became hereditary from 28 January 1590 by concession of Henry IV to Antoine II of Gramont. From the 15th century they resided in the Château Neuf then in the Château-Vieux from the end of the 16th century: + +Roger de Gramont, (1444–1519), Lord of Gramont, Baron of Haux, Seneschal of Guyenne, hereditary mayor of Bayonne. He was an advisor and chamberlain of Louis XI in 1472 and then Charles VIII in 1483. He was Ambassador for Louis XII in Rome in 1502. He became governor of Bayonne and its castles on 26 February 1487. He died of the plague in 1519. +Jean II de Gramont, Lord of Gramont, mayor and captain of Bayonne from 18 March 1523. On 15 September 1523, as a lieutenant in the company of Marshal Lautrec, he rescued Bayonne from the siege by the forces of Charles V under the command of the Prince of Orange. He died during the wars in Italy; +Antoine I of Gramont, born in 1526, he was appointed at the age of nine years (1535) as mayor and captain of Bayonne. In 1571, he charged Louis de Foix with the changes to the mouth of the Adour along the fortifications of the city; +Antoine II de Gramont (1572–1644), Count of Gramont, Guiche and Toulonjon, Viscount then Count of Louvigny, ruler of Bidache, Viscount of Aster, lord then baron of Lescun. He was a Duke de Brevet in 1643, but unverified by Parliament. On 28 January 1590 Henry IV granted him and his descendants the perpetual office of Mayor of Bayonne. He then became the Viceroy of Navarre. In 1595, Antoine II de Gramont charged Jean Errard (1599) then Louis de Millet (1612) to strengthen the defenses of the city; +Antoine III of Gramont-Touloujon (1604–1678), Count and then, in 1648, Duke of Gramont, Prince of Bidache, Count of Guiche, Toulonjon, and Louvigny, Viscount of Astern, Baron of Andouins and Hagetmau, and lord of Lesparre, peer of France in 1648, Marshal of France in 1641. As Ambassador of Louis XIV, in 1660 he sought the hand of the Infanta Maria Theresa. The king gave him power of attorney to represent him in the marriage which was celebrated in Madrid. It was he who welcomed Louis XIV, Anne of Austria, Mazarin, and the rest of the Court to Bayonne. He died on 12 July 1678 at the Château-Vieux; +Antoine Charles IV of Gramont (1641–1720), Duke of Gramont, Prince of Bidache, Count of Guiche and Louvigny, Viscount of Aster, Baron of Andouins and Hagetmau, Lord of Lesparre, peer of France, Viceroy of Navarre. In 1689, he continued the fortification works undertaken by Vauban in Bayonne, where he remained from 1706 to 1712. He supported Philip V during the War of the Spanish Succession, using Bayonne to supply his troops, weapons, reinforcements and subsidies. In retaliation, the opponents of Philip V organized two attacks in 1707: one at Château-Vieux leaving Antoine IV unharmed. + +Modern times + +List of Successive Mayors + +Mayors from 1941 + +Cantons of Bayonne +As per the Decree of 22 December 1789 Bayonne was part of two cantons: Bayonne-North-east, which includes part of Bayonne commune plus Boucau, Saint-Pierre-d'Irube, Lahonce, Mouguerre, and Urcuit; and Bayonne Northwest which consisted of the rest of Bayonne commune plus Anglet, Arcangues, and Bassussarry. + +In a first revision of cantons in 1973 three cantons were created from the same total; geographic area: Bayonne North, Bayonne East, and Bayonne West. A further reconfiguration in 1982 focused primarily on Bayonne and, apart from Bayonne North Canton, which also includes Boucau, the cantons of Bayonne East and Bayonne West did not change. + +Starting from the 2015 French departmental elections which took place on 22 and 29 March, a new division took effect following the decree of 25 February 2014 Once again three cantons centred on Bayonne are defined: Bayonne-1—with part of Anglet; Bayonne-2—which includes Boucau; and Bayonne-3 now define the cantonal territorial division of the area. + +Judicial and administrative proceedings +Bayonne is the seat of many courts for the region. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal d'instance (District court) of Bayonne, the Tribunal de grande instance (High Court) of Bayonne, the Cour d'appel (Court of Appeal) of Pau, the Tribunal pour enfants (Juvenile court) of Bayonne, the Conseil de prud'hommes (Labour Court) of Bayonne, the Tribunal de commerce (Commercial Court) of Bayonne, the Tribunal administratif (Administrative tribunal) of Pau, and the Cour administrative d'appel (Administrative Court of Appeal) of Bordeaux. + +The commune has a police station, a Departmental Gendarmerie, an Autonomous Territorial Brigade of the district gendarmerie, squadron 24/2 of Mobile Gendarmerie and a Tax collection office. + +Intercommunality + +The commune is part of twelve inter-communal structures of which eleven are based in the commune: + + the Communauté d'agglomération du Pays Basque; + the transport association of Côte basque-Adour Agglomeration (STACBA); + the intercommunal association for the management of the Txakurrak centre; + the intercommunal association for the support of Basque culture; + the Bil Ta Garbi joint association; + the joint association for maritime Nive; + the joint association for the Basque Museum and the History of Bayonne; + the joint association for the development and monitoring of SCOT in the agglomeration of Bayonne and south Landes; + the Kosta Garbia joint association; + the joint association for the development of the European freight centre of Bayonne-Mouguerre-Lahonce; + the joint association for operating the regional Maurice Ravel Conservatory. + the Energy association of Pyrénées-Atlantiques; + +The city of Bayonne is part of the Communauté d'agglomération du Pays Basque which also includes Anglet, Biarritz, Bidart, Boucau, Hendaye and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The statutory powers of the structure extend to economic development—including higher education and research—housing and urban planning, public transport—through Transdev—alternative and the collection and recovery waste collection and management of rain and coastal waters, the sustainable development, interregional cooperation and finally 106. + +In addition Bayonne is part of the Basque Bayonne-San Sebastián Eurocity which is a European economic interest grouping (EEIG) established in 1993 based in San Sebastián. + +Twin towns – Sister cities + +Bayonne has twinning associations with: + +Geography +Bayonne is located in the south-west of France on the western border between Basque Country and Gascony. It developed at the confluence of the Adour and tributary on the left bank, the Nive, 6 km from the Atlantic coast. The commune was part of the Basque province of Labourd. + +Geology and relief +Bayonne occupies a territory characterized by a flat relief to the west and to the north towards the Landes forest, tending to slightly raise towards the south and east. The city has developed at the confluence of the Adour and Nive from the ocean. The meeting point of the two rivers coincides with a narrowing of the Adour valley. Above this the alluvial plain extends for nearly towards both Tercis-les-Bains and Peyrehorade, and is characterized by swampy meadows called barthes. These were are influenced by floods and high tides. Downstream from this point, the river has shaped a large, wide bed in the sand dunes, creating a significant bottleneck at the confluence. + +The occupation of the hill that dominates this narrowing of the valley developed through a gradual spread across the lowlands. Occupants built embankments and the aggradation from flood soil. + +The Nive has played a leading role in the development of the Bayonne river system in recent geological time by the formation of alluvial terraces; these form the sub-soil of Bayonne beneath the surface accumulations of silt and aeolian sands. The drainage network of the western Pre-Pyrenees evolved mostly from the Quaternary, from south-east to northwest, oriented east–west. The Adour was captured by the gaves and this system, together with the Nive, led to the emergence of a new alignment of the lower Adour and the Adour-Nive confluence. This capture has been dated to the early Quaternary (80,000 years ago). + +Before this capture, the Nive had deposited pebbles from the Mindel glaciation of medium to large sizes; this slowed erosion of the hills causing the bottleneck at Bayonne. After the deposit of the lowest alluvial terrace ( high at Grand Bayonne), the course of the Adour became fixed in its lower reaches. + +Subsequent to these deposits, there was a rise in sea level in the Holocene period (from 15,000 to 5000 years ago). This explains the invasion of the lower valleys with fine sand, peat, and mud with a thickness of more than below the current bed of the Adour and the Nive in Bayonne. These same deposits are spread across the barthes. + +In the late Quaternary, the current topographic physiognomy was formed—i.e. a set of hills overlooking a swampy lowland. The promontory of Bassussarry–Marracq ultimately extended to the Labourdin foothills. The Grand Bayonne hill is an example. Similarly, on the right bank of the Nive, the heights of Château-Neuf (Mocoron Hill) met the latest advance of the plateau of Saint-Pierre-d'Irube (height ). On the right bank of the Adour, the heights of Castelnau (today the citadel), with an altitude of , and Fort (today Saint-Esprit), with an altitude of , rise above the Barthes of the Adour, the Nive, Bourgneuf, Saint-Frédéric, Sainte-Croix, Aritxague, and Pontots. + +The area of the commune is and its altitude varies between . + +Hydrography + +The city developed along the river Adour. The river is part of the Natura 2000 network from its source at Bagnères-de-Bigorre to its exit to the Atlantic Ocean after Bayonne, between Tarnos (Landes) for the right bank and Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) for the left bank. + +Apart from the Nive, which joins the left bank of the Adour after of a sometimes tumultuous course, two tributaries join the Adour in Bayonne commune: the Ruisseau de Portou and the Ruisseau du Moulin Esbouc. Tributaries of the Nive are the Ruisseau de Hillans and the Ruisseau d'Urdaintz which both rise in the commune. + +Climate +The nearest weather station is that of Biarritz-Anglet. + +The climate of Bayonne is relatively similar to that of its neighbour Biarritz, described below, with fairly heavy rainfall; the oceanic climate is due to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The average winter temperature is around 8 °C and is around 20 °C in summer. The lowest temperature recorded was −12.7 °C on 16 January 1985 and the highest 40.6 °C on 4 August 2003 in the 2003 European heat wave. Rains on the Basque coast are rarely persistent except during winter storms. They often take the form of intense thunderstorms of short duration. + +Transport + +Road +Bayonne is located at the intersection of the A63 autoroute (Bordeaux-Spain) and the D1 extension of the A64 autoroute (towards Toulouse). The city is served by three interchanges—two of them on the A63: exit (Bayonne Nord) serves the northern districts of Bayonne but also allows quick access to the centre while exit (Bayonne Sud) provides access to the south and also serves Anglet. The third exit is the D1 / A64 via the Mousserolles interchange (exit Bayonne Mousserolles) which links the district of the same name and also serves the neighbouring communes of Mouguerre and Saint-Pierre-d'Irube. + +Bayonne was traversed by Route nationale 10 connecting Paris to Hendaye but this is now downgraded to a departmental road D810. Route nationale 117, linking Bayonne to Toulouse has been downgraded to departmental road D817. + +Bridges + +There are several bridges over both the Nive and the Adour linking the various districts. + +Coming from upstream on the Adour there is the A63 bridge, then the Saint-Frédéric bridge which carries the D 810, then the railway bridge that replaced the old Eiffel iron bridge, the Saint-Esprit bridge, and finally the Grenet bridge. The Saint-Esprit bridge connects the Saint-Esprit district to the Amiral-Bergeret dock just upstream of the confluence with the river Nive. In 1845, the old bridge, originally made of wood, was rebuilt in masonry with seven arches supporting a deck wide. It was then called the Nemours Bridge in honour of Louis of Orleans, sixth Duke of Nemours, who laid the first stone. The bridge was finally called Saint-Esprit. Until 1868 the bridge had a moving span near the left bank. It was expanded in 1912 to facilitate the movement of horse-drawn carriages and motor vehicles. + +On the Nive coming from upstream to downstream there is the A63 bridge then the Pont Blanc (White bridge) railway bridge, and then D810 bridge, the Génie bridge (or Pont Millitaire), the Pannecau bridge, the Marengo bridge leading to the covered markets, and the Mayou Bridge. The Pannecau bridge was long named Bertaco bridge and was rebuilt in masonry under Napoleon III. According to François Lafitte Houssat, "[...] a municipal ordinance of 1327 provided for the imprisonment of any quarrellsome woman of bad character in an iron cage dropped into the waters of the Nive River from the bridge. The practice lasted until 1780 [...]" This punishment bore the evocative name of cubainhade. + +Cycling network +The commune is traversed by the Vélodyssée. Bicycle paths are located along the left bank of the Adour, a large part of the left bank of the Nive, and along various axes of the city where there are some bicycle lanes. The city offers free bicycles on loan. + +Public transport + +Urban network +Most of the lines of the Chronoplus bus network operated by the Transdev agglomeration of Bayonne link Bayonne to other communes in the urban transport perimeter: Anglet, Biarritz, Bidart, Boucau, Saint-Pierre-d'Irube and Tarnos The Bayonne free shuttle Bayonne serves the city centre (Grand and Petit Bayonne) by connecting several parking stations; other free shuttles perform other short trips within the commune. + +Interurban networks +Bayonne is connected to many cities in the western half of the department such as Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Saint-Palais by the Pyrenees-Atlantiques long-distance coach network of Transport 64 managed by the General Council. Since the network restructuring in the summer of 2013, the lines converge on Bayonne. Bayonne is also served by services from the Landes departmental network, XL'R. + +Rail transport +The Gare de Bayonne is located in the Saint-Esprit district and is an important station on the Bordeaux-Irun railway. It is also the terminus of lines leading from Toulouse to Bayonne and from Bayonne to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. It is served by TGV, Intercités, Intercités de nuit, and TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine trains (to Hendaye, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, Dax, Bordeaux, Pau, and Tarbes). + +Air transport +Bayonne is served by the Biarritz – Anglet – Bayonne Airport (IATA code: BIQ • ICAO code: LFBZ), located on the communal territories of Anglet and Biarritz. The airport was returned to service in 1954 after repair of damage from bombing during the Second World War. + +Demographics +In 2017, the commune had 51,228 inhabitants. + +Education +Bayonne commune is attached to the Academy of Bordeaux. It has an information and guidance center (CIO). + +As of 14 December 2015, Bayonne had 10 kindergartens, 22 elementary or primary schools (12 public and 10 private primary schools including two ikastolas). 2 public colleges (Albert Camus and Marracq colleges), 5 private colleges (La Salle Saint-Bernard, Saint Joseph, Saint-Amand, Notre-Dame and Largenté) which meet the criteria of the first cycle of second degree studies. For the second cycle Bayonne has 3 public high schools (René-Cassin school (general education), the Louis de Foix school (general, technological and vocational education), and the Paul Bert vocational school), 4 private high schools (Saint-Louis Villa Pia (general education), Largenté, Bernat Etxepare (general and technological), and Le Guichot vocational school). + +There are also the Maurice Ravel Conservatory of Music, Dance, and Dramatic Art and the art school of the urban community of Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz. + +Culture + +Cultural festivities and events + +For 550 years every holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday the Foire au Jambon (Ham festival) is held to mark the beginning of the season. + +An annual summer festival has been held in the commune since 1932 for five days organized around parades, bulls races, fireworks, and music in the Basque and Gascon tradition. These festivals have become the most important festive events in France in terms of attendance. + +Bayonne has the oldest French bullfighting tradition. A bylaw regulating the encierro is dated 1283: cows, oxen and bulls are released each year in the streets of Petit Bayonne during the summer festivals. The current arena, opened in 1893, is the largest in South-west France with more than 10,000 seats. A dozen bullfights are held each year, attracting the biggest names in bullfighting. Throughout summer several novilladas also take place. The city is a member of the Union of French bullfighting cities. + +Health +Bayonne is the focus of much of the hospital services for the agglomeration of Bayonne and the southern Landes. In this area all inhabitants are less than 35 km from a hospital offering medical, obstetrical, surgical, or psychiatric care. The hospitals for all the Basque Coast are mainly established in Bayonne (the main site of Saint-Léon and Cam-de-Prats) and also in Saint-Jean-de-Luz which has several clinics. + +Sports + + Rowing, a popular sport for a long time on the Nive and the Adour near Bayonne. There are two clubs: the Nautical Society of Bayonne (SNB) (established in 1875) and Aviron Bayonnais—established in 1904 by former members of the SNB and which later became a sports club. +Basketball. Denek Bat Bayonne Urcuit is a basketball club with a male section competing in NM1 (3rd national level of the French league). The club is based in the city of Urcuit but plays in the Lauga Sports Palace in Bayonne. +Football. Aviron Bayonnais FC play their home games at Didier Deschamps Stadium in Championnat National 3 (the 5th French division) since the 2013–2014 season after a year in CFA and three consecutive years in the . Didier Deschamps started his career at Aviron Bayonnais FC. The stadium, formerly called the Grand Basque, is now named after him. There are also three other football clubs in Bayonne: the Crusaders of Saint Andrew playing in the higher regional division, the Portuguese stars of Bayonne (first district division), and the Bayonne association on the right bank of the river (3rd district division). +Omnisports. Aviron Bayonnais, created in 1904, includes many sports sections and a large number of members. The pro rugby and football club are the most famous sections of the club. The Bayonne Olympic Club, created in 1972, is located in the district of Hauts de Sainte-Croix. The club offers a wide range of sports including pelote, gymnastics, combat sports, and a pool section. The club had nearly 400 members in 2007. +Basque Pelota Bayonne is an important place for Basque pelota. The French Federation of Basque Pelota is headquartered at Trinquet moderne near the Bullring. Many titles were won by pelota players from the city. The World Championships took place in Bayonne in 1978 in association with Biarritz. +Rugby appeared in Basque Country at the end of the 19th century with the arrival in 1897 at Bayonne High School of a 20-year-old person from Landes who converts his comrades to football-rugby which he had discovered in Bordeaux. Practicing in the fields near the Spanish Gate, they communicated their enthusiasm to other colleges in Bayonne and Biarritz leading to the creation of the Biarritz Sporting Club and Biarritz Stadium which merged in 1913 to become Biarritz Olympique. Bayonne has two rugby clubs: The Bayonne Athletic Association (ASB) plays in Fédérale 3 while the Aviron Bayonnais rugby pro in the 2014–2015 season played in Top 14, where they have played without interruption since the 2004–2005 season. Aviron Bayonnais has won three league titles in France (1913, 1934 and 1943). It was the first club from a small town to become champion of France. Its stadium is the Stade Jean Dauger. There is also a women's team in the ASB, playing in the National Division 1B. This team won the 2014 Armelle Auclair challenge. + +Religion + +Christian worship +Bayonne is in the Diocese of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron, with a suffragan bishop since 2002 under the Archdiocese of Bordeaux. Monseigneur Marc Aillet has been the bishop of this diocese since 15 October 2008. The diocese is located in Bayonne in the Place Monseigneur-Vansteenberghe. + +Besides Bayonne Cathedral in Grand Bayonne, Bayonne has Saint-Esprit, Saint Andrew (Rue des Lisses), Arènes (Avenue of the Czech Legion), Saint-Étienne, and Saint-Amand (Avenue Marechal Soult) churches. + +The Carmel of Bayonne, located in the Marracq district, has had a community of Carmelite nuns since 1858. + +The Way of Baztan (also ruta del Baztan or camino Baztanés) is a way on the pilgrimage of Camino de Santiago which crosses the Pyrenees further west by the lowest pass (by the Col de Belate, 847 m). It is the ancient road used by pilgrims descending to Bayonne then either along the coast on the Way of Soulac or because they landed there from England, for example, to join the French Way as soon as possible in Pamplona. The Way of Bayonne joins the French Way further downstream at Burgos. + +The Protestant church is located at the corner of Rue Albert-I st and Rue du Temple. A gospel church is located in the Saint-Esprit districtit where there is also a church belonging to the Gypsy Evangelical Church of the Protestant Federation of France. + +Jewish worship +The synagogue was built in 1837 in the Saint-Esprit district north of the town. The Jewish community of Bayonne is old—it consists of different groups of fugitives from Navarre and Portugal who established at Saint-Esprit-lès-Bayonne after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496. In 1846, the Central Consistory moved to Saint-Esprit which was integrated with Bayonne in 1857.